Graffiti a growing problem in national parks

JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. – Andre Saraiva is an internationally known graffiti artist. He owns nightclubs in Paris and New York, works as a top editor of the men’s fashion magazine L’Officiel Hommes and has appeared in countless glossy magazines as a tastemaker and bon vivant.

Two months ago he showed up on the decidedly un-fashionista website Modern Hiker, along with a photo of a boulder he tagged in Joshua Tree National Park. Since then, Saraiva, who lives in France and is known by his fans as Mr. Andre and Mr. A., has been scorned by American nature lovers and thrust into a highly charged debate.

Saraiva is of a new generation of graffiti artists who regard nature – not just the built environment – as their canvas. They tag national parks, then post photos of their work on the Internet.

Those acts infuriate outdoor enthusiasts, many of whom are otherwise fans of graffiti art.

“This is a very complex issue,” said Casey Schreiner, editor of Modern Hiker. “How different is graffiti in national parks than street art? If street art is OK, is this OK? Is there a correlation?”

Schreiner said his readers “think it’s a problem because graffiti begets graffiti and they’re seeing it in places they’ve never seen it before. National parks are special places for most Americans. Seeing them marked up is like getting punched in the gut.”

Federal officials say graffiti is surging in some parks, even as it has been declining in most others. Hardest hit are those near population centers, such as Golden Gate National Recreation Area in the San Francisco Bay Area and Joshua Tree, which is a two-hour drive from Los Angeles and near Coachella Valley communities.

In Joshua Tree alone, graffiti artists vandalized the popular Rattlesnake Canyon in 2013, requiring an extensive cleanup; workers just finished removing etchings from the face of Barker Dam, and in February, someone painted a large, bright blue giraffe on a boulder in 49 Palms Oasis.

About the same time, someone painted a menacing 8-foot-by-12-foot image of a skull on the wall of a historical structure in a nearby area known as the Wonderland of Rocks.

“That makes me sick,” backpacker Steve Axthelm, 53, of Portland, muttered on a recent weekday as he surveyed the image.

Humans have been leaving marks in nature since prehistoric tribes put silhouette handprints on cave walls. Sourdoughs chipped their names into rocks during the California Gold Rush of 1848.

These days, public tolerance for tagging private property is spreading in cyberspace. Google recently launched a website touting street art around the world.

But graffiti artists tagging national parks are catering to a more irreverent online audience.

“Playing devil’s advocate: If provoking outrage is not part of your intention as a graffiti artist, why do it?” Jeremy Cross, an artist and curator at the Night Gallery in Santa Ana, said with a impish grin.

“In the modern art climate, throwing graffiti up on a downtown wall is passe,” Cross said. “Tagging a national park ups the ante. Of course, you’re setting yourself up for a public stigma – and not a good one.”

Images posted by an artist federal authorities suspect is responsible for graffiti in eight national parks, including Joshua Tree, prompted an online petition at whitehouse.com urging the Obama administration to take action.

The artist is believed to be Casey Nocket, 22, of New York, said Jeffrey G. Olson, a spokesman for the National Park Service. Evidence collected so far includes selfies of a young woman painting colorful faces in profile on rocks and boulders on ridgelines with panoramic views.

The snapshots, signed with the phrase “Creepytings 2014,” were posted on California hiking websites Calipidder and Modern Hiker.

Nocket could not be reached for comment.

Park officials are trying to fight back with hidden video cameras and “a new computer database that enables us to compare graffiti here with images popping up elsewhere such as Zion National Park,” said Joshua Tree park Supt. David Smith. A year ago, the park service resolved a case against three juveniles after an online investigation of works they posted on Twitter and Instagram.