Everyday in the world “acts of spontaneous expression” are created. Graffiti artists incite us to stop and take notice of their creativity appearing in unexpected places. For some, the act is a crime and for others an aesthetic object of admiration. For the creators it results out of doing what feels natural or good, combined with an act of defiance — taking risks to leave behind a mark in public places. It may be the earliest public art, harkening even further back to early cave paintings that survived the test of time as the earliest visual recordings of human life on earth.
In this short video, I’m endeavoring to capture the aesthetic appeal of graffiti combined with the impending feeling of being caught and arrested in the act of defacing a public building. Alien faces, tear drops, sweat, grimacing eyes, jeering mouths all appear in vibrant color to say,
“I’m here, I exist and I persist. You might deface me or you might erase me, but I am protected by the extraordinary beauty of my lines, color, shape and grace.”