Lonely Soul

When I present this image, I usually get a fairly negative feedback. People tell me how their town had been embellished with beautiful, accommodating paintings on public walls. Uninvited graffiti are often related to vandalism in cities and a cause of concern.

I have been collecting images of graffiti in my home town Montreal for years. My objective is to document true creative, temporal expressions. I exercise my own judgement to decipher if I am dealing with a valuable artistic expression. I find it fascinating to see how theses creations are evolving over time.

What I identify as true artistic initiatives, valuable wall art, appearing on walls the same way rust appears on metal.  Graffiti are part of a living urban environment. During my international travel, I attempt to decipher if different cities delivers different inspiration, when it comes to wall art.

The featured image is a unique piece. The drawing and painting is done on a brown paper glued to the brick wall. Height is about 8 feet. I like to remind to my detractors that this creation did not require any public money, no multi-lateral committees, no civic approbation, no financing of any kind. It took a unknown creative mind with the desire to express a feeling to produce this wall art. The drawing was available less than 8 days starting July 20, 2011, and was located at the intersection of Sherbrooke West and Jeanne Mance streets.