Helping Out People Everywhere. That is HOPE Outdoor Gallery in Austin, Texas, where I stand today. A place amidst weird Austin, that is all other than weird but rather an encompassing and nurturing place. Nurturing the creative minds of the city. A place and non-profit of expanding artistic minds of all ages, embracing its local artistry for a greater purpose.
An outdoor gallery that embodies expression through graffiti art. A place of unison, evolution and unwavering crafting of identity. Its walls whisper words of respect, and a decent breeze of you and I floats through the streets.
Yet, HOPE Outdoor Gallery is much more than ‘simply’ a place of artistic expression. Through a message, HOPE Outdoor Gallery was founded in 2006 by Victor Ayad alongside Shepard Fairey.
The message: to raise awareness about the 2006 crisis in Darfur, Sudan, through art and graffiti.
HOPE Outdoor Gallery states,
‘We believe when we collaborate around art, we transform our world.
And so, since 2006, HOPE Outdoor Gallery has evolved, led by this very belief. Nothing other I see before my eyes. An unmatched place.
My Art, My Message
Behind the many distinct art pieces, such as little fat Garfield, vigilant and realistic eyes, love declarations, jaunty comic figures, strokes uncovering calligraphic styles and beauteous fuses of colours to the simplicity of one coloured graffities, lies a greater meaning.
A community, a movement, a place of aspiration and education, flourishing confidence and artistic know-how for the young and older artists of the city.
HOPE Outdoor Gallery evolves yearly, becoming a more empowering movement as each year passes. New collaborations, partners and movements have taken place. HOPE Outdoor Gallery has moved its presence from its many interconnected and layered walls I stand before to bringing the artistic world into classrooms and onto other walls in the city.
Events and workshops are to be hosted at the HOPE Outdoor Gallery, along with day camps and field trips. Focusing always on the creative minds that we behold, not just in graffiti or murals but also in music, screen printing, art and much more. Crafting entrepreneurial minds fused with talent and skill.
The Lessons I Learned
This is my third day at the gallery. To the one with an observant eye, you see that although all seems to be the same, everything is different. Murals and graffities that were here yesterday have vanished. I love you turns into I love tacos and what was once an alien is now an angel with wings.
This teaches me three things:
- Nothing in life is permanent and does not necessarily persevere until tomorrow or even later. Therefore, every moment we live is unreplaceable. Simply an instant. Also, unattached attachment and love as the artist draw with heart and soul, crafting something that they know won’t be there a few hours or days later.
- Secondly, as I watch the compassion before my eyes, I become aware that whatever you craft in life, it is not the result that one seeks to achieve but the journey, magic and growth lived in the pathway of its creation.
- Thirdly, art is a human connector. Through its manifestation, we fuse remarkably potent visions and messages each of us beholds. A silent connector to an empowering world. One lives in what humanity seeks: UNITY.
So it is that the HOPE Outdoor Gallery shines its light onto earth and its citizens, having taken that which is seen as vandalism in many parts of this world and crafted it into a messenger of human potential, unity and community.
Now, if you’d excuse me, the spray paint awaits my creative implementation.
Let’s give it a try!