Just before xmas 2012, I saw this graffiti. I was so touched by it that I wrote about it and telephoned my local paper. They photographed it and I emailed in my story.
As we approach xmas again, I wanted to reflect back on it and the messages in it.
After walking through Queen’s Park I decided to walk under the tunnel that connects the park to the walkway to the Leisure Centre.
As I approached the tunnel I could see lots of pictures and paintings, this was nothing unusual as the tunnel has always got some form of graffiti on it.
Today, However, was very different, you see the artist that had painted these pictures had a very clear message for anyone who happened to walk along there and had called it “The People’s Gallery”
The pictures were representing real life, and not the happy ever after kind of life that we all read in fairy tales, but the kind of life where sometimes people go through so much pain and suffering. This could be because they have lost a loved one, performed an act that got them into trouble, but still haunts them , or generally feeling alone and isolated and feel fear and believe no one is looking out for them.
There was however, some glimmer of hope in these pictures and that is that there were a number of hands stretched out, and almost as if they were cradling a person. This led me to believe when looking at them that although we all sometimes feel alone , there is always someone looking out for us and helping to guide us on our way. Even if we are not aware of it.
I just felt that after seeing this and because it is Christmas and this is the time of year some people feel very alone, that I would share what I saw with you all.
There is no name on the walls, so the identity of the artist is unknown, but perhaps that was the way it was meant to be. By drawing these pictures the artist hoped that someone like me would come along and share their vision with you through my writing.
To this day I do not know who drew these pictures. They continue to stay close to my heart and the newspaper cutting, I carry around with me.
So although we may think of graffiti as vandalising property or walls, we can look at it in another way, that someone is trying to tell us something and this is the only way they know how.
So next time you see a piece of art on a wall, take a second look and see if you can see any messages in it just like me.
