In late February, two young men were caught red-handed (or was it multi-color-handed?) by police tagging the side of a building at W. 41st and Lorain Avenue in Ohio with samples of their “artwork.”
Ohio City firefighter Michael “Sporty” Kilbane described the scene in a Yahoo post:
Congrats once again to 2nd district police who caught another graffiti artist this morning just after 2 a.m. A second graffiti artist was caught by an unnamed Lt. from nearby Fire Station 4 when he climbed 4 stories on a fire escape to a rooftop where he discovered another vandal hiding along with his bag of criminal tools. The second “tagger” was talking on his cell phone to a third member of the crew who got away and was hiding in the bathroom of a nearby bar. These guys are responsible for quite a bit of the vandalism in our neighborhood so these recent arrests should have a big impact on keeping our neighborhood clean.
Russell Sanderson and Clark Adkins were arrested at the scene and pled not guilty before Cleveland municipal Judge Lauren C. Moore at a pre-trail hearing recently. But they agreed to apologize to local business owners at a meeting scheduled for last night.
Tremont West/Ohio City Neighborhood Safety Coordinator Andy Thomas sent out the following email:
Thanks to the cooperation and coordination among westside residents and CDCs, there was a great turnout for court watch during last Thursday’s pretrial hearing for graffiti taggers Russell Sanderson and Clark Adkins. Judge Lauren C. Moore decreed that Sanderson and Adkins must attend the next Stockyard Safety Committee meeting on April 2nd at 6:30 pm. They are required to apologize to attendees and listen to the concerns about how graffiti impacts our neighborhoods. This meeting is open to everyone, regardless of neighborhood.
About 40 residents and business owners showed up to hear from the contrite taggers. But when cameras from Channel 19 arrived at the public meeting, Sanderson and Adkins bolted without delivering the apology, apparently averse to publicity.
Sanderson hasn’t always avoided publicity. The nephew of Cleveland’s acclaimed Iron Chef Michael Symon, Sanderson provided mural art for the Strongsville location of Symon’s B-Spot restaurant, which opened last year. His work appeared in the photo accompanying an article in the Strongsville Post about the restaurant opening. The caption read:
It’s a family affair for Michael Symon. The Iron Chef and his wife, Liz, opened B-Spot, their new eatery in the Greens of Strongsville on April 6. One wall is decorated with graffiti art. The work behind them was painted by Symon’s nephew, Russell Sanderson of Berea.
Apparently in the 20-mile distance between Ohio City and Strongsville, the definition of “vandalism” changes to “art.” — Anastasia Pantsios
This article appears in Apr 4-10, 2012.
I think the difference between vandalism and art is this: one is requested and therefore, wanted, the other is not requested and unwanted and placement inside and outside can make a BIG difference.
1. Your link to 19 Action News’ report doesn’t work. You accidentally added a period to the end of the url.
2. Why do you put the words art and artwork in quotes? Graffiti is art. Just because it’s often a crime doesn’t mean it’s not art. And, since you don’t show us the artwork in question, we’re unable to judge it for ourselves.
3. The rest of the message Andy Thomas posted:
“Our goal is to get 100 people to this meeting from various neighborhoods to attend and to have various media cover the story.”
Your count put it at 40. It’s hard to tell in the 19 Action News video, but it doesn’t look like there’s more than 25 there. Maybe there were people off camera, so I can’t accuse you of inflating the number, but they failed to get 100 there. Those who like graffiti art were not invited.
4. We also see from the omitted portion of the posting that this Andy Thomas fellow was calling the media. I thought the point was for the graffiti artists to listen to the attendees’ concerns, not to ambush them with media because one of the suspects is the nephew of a celebrity chef.
5. I recall that the Tremont West Development Corp. didn’t like it when their development director, Sammy Catania, was in the news after being caught on camera attacking a disabled elderly man in a park in Tremont. Does the writer of this post remember that? That was when Anastasia Pantsios wrote: “They attempted to file criminal charges at the county prosecutor’s office without success. That’s understandable, given that their own video disproves their case: If Black had been ‘assaulted,’ it’s hard to see how he could have continued to film uninterrupted.”
As with the words “art” and “artwork” above, Pantsios put another word in quotes – “assaulted”. Yet days later this headline appeared in the PD: “Tremont West Development Corp. development director charged with assault”, and shortly after that Catania was found guilty of menacing and aggravated disorderly conduct. Beware when Pantsios tries to dismiss things by putting words in quotes.
6. The 19 Action News report is weird. They show us a bunch of graffiti, but we have no idea if it’s the graffiti these two put up. At the end of the report the reporter notes that most of the graffiti she just showed us was in a “designated area” for graffiti, not on West 41st. I’m not sure, but at one point in the report they show us an image of some graffiti art that appears to be frm this case’s file. That looks like pretty good graffiti art to me. There’s a lot of ugliness around West 41st and Lorain: Crack dealers, addicted street prostitutes, armed robbers, decaying and neglected houses and buildings, etc. Is it really so bad if someone does a little artwork among so much misery?
