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It's not grafitti, it's art

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Christopher Gross
  • 3rd Wing Public Affairs
ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska --  A crew chief from the 19th Aircraft Maintenance Unit was seen spray painting graffiti in the indoor skate park here April 3. But no security forces were called to halt the "tagging."

Staff Sgt. Art Delafuente has been doing graffiti since he was 14 years old, and the base community center has been looking for a graffiti artist for the past two years to put some color on its skate park walls. It was a good match.

Sergeant Delafuente found out about the opportunity this past winter, and he jumped at it. The center staff supplied him with the paint and let him go to work and use his imagination.

His graffiti projects haven't always been legal graffiti. Sergeant Delafuente grew up in the projects of south Texas. While most teens turned their lives toward doing drugs, he said he took the alternative, and started doing illegal graffiti on private property. Once he was caught at 16, and had to pay a hefty fine.

Shortly after Sergeant Delafuente turned 17, he joined the U.S. Air Force. He has been part of it for nine years now, and has been at Elmendorf for about a year.

"[It] doesn't make sense for me to do illegal graffiti, when I can just ask permission and they'll let me," Sergeant Delafuente said.

With a week of leave Sergeant Delafuente said he has worked about 50 hours painting the walls, coming in at 8 a.m. and often leaving by 5 p.m.

Helping the sergeant was Arielo Taylor, a teen he had met at the mall. Sergeant Delafuente saw that the teen was into graffiti and wanted to show him that graffiti artists are welcomed and can sometimes do their work for free.

"I try to show people graffiti is an art form," Sergeant Delafuente said.

It's a really good way to express the way you feel, and to show teens that anything is possible, he said. One way to show teens was by painting a space mural on one of the walls, telling teens to reach for the stars.

Sergeant Delefuente's main concern is to draw away the negative stigma he says is associated with graffiti, and show people that it can be a beautiful art form.

"Instead of writing on bathroom walls, put your thoughts and art work to serve a good purpose," he said.

His next task at hand will be the 20-foot wall that is part of the outdoor skate park near the North Star Inn.

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