Public Art Mural by Kent Twitchell - Morphesis Monument - Re-Tagged The Day After Re-Cleaning… WAR on Graffiti !!!!! But

we’re kind of smiling because… December 30, 2011

I was finishing up an answer to a comment on the blog post about the new surveillance system (http://www.fineartconservationlab.com/murals/video-surveillance-of-public-art-mural-catching-graffiti-vandals) when the phone rang and it was Vincent Moreno, Vandalism Abatement Coordinator for Caltrans.

WAR!!!!! The mural that we just finished re-cleaning from the previous tag got tagged again last night! But we are smiling, kind of…Here’s the low down: If you’ve been following this, you know that on Thurs of this week we finished cleaning off the graffiti and a new video surveillance system was installed at the mural. Vincent was sure that the mural would be re-tagged in an effort by the vandals to “make their statement.” Well, he was right!

Vincent passed by the mural last evening at about 8:45 to check on the video cameras and he was notified at 9:51 that the camera alarms had been set off. It appears that the vandals hit this part of the mural (see photo):

Vincent said that it looked like they were about to graffiti over the entire lower half like they did last time but had only started on the first couple of letters when they got scared and ran off. We don’t know if they saw the video cameras or got scared off by someone. I don’t have an actual photo of the tag. I won’t see it till Monday.

Actually, Vincent and I are, in a way, glad for this attempt to re-tag the mural because it puts to the test the equipment just installed. There are several things that need to be fine tuned when a system like this is installed: with this video we may be able to identify the taggers (Vincent won’t see the video till Monday). Is the

video good enough to see them clearly? It gives Vincent something by which to judge the quality of the IR viewing capabilities, the focus, the placement of the cameras, the quality of the system.

From what Vincent says, it appears that not much of the mural has been tagged and if they don’t come back to finish the job later and make a bigger mess, then I’m hoping that we will be able to remove this tagging in a few hours. If they do come back to finish the job, the cameras will be reset and waiting for them.

We’re going to be back “on the wall” Monday at 11 am to clean it off.

So, what do you think? Keep going back to clean off the graffiti? Or give up and let the vandals win? Public art and social order or graffiti and anarchy?

For complete blog post with short videos of mural restoration go to http://www.fineartconservationlab.com/jim-morphesis-monument-by-kent-twitchell/

Want to contribute something to help keep the graffiti off the murals? Donate here: http://www.indiegogo.com/jimmorphesismonument

Jim Morphesis Monument by Kent Twitchell on Dec. 6, 2011 with 8 years of graffiti removed and the mural restored.

Here’s an article about a tagger caught in NY. I like the “no tolerance” attitude they take for this nefarious activity. I’m going to say it again, there is a big difference between graffiti street art and graffiti vandals.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/french-graffiti-vandal-maxime-bezat-busted-spray-painting-tag-subway-trains-city-article-1.998510Restoration questions? Call Scott Haskins at 213 620 9125

See testimonials of FACL services: http://www.fineartconservationlab.com/testimonials

Questions for the artist? Kent Twitchell 310 709 2037

Here is the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles’ website: http://www.muralconservancy.org

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