Graffiti: Art, or Vandalism?

I thought I'd expand on the conversation/comments started by my last Post.

IMO, whether Graffiti is Art or Vandalism depends on the graffiti itself, and on the "canvas" that was used.

When we first moved into our townhouse our communal letterbox (that we shared with 6 neighbors) came with a piece of lumber across the top. About 3' wide, 12" tall, painted white, it proved an irresistible target, so I wasn't too surprised when I came home from work one day to see something unintelligible scribbled across it. But we'd been painting the house that past weekend so I happened to have a couple of cans of white paint in the garage, and as soon as I'd parked my car I was back out the front, paint & brush in hand.

When painted/written under a larger piece of work I could acknowledge that this:
is an artist's signature. But when it's scrawled in black marker across a letterbox it's nothing but senseless vandalism. I obliterated it with a coat of white paint (not this piece specifically).

A couple of days later it was back. Maybe the same Tagger, maybe not, I don't know; I lost the ability to read Scribble when I graduated from Kindergarten.

I painted over it again.

About a week went by before the Taggers struck again, and probably within hours of them scribbling their nonsense on my letterbox I'd once again erased it.

It was almost six months before they Tagged us again.

They were still around. I'd see their work up and down the street, on other letterboxes, For Sale signs, even spray painted on hedges, but for six months they left us alone. And when they finally did hit us I was back out there, painting over it again.

It didn't piss me off, in fact I got a smug sense of satisfaction by imagining the Tagger coming by later to admire his work, and seeing that his biggest Tag was already gone, just hours after he'd put it up.

That's Tagging. It's graffiti, and it's vandalism. It's exactly the same as your dog pissing on and marking every rock, tree & street sign when you take him for a walk.
"This is mine! And this is mine! Oh, this? This is mine, too! And this! It's mine as well!"

No, this letterbox is mine!

Now if the Taggers had shown a little bit of style and creativity, I might have left their work alone. If they'd done something like this:

or even this:

I'd have thought, "That's pretty cool! I like it!" and it could have stayed.

But when a dog takes a piss up against your letterbox it's only natural to grab your hose and clean it off. Or you piss right back, and you keep on doing that, and eventually the dog comes through saying, "This is mine! And this! And this, too! And...oh! This? No. This is yours."