A SHOP owner is determined to show people across the town that not all graffiti is an eyesore.

And to prove it Jason McCulloch, who owns clothes shop Threads, in the Brunel shopping centre, has had four of the town's graffiti artists adorn all the walls in his shop.

The work took place between 6pm on Sunday and 8am on Monday and the 26-year-old said he was delighted with the result.

"I love it," he said. "Graffiti is an art form and is more up to date for youngsters to look at than a 17th Century painting.

"The colours are much brighter and they look amazing."

Jason wants to defend the graffiti artists who use legal walls and produce elaborate pieces and has condemned the taggers who spray their scrawl across the town.

"People hear the G-word and they think ooh no, that's bad, we can't tolerate that," he said.

"But the actual artists who produce bigger works that take time and consideration are on legal walls, out of the way so people don't see them.

"They just see the stupid scrawls and tags that idiots put on walls and think that graffiti is a bad thing.

"But taggers are just morons with a spray can. It shouldn't be called graffiti because it gives the artists a bad name.

"What they are doing is vandalism and it needs to be stopped.

"The minority is just spoiling it for the majority."

Jason is also running a graffiti competition, encouraging artists under 21 to submit their designs on paper.

After the closing date Jason will choose the top 10 and they will be given a canvas to replicate their design on.

They will then be hung in the shop and customers will get to choose the winner.

"I want to send out a more positive message about graffiti," said Jason.

"No one gets to see the proper pieces and that is why I am running the competition.

"I'm not encouraging the taggers as I don't have WGF sprayed in the shop, what I have is an art piece.

"And, sadly, you will never get rid of tags because teenagers want to destroy things."

But Jason wants to reassure anyone thinking of entering that they will not get into any trouble.

"Some of the youngsters think that it is something to do with the council or police and that they will end up getting into trouble," he said.

"But they won't, I just want to show people across Swindon that not all graffiti is bad."

The closing date for entries is today so anyone interested needs to get their designs in quickly.

Entries should be put on to A3 or A4 paper and submitted to the shop.

The Advertiser has been attempting to tackle anti-social graffiti with its Grass Up Graffiti campaign in association with Swindon Council and the police It has provided a hotline which people in the town can use to report incidences of graffiti tagging.