7. As for Michael “Sporty” Kilbane, if he’s such a hero to the community how come he didn’t blow the whistle on all the rampant corruption going on with Cleveland’s firemen. Specifically, the massive theft of tax dollars in the payroll scandal. For example, from the PD: “Cleveland City Council members, responding Wednesday to the findings of a city audit that exposed systematic abuse of sick time and shift trades among firefighters, condemned a Fire Department culture that they say allowed such abuses to go unchecked for years.” What was “Sporty” doing about any of THAT?! Being a good sport and brushing it under the rug? I’d say the fire fighters of Cleveland have cost us considerably more money than a couple of budding artists who used a crumbling and depressing neighborhood as their canvas.
8. The 19 Action News report interviews Steve Schimoler of Crop Bistro. Anyone can hear by his accent that he’s not from Cleveland and must be some east coast snoot. Just sayin’.
9. Lastly, by the artwork at the B Spot I’d say Sanderson has some talent. I’m an east sider and I’m always on the lookout for some cool new graffiti along the rapid transit line. It’s nicer to look at than all the garbage and discarded tires that litter the rail line into downtown. I’d like to tell these two artists to keep their chins up — many very good artists did exactly what they’re doing and have their artwork in museums today. And only then will such artists be approved of by the likes of Steve Schimoler…..
I wrote: “Beware when Pantsios tries to dismiss things by putting words in quotes. “
Note: Sammy Catania was a PUBLIC FIGURE when Pantsios was trying to smack down the stories of his criminal behavior (rather embarrassing that just days after she declared there was no evidence of a crime the city decided to prosecute — Pantsios didn’t post about how stupid she must’ve felt for getting it wrong).
The graffiti artists aren’t public figures.
In both cases, though, Pantsios serves the Tremont West Development Corp. Noted.
Hey mister I love graffiti art I live in the crumbling depressing neighborhood as you call it and I have lived here for thirty years and am sick of assholes like yourself who think this is art or talent it is nothing but vandalism and it makes me sick, I live in a building that the owner just spent over $100,000 in improvements only to have your asshole buddies come by and tag it and it cost him over $500 to remove your so called art. I can’t wait to catch one of these little wanta be Picasso’s and give them a baseball bat up side the head because that’s what the deserve. And your attack on the Fire Department and Mr Kilbane is a fucking joke, you Mr. Robert Mason have no idea how Cleveland Fire and Cleveland Police put their lives on the line on a daily basis for jack offs like you. When you get in trouble and need help and start screaming like the little bitch that you are see who shows up, it won’t be your pal’s and their spray cans.
georgie: You say it’s nothing but vandalism, but the above article does not show us the specific graffiti in question.
I don’t care what you think of my attack on the firefighters of Cleveland. They are thieves and that’s a proven fact. Here’s from the Plain Dealer: “Cleveland firefighters systematically abused sick time and shift trades, costing taxpayers millions of dollars in unnecessary overtime and forcing the city to temporarily take fire trucks out of service, according to city auditors and administrators.”
Not only have the Cleveland firefighters stolen millions of dollars from the taxpayers, but it is costing Cleveland a fortune to upgrade the payroll technology to try and put a stop to the abuses.
I don’t know Michael “Sporty” Kilbane. It’s rather oddball that this article includes his nickname. What’s up with that? (And where’s the link to this “Yahoo post”?)
My question was simple. Where was Sporty when at least 25% of the firefighters of Cleveland were stealing millions from the taxpayers and 100% of them knew about it?
I’d say that’s a bigger issue than a couple young graffiti artists. The amount of graffiti has, if anything, declined in Cleveland since when I was young. In any case, graffiti has been part of urban life since before you were born.
If someone is caught doing graffiti, give them a brush and some cleaning tools and let them stand there until it’s all gone. Sure it will take hours and hours of hard scrubbing, but some lessons just need to be learned.
Unwanted graffiti can still be art, but if someone doesn’t want that up, then you really shouldn’t be doing it. Plenty of people will pay for graffiti art, and I’m sure someone that wants decorations would give some wall space if asked. When you just go do something with no consideration of someone else’s property, that’s when problems come in.
If it was “art,” we’d be calling it art and not “graffiti.” Art is an expression of the artist. Graffiti is a crime.
Graffiti makes neighborhoods look blighted. Maybe taggers coming in from suburbs like Berea consider the city of Cleveland blighted. I live here, I love my city, and I don’t consider it blighted. And I’m insulted that they think so little of my city, my neighborhood and me that they think slapping their graffiti everywhere is OK.
The people who live in the city of Cleveland or anyplace where graffiti and tagging are prevalent are not as enamored of it as art as you are, Mr. Mason. For us, it’s part of the “broken window” effect, something that devalues our neighborhoods to outsiders, something that makes our neighborhoods appear unsafe and unloved. And when our private property is tagged, it’s not only unsightly, but expensive. I know plenty of artists; if I want the back of my garage painted, I’ll ask one of them to do it.
I wish that people like Sanderson and Adkins, rather than giving the finger figuratively and literally to the city of Cleveland and its residents through their words and actions, would seek opportunities to donate their time to public art projects where they could be celebrated for their creativity and generosity. Instead, they participate in criminal activities that cause thousands of dollars of damage for property owners. Hopefully, if the judge is fair and the prosecutor honest, their crimes will result (in the least) with a hefty fine and a couple of hundred hours court community service spent removing graffiti and tagging from places it’s not wanted.