why graffiti?
Again. Low-stakes suspense!
Check back soon.
"Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable."
- Cesar A. Cruz, Poet & Academic
Ali believes that the manner in which a community collectively handles graffiti is a direct reflection of how that community treats its most marginalized and vulnerable members.
As a child, Ali scrawled their innermost thoughts into the soil of their Alaskan backyard, and just as quickly buried them in that same soil.
She kept a diary where she often wrote in code, but some thoughts were too dangerous to even put there.
Thoughts of anger at watching her mother strangle their family pet as punishment for growling, for example.
Thoughts of a life beyond the meek shell she'd been groomed to inhabit.
Thoughts of vengance (belongs to the lord), self love (is blasphemy), and daresay hope (only in the lord).
See, Ali was a victim of intrafamilial childhood torture from infancy (near-fatal starvation) through the age of 20 (interntionally dislocated fingers).
But as her mind fractured and her limbs ached, she kept striving to leave a mark on the world.
Sometimes it was words scrawled in the soil.
Other times it was notches scraped into the wall while she was enduring solitary confinement or forced positioning for standard childhood infractions such as sighing (huffing), looking to the sky to think before speaking (rolling her eyes), or sneaking affection to the abused family pets (willful defiance).
As a young adult, Ali had a literal lifetime of things to unlearn.
Somewhere along the way they became fascinated with graffiti as a means of leaving one's mark on the world.
Ali's art style evolved from getting in trouble for using the Crayon sharpener in the back of the Crayola box (age 5), to a thriving art career with coast to coast collectors (early 30s).
Graffiti-inspired lettering now forms the foundation for their pretti graffiti™️ pieces.
Each pretti graffiti™️ piece features a quote that represents a system of oppression - either in words, authorship, or both.
This quote is then rendered powerless and unrecognizable as it is slowly transformed into shapes and shades remiscent of stained glass.
The finishing touch involves reclamation of the canvas with an empowering quote by a member of a marginalized population - representative of the way in which survivors of intrafamilial childhood torture must painstakingly reclaim each piece of their lives on their healing journeys.
For Ali, their art and activism are inextricably linked. One would not exist without the other.
Ali dreams of a world where graffiti artists don't face longer prison sentences than rapists.
Ali dreams of a world where possession of child pornography carries a steeper fine than possession of a found eagle feather.
Ali dreams of a world where artists profit off of their own work more than collectors profit off of artists' death.
Ali is creating a world where survivors of childhood torture have a space to process their experiences in community with other survivors.
Where survivors of non war related childhood torture have a chance at carving a fulfilling life for themselves - whatever that means to each survivor.
Where vulnerable postpartum parents aren't preyed upon by cults promising an easy and violent answer to standard parenting challenges.
Ali knows that this work will not be finished in their lifetime.
Any promises that it will should be taken with a pillar of salt.
People in the margins have always tried to tell their stories.
And just like covering graffiti with ugly gray squares creates an eyesore where a story stood, ignoring a problem with a 36% fatality rate creates a void where a whole life once stood.