Graffiti artist Brian Serfes has big plans for the 90-foot white-brick wall outside the 12 Hour Club on Lisbon Street. He envisions covering at least part of it with a spray-painted cityscape, topped with a scroll asking the question, “What is Pain?” He’ll get started painting it – legally this time – in the next couple of days.

“It’ll be nice to spend some time on a project, like four or five hours, instead of doing a 12-minute design and having to hide from the cops,” Serfes said as Mayor Larry Gilbert, city staffers and police officers dedicated a street-mural graffiti wall Thursday morning.

The space was made available by the 12-Hour Club at 120 Lisbon St. It’s part of an overall effort to clean up graffiti around the city, giving spray-paint artists a place to show their work.

“Graffiti, left uncontrolled, serves as a source of blight in our community,” Gilbert said. “It is expensive to repair and expends valuable police and public works resources. To do nothing allows what has occurred to flourish.”

Part of the deal is an amnesty program for graffiti artists. Serfes, 20, and his friend Noah Sleeper, 15, were the first to sign a pledge with the city. They agreed to perform eight hours of community service and to paint only on the designated wall. In exchange, the city will forgive any graffiti and spray-paint tagging they might have done around town.

Graffiti artists can sign up for amnesty until Sept. 1, according to Deputy City Administrator Phil Nadeau. Anyone who signs up gets the same deal – forgiveness for past graffiti and the right to paint on the 12-Hour Club’s wall, from Lisbon Street to the Park Street Alley.

“But once the amnesty period ends, we will be going after anybody that doesn’t sign up especially hard,” Nadeau said.

First-offense fines will be $500; second offenses will result in a $750 fine and any offenses beyond that will bring a $1,000 fine.

Mayor Gilbert promised the city would catch people who tag illegally.

“When someone witnesses something when they drive by, calling on their cell phone, they will yield results,” Gilbert said. “This is not just a police problem, it’s a community problem and in partnership we can solve it.”

Everyone will be welcome, from muralists to those who simply want to put up their initials. The 12-Hour Club will monitor the wall, and any markings advocating sex, drugs, alcohol or racial or other slurs won’t be tolerated. They’ll be painted over.

Serfes said he’s not expecting any problems from other graffiti artists. He’s not even worried about rival taggers defacing a mural he’s worked on.

“I just hope they wait a couple of days,” Serfes said. “But then, everything’s going to get painted over.”

The city is making white paint available at its public works shops for property owners who want to paint over their own graffiti-covered walls.

[email protected]