We see (and hear, and feel) a lot of what many might call ‘ugliness’ and acting out these days. While that’s far from a new phenomenon, there are also spikes, or “Monstah Muck Waves,” of it.
Here’s an interesting way to consider such things, or at least some of them. In a beautiful and poetic musing, David Master writes,
“In neglect, there is great beauty. Here, with delicate intricacy and a touch of randomness, the Great Creator has left her mark. Likewise has a mortal – but no lesser – creator left his mark.
The graffiti is on a lamppost. Lampposts bring light to dark city streets. Does this make them sacred?
According to Thomas Moore, sacred spaces are a favourite target for graffiti artists and vandals.
For Moore, this vandalism draws attention to the sacred, which is often maligned, rejected, or ignored in contemporary culture. Moore writes:
“In a symptomatic way vandalism — which favors schools, cemeteries, and churches — paradoxically draws attention to the sacredness of things. Frequently when we have lost a sense of the sacred, it reappears in a negative form. The work of dark angels is not altogether different from those who wear white. Here, then, is another way to interpret the abuse of things – as an underworld attempt to reestablish their sacredness.”
~ David Masters, in “Wandering the Roadsides in Search of Untold Beauty.”
When I came across David’s musing quite awhile ago, I found his perspective insightful — how some look to find meaning, and reveal an almost desperate quest to restore their connection with beauty and a sense of sacredness, through acts of vandalism.
This, of course, doesn’t excuse acts of vandalism, but simply looks to find the underlying meaning — that must be found before it can be healed.
Thomas Moore’s insight is Muse-worthy:
“Frequently when we have lost a sense of the sacred, it reappears in negative form … Here, then, is another way to interpret the abuse of things – as an underworld attempt to reestablish their sacredness.”
We could easily consider this interpretation when we see all of the acting out in other ‘unconscious Shadow’ behaviors, too — as an ‘acting out’ that’s rooted in a disconnection from the wellspring of sacredness (or a shattered sense of meaning and real value and worth).
I shared a similar perspective on the neglect of places in this Sophia’s Children post: “Abandoned,” pointing to sister-blogger Andrea’s wonderful musing and photos on finding beauty and meaning in neglected and abandoned places.
What gets expressed — when we see vandalism and neglect around us — is a visual clue to what’s neglected and abandoned within us (and, we can say, within the “collective”).
If we are to heal and transform the former, we must heal what’s been abandoned and defaced within us.
Healing Artistry
Then again, there are also healing “acts of artistry,” where graffiti (or other efforts) actually do aim to restore some beauty — as well as make a statement — in areas of neglect, abandonment, blight, de-souling, and “industrial-culture vandalism.”
This can be literal art, things like cultivating gardens in neglected neighborhoods, or other artistic expressions akin to The Beauty Way of Relating, where we tend, honor, and express Sacred Relationship within and around us.
Your sense?
How might we amplify and increase our own “acts of healing artistry” — literally and metaphorically? What is your unique “healing artistry?”
Big Love,
* Learn more about the Quesada Gardens Project here, and find the Christian Science Monitor article about the project here.
June 5, 2017 at 8:01 pm
We see graffiti on the trains that pass by here, too, and find it oddly comforting on all those cars of high fructose corn syrup and who knows what else. When I first started cultivating the gardens here, people would throw things into the yard — grills, cigarette butts (on wood mulch, thanks), trash, almost like trying to repress the yard back to its surroundings. But the yard won out. Now the surroundings have landscaping and repaired roofs. There’s something about the creative process with any kind of vandalism or art — a kind of marking of territory. Which do we choose, and how much energy do we put into what we create?
Thanks for the musing, and I love your new picture!
June 6, 2017 at 2:15 pm
Thank you for sharing that, Laura – such a great example. I appreciate the graffiti on passing train cars as well – some of it is really colorful and beautiful! And some is more like the ‘tagging’, which really is like tree-peeing in a way. The same with people tossing the cig butts, trash, etc. into an area that’s being ‘greened’ to pick up the visual beauty and vibration in an area of neglect and blight. I was talking awhile ago with two urban artists here as they were looking at a new bridge foundation that had been tagged/marked and how ‘random acts of artful beauty’ might change it. This was the same neglected neighborhood where people are trying to plant beauty by way of community gardens, ‘random acts of artistry’, etc., while the local officials spray gallons of pesticide on the wild plants growing along the river banks (!) and cut down many beautiful trees growing along the riverwalk so that it exposed the back of McD’s, an auto-junk yard, etc. Nice. Even so, the spirit of those ‘random acts of beauty and greening’ are courageous and heartful! May more and more appear through us. 🙂 (Thanks, too, for the kind words about the new pic … it was time). xoxo and lots of love. J
June 9, 2017 at 4:34 pm
Interesting. While a lot of the graffiti out there is aesthetically offensive, it can be a form of art, especially as socio-political criticism. I have a great art book about graffiti that was on the Berlin Wall. Here’s my review of it if you are interested.
https://stuffjeffreads.wordpress.com/2013/11/05/the-writings-on-the-wall-peace-at-the-berlin-wall-by-terry-tillman/