Star-Journbal Editor
You could call it art.
Or something else.
The unhappy curator of the piece of work now on display on the back wall of his supermarket casts his vote for vandalism.
"That's all it is, you know," said Dale's Supermarket owner Dale Franz.
Franz has been fuming since he discovered someone with an "artistic flair" had defaced the back wall behind his grocery at 108 W. Grand Avenue.
"I can't even remember when it was," Franz said. "I pulled up in my truck and it just jumped out at me."
Since then, Franz has become sort of an art critic. The more he looks at the blue scrawl, the more he sees.
"If you look at it you can see the blue heart," he said. "And then where they signed it, it says ENVY. That's the only thing we can figure out.
"They used blue and white paint to shadow the ENVY part and the heart, otherwise they didn't use white on anything else."
But the more Franz sees, the more he seethes.
"They don't respect other people's property," he said. "I reported it. [Hillsboro police] came down, took pictures, and looked at it. They didn't think it was anything gang-related.
"They thought it was just artwork."
Hillsboro police chief Dan Kinning said he isn't exactly sure what it is.
"We're not able to determine what the meaning is, it looks like scrawl-ing," he said. "We've not seen this person's work before."
Artwork or not, the police chief wants all Spray-Painting Picassos and Vandal van Goghs to know anyone caught tagging in his town will be ticketed, and perhaps taken to jail.
Criminal destruction of property is a misdemeanor punishable by up to $10,000 in fines and a year in jail, Kinning said.
Unless some bleeding heart accuses the chief of cruel and unusual punishment, he might consider putting the perpetrator behind bars in a cell with white cinder block walls, but with no spray-paint to paint with.
"It's a very common problem everywhere, but we don't like it here," Kinning said.
Hillsboro police caught up with a posse of fly-by-night painters last summer, a group of older teenagers from Hillsboro and McPherson, who'd been making their mark in several towns in the area. The victims declined to press charges, but the boys were forced to pay restitution.
The word "tagging" first was used by inner-city gangs, who "tag" their territories. The art form is popular in the hip-hop culture, and apparently has become a fad among college students.
"Somebody came and talked to me and said their son in college has a roommate who woke him up one night and said, 'Come on! Let's go tagging!'" Franz said.
"He just likes to go out and paint art like this, to tag stuff with his signature, and go to other towns like this and do artwork, sign it with his signature, and leave."
The practice of putting artwork on walls dates back to cavemen, who apparently used long-lasting spray-paint. But today's taggers are less likely to make history, because there's a new type of chemical on the market created specifically to remove their scrawls.
Kinning said the best way to keep Miscreant Michelangelos from multiplying is to close down their exhibits as soon as possible.
"The longer it sits there, the more likely it is that somebody will copy it," Kinning said.
Another way Hillsboro police plan to help de-patronize the art of tagging this summer is to strictly enforce the city's curfew law, which requires youngsters 15 and under to be off the streets by 10 p.m. and 16 and 17 year-olds by midnight.
Kinning said curfew violators' parents will be allowed one Why, I had no idea Johnny was outside! He must have sneaked out the window! excuse before being issued a ticket themselves.
At the grocer's, Franz said he plans to get a gallon of white paint soon to cover his wall. After that, he hopes his outdoor gallery will close for good.
"I don't think there's anything you can do to stop it, though, other than get surveillance cameras or something," he said.
"It's just a hassle. I have a lot of other things more important to worry about."
