Go on the District’s spiffy new Web site under Public Works services and you will find “graffiti removal.” No surprise — for most of us, “tagging” or spray painting on walls or rail cars is a nuisance — and hard to remove.
So I was surprised when one of my daughters invited me to Keep Art In The Schools Jam, a spontaneous art happening last Sunday at the Hillyer Art Space near Dupont Circle, where kids sprayed graffiti art on plywood panels.
Imagine my further surprise when I discovered that the graffiti artists were participating in the Summer Youth Employment Program, as in getting paid to paint graffiti as art. Greatest surprise of all? It made sense to me; as a D.C. taxpayer I felt my tax dollars were being spent well.
Hah — you say? Bear with me. And let Tim Conlon explain.
Conlon grew up in D.C., he tells me as he spray paints. “I fell in love with graffiti in Baltimore,” he says. “I always loved art and abandoned places. These two collided for me with graffiti.”
Conlon, 35, is painting a graffiti image of his name “CON” with a palette in the “O” and a brush coming out in 3-D. He was kneeling and spraying on the outside wall of Hillyer Art Space. Hillyer occupies a brick building in the alley behind the Phillips Collection and the Cosmos Club.
He studied graffiti as a “hidden language” before he began to try it himself. He honed graffiti as a craft that became art. He showed in galleries. Companies such as Delta and Big Red commissioned graffiti for their ads. “I saw graffiti as a way to get talented kids into constructive art programs in the schools,” he says.
Conlon was talking on radio about his show at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and his desire to promote art in schools. Kelly Carr with Floating Lab Collective heard him. They got together and connected with Cory Stowers, at Words, Beats and Life, a nonprofit that works with D.C.’s hip-hop community. They put kids to work at projects around the city where they painted, worked on marketing campaigns, created graphic design packages.
“The skills we use to create graffiti are marketable these days,” Conlon says. “We have seen that graffiti can be a bridge to more traditional graphic design and marketing.”
The D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities helped get summer youth jobs to Hillyer Art Space and Words, Beats and Life so kids could work on art projects around the city.
“It’s been a wonderful experience,” says Flor Rivas, a senior at Wilson High. A graffiti artist, she worked in a graphic design shop all summer.
“I want to use my art to convey messages to kids that it’s OK to express yourself in positive ways.”
Flor has set her sights on college, where she wants to major in graphic design and political science.
And perhaps a little graffiti on the side.
Harry Jaffe’s column appears on Tuesday and Friday. He can be contacted at [email protected].
