By Johanna Rebekah Chotiwat

Graffiti bombards us from all directions throughout the school day. Insults, jokes, Bible passages, love pacts, and obscene scribbles. On blanket walls, doors, desks, and air conditioning units. Apparently, we students do not have any qualms about applying a little innocent pen or permanent marker here and there. 

Of course, one must be somewhat selective about when to perform this sort of wall scrawl; it is defacement of school property, conceivably punishable by ESS. Mostly, such small-scale graffiti is ignored by teachers and administrators. It is clear that those who scribble on Chamblee’s bathroom doors are not necessarily defiant or bold persons. The following students are four admitted big-time graffiti artists who spray paint privately owned buildings and their walls. 

Ra Hudley:

Born into a family of artists, junior Ra Hudley realized at the age of seven he had an incredible “talent for drawing.” He lived in New York then and began drawing graffiti on walls, creating “elaborate words” and things to “make a person think.” 

Hudley has not yet done any graffiti in Atlanta, but that’s only because he hasn’t been here very long. He says he draws ideas on pads and plans to paint a bare wall soon and make it “his.” Surprisingly, Hudley’s “mom and pops” are not only aware of his artistic ventures, but extremely supportive of them. In his eight years of drawing graffiti, Hudley has never been caught. He advises amateurs to “do what they gotta d0” and if anybody tries to bring them down, to “flick a finger and move on.”

Aurora Herr: 

Junior Aurora Herr says her graffiti days started when she was about ten, having escalated naturally from “writing all over things.” She lived in Philadelphia (she just moved here in February) and hung out with a group of older boys.

At night, when the trains had stopped running, they would “tag up” the subway cars for hours. Herr never painted anything obscene, just words, neighborhood names, and murals. She was caught drawing graffiti at her old school and had to paint over all the graffiti which resembled hers that Saturday. 

Mike Morgan and Chris Fuller:

The only graffiti artists to get their start locally, sophomores Mike Morgan and Chris Fuller work together. They are both amateurs, having only begun this September behind the Tucker Dollar General by spray painting Fuller’s name. Neither Morgan nor Fuller plan to do any more graffiti of this scale, but both have advice for prospective artists: “Don’t get caught!”