Can you paint with all the colours of the wind?
No, we don’t mean the Vanessa Williams song from the Disney movie Pocahontas. Sometimes you really do need to see colour in your life in the most unusual of places – or to put it another way, in everyday spaces where you won’t usually go looking for art. Enter graffiti art followed by its younger brother street art.
Imagine waking up late for work, spilling your coffee on your best work shirt, finding your breakfast cereal has finished with not a crumb in sight, and then missing the bus/sub to your office. You’re walking with bag or briefcase in hand thinking where did you go wrong? Why has life dealt you this way? When suddenly, out of nowhere, you see this bright wall covered with colourful text or smeared with paint to form the shape of a famous celebrity. And before you know it, you’ve stopped to look at the said art more closely! What is that thing, you wonder. And then you find a small signature of sorts, of the artist, something like Momo, or Clandestine, or Swoon. You go away with a smile on your face, decide you’d been craving for Starbucks anyway, your coffee-spilled-shirt had lived up to its day, and magically still making to your office in time, you are pleasantly surprised to find a cheese bagel on your desk from your co-worker in the other cubicle who suddenly didn’t feel like having his second one, and all is right with the world again…
But throughout the day you cannot stop thinking about what you saw on the wall in the morning. Don’t worry. This kind of art has that impact on most of us. So what is so unique about it anyway? Well, consider this. Most people don’t find time to go to art galleries consumed by their work or life as they are. Aside from the fact that graffiti or street is illegal and the likes of it can’t usually be found in art galleries, they are without a doubt unique works of art, more edgy, more urbane, more like the feel and soul of the city – and therefore really very interesting. And it definitely takes guts to go about decorating the public spaces trying not to get caught. So kudos to the happy people making our lives more colourful for all to see!
With their cans of spray paints, brushes, stencils and colours, all the hues of the rainbow and more are used to their full advantage by these enterprising fellows. It is interesting to note that graffiti and street art is relatively new, with street art only emerging a decade ago. Be prepared to experience the city’s living, breathing soul as you witness the new slang, the bold, the beautiful and the ugly, the abstract and the crude, the dangerous and the stunning, adorning the cities’ streets near you!
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