Graffiti

If life imitated art, it would be a simple matter to follow the dotted line and snip a 200-foot dam near Ojai off the face of the earth. For years, an alliance of environmentalists, fishermen, surfers and officials from every level of government has called for demolishing the obsolete structure. Now, an anonymous band of artists has weighed in, apparently rappelling down the dam's face to paint a huge pair of scissors and a long dotted line. The carefully planned work popped up last week and is, no doubt, Ventura County's most environmentally correct graffiti by a dam site.

When the Aaron Brothers chain of art supply stores created an "Artrageous" promotion for retail locations in Los Angeles and elsewhere, it planned to offer demonstrations by well-known graffiti artists and to hand out free "Graffiti Starter Kits. " That prompted Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine to fire off a letter denouncing the company's celebration of graffiti as an encouragement of vandalism. Company officials responded swiftly, canceling the artist appearances in the Los Angeles area, scotching the art kits — which only contained markers and paper — and assuring Zine in a letter that "Aaron Brothers does not support illegal artwork on any public or private property.

Dy, a.k.a. "Dysprosium," a name taken from a rare chemical element and meant to suggest his elusive nature, glides across the underbelly of the edgy city. It's after midnight in Kabul, approaching a favored hour for would-be suicide bombers to enter the city while security forces sleep, so they can strike during the morning rush. Dy, however, is armed only with cans of spray paint, and his intentions are peaceful: to alter the drab contours of this embattled city. Identifying a wall, Dy pulls the paint cans out of his bag and works quickly, writing slogans and crafting images that rail against corruption, repression and the malign influence of drug money.

Is graffiti the most influential art movement since Pop burst on the scene in 1962? That's the head-turning claim made by "Art in the Streets," a controversial exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art. The show has been drawing the ire of social critics, alarmed by what they perceive as an institutional celebration of vandalism, all while drawing curious crowds (often young) to the museum's Little Tokyo warehouse space. Graffiti is identified as a global artistic phenomenon that is thriving 40 years after it first emerged as a cultural marker around 1971.

MOCA's can of worms Re "Tagging MOCA," Opinion, May 1 Heather Mac Donald was right on the mark. Like some others, the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Los Angeles chooses to glorify vandalism instead of condemning the urban and suburban blight it has brought to the L.A. area. Now we are all paying the price for the proliferation of graffiti vandalism. Mac Donald also singled out the parents and their apparent and appalling lack of control as a major contributor to this plague.

Ahead of MOCA's sweeping "Art in the Streets" exhibition, opening April 17 at the Geffen Contemporary, The Times interviewed three street art pioneers from the show: Chaz Bojórquez, Craig Stecyk and Risk. A Q&A with Risk follows below; read the rest of the story here and here . Risk helped to import Wild Style graffiti, with hard-to-decipher, interlocking letters , from the New York subways to the L.A. freeways. At the Geffen, the artist takes over part of a wall inside and has parked a salvaged bus , painted in fiery colors, outside.