By PALLAVI AGARWAL
Valley Morning Star
SAN BENITO, Septemper 9, 2004 — Frankie Gomez said he hates it when graffiti
gets a bad name.
To infuse respectability into spray painting, Gomez and his friends are wiping
out old graffiti eyesores and repainting over it.
Sure, they use aerosol cans for their paintbrushes, but the group — which
consists of adults who specialize in artistic work — first gets permission
from the owners before using their walls for their artistic endeavors, he added.
This weekend, Gomez and his friends also got an invitation from city officials,
who bought them 80 cans of spray paint to rescue graffiti-laden city buildings.
After watching them convert obscenities and gang signs into post 9/11
messages and saying “no to drugs,” City Manager Victor Treviño asked the
group of five to paint over the former San Benito Boys & Girls Club and
Amigos De Valle buildings.
For more than 12 hours, 20 of them stood on ladders and milk crates in the hot
Sunday sun and gently guided their spray cans, going home later with blisters on
their thumbs and aching backs. They hope that taggers — people who spray
graffiti without permission — will respect the new artwork.
Gomez is keeping his fingers crossed that the newly painted walls will be left
alone.
Some of the graffiti artists who gathered Sunday included taggers whom Gomez
hopes to wean out of the unruly pastime.
“For years all over the U.S., graffiti was a crime,” he said. “It is just
a way of showing your talent. However, it is important to first ask
permission.”
The group’s efforts are drawing more attention.
Mary Bocanegra, who owns a beauty salon, said she invited the teens to paint her
building “if and when they have the time.”
Tired of painting over graffiti that inevitably lands on her salon’s outside
walls, Bocanegra added that she liked the group’s artwork on the old Moody’s
Building.
Eventually, the city hopes that taggers will learn from the graffiti artists.
The city’s court administrator, Moe Vasquez, said he hopes to send a group of
teenagers caught tagging to watch how Gomez and his friends paint.
“The kids can see what they are doing,” he added, “and learn to do
something nice, as well.”