Taggers Beware

DENVER - Taggers beware, simply having graffiti tools like spray paint cans, nozzles and tips, could become a crime if some Colorado state lawmakers have their way.
Representative Jim Kerr (R-Littleton) and Representative Andy Kerr (D-Lakewood) are sponsoring a measure to make the mere possession of graffiti tools a Class 3 misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail and a $750 fine. They will introduce the bill when Colorado lawmakers return to work next week for their 2008 legislative session. "I had a business at one time and I got tagged and I didn't like it," said Kerr, from Littleton. "(The taggers) are not doing home improvement so to speak." The bi-partisan measure comes about as a recommendation from a task force of 22 law enforcement agencies from around Colorado. Police often describe coming into contact with adults carrying backpacks with graffiti tools and they can't do anything about it. The message from the task force was that graffiti is no longer just a big-city problem. "Graffiti is a problem, not just here in Denver, it's a problem, I believe, statewide," said Det. John White of the Denver Police Department. He said the proposal does not target the person returning home from Lowe's, Wal-Mart or Home Depot to fix a patch in their garage. "It would appear that being in possession of those items, you've got one thing in mind and that is you're going to go out and deface somebody's property," White said. "You're going to cause damage." The legislation is patterned after other criminal statutes that have proven successful. "We've used the same concept as we use with burglary tools or drug paraphernalia," said Kerr. "You don't have drug paraphernalia if you're not going to be doing some kind of a deal with drugs." Kerr said he's heard of graffiti in state parks as well as at RTD facilities. In fact, he says RTD spends up to $1 million a year cleaning up graffiti.9NEWS did not find a state lawmaker, at this time, voicing opposition to the measure.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008BY ISOLDE RAFTERY
The graffiti girl has long blonde hair and a perfectly sweet smile. She wears a lime green necklace, with headband and glittery eye shadow to match.
Her graffiti lives within the confines of her church walls for now, but she wishes she could hit the streets, and spray God's message on walls and buildings.
"Graffiti is so beautiful," said Danica Wixom, a junior at Vancouver School of Arts and Academics. "It could be used for so much good."
At 16, Wixom is throwing herself into her art, which she's been creating since she can remember. She's prolific, and has turned out dozens of paintings that typically take nine hours to create. Most are commissioned paintings; her teacher asked her to paint her children, and a secretary at her church with whom she's close asked her to paint her dead son.
Her pastor has asked her to paint murals to depict a sermon's message.
For Wixom, graffiti is an art form. But most of it, she concedes, is destructive.
"What is the point of art when it's on the side of a ­building?" Wixom said. "It raises the question, what is art? It could be artistic and creative, but it can also be destructive."
Two years ago, the youth pastor at the time asked her to create a graffiti mural for Vancouver First Church of God. She accepted the challenge.
Using acrylic paints, she wrote God's name in as many languages as she could. She painted from left to right, starting with God's hand and ending with Jesus dying on the cross.
Wixom will be creating another mural soon, this time at the behest of another youth pastor, Nathan Arnold.
Arnold wanted Wixom to paint another graffiti mural, so he scoured the Web for ideas. He wanted it to incorporate graffiti, in part because the form combines words and representational art. The combination could easily express Christian beliefs.
He, himself, had been touched by graffiti that read, "How do you see the world?"
"This is about transforming what many of us see as a selfish world of gangs and drugs into a Christian view," Arnold said.
Wixom gives careful consideration to many aspects of her work.
Sometimes she paints murals on butcher paper for sermons at her church. The elaborate paintings include every color of the rainbow. That's her rule: the living creatures she creates must include all colors on her palette.
Wixom holds out her hand when she says this.
Her hand isn't just peach-colored, she said. The veins have a green tinge, and the shadows between her bones are gray and blue. The crevice between her thumb and index finger are red and brown as much as they are flesh-colored.
Wixom says her art comes alive when she channels her faith to the canvas. She believes that her talent is a gift from God; it would be selfish to keep it for herself, she says. That desire to give has been with her since childhood.
When she was 9, she asked her parents to give her birthday gifts to charity. Now, she helps friends with assignments and paints for others. She worries that she agrees to too many projects, a topic she broached in a mock college essay for school.
"Sometimes I overwhelm myself with all that I say 'yes' to, but deep down, I really don't mind," she writes. "My art is my life, and if I can give back in some way, by making someone's day, or especially by using art as the product of my worship for G od, then it's OK if I get a little busy sometimes."