Nevertheless, when it comes to your down and dirty graffiti – the scally, the tagger, the gangbanger kind – this is just seen as vandalism, an offence committed by the untalented. But is graffiti only an artform? To many people, it’s not just an artform, but a method to put your stamp on a district, or even two fingers up at society : anti-establishment, anti-social, even anti-art.

Graffiti has forever been a clandestine pursuit, although the results are very much public. The intended audience is often unbeknown. Is it for a rival gang? A message to a single person? To the public at large? Or….perhaps it’s merely gratuitous and out of nothing else to do.

Whatever the causes may be, there seems to be a enduring need to spray graffiti. Some towns have acknowledged that graffiti isn’t a short-term craze, so they’ve designated areas where graffiti is permitted – usually uninhabited areas, but now and then busier areas like temporary boarding surrounding urban construction sites.

Digital cameras and photo editing software such as Photoshop have all of a sudden made it viable to practically produce your own graphics on canvas – not only contributing some creativeness and enjoyment to the task of adorning your walls with canvas art, but saving you some cash in the process.

Nowadays there are a lot of websites that give you the option to add your photo, select your canvas size, and then purchase it. Typically these pictures appear on canvas stretched along using stretcher-bars.

If you have a printshop close to where you live, you can literally walk in with your photo, and walk out 20 minutes later with a canvas photo under your arm of your photograph – it’s that simple.

Any examples of such art? Here are some prints of movie canvas art. If you need inspiration, you can always go to a website selling pictures that are royalty free – then take your purchased photographs to a printshop or canvas printing website and have them reproduced onto canvas.

Still Alive (El Salvador)

Introduction: long overdue is this poem. I lived through the 1980s (the war of El Salvador)) the Reagan years)); also, Vietnam (of which I was part of, in the seventies); and been to Central America twice. Once recently, and on the boarder of El Salvador. Thus, this is dedicated to the voices and echoes of the people of the l980s, and a long, very long war, one that lasted some 12-years; yes, longer than Vietnam.

There was no end to war it seemed
(back then…way back when)
A very long time ago…
So it seems.

The screams of the innocent, echoed:
Around the world, but only few heard;
(back then…way back when)
A very long time ago…
So it seems.

There was no place to hide not in
The mountains, or in the trees, nor
Under the leaves (no place at all
)
(back then…why back when)

A very long time ago…
So it seems.

The innocent lived in the eyes of:

Death, death, death!…
Day after day, after day
(as if there was no end)!..

Yet, somehow, some survived:
Amongst the rubble and insane
And the bloody smoke filled sky!!
(back then…why back when)
A very long time ago…
So it seems.

11/9/05 (written while in Lima)

A Note by Rosa: Here is a poem I never saw coming, but it was about six months ago we were on the boarder of El Salvador, and I know he has been thinking of going there; he couldn’t (Dennis), make it in country last time, and we just got back from Bogota this time, I get the feeling he is thinking about El Salvador again, and going there next time; I think his writtings are rubbing off on me, especially after I read what I wrote, it sounds like him almost.

See Dennis’ web site: http://dennissiluk.tripod.com