Graffiti artist visits East Side Elementary

WORLAND – The students at East Side Elementary School in Worland learned about legal graffiti art from graffiti artist Jackson Hendrickson Wednesday afternoon.

Hendrickson explained to the students that there is a legal form of graffiti art and an illegal form. "Graffiti art without permission is vandalism. Vandalism will cause you to go to jail, get a ticket and become a criminal and not be able to get jobs later in life," Hendrickson said. If you want to practice on a building use mud, that way your parents can just wash it off, Hendrickson added.

The school had two large wooden boards attached to the fence for Hendrickson's performance and the finished products will be displayed in the Media Center Hall of the school. One of the finished products was of a whale and fish swimming together with the words, "Be a friend not a bully." As Hendrickson was painting the whale one kindergarten girl walked up to her teacher and said, "It's a friendly whale because it wants to play." A third - grade boy added, "It's a girl whale because of the eye lashes."

Hendrickson feels that art is an important part of childhood development, which is why he started doing the graffiti art program, as most schools have stopped art classes for elementary students. Kindergarten through fifth grade, that's the age when the imagination is created, and without art the imagination doesn't get a chance to grow, Hendrickson stated.

"There are six or seven legal graffiti art pictures placed in town. My hope is that the kids will spend time outside looking for them instead of on their electronic devices," Hendrickson said. When they get back from looking for the pictures, "I would like to see them in a sketch pad instead of an iPad," he added.

Hendrickson who now lives in Tennessee, grew up in Worland and made a special trip home to do this performance at the special request of an old friend.