© irene waters 2018
“Look Pops. Someone’s painted on the wall. Mum sure would be mad.”
“It’s graffiti Donald.”
“What’s that.”
“Writing or drawing on a wall. We all want to leave a mark. You know. The oldest graffiti, a hand, is in Indonesia. Thousands of years old.”
“Do’ya reckon this’ll be here in thousands of years.”
“Not a hope and if it was done by Banksey he’s probably organised for it to self-destruct. You know though Donald, stuff going back even a few years gives a snapshot of ordinary people’s lives and what they care about.”
“So Pops, graffiti is pop culture.”
© irene waters 2018
When Charli gave us her prompt this week where she asked:
December 6, 2018, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story about graffiti. It can be an artist, art or the medium itself. Get out your can of spray paint and go where the prompt leads you.
Respond by December 11, 2018. Use the comment section below to share, read and be social. You may leave a link, pingback or story in the comments. If you want to be published in the weekly collection, please use the form. Rules & Guidelines.
many things came to mind. We had just come back from Egypt and there was graffiti there that had been done by tourists over 2000 years ago. Was that the oldest. It made me look and I found that a hand with forearm was the oldest possibly 10,000years old drawn on a cave wall. Some of the graffiti in Egypt was simply an I was here statement. Others said what they liked and had responses to their comment. An antiquated trip advisor. As a child growing up the only graffiti I saw was on the back of the toilet door. An older version of facebook. Graffiti as art is a modern phenomenon but most won’t survive in time. It really is pop culture with the art reflecting the position of those that otherwise would not have a voice. Banksey probably made the best statement about graffiti recently when his art sold for i.4 million pounds and on the drop of the hammer it self destructed. Literally going, going, gone.
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
I enjoyed your flash. You are so right, that prompt sure could lead off in many directions. I thought of cave paintings and other “I was here” statements from long ago people. (I even thought of yellow snow art; I’ve seen it but don’t have the equipment to execute the form properly.)
Your flash put me in mind of a post from Geoff on the art of dissent. Have you read this? https://geofflepard.com/2018/10/06/i-object/
Hope you are enjoying that box of books. Moreover I hope that box needs replenishing often.
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I’ve not seen the yellow snow art so I’ll have to look it up. Thanks also for pointing me in Geoff’s direction. It looks like it was a great exhibition and Banksey can steal any show.
Replenishing happened so am happy.
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Uh, don’t look up yellow snow art. Not sure it’s a thing. But males can be a bit creative whilst pissing on that snowy canvas wintertime.
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Haha. You can see we don’t have snow although we do have a saying that your eyes are like piss holes in the snow.
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And how cool replenishing already. Woohoo!
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Great prompt response. The ending was very cute.
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Thank you. Glad the ending worked for you.
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Nice perspective on the art form!
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Thanks Liz.
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A great story that tells so much in few words.
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Thanks Sharon.
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A great response to the prompt, Irene.
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Thanks Robbie
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Pop culture of the time — I like that perspective. But I will from this post on forever think of Facebook as toilet stall graffiti, lol! Makes sense, Irene.
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Haha. Sadly it does make sense but the audience is much larger.
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Lots of use, that toilet stall! 😀
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