It’s everywhere – trickling down the streets of Melbourne, filling up every website, colouring your house, your room, your notepad. Art is unavoidable. It’s almost everywhere you look; the potential for an artwork seeps through every single shape and shade that you can see. Could you even imagine the world without art? No photographs or paintings, no patterns and colour lighting up the plain walls of your home, no bright vibrant websites or newspapers or magazines – the world would be an unexciting void, lacking imagination and talent.
Art is so much more that a canvas that hangs on a wall in an empty gallery; that canvas holds a story that needs no words. It’s a way of expression without the need for fancy phrases or dictionaries. A simple piece of art can hold a thousand meanings and stories – after all, a picture says a thousand words, so they say.
The way someone views a piece of art can say a lot about their personality. In psychology, this theory even came into play when they used ink blots to get an idea of personality traits, emotions, ideas, and thoughts. Although it’s not used so much now, the technique 
shows that the way someone looks and interprets a simple shape or shade of colour, can give a lot of insight into who they are.
We all have a unique way of taking things in, and I personally think that’s what makes art so interesting; the artist can provide a story, and yet we can change it with our imaginations. We can morph the unwritten words into things only we can imagine, and apply it to something that we didn’t even create – art is rather intriguing if you think about it.
I recently saw a newspaper article about graffiti in Melbourne, where the author had the opinion that graffiti was vandalism, and made the streets of Melbourne look “messy and unsafe”. Being a fan of street art, I struggled to come to terms with this opinion. To me, when you walk down the alleys in Melbourne and it screams colour and individuality, it gives the streets a little more life. If you take your time and pay attention to detail, you can really see how much effort, thought and talent have gone into these pieces.
I personally think that street art is a great way to give a voice and space to artists that may not have the money, or contacts to get their work out there. Not only does it provide a place for them to express themselves, but it gives our streets colour, and beauty. It colours in the dark areas that we would normally overlook, and makes them vibrant and exciting.
I see people taking photos and getting involved with the art constantly, and yet it’s considered a mess on the streets?
Art is an expression; an opinion without sound or words. Artworks can tell a story of so many things – love and heartache, happiness and fortune; why should it be confined to galleries and frames? Why should paintings be held within expensive white walls and lit up by unnatural lights?
The raw nature of street art is something that entertains the idea that we aren’t locked away in empty rooms powered by money and the need to reach higher levels in life. Street art represents freedom of speech and the idea that not everything is for the fame and fortune. These artists splash our alley ways with rainbows and messages for people to enjoy, and to get their opinion and talents out there, not 
to seek success.
These messages are just as important as the stories that hang on pretty walls in fancy places, so should we be able to stop them from being written?
We all view things differently – we all have our own ways of seeing something or reading something, but we also all have our own way of telling our stories and expressing our thoughts too. Can we really dislike people for doing so in the forms of street art? These artists have just as much talent as those that create the visions we stare at in galleries and museums – can we really show distaste to free beauty flowing onto our streets?
