If you think graffiti is vandalism but not art, Aerosol Warfare Gallery and CKC StArt Street and Urban Arts just might change your mind. If you're an artist trying to make the transition, as their websites put it, from train boxcars to art galleries, these East Downtown institutions just might be your new home.

If you haven't made your way over to EaDo, now might be a good time to start. Aerosol Warfare kicked off its newest quarterly show, "American Woman," with an opening reception over the weekend, raising awareness of domestic violence and funds for Houston Area Women's Center. The "American Woman" show runs through May 24.

Curated by Dirk Strangely, the show features eight artists from Houston and beyond, including Strangely and Aerosol Warfare founder GONZO247, all creating work as "an ode to American women" and in response to the horror of domestic violence. "It's still too easy to sweep under the rug," GONZO247 remarks.

Founded in 2004, Aerosol Warfare Gallery can take credit not only as the only full-time graffiti arts gallery in town but for mentoring local graffiti artists, creating an art-friendly space for Houston's youth, and bringing Shepard Fairey and other nationally known graffiti artists to town. "We like to be the springboard," GONZO247 says. "We're hoping to be the catalyst."

This often has meant financially supporting the for-profit gallery himself. When I asked about the gallery's funding, GONZO247 pulled out an empty pocket and smiled.

But being a community leader and catalyst also means allowing graffiti artists loose in the gallery to create their special brand of controlled chaos. Having recently pulled down some walls to make more display space, GONZO247 smiled again.

"I'm a destructive kind of guy," he says. "And if people know what to expect, we're not doing our job." Destructive but creative too: GONZO247 takes credit for naming EaDo.

"New York has SoHo," he says, "so when we moved into this area we said, 'Let's call it EaDo.' " The East Downtown Management District came later and agreed. EaDo stuck.

GONZO247 works closely with Carolyn Casey, founder of CKC StArt. Casey started the group to promote street and urban arts as positive and creative forces in Houston's development.

Casey works hard to help people distinguish art from vandalism. Her organization maintains a library at Aerosol Warfare, sponsors graffiti and mural classes, provides educational outreach to local elementary, secondary and post-secondary students, and hosts METAPHOR, a monthly poetry slam and spoken word night for Houston youth.

"American Woman" is a series of love songs to women — mothers, sisters and lovers. All the artists involved are men, which represents larger trends in an art form that began on the streets. "It's an extreme sport," GONZO247 says of graffiti. "You've got to climb over fences and jump off of buildings."

Like other extreme sports, women's participation has lagged but is growing as evident in the art book Graffiti Women, edited by GONZO247's colleague and friend Nicholas Ganz. As with the pioneers of other extreme sports, "these women rock," Casey says.

Keep an eye out for a Graffiti Gala in October too. You might even see more of GONZO247's art. Having let his own career take a back seat to developing the gallery, "it's time to get back to work."

But for GONZO247, community development and mentorship are long traditions stretching back to graffiti arts' origins in the street.

"Some old school cat teaches you the ropes and the art lives on," he says. It's very Karate Kid. Paint the fence — literally!"