An alleged city graffiti artist is scheduled for trial today in Baltimore City District Court on destruction of property charges, even as regional officials pay thousands of dollars a year to remove paint while graffiti artists keep writing.
Kenneth Ellis, 25, is charged with causing as much as $6,000 of damage to walls and security gates on Pratt Street.
But even after nabbing the man allegedly known by the tag “Oricl,” or “Oricil,” officials say graffiti in the city is as pervasive as ever ? and might have even risen in the past six months.
“For a while it seemed to decrease, and then it gets a little prolific,” said Robert Guye, chief of the city?s Environmental Crimes Unit.
But a local artist said that even though its illegality is part of the allure ? a defining characteristic of the art form ? graffiti isn?t really hurting anyone, and shouldn?t be treated as harshly in court.
“Once it?s in the safety zone of a studio, it may have stylistic qualities of graffiti, but it is not the same at all,” said the artist, who identified himself as Billy Mode.
“It?s not like you?re an arsonist …You can?t not pay attention to it, so it?s really powerful, yet it doesn?t really do any [harm] at all.”
From an identifying tag scrawled on a wall to the more elaborate “bombs” ? bigger, more colorful designs with stylized letters ? graffiti comes in different forms, with different meanings and uses, officials said.
A typical arrest might bring in a guy with a spray-paint can and a couple of nozzles, Guye said.
But graffiti artists have been caught with crates of spray paint, various types of nozzles, fire extinguishers for painting a large area, expensive cameras forphotographing their pieces and rigging equipment so they can climb up and paint from impossible heights, he said.
The city spends $350,000 a year to paint over and sandblast graffiti, a Department of Public Works spokesman said.
Baltimore County has so far this year responded to 651 calls for graffiti removal, said Tim Winters, an official with the Department of Recreation and Parks there said.
The county is now putting almost $40,000 toward a new machine that uses low-pressure volcanic ash to remove 100 percent of the paint, which will be more effective than the current scrubbing techniques, he said.
“It?s like a chalkboard,” Winters said. “You clean their chalkboard for them so they have a new surface to write on.”
