The following article was published by Huffington Post on the front cover of their Living Fearlessly section.

Excuse me, but I’m going to be a bit sacrilegious for a moment.

I’m walking the 1st Arrondissement in Paris today, the neighborhood that houses the Louvre, the grand sentinel of the world’s art treasures.

Graffiti in Le Maris, the 4th arrondissement, in Paris

But I doubt I’ll even step foot in it. I have great respect the works of art and the masters who created it, but quite honestly, I’m bored by most of it. I’d much rather see what’s outside its walls, the graffiti around this City of Lights.

Many of you question my love of what you deem “gang art” or “destruction of property.” Yes, graffiti has its undesirables who unfortunately destroy the landscape of our inner cities. But I put them in the same category as those ambulance-chasing attorneys who muck up our legal landscape and drive up our medical costs because of their incessant suing.

Conversely, there are good, talented artists who deserve our respect. Much of what these young people paint has revolutionary messages intertwined in their canvases. Their work brings awareness to social injustices such as hunger, human rights and child trafficking. Much of it dares to make political statements in countries where it’s illegal to speak freely. Not unlike Picasso who took on the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War or daVinci who introduced wild ideas such as flying machines, these artists aim to be change agents and, may I dare say, should be placed alongside the greats.

Outside the Centre Pompidou in Paris

 

On Saturday, as I walked the Le Marais, the 4th arrondissement of Paris, I happened on an art exposition that included several graffiti writers and their work. As I strolled around the exposition hall, I witnessed innovation in artwork like you’d never find in one of those stuffy old museums. At one corner a graffiti writer painted with such energy and furor that a large crowd gathered to watch.

Two young people were selling temporary tattoos, tags of local graffiti artists including one of my favorite, Paris’ own C215.

Yes, I must admit I once was afraid of the mere mention of graffiti. I challenge you to look at it and its message with the same wonder and appreciation as you do when you view the Last Supper or the Statue of Liberty. Peek around corners and in dark alleys where these artists dare to paint. I guarantee you that you’ll be just as – if not more – intrigued by what’s on the outside of the Louvre’s walls as is on the inside.

————————————— an aside:

{ During my 30-day walk of Manhattan in the summer of 2011, I came across the mesmerizing mural art and graffiti in the neighborhoods of East Harlem and Spanish Harlem. Feeling the pull to know more, I contacted this art form’s foremost photographer, Martha Cooper of New York. I was quite honored that through Ms. Cooper, I received a formal introduction. Pick up one of her many books where she has chronicled the history of public art through her wonderful photographic lens. }