Art, Vandalism, & Advertising

To me the word graffiti is a lot like the word pornography- it connotes a value judgement by the speaker. I certainly don't see any point in repression or prosecution of spray-paint artists if the end results serves to make their cities more unique and visually interesting. There is certainly plenty of unique, meaningful and even beautiful street art out there that gets a negative rap because of the ubiquitous tagging in some places (while some tags are what I would call art, most are the human equivalent of a dog pissing on a fire hydrant: pure territorial marking). Then again, I regard most billboard advertising as visual pollution (I make some exceptions for especially amusing, attractive, or subversively altered ones)...

So I have mixed feelings about this story (via Neatorama) about a guy who makes graffiti by selectively cleaning the built-up dirt and grime off of his works. On the one hand, he has the authorities utterly confused about whether they can prosecute him for cleaning. Good for him. On the other hand, he seems to be more of a commercial artist/advertiser than a true beautifier of his urban landscape.

I guess it really all is in the eye of the beholder. Where should society draw the line, if at all?