PHOTOS: Street Art in San Clemente

It's called street art by some and pure criminal vandalism by others. But there is no question that graffiti has become a big force in popular culture.

Perhaps because of its connection to the surf and action-sports industries, San Clemente seems to have a disproportionate number of graffiti practitioners (which I figure is the most neutral term).

San Clemente Patch has been documenting some of this street art off and on since the site went live in December of last year. During the past week, I found that Darin McClure—a San Clemente resident whom I met over Twitter in his role as an outspoken critic of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station—has also been collecting photos of street art around town.

He generously agreed to share his photo gallery with San Clemente Patch, and combined with the photos I've taken, we have a slide show posted here with almost two dozen photos.

The graffiti posted here is done in a variety of media—from straight spray-paint to stencils to printed paper paste-up images. There is even one practitioner who uses some kind of process to print on tin sheets that he or she then posts to telephone poles.

There are a couple images I wanted to post here but did not have the opportunity. There is one graffiti practitioner who uses a paste-up method to post skulls wearing bandannas over their faces and large Native American headdresses. The couple I've seen in town were removed before I could shoot them.

Another odd graffiti method involves knitting—I've read about a woman in Texas who has knitted sweaters around whole city buses overnight. The only knit graffiti I've seen in San Clemente, however, was a kind of stocking knitted around a light pole outside Knuckleheads Bar in North Beach.

That was removed during infrastructure improvements to the area during the spring.

For home and business owners who want graffiti removed in San Clemente, you can call the graffiti hotline at 949-361-8385.

Residents can also report nuisance graffiti using the city's online, anonymous reporting form.

Have you snapped photos of any graffiti around town? Please upload them to this slide show.