The Raven: C215 (Artist)

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

C215 (Artist)

I have always admired art. Strangely, one of the mediums that I have always appreciated the most has been graffiti. Even though morally it may be wrong to do without permission, taggers and other artists always seem to pick the most dry and boring canvases in the actual world and made them something even more beautiful and unique. Even if it is just to rebel or mark their turf, graffiti has a flare that most other mediums seem unable to capture.

Even though I do not know much about Steven P. Harrington, "C215," his work is amazing. He paints on many different canvases. The painting in the header was done on wood while some of the paintings below were done on more traditional canvas. My sister, an Art and Teaching Major at the Concordia University of St. Paul, posted a link about him on her Facebook and so I searched a little further into his work.

This is what I found:

C215 is a street artist who paints for the world in order to raise awareness for people on the streets. Here's a link for his book, "Community Service:" http://www.amazon.com/Community-service-C215/dp/2917829389

On these hard streets a man discarded
can’t possibly feel like a citizen of any community.

I’ve wandered these streets in my own disconnected delerium

and not seen the homeless man lying inside the contorted cardboard box.

Layered in sweatshirts and drowsy beneath the roaring traffic

on the bridge his eyes flicker above the edge of the box

and we are jolted by each others’ suddenness.

It’s a split second, and maybe unnerving, but not uncaring.

I am, after all, only another man, and here we are on the same street.

Given the right chain of events,

I could be the one peering out over the tattered edge.

Am I changed by this moment?

Sometimes I am.