The Great Dame story of a graffiti artist

The Great Dame story of a Graffiti story 

Depression,Anxiety, wanted to be accepted,people just trying to fit in society, that others call different,people are just trying to find themselves,the obstacles people deal with everyday in life, everything moves so fast, things are always changing so quickly, everybody's moving in one direction, the streets are constantly occupied with people, as I call it the head down syndrome ,Head down syndrome is when a person's head stays down for a long period of time without looking up because their being distracted by their phone,it could be social media, texting, video chatting etc,all these distractions has the person's full attention and their head glued down to their phones.that was me a few years ago,I always had trouble fitting in society I was a different in other people's opinion , I mean I even thought I was different,and at 1st I didn't know how to handle it,everyday I was in a depression, and I couldn't figure out how to get out of this low dark feeling.

A Lot people notice my down spiral moods, and I was starting to notice it too, I would take long walks through nature areas ,and writing, these were my outlets from my depression stages I was feeling, also art. When I was feeling down I would paint ,I would paint all kinds of 

pictures on canvas. one day I was sitting down painting and thinking about how I want to try doing Graffiti,I thought it would be something different to try, and I thought why not! I'd done a lot of different things with art.There’s a lot of run down torn down building most people would call eye sores, but these abandoned buildings was my Inspiration, I wanted to fill in the open space with spray paint graffiti, its art to me . 

But the 1st thing I needed was a name, a different name, just for graffiti. A couple days later it came to me,I got it I yelled ! I decided what I would call myself ,and I'm going to call myself the Great Dame, the reason I called myself that, was to put things in existence,I had passion,everything I did I want to be great at it,so the great dame was going to be my Graffiti name, and I would go all over the city tagging The Great Dame,(a tag is the most basic writing of an artist's name) , I went to the art store and picked up a couple cans of spray paint ,I had my locations together already where I wanted to go. I would wait till night time around 1am to 3am either drive or ride my bike to the location I had in mind to spray paint at, to me that was the best time to do graffiti,majority of people are sleeping. I would tighten down my hoodie put on my gloves so I wouldn't get any paint on my hands.I'll look around and when I saw the close was clear I would pull my spray paint cans out my backpack,and start graffiti art spraying on the walls of the torn down building, I loved doing it in the open, where the art can been seen, displaying my creative art talent for the public ,man I loved that feeling it was like a feeling of excitement and happiness also like a kid opening gifts on christmas. 

I had a goal in mind which was for me to do 100 tags for the summer and big art pieces unfortunately I didn't meet my goal I only got to around 70 tags and pieces all over the city,and it felt great,It was like a hobby that you look forward to starting once you can get to it.I would drive by the spot where I’d tag at,and when I see it I would be like wow that looks good I did that and that's how the great Dame was born into graffiti world. 

Nw I attend an Art class now every monday 6pm to 730pm at the free clinic 12201 euclid where i have a teacher and a group where  we can share our creative ideas to get together.

Damien Hayes

I love art

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Volume 12, Issue 1, Posted 5:13 PM, 01.12.2020