GRAFFITISTS were hard at work in Perth yesterday but no one was stopping them from practicing their spraycan art.

Passers-by stopped to watch Drew Barker, Marielle Flood, 21, of Kelmscott, and Michael Shime as they painted two big canvasses set up in the Murray Street mall to promote the movie 8 Mile, which stars American rap performer Eminem.

They said some people had stopped to ask questions about graffiti while others told them it was the lowest art form.

Mr Barker, 21, of Girrawheen, said he became involved in graffiti in 1997 after admiring work he saw from a train. "I used to see it riding down the train line and wondered who did it," he said. "I just think it is a beautiful type of art work.

"It is one of the only art forms where you don't have to go to a gallery. It is there in your face and in the streets."

Mr Shime, 33, of Orange Grove, has recently returned from a two-week graffiti job in Greece for work to be shown during the 2004 Olympic Games.

"Over there it's a completely different attitude," he said. "Then you come back here and people yell at you and abuse you."

He said that while attitudes to graffiti had changed since he began in 1985, the art still had a negative stigma.

While the previous State government took a strong anti-graffiti stance, the current Government was more accepting of the art form.

Graffiti was seen a lot more now in movies, advertising and television.

The graffitists said some local councils allowed graffiti on bus stops, while schools, skate parks and workshops were other good places.

They urged students interested in trying graffiti to ask their art teachers about it, practice and develop their own style.