Courtesy of Eric Felisbret Eric Felisbret.

After an MTA representative went to Eric Felisbret’s school to speak to his class against subway graffiti, his curiosity was immediately sparked. Despite being warned of the consequences of what his school called “vandalism,” Mr. Felisbret began exploring the culture of graffiti writing and dove headfirst into the world of street art. In the mid ‘70s, he tagged local streets and painted subway cars with his pseudonym DEAL, eventually becoming a member of the infamous writing crew known as Crazy Inside Artists. Now as the author of Graffiti NYC and co-founder of the old school graffiti website at149st.com, Mr. Felisbret talks to The Local about how he continues to document the best works of past and present generations.

What is the difference between graffiti and street art?

Graffiti is almost exclusively letter-based, with a focus on signatures, bubble letters, and different letterforms. In street art, if an artist wants to use stickers or wheat pasting for a collage on a wall, they can. It’s a different kind of medium.

What made you want to document he graffiti you saw in your book and on your website?

I really wanted to let the younger generation of graffiti writers and the general public to get a bigger understanding of the history behind the movement. I wanted the public to understand that it’s not just vandalism, but a community of thoughtful organized artists.

How have you seen graffiti and street art change in the last few years?

Graffiti and street art have become industries. Back then, there weren’t really any books on the topic. Now, there are almost whole sections dedicated to it, along with scores of websites and dozens of films. Advertisers for companies like Coke and Nike now also frequently integrates graffiti into their campaign. People in the music industry are hiring grafitti artists to create album covers. It’s been commercialized in a certain sense. It’s also become global, as opposed to mostly New York based, the way it used to be back in the ‘70s and ‘80s.

What has been the role of graffiti in the culture of New York and the East Village?

The East Village has always been, until very recently, a fairly liberal community and it’s also been a community of artists, musicians, politics and things like that. Especially in the early ‘80s, a lot of artists grew from this part of the Village. The whole movement probably wouldn’t have survived in a different community.

Where do you see graffiti going in the future?

I think it’s going to continue on the same path that it’s on. Whether within advertising or within hip hop and rock and roll, I think that graffiti art will become a staple in many different arenas.