Dallas Graffiti : Dallas’ first ‘free wall,’ in West Dallas, gives graffiti artists a legal canvas

Original Article- Watch this video! ( Click here)

The first step I took was to do my research on graffiti and street art in Dallas by googling and see what pops up. I could not believe my eyes, a whole wall for graffiti artist to freely portray whatever they want, even with police participation. I think it is really great that Dallas allows this. After watching the new clip from April 2013, I ventured out to find the wall and see what is on there today. I had to watch the video multiple time to get the location of the wall, finding out it is on corner of Fabrication Street and Topeka Street in West Dallas area.

What a GEM! This is a wonderful place! Instead of a wall it's a whole warehouse open to whoever wants to put their spray paint art up onto. Driving in west dallas, I did not know what to expect, I was even nervous. I pulled up to the corner and parked my car. I was nervous because I had no idea what to expect. The outside do the warehouse is filled with work and is gated around an abandon parking lot. There are big holes in the fence to duck through. I imagined I was entering private property and questioned what was I getting myself into.

Behind the fence was more artwork and open garage doors into the warehouse where it was filled with more artwork. Entering the warehouse I was also excited and wondered if I was going to run into an graffiti artist and what that would be like. Do homeless people stay here? How safe is this place?

I went down a dark hallway following the artwork and heard the distant sound of someone using spray paint and decided to follow the sound. I entered a room and then another and turned to find a guy working. I said "hello..." curiously. He turned and looked at me. His face was covered with an bandana. He pulled the bandana down and said hello back. Looking into his welcoming eyes, I could see he was just a normal guy. I introduced myself as an art teacher and told him I was very curious about this place. He asked me if I have work here and if I graffiti.

Taking advantage of encountering a graffiti artist, I decided I was going to pick his brain. I learned that his name is Jose and speaks some English. He was a mid aged Hispanic that currently lived in Dallas. He was dressed in casual clothes and had a prosthetic leg that limited where he could put his artwork. He explained the limitations of his leg for his work and why he was working in the space he choose. He then begin to tell me of his memorial to his friend who had died. I asked him if every work had meaning to him. He told me yes, it was either political or was very personal he explained in other words. Because he could not express himself very easy with his words there was a limitation of our conversation. I translated that he was talking about politics because he talked about his feelings with the government and taking a stand and wanted to do this with his artwork. He then showed me a collection of work that he had done on his phone. I was so intrigued with his experiences and work. He expressed that his work was around the warehouse, but most of it was covered up. I only captured one of his works.

The man in the image is suspose to be a Mexican leader of somesort who stands for the people and more rights. Other of his images of his artwork included a Indian, words with a fist in the middle, another image of a leader. All of these images were made using stencils. I regret to find out more information about those artworks and capturing the images. They were quite impressive. He questioned me on materials, for he was in search for a material to use for smaller detail then what spray paint could offer.

After visiting with Jose, I continued to photograph the warehouse and searched for more artwork that was protraying a message or a statement that was political or personal. Below are some of the images.