Getting Busted for Becoming Your Dream
Made famous in 2000 as his “tag” was highlighted across the Harbour Bridge, and at the opening ceremonies of the Sydney Olympic Games, Arthur Stace was a sidewalk chalker, writing “Eternity,” the one word, in a distinctive script, across the city from 1930 to 1967. He endeared himself to Sydney by his art and will be remembered for decades to come, even though there is no lasting example of his work. For the entire period I lived on the Upper East Side, I was subjected to the empty platitudes and overbearing admonishments of James De La Vega, who scribbled the sidewalks of the neighborhood in chalk. Towards the end of those years, Mr. De La Vega had gallery shows in Spanish Harlem. Well, if “Become Your Dream” and crap about being wearing a suit to work making you a wage slave is art, that’s nice for him. Actually, it’s graffiti, even in chalk, when taken to extremes, and now De La Vega’s been busted well and truly for it. He’s also being called a muralist, and from the sound of things, he’s stepped up from the cheap, pop adages and bad line drawings to larger canvases and multiple colors. There’s a line between art and vandalism, and I think he’s crossed it. He says he’ll “consider refraining from painting illegally” in exchange for no jail time, but maybe he should have thought of that option sooner. Other graffitists have opted for alternative media. Graffiti philosophers, like Arthur Stace, just kept it simple and stayed out of jail.