Like my play on words? Hehe.

A slogan created by an artist who famously burned £1m has been scrubbed off the wall of a Sussex art gallery by cleaners who mistook it for graffiti.

James Cauty used white emulsion paint to scrawl “Portslade Massif” across the window and wall of the Ink-d gallery in Brighton to advertise his exhibition.

The Rize and Fall of the Portslade Massif opened there on Thursday.

Brighton and Hove City Council said the removal of the writing by its graffiti team was a “genuine mistake”.

But gallery studio director Dan Hipkin questioned the action, and said the slogan had been on private property.

He said he believed the cleaners feared the slogan – which referred to the exhibition’s theme of gang culture – would create gang warfare locally.

“Brighton and Hove City Council, like anywhere, have problems with graffiti gangs but this is private property and my problems with the cleaning crew doing this is more about freedom of expression.

“Who holds the right to say what is and isn’t a form of expression?

Read More: Art slogan mistaken for graffiti

Reminds me of that one time at band camp…

CHILDREN as young as seven are being taught graffiti vandalism techniques through a new range of toys.

Graffiti opponents have called for an Australia-wide ban on Urban Colourz, toys inspired by street graffiti, for fear they glorify a criminal act.

The State Government is investigating if sale of the toys breaches new laws that outlaw promotion of illegal street art.

The toys teach children how to create graffiti “tags” of the sort illegally scrawled on Victorian walls and buildings.

A range of products are available under the Urban Colourz brand name including:

A BATTERY-powered airbrush that sprays paint.

MULTI-coloured coloured pens shaped like spray paint cans.

BOOKS filled with graffiti tags, drawings and pictures.

STENCILS of graffiti motifs to colour in and copy.

TEMPORARY tattoos and graffiti stickers.

Residents Against Graffiti Everywhere (RAGE) president Steve Beardon says the toys glorify a crime that costs Victorian tax payers millions of dollars each year.

Read More: Outrage on graffiti toys
You can check out the toys they are arguing about here: Urban Colourz

THE NEWS HAS BROKE!!!

A graffiti vandal, making the second stop on what his lawyer called a “triborough tour” of the city’s courts, was conditionally discharged Thursday and was ordered to pay $5,000.

Alain Mariduena pleaded guilty in Manhattan in August to one count of third-degree criminal mischief for writing graffiti, much of it on subway cars, with his tag, KET. Conditional discharge means he must avoid future criminal conduct and pay his fine; the sentence differs from probation because it’s not court supervised.

According to his lawyer, Ronald Kuby, Mariduena’s tag has become known around the world.

Kuby said his client would be sentenced Friday for graffiti crimes in Brooklyn. In that case he is to be spared jail, fined $3,000 and ordered to paint a mural.

Last month, Mariduena, 36, was sentenced in Queens to probation and ordered to pay $1,274 in restitution and a $3,000 fine for graffiti offenses, Kuby said.

Mariduena, who lives in the Inwood section of Manhattan, said on his Web site that he pleaded guilty in all three cases to avoid prison. Kuby said Mariduena has retired from illegal graffiti.

Read More: New York graffiti vandal KET is fined $5,000
More: In Plea Deal, Artist Admits to Subway Graffiti in 3 Boroughs

SABER (Saber One; MSK – AWR – The Seventh Letter) has released his new book titled “SABER – Mad Society”. I just received a copy straight from the origin SaberOne.com, signed, sealed, and delivered. If you’re interested in Saber as an artist, graffiti mogul, or simply as a person his book delivers on all fronts!

168 pages, softcover- Los Angeles based graffiti legend SABER, is world renowned for his “Los Angeles River” piece (1997), the largest in the world. His piece on the sloping bank of the Los Angeles River is nearly the size of a football field, and can be read clear as day from a satellite photo. In a famous photograph—taken by his father just after it was completed—SABER stands on the piece and appears as a tiny speck amid a giant blaze of color. In the years since, SABER’s legend has only grown as his art has evolved, and his presence on the streets remains undiminished. This engrossing monograph is not only a picture-book, but features amazing stories about childhood, life and death, fine art and graffiti misadventures proving that SABER is a multi-dimensional artist with an amazing story to tell. SABER continues to push himself as an artist creating groundbreaking metal and wood sculptures, painstakingly rendered hyper-realistic canvases, and works in many other media. “Graffiti is about style, placement and proliferation…. SABER is one of the few people who is a master in all areas.” – Shepard Fairey.

