The worse it gets for graffiti artists in North America the better it gets in Europe. While Krylon has watered down their paints to the point of grape juice, European companies keep coming out with bigger and better spray cans totally devoted to being the best graffiti paint around.
Spain’s Montana paints and Germany’s Belton are fully aware of how often their products are used for bombing. In fact, they actively encourage it. Both companies release dozens of different colors. Belton has over 25 different shades of blue, for example, not the kind of color range meant for someone to spray paint a chair or a bike frame. Instead of being locked behind a cage and only sold to people over 18 like Krylon is here, Montana and Belton sponsor writers like COPE 2, flying them all over the continent to do murals and trains. “We understand the trains are going to be covered up within 72 hours but it is done for the flick,” says Vernon Stuttgart, a Belton spokesperson. “It is definitely not legal but the transportation authorities tolerate it. They often come to watch us do it, actually.”
Both companies provide fat caps with their cans. Caps you can use to legally tag all the plywood siding and scaffolding you want. Any temporary surface is free game in most of Europe. Montana even went so far as to make an extra large “bombing can” with a label that depicts a train yard ripe for the picking.
A far cry from New York’s vandal squad, who are so obsessed with stopping this crime that they know more about graffiti writers than most graffiti writers. They have been sucked into the culture. The “circle V” tag they spray paint to defame pieces has made this particular division of the NYPD one of the most well-known graffiti crews in New York. They own (due to illegal confiscation) some of the most valuable black books and photo albums graffiti has ever made and are so involved in the scene that the real police are starting to ostracize them.
“In America they are chasing their tails trying to stop the inevitable,” says Stuttgart. “They charge writers with break and enter if they are found on a roof, even though they know full well the writer is there just to paint. We sponsor them and dedicate colors to their name. Both Germany and America have graffiti but what has the vandal squad done? All this policing means is that the work you see is rushed and therefore it’s not as pleasing to look at.”
CHRISTI BRADNOX
