American graffiti: Artist creates murals in So. Tier, one wall at a time

BOLIVAR — He started as a graffiti artist painting on train cars and buildings in Buffalo. Today he has a growing business creating murals across the Southern Tier. Vincent “AJ” Alejandro most recently created a historical mural depicting a Main Street scene from the late 1800s in Bolivar. The mural is on the wall of the Community Bank on Main Street in view of the village’s newest park. BRAG, the Bolivar, Richburg, Allentown and Genesee Historical Society, sponsored the mural to help celebrate Bolivar’s bicentennial coming up in 2025. Muralist Vincent “AJ” Alejandro got his inspiration from graffiti artists, and Norman Rockwell and Thomas Kincaid. Provided While he got his start in graffiti as a kid, Alejandro studied art at the Performing Arts high school in Buffalo, where he grew up. He set aside his spray paint cans after high school and joined the U.S. Army. There he became a mechanic. After basic training he was stationed in Germany and there his artistic skills bloomed. “They have these public parks in Germany where you can paint on the buildings and I started doing that,” he said. He and his wife were living in Joplin, Mo. in 2011 when an F5...