New Pics coming soon! Yep! My homie Tipz shot a batch of pics at one of the local yards recently. Here’s a teaser. More to come!

QUEST

In a little town called Ballina in Ireland they are finally started to see an increase in graffiti related crimes and are thinking of cracking down.

BALLINA Town Council has resolved to get tough to those responsible for graffiti in the town.

Council members were shocked when photographs of some crude graffiti in the Teeling Street car park in town were circulated at their monthly meeting on September 20 last.

The problem had been highlighted by Cllr Johnny O’Malley who tabled a motion that the Council adopt a bye law to deal with what he termed as “a particularly crude anti social behaviour that is becoming more and more prevalent in Ballina”.

He said those responsible for the graffiti were so insensitive and taking from the good work done by so many in the community such as the Tidy Towns committee.

He recommended that the Council adopt a bye law to make the practice an offence and that offenders be punished by means of community service involving the removal of the graffiti rather than fines.

“This impacts on people’s view of the town and their enjoyment of the town. I’m not interested in fines. I’m interested in naming and shaming, catching the culprits and making them take the time to remove the graffiti,” he concluded.

Read More: Council to get tough on graffiti artists

You know, I’ve never really hoped for someones incarceration for graffiti before. But this little kid takes the cake. There’s rules that you need to follow kid. Obviously you were never taught them or maybe you were just too stupid to follow them. Either way I hope they catch you.

A graffiti tagger struck the landmark Crystal Cathedral shortly after the church held a community festival, doing tens of thousands of dollars in damage, a church spokesman said Tuesday.

The tagger struck around 8:30 p.m. Saturday and damaged the base of the famous glass spire and other buildings at the church, said Ben Rhodes, a cathedral spokesman.

Church officials later determined that the tagger, who appeared to be in his early 20s, etched the symbol “B1R” into 11 spots. Repairs will cost at least $38,000, Rhodes said.

Read More: Tagger Attacks Famed Crystal Cathedral

My Notes: The news article above reported that the kid scribed “B1R”, but I analyzed the pictures and video they took and also noticed his full nick is “BATER”. So, whoever knows this guy please check him for the whole community.

They seriously don’t have lives way over there. Seriously.

You can adopt a child, a tree or even a highway. In the Bronx you can also adopt a mailbox.

All of the 60 mailboxes in an East Bronx neighborhood have adoptive parents who paint signature post-office blue or green over graffiti almost as soon as it is scribbled.

“If you wait a few weeks it’s easy for the graffiti vandals to gain notoriety,” said Mary Jane Musano, who gathers the paint from the post office, buys supplies and distributes them out of the Waterbury LaSalle Community Association to volunteers in the Schuylerville neighborhood. “We ask people to adopt a mailbox that is very, very close to their home, so they pass it on their way out and can paint it right away. That’s the only way it works.”

Read More: Volunteers tackle graffiti on mailboxes

There’s an odd sight on the Hollywood freeway recently that I’m sure you’ve either noticed in your commute or seen news stories about it. It’s a house! As of today though (Sept. 24) it’s been getting hit with graffiti because of all the publicity it’s been causing. MSK is tagged on the side facing traffic, an undecipherable throw-up is on the side facing traffic horizontally, and a few nasty tags in various places. Peep the article:

Motorists traveling Southern California highways are used to seeing all sorts of debris, from mattresses to luggage to clothing. But the ultimate in freeway flotsam has landed along the Hollywood Freeway: a house.

Read More: Drivers Zoom by Roadside Debris – a Home

UPDATE: The house has been moved to a storage yard in Santa Clarita.
New tags on it: META, TRIGZ, ICR, J4F (Just 4 Fun), MENSO

I have a HUGE surprise for you guys, but I’m sorry, I can’t really let you know about it quite yet. Just take my word for it, it will be sooo bad ass! I can tell you this much: it’s a website, graff community based. I will let you guys in on more once I get closer to releasing the beta.
Back to your regularly scheduled program.