…Back to the Future …
Graffiti used to annoy me “big time”! Across the country, around the world, it seemed – to me – that everywhere I looked, some “ones” had left their marks – on buildings, freight trains, bridge underpasses, the sidewalk, etc. Occasionally, on my walks I still see evidence of these snippets of someone’s art and feelings…but I’ve “grown accustomed to their face“…or perhaps inured …
I remember one day I was with my mother; perhaps we were on the Metro train platform. All around, on buildings and billboards – graffiti. I started to rant, rave…My mother, being my mother – calm, mature, very prescient – said to me: “Remember the cave man!”
Mais Oui! But of course! Stopping me in my rant. Giving me a new, different perspective, something to contemplate …and to remember.
Perhaps you’re wondering whatever occasioned this particular memory. Not a recent wave of fresh graffiti… Nope, t’is the fact that I’ve spent the past several days dealing with my own “graffiti” – random notes that I write on any and all available pieces of paper within my hands’ reach. I am sitting at my computer or reading a book or on a zoom call (I spend a lot of time on zoom) or making out the day’s/week’s “to do list”or reading a blog post, or, or, or… Suddenly, a thought “I’m to do/go/remember this” invades my mind. I reach for pen and paper and wind up with another errant item on my agenda. It all becomes – my own personal “graffiti”.
Perhaps too the plight of the graffiti artist/author… or just that of my disorganized and overwhelmed mind.
Not to be continued – hopefully!
Morning Glory Studio 
I know Facebook is not for everyone – but I’ve found some wonderful spaces. I especially prize my needlepoint and quilt groups. I also keep in contact with so many former students… but I digress – that’s a whole other conversation! One of the blog writers I follow is also the administrator of a page on public art. I love the things that pop up on there – mostly US but also international. It has given me a whole other perspective on graffiti as an art form. I loved your mom’s response about cavemen!! Good thought!
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Love this!
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Your mother was so wise! I never would have connected cavemen and graffiti artists, but she’s absolutely right — humans have always felt a need to decorate!
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I am working on shifting my perspective about some of my habits and opinions. And I am falling in love with sticky notes all over again.
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Cavemen & StickyNotes, love this connection! Embrace the Chaos! ❤
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Your mother sounds like a wonderful woman. Thank you for sharing this memory. Cave men and graffiti, I’d never had made that connection. I transfer notes from pieces of paper into little books (about books, knitting, writing) and then forget to look in the little books. It’s just how my mind works.
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What a wise woman, your mother! How fortunate for a child to have such a teacher. And what a clever connection you make here.
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You know, I hope it IS continued! I covered the blank wall opposite my desk with post-it notes last summer … I wrote the title of every book I wanted to read on one square – and I LOVED looking at it. I’m staring at that blank wall again and wondering what I could put there?! thinking of it as my “summer graffiti” makes me smile!
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