Psychology of contemporary graffiti artists

[KANE DC5]

Hi,
I'm a graffiti artist in my early thirties. I have my BFA and am about to start my Masters in Teaching at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I'm interested in exchanging ideas with someone from a psychological point of view, about why I/we do what we do. Hopefully, we can collaborate on an essay down the road? I apologize in advance if the administrators feel I have no business posting here. Any interested parties can email me at [email protected] . Thanks.
Kane

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[BenBenji]

Fantastic! I have had a long-standing interest in graffiti and am a second year Clinical Psych Ph.D. student at CSPP-Alliant San Francisco. I am currently in a practicum placement in which one of the teaching assistants is a graf artist. I began wondering about common personality characteristics of this population and began gathering some papers (there are not many relevant) to consider for further investigation.

Sending you an e-mail.

 

[positivepsych]

A 1995 Rollings Stone article on JA, one of New York's most famous and prolific taggers, is the best case study I've read. Though it's a journalistic piece, it touches on family history, motivation, and psychopathology:

http://www.graffiti.org/dj/ja.html

It's also interesting to read from individuals within the community itself:
http://www.citynoise.org/article/561