Graffiti has been around since the dawn of time when ancient civilizations painted stories depicting hunting trips and conquering tribes on cave walls. In the early 1900s, graffiti turned into a means of free expression and voice.

In the 21st century, many graffiti artists have turned to producing commissioned art pieces like murals that expand over entire buildings and decorate the city, like in Ogden.

Graffiti as an art form is worth exploring, and throughout Ogden there are many great spots to discover. Most of the colorful pieces that showcase elaborate skills are commissioned to bring a sense of life to the city. But around every corner, you see areas where artists have illegally tagged sides of buildings or monuments, with words like “mad man” and other sorts of symbols.

Being raised in a household where art was encouraged and a constant thing, since my mom is an art teacher and a skilled artist, I have learned to see the beauty in the most awkward forms of art. Graffiti is one of these unusual types. I see it as an expression of self, though I do believe that tagging a public area without permission is not a good thing.

One thing that is more common now, though, is the idea of commissioned graffiti, and I think it is a great thing. Commissioned street art is an opportunity for unlikely artists to get paid doing the thing they love.

Some professional taggers question the credibility of the art form in commission. Because doesn’t getting paid for something once thought of as against social norms corrupt its original integrity? If only I could ask artists like Banksy, an unknown English artist, what his opinion on this topic is.