Tagging: Who is behind the spray can?
COVENANT STORIES: NEWS
Covenant Church is a thriving Christian community within an urban area of North Park. We share hope, healing and salvation with a chaotic world.
Rick Priebisius began telling me that most mornings he paints over the graffiti on our church building and on some of the surrounding businesses. Otherwise, he says, “Our building would be covered with graffiti. The taggers tend to tag our building for a few days in a row, then when their graffiti is painted over, they will stop for a week or two before starting again”.
What motivates a tagger to pick-up a spray can? Some seek a means of creative expression while others desire to write stylized versions of their names on objects so that people will know that they are here - gaining respect and notoriety within the tagging community. Some taggers are gang members who are marking their territory.
A small cohort of taggers hone their artistry and create massive colorful pieces like those seen on the Bombing Science San Diego Graffiti Art page. However, most taggers cause headaches for property owners who have to bear the expense to paint or sandblast the tags.
Rick began to wonder if our exterior church walls or construction fences could be used to communicate back to the taggers, and he tried writing “Jesus Loves You” over one of the graffiti “throw ups”, which are big bubble letters (see the photo above - PONY: top L corner and HERO: bottom R corner).
Could communicating the love of Jesus change the dialogue between Covenant Church and the North Park taggers?
At Covenant Stories, the best stories are yet to come!