By J. H. Irwin
Author | Storyteller | Capturing Life, Memory, and Meaning
My mind is filled with ideas, memories, hopes, fears, and love. Filled with 65 years of experience, success, failure, weakness, illness, pain, and joy; all contribute to the words I write; all contribute to the man I was, the man I am, and the man I will become.
I write in hope that someone reading my words will be inspired in some small…or even large way.
My topics are wide ranging, but all are core to humanity and the human experience. I share personal experiences in the hope someone will see themselves in me and know it will be ok; they will know you can survive and thrive despite it all.
I write about what is happening to our country and the world, and my concerns surrounding what I see. I write to inform others who wish to do something to help but have not yet identified a path that works for them.
My writing today is different than it was even a year ago. It changed because I was inspired to do better, to create words that make people think. I stopped writing out of anger and the fear of what was happening to our country and our world, there is too much of that already. Words of anger only make you feel something in the moment yet change nothing else. They make other people angrier, perpetuating and propagating a world filled with anger, and that was no longer a path I wanted to follow.
We are all capable of change, who we are today does not have to be who we are tomorrow. This is the beauty of inspiration and introspection. All you need is an idea, a catalyst, to change the direction of your life. That idea could come from anywhere; a headline, an interaction on the street, an experience of some sort, even…an art exhibit.
Yesterday I visited a Banksy art exhibit. I was inspired. Inspired to look for new ways to express myself, either through words or other forms. Banksy’s work, intentionally or not, has influenced the world, makes people think, and presents ideals for humanity. I have always loved graffiti art. At its best it is an expression of an artist with something to say yet no formal canvas on which to say it. Banksy started as that and turned his work into an international catalyst for change, simply by having a vision to show inhumanity in a way people understood…his art inspired them, his art changed them. His art impacts our humanity, our humanness.
His identity became secondary to his message. For most of his career, anonymity allowed the art, not the artist, to dominate the conversation. His canvas is the world itself. Walls, buildings, barriers, and structures became part of the message. An image about occupation on the West Bank barrier or an image painted onto a bomb-damaged Ukrainian building hold an emotional force a gallery display never could, never would.
His unique form of activism is readily accessible. You do not need to understand political theory to understand his images of children, balloons, flowers, police officers, soldiers, refugees, animals and familiar cultural symbols. Upon viewing his work people understand the basic message almost immediately…what a powerful gift.
The most interesting lesson from Banksy isn’t to become more like Banksy, it is that activism does not have to look like what we traditionally think activism looks like. It does not always require a march, or a microphone, or a political organization. It doesn’t even require words. Banksy discovered a medium he understood and in using it he interrupted normal lives long enough to make them notice something.
For Banksy, a blank wall becomes political commentary. Humor becomes confrontation. Beauty becomes discomfort. Public space becomes conversation. For me, my future path will always include writing, but what I take away from this is a future in which my writing adjusts, changes, morphs because of inspiration gained from this experience. There is only one Banksy. I don’t wish to imitate what he has done. However, each of us can create our own path, our own unique version that, if we are fortunate, can make an impact of its own.
The true genius of Banksy’s style of activism is this…he does not simply tell people what to think, instead he creates circumstances that make it difficult for them not to think.
Words can still move the world. Read mine → https://substack.com/@jhirwin