ANCHORAGE (Your Alaska Link) – More and more graffiti has been popping up in the downtown area. One spot that seems to be popular for graffiti artists is the Fur Rondy headquarters and the surrounding businesses.
“It’s embarrassing. I mean, I take pride in our state. I take pride in Alaska and Fur Rendezvous and that’s not the image that we want to portray,” Laurie Smith, a retail manager, said.
Smith is hoping that something is done about it.
“What I would like is to see people stand up for what’s right and stop it from happening,” Smith said.
Despite all the graffiti, one man has decided to take it upon himself to change all that for the better. Richard Ziegler, or more known as Ziggy, is a muralist in Anchorage and recently responsible for the artwork that’s popped up in Town Square. He helped clean up some of the graffiti that was in the area.
“When somebody does that, you’re uglying that. You know, it was beautiful before you touched it and then you, you know, put nasty words out or put gang words on,” Ziegler said.
The artwork that he’s been working on in Town Squares is also in response to the graffiti that was put there before. He hopes it’ll give the community something to protect.
“This is given to the community. It becomes every one of these people to hang out here because their art now,” Ziegler said.
And while in the middle of our interview, someone shared their appreciation for his work.
“I brightened that person’s life up. That means more than you can ever imagine,” Ziegler said.
Ziegler plans to continue to patrol the streets and clean up any graffiti he encounters.
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