Can't white wash this

Senior Andres Beriguete recalls the night when he crept through Washington, D.C., two years ago, markers, pens and spray cans in hand. Finding a vacant building wall, he quietly began to sketch furiously, sharp curves and sleek lines intertwining into intricate designs. Once he finished, he stood and admired his illustration—skillfully drawn graffiti, vandalism, yet his art.

Beriguete's days of vandalism didn't last very long. Beriguete has been doing graffiti since he was 12, after becoming friends with known graffiti artists at Theodore Roosevelt High School in D.C. After experiencing trouble with the police several times, Beriguete had resolved to keep his art only on paper.

Beriguete's first chance at legal graffiti came when his old school principal, Gary Phillips, suggested that he and his friends create a school mural. For Beriguete, however, the project was cut short when he switched to Blair.

Beriguete's fervor for graffiti could not be repressed, however, and he turned to sketching. His sketching categorizes him as a "bookworm," one of the two types of graffiti artists, according to Beriguete. While some artists showcase their drawings on walls, bookworms only sketch in a book or journal. "Since I couldn't do it on walls, I became mostly bookworm," he says, showing the cluster of penned-out words in his binder, where swirls of color, dashes of ink and thick blocks of letter mesh together to form the word CENT, Beriguete's tag name. Soon, Beriguete became known for his sketching by his fellow Blair classmates. "This girl came up to me during class when I was sketching," he remembers, "and asked me if I would draw up a sign for the school store."

Although a passionate and proud artist, Beriguete claims he was not quick to tell fellow Blazers about his hobby. "It really disturbs some people. They automatically think it's vandalism, but this is my way of expressing myself." Beriguete also hesitates to tell people because he is afraid the blame for future graffiti will be put on him. "I've seen some graffiti at Blair, and I've been scared people were going to think I did it," he says. "But I've never done it at Blair. Plus, the graffiti I've seen here wasn't even that good."

At home, Beriguete uses his talent to make gifts for his parents on birthdays, creating cards and artwork for holidays, and as a way to bond with his siblings. "I always want my sister to judge [my work]," he says.
His sister, Anleny, a Blair junior, seems pleased to influence her brother's art. "We all know he's really talented. What he does is really original here."

Although his skill may be original, Beriguete says he incorporates other arts into his graffiti. In his Drawing and Design class this year, for instance, Beriguete claims he took several ideas from the class and put them into perspective for his graffiti. "This is what I do," says Beriguete. "It's a real art too."