Southville paint vandal 'caught green-handed'

“She's a barmaid and has an illustration degree ~ was she taught to draw pints?”

“I'm pleased that she was caught and hopefully she will have learned her lesson. As someone who lives in the area and who has spent a considerable amount of time, money and effort cleaning graffiti/tags off property I hope some of the others active in the area are caught too and made to clean their handiwork off the properties they have vandalised. Bedminster and Southville seem to have a major problem with the visual Tourettes that is tagging.

I recently garnered quite a lot of flak after describing graffiti artists at Upfest as 'wall scrawling scumbags' but am big enough to admit that not all are and there is some talent on show (the comment was made after several hours of cleaning tags off property during the festival weekend for the 3rd year running so suffice it to say that I was not a happy person just then as I would rather have been out doing something more fun than getting spray paint off paintwork. At least they did not do the car this year).

However, it does worry me that the local council are so wildly enthusiastic about street art and seem to consider it a panacea to cure all Bristols ills. By permitting it so widely and without concern for its merits or impact on the surrounding area you legitimise more illegal forms and can in fact cause more problems than it solves. The young lady above is a good example. One particular statement I hear continuously is that street art causes less tagging but that is not always the case. In areas with a problem already or where it is poorly placed it can actually encourage it.

The organisers of Upfest arranged for illegal tags to be cleaned from walls on North St and those of us with concerns are grateful for that. It's a shame that less than 24 hours after the hard work put in by the cleaners that someone had tagged several properties and an electricity sub-station. Within two weeks of the festival several of the shops that had their shutters painted as part of Upfest have been tagged (The Salon and 56 North St) and I noticed that tags have appeared on the 'art' at the former gala bingo hall. Furthermore the dental surgery on Dean Lane, other properties on Dean Lane and British Rd have also been tagged, some extensively so by the same people whose tags appear elsewhere. Thus, far from stopping the local problem, the pieces that were supposed to make a difference are already being damaged.
Similarly, look beyond the Nelson St works and on the periphery there are a lot of tags appearing.”

“I think (& hope)she has probably learnt a valuable lesson and a prison sentence is a tad harsh though I do think she, and any other taggers etc who are caught, should clean up the area(s) they have damaged. Certainly the stencil is a lot better than the endless tagging I see around central Bristol that have zero calligraphic merit and no artistic skills either. Prison would only cost the tax payers a considerable amount of money and, given her previous good character, it's not necessary. However, should she be stupid enough to try this stunt again, then prison may be just the lesson she needs. And before anyone asks I have no idea who she is.”

“The girl is a vandal and a complete idiot............ ought to be locked up along with the moronic lib dems who promote criminal behaviour .
What is happening to Bristol ? with these politicians
voted in by the yuppy southville lot along with clifton redland cotham henleaze kingsdown who make up a quarter of the voters in Bristol . Wake up the other 75% get out and vote when the time comes and get some steel back into Bristol ! Perhaps a strong leader of a Mayor,is mayby the answer to this madness no wishy washy lefty liberal and Independent would be Ideal !”