'Solea'
Valence, France
2024

Over the past week, I have experienced a cluster of events that I will cherish within myself for the rest of my life.

Every time I break down a wall in a city, I realize anew and remember the power of working on the street and my work to the neighbors surrounding the wall and to those who walk the street in their daily lives. And although I sometimes find it difficult to shake off the concern of being extremely impactful with my work, there are always moments like these when the neighborhood adopts me and cares for me as a neighbor or as a friend. During the painting of this work, all sorts of things happened, from eating couscous with Hakim's family (the gentleman who had a grocery store for the mural and whom I could talk about for hours), to the classic chats with the neighborhood kids full of suggestions and questions, to the end of playing a sevillana for the dancers from the city's flamenco school who came to perform a show on the wall to celebrate the completion of the mural. Fortunately, I cannot express everything that has happened in an Instagram post, but I wanted to thank everyone and keep track of what has happened.