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It is an early Saturday in May and local vendors have set up booths in Iowa City along East Washington Street. The Farmers Market has just re-opened for the year and locals are enjoying the weather and eagerly purchasing fresh produce and other treats. Under the shade of the Chauncey Swan Parking Ramp, a man gazes thoughtfully.
His eyes are fixated at a cement wall. It appears that several people have written on the wall, but two pieces of street art stand out. Stylistically, they are distinct from one another. On the left is a 4-foot drawing of an unfamiliar creature with the tag ‘Choke.’ On the right is a large, illegible, spray painted tag that has been painted over another piece.
While the man seems to be captivated by this wall of graffiti, he admits to knowing little about the art form.
“What I see is a dialogue between the artists painting on the walls and the authorities that come and clean it all up,” he says.
Graffiti art is many things: A statement. Self-expression but also vandalism. Cultural, but a pain for those who have to clean it from their property. Thought-provoking, but also annoying. Complex, but simple. Misunderstood, and a crime.
It is these contradictions that draw people’s attention to graffiti, even while knowing that the conventions it breaks sometimes include the law.
A HISTORY OF COMMUNICATING
Graffiti, in its most basic form, can be traced to ancient times.
“People have always written on walls,” says Kembrew McLeod, an associate professor of communication studies at the University of Iowa.
McLeod has written several books that focus on hip hop culture, including Freedom of Expression, and co-produced Copyright Criminals, a PBS documentary about hip hop. While interviewing artists and musicians throughout his career, McLeod has familiarized himself with many of the elements of the culture of hip hop, graffiti included.

Kembrew McLeod, associate professor of communication studies, University of Iowa
“In terms of graffiti as it’s recognized today – as an art form – it really started to evolve in the late 1960s and early 1970s into something that was more elaborate than simply someone’s name.” McLeod says.
One of the most famous graffiti street artists able to make a seemingly effortless shift from tagger to art icon is Jean-Michel Basquiat, a New York City artist who died in 1988. “He was basically a street kid graffiti artist who transitioned into, kind of, the lower-east-side, avant-garde art scene world in the early 1980s,” McLeod says.
McLeod says graffiti began to transform in the 1970s in New York City’s South Bronx. “People began to make more and more elaborate graffiti murals that would sometimes be painted on walls of abandoned buildings. There were a lot of abandoned buildings in New York, especially in the South Bronx, during that time. And then, interestingly enough, people started to paint on subway trains.”
Painting on subway trains gave graffiti artists the ability to show their art in New York City’s boroughs as the trains made daily trips through different neighborhoods.
While graffiti quickly developed into a cultural phenomenon and art form, the upsurge of street art wasn’t welcomed by everyone. “By the late 1970s, graffiti was targeted by the city as a real menace, and (New York City) began to aggressively try and scrub graffiti from its trains and find various ways of discouraging graffiti,” McLeod says.
Video: Layer upon Layer, Creating Graffiti
Danielle Wilde/IowaWatch
Local graffiti artist, Mone, paints a new piece of art under an overpass off of Holiday Road in Coralville, Iowa on May 22, 2013.
GRAFFITI AS VANDALISM
Iowa City Police Sgt. Vicki Lalla views graffiti as an expensive problem.
“A lot of people look at graffiti and think of it as being harmless, and it doesn’t hurt anybody,” she says. “And some of it is kind of fun to look at, for sure. But from the viewpoint of the property owner, it’s a nuisance because they have to clean it up, whether it’s a business or a residence, or even the city. The city has to pay to clean up a lot of graffiti.”
Lalla estimates there has been a gradual rise in graffiti in Iowa City in her 34 years on the police force. Graffiti is recognized under Iowa law as criminal mischief, but there is no easy way to distinguish graffiti crimes from other crimes also classified as criminal mischief.
Five degrees of criminal mischief exist in Iowa law, each increasing in seriousness and penalty. Most graffiti is defined as fifth-degree criminal mischief, a simple misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail or a fine.
First-degree criminal mischief, the most severe form, is a Class C felony and punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The severity of the offense is contingent on the value of the damaged property.
Lalla says most of the graffiti Iowa City police deal with is a form called tagger graffiti, which has artistic and competitive values. Iowa City also has its share of gang-related graffiti. “We don’t see real elaborate gang graffiti here, but we do see it occasionally,” Lalla says.
Graffiti artists rarely are caught and charged with the crime. “It’s nearly impossible to catch someone without a witness,” Lalla says.
Lalla’s main problem lies within the places artists choose to write their graffiti.
She admits though, that there are times when she has been impressed by graffiti she sees around town. “There is some stuff that is pretty ingenious, I think, when you see it. But that doesn’t make it any less criminal, doesn’t make it any less of a nuisance.”
Lalla says most of Iowa City’s graffiti is written on city property so, essentially, the city and taxpayers end up paying for the damage.
“I guess one way to look at it is, the only person that the graffiti doesn’t end up being somewhat of a nuisance to, is the person that’s putting it up.”
Gallery: Graffiti of Iowa City
Across Iowa City, graffiti springs up on walls, doors, benches, trash cans and bridges. Click through the gallery to see a few photos of graffiti from around Iowa City.
Danielle Wilde/IowaWatch permalink
Graffiti on the side of Atlas restaurant in an alley off of Iowa Avenue. Photo taken May 11, 2013.