… and it’s not because he covers works of art with ugly gray paint. Well, I actually think he sucks for that too but, let’s be honest, it’s an open debate. It’s a subjective sort of suck. What some folks may call public art, others may call graffiti. Fred thinks he knows the difference, others disagree. It’s kind of a mess.
However, a reason he sucks that really can’t be denied is that Fred causes more ugliness than he covers up. If he were into true eradication of graffiti he would be out there with paint removal products like RemoverMagic. But instead he just adds more paint. Okay, whatever. Some may think that gray paint is more neutral than large bubble letters boasting someone’s tagger name or such. It’s debatable, but fine.
How about what’s going on in these pictures?
What we see here are stickers and flyers being covered up with gray paint when they could very easily have been removed by hand. If you look, in some photos nature has already removed whatever piece of offending media was on the property and the only thing that remains is the gray paint. In another, the offending sticker is only half as large as the paint covering it. These items are not presenting a problem that wouldn’t be washed away by the elements or by Fred himself if he took the time to actually beautify city property rather than vandalize it.
Why doesn’t Fred invest in a pressure washer? Why doesn’t he try harder to remove graffiti rather than painting over it?
The answer? Because Fred himself is a tagger.
These photos were taken on Poydras across from the ‘Dome if anyone is interested. It’s also the spot where I found one of Fred’s paintbrushes tossed on the ground.
I’m tempted to paint graffiti on my house so I can catch him trespassing on private property and give him a little negative reinforcement 😉