I Love Melbourne Graffiti All City, All Planet!!

I often have deep and meaningful conversations about thigs that are both deep and meaningful. I suppose thats the way it go's except for graffiti conversations. They always tend to scratch way beneath the surface of what I normally consider deep. This one is excluded.

So picture a cafe, which I can be often found in, a book which I have a tendancy to read and a T-shirt that states the obvious, (please see black t-shirt picture below). Across from me are are two, lets say mature ladies that look like they never left Camberwell for more then 2 hours. Camberwell is a well-to-do suburb that is lined with the spoils of oldish money. Looks can be deceiving so I proceeded not to notice them.

Then they opened the wrong can of worms. "What is Melbourne Graffiti?" they asked.
"Its just that, graffiti that is created in Melbourne", (makes perfect sence to me?).
It is at this point that I get the lecture about "the guy that graffitied my fence and I'm a home owner and moral citizen to boot".
"What if it was a girl I asked"?
So I put it to them not to tar all urban artists with the same dirty tar stained brush and consider that some of us are not 14 years old bombing their fences(however some of us are). That would be their grand children.
I then proceeded to ask them if they or their family members drove cars and had any infringments?
Reluctantly they said "yes" (eventually) and I proceeded to argue that if they would of been jailed for speeding would that have improved their life in the long term?
"Of course not", they reply. So how does a kid that tags a fence become an artist, painter, designer or creater when some tags give him a police record? They have race tracks for car enthusiasts but they dont have practice walls for muralists.
"Ever thought of letting someone paint your fence with your permission? It would save you on money for painting it yourself and give you the time you would loose in painting it for regular yourself".

It was with that I belive the seed was planted to grow the graffiti vine. All it needs now is some water and sun!

This returns me to a little experiment that I would love you to take part in:
In the graffiti world it is everyone's dream to be all city. Well in this age of internet I'm aiming to go all planet!
I had this idea to invite owners of I love Melbourne Graffiti shirts to photograph themselves wearing the shirts anywhere on the face of the earth! Imagine some cat wearing a shirt on a Norwegian fiord, or on the Harbour bridge in Sydney or painting a tube in London. The posibilities are endless.

I shall endeavour to take a crazy Melbournian picture soon to set the scene unless someone beats me to it.
Stay tuned for the next rant and some visual gems..
Peace..