Graffiti artists find a few places in Madison that welcome their work

Kristin Czubkowski

Kimberley Coonts' graffiti obsession started off pretty simply in 1992 with a disposable camera and a few bus rides.

Coonts had just moved to the northwest suburbs of Chicago, and in her rides on the Chicago Transit Authority buses, she noticed many of the CTA's buildings were covered in spray-painted art that would regularly morph into completely different pictures as new artists came in and took over the walls.

"The more I paid attention, the more I realized, 'Oh my God, these are really awesome, I have to start taking pictures of this stuff,' " she said.

Four hundred pictures and a move to Madison later, Coonts is more involved in the graffiti world than ever. For the past three years, she hosted a graffiti wall for local artists, or "writers" as they are often called, as part of radio station WSUM's Party in the Park, a festival at James Madison Park.

When Party in the Park moved to Memorial Union this year because of funding, renaming itself as Snake on the Lake, Coonts was dismayed that there would be no room for her wall at the festival. The wall, made from reinforced plywood, had expanded during its years as part of Party in the Park from 45 feet to 80 feet.

Rather than give up, though, Coonts -- normally a Madison nightclub promoter -- decided to give the wall its own event, Kilroy's Art in the Park. This Saturday, July 26, Coonts will bring the wall out of storage, open it up again to artists who bring their spray paint and gather at Brittingham Park.

She said the eight-foot-high wall will offer 96 feet of space for artists to work. To get the creative juices flowing, 11 DJs will spin music throughout the day.

Brittingham Park has been a frequent hangout for Madison's transient population for years, but increased problems such as public intoxication, harassment of those in or near the park and some transients checking cars and homes for unlocked doors led to a city crackdown in April that included more lights and security cameras for the park.

"I know Brittingham Park has been kind of a volatile environment of late, and I thought it might be good for the community to have an event at that park," Coonts said.

The event will run from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., she said, and space on the wall is first come, first serve.

The wall itself is important to Coonts for three reasons, she said. One, she said she believes it will help educate the community that not all graffiti is done by "gangsters and thugs"; two, it provides Madison's graffiti writers with a large, legal forum to showcase their work; and three, it will hopefully grab the attention of businesses who may be interested in providing more wallspace for the writers.

Underdog art

There are more than a few reasons to love graffiti art, or urban art, as Coonts refers to it, but two key reasons it captured her interest was its accessibility -- anyone can walk by and enjoy it -- and the misconceptions of those who create it.

"I appreciate all art in all forms, but I think I'm just kind of a fan of the underdog. I know that urban artists, graffiti artists, whatever you want to call them have a tendency to be misunderstood, and because they are misunderstood, I identify with them," she said.

Coonts said many people do not understand the difference between urban art and "tagging," or simple scrawls illegally marking up private property, which is often done by gangs to "claim" a neighborhood.

"To the person on the street that doesn't know the difference, it isn't clear at all," she said. "But to me, there's a big difference between somebody who's preparing a mural and taking the time and putting in the dedication and the money it costs for the paint to put up a mural, rather than grabbing a spray can of whatever color they want and spray painting profanity on street signs."

For Madison police, however, the distinction isn't between artistic graffiti and tagging, but between illegal and legal venues for it. Officer Mary Anne Thurber, a crime prevention officer with the Madison police department, said artistic or not, Madison police do not condone any graffiti done without a business owner's permission.

"The problem arises when it is without permission and has defaced businesses," she said. "There are a number of small businesses that are running on a very tight margin as is, and when they have to stop what they're doing to go out and undo the damage that somebody randomly inflicted on them, it's detrimental to the business owner and it doesn't reflect well on the neighborhood."

Thurber added that there is a city ordinance that forces business owners to remove graffiti in a timely fashion, or they can be issued a citation on top of the cost of removing the graffiti.

But if a business opens up one or more of its walls as legal graffiti venues, it becomes a "non-issue" for law enforcement, Thurber said, adding that she can appreciate legal urban art, particularly for its frequent social and political commentary.

Permission to paint

The problem, Coonts said, is that there are currently few spaces where graffiti can be legally showcased in Madison, Coonts said. Coonts could only name two venues -- Mother Fool's Coffee House on Williamson Street and a laundromat on south Park Street -- where Madison artists can show off their work.

Jon Hain, owner of Mother Fool's, said he started his permission wall in the summer of 2001 for the same reason Coonts puts on her event -- to give graffiti artists a legal venue for their work.

"We're pretty turned off by the tags and the graffiti scrawls that we see around, but we also recognize that there is a lot of talent that could be developed," he said. "It is an art form, but it's often not given the proper nourishment or space to develop."

Having the wall at his business has also given Hain a better understanding of the artistry involved in graffiti designs.

"They use all different types of nozzles from different aerosols to get different sort of spray designs," he said. Most of them carry a little pouch of nozzles with them that they can switch out on the different colors. It's actually not that different from an artist who has all different brushes."

With more permanent legal venues such as Hain's, Coonts said she hopes urban artists will be encouraged "to do it where they are allowed to, not where they are not allowed to." Thurber says the jury is still out on that theory, though.

For now, however, Coonts is satisfied with maintaining her event -- which she hopes to take to other parks in future years. This year's event, she said, is a test run, paid for partially by a private sponsor, a friend and her parents, with Coonts footing the rest of the bill. In the future, she said she would like to find other sponsors as well as add concessions vendors, which she was not able to have this year.

For all the time, effort and money spent putting this event on, though, Coonts said she doesn't know any of the professional graffiti artists in Madison personally, doing it instead for her love of their work.

"They're almost always wearing gas masks or covering their face in some way so that they're not inhaling the fumes," she said. "So I might recognize a voice now and then or maybe some guy will wear the same hat. It may be a bunch of different people, but honestly, I couldn't tell you how many urban artists there are in Madison."