Chalk War: Vandalism or Art?

I had a conversation with someone a few months ago about tattoos. The man was a Christian, and was very eager to explain to me why Christians shouldn't get tattoos. Our bodies are the temples of God, he told me. Would you go to a church and spray graffiti all over it? I've seen some incredible graffiti and immediatealy began to contemplate the difference between vandalism and art. Instead of articulating these thoughts with the man, I agreed that we are temples for God. I then argued (rather heatedly) that God dwells in us, not in buildings, and I couldn't imagine him giving a hoot what any building looks like. The conversation could have been more productive and loving, to be honest. I did, however, continue to question what's art and what's vandalism, which led to several discussions with others that were far more congenial.

The question resurfaced in a more tangible context for Jeremiah and I  yesterday, when we engaged in a chalk battle with our neighbors. Now, Oly Acts is all about loving your neighbors and living in community. Before you begin to worry that we abandoned our creed and participated in anything vicious, rest assured. Our actions were motivated by a desire for beauty and love.

Our (Claire, Kaylin, Jeremiah, and mine) apartment is on the second floor of our building. We share a cement porch with the apartment on the opposite side; our front doors face each other. For the first couple weeks after we moved in, we had no welcome mat. Our door stood green and naked, and exuded an uninviting vibe. In short, it really bummed us out.

Finally one day, Claire was struck by inspiration. A pail of sidewalk chalk sat moping on a dark shelf in our hall, just screaming to be put to use. Claire took a green piece and wrote "Hello!" in large letters where our welcome mat should have been. She then left the chalk on the ledge above the door so that anyone who was feeling creative could add to the message. Gradually, flowers were added along with the words "& Welcome" in blue chalk. It was the blue chalk that initiated the chalk battle.

Last week, Jeremiah and I came home to find the blue chalk had been put to use. Heavy use, for the piece that remained above our door was about 1/4 its original length. Judging by the artwork, it was clear the artist was not from our apartment. Generally, I would be thrilled to share in creating art with my neighbors, but here is where we pick the vandalism vs. art conversation back up. Personally, I am of the opinion that beauty is an intrinsic aspect of "art." Yeah yeah I know, beauty is subjective. But darn it, a blue chalk penis is neither art nor beauty. Especially several crudely drawn blue chalk penises that cover the expanse of our porch. To be fair, someone did try to scribble them out. They just didn't try very hard.

I tried to sweep the chalk away, but it's a surprisingly persistent medium. A hose would have been useful, but we have no access to one. So we decided to take creative action. In a tag-team effort, Jeremiah and I took our chalk bucket and went to work. In about ten minutes we'd thickly layered every color of chalk at our disposal and successfully covered our porch and the penises in something at least a bit more art-like.

Shortly after we finished, the neighbors across from us opened their door. Two adorable boys, about three years old, halted in their doorway and stared at our mural. "That's awesome!" one of them said in an excited whisper. They spent several minutes pointing at different spots and exclaiming to each other how cool their porch looked. Herein lies the heart of the vandalism vs. art question for me. It's all about the reaction. Technically both the blue penises and our mural were graffiti. One was generated out of malice and rebellion, the other generated out of a love for beauty. Not that our artwork is beautiful in and of itself (I don't claim to be a skilled artist by any means), but the response it garnered was beautiful indeed.

The posted pictures, as you may have guessed, are of the mural we created. Feel free to comment, I'd be stoked to hear any opinions and thoughts this might have conjured for you! I'll be adding a rad video I found of "reverse graffiti" soon which I think will add an interesting layer to our thoughts.

As mentioned, here is a link to the reverse graffiti video: http://youtu.be/5lX-2sP0JFw