GRAFFITI LOVE IN...

“Introduce a little anarchy.  Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos.  I’m an agent of chaos.  Oh and you know the thing about chaos?  It’s fair.” – The Joker

Melbourne.  Now this was a city I was looking forward to!  I noticed Aussies have a thing about asking visitors or voicing their own opinion as to which is better, Sydney or Melbourne.  Sydney is supposed to be big city, posh… sparkly, shiny, and new with nice beaches and parks.  Melbourne is supposed to be the smaller, more eclectic city.   Well, both are true.  As much as I enjoyed the little bit of Sydney that I was able to see, it felt... dare I say, too much of an American city to me.  Like I mentioned, it felt like Boston and San Francisco rolled into one.  In Melbourne, I spent even less days there than Sydney, but because the city itself is smaller and walkable, it felt like I was wandering through a curious and intricate maze – I never knew what was around the next corner, and I liked that.  I connect with the grit that Melbourne possesses.  Sydney is perfect but I prefer the beautifully flawed.  Melbourne is a whole dynamic of so many things packed in a small space.  It’s traditional architecture meets artistic grit.  It’s dark mazes of shops, bars, and restaurants meets a big promenade of high-end department stores with $7 slices of pizza.  It’s city-supported alleys filled with graffiti meets sterile, chic art galleries.  It’s east meets west. It’s a whole… thing.  I think what I’m trying to say is that it has it’s own thing going on and it has it’s own identity that belongs solely to itself.

One of my favorite things about Melbourne is that it encourages kids to practice their art – mainly graffiti, by allowing them to spray paint alleyways, sort of like a continually evolving gallery.  I love graffiti art!  I don’t like tagging, but I do like graffiti art especially when there is some sort of message to be learned from it and at the very least something to ponder over.  Kids of all ages were in the alleys and would spend several hours in the afternoon working out their sketches and then painting it out.  There's some impressive, awesome work out there!  Though I gotta admit, my favorite is Heath Leger’s ‘Joker’ artwork which has not been painted over.  I like to think it’s out of respect for great art, a great character, and homage to the artist that is no longer with us.   RIP Heath.  

If there is one place in Australia that I would have liked to have spent more time to explore it would be Melbourne because of it's eclectic people, cool art scene, amazing food, and plethora of craft beers.  There were just too many nooks and crannies to get to in such a short period of time and I would love to continue exploring all the alleys to see new works of art going up.  Perhaps one day I will make it back to Australia... until then, I have the rest of the world to continue exploring!