Pearls for Oysters by A. Dee

May 13, 2020

The following account was written by A. Dee and is about his artistic journey over the years.
He has been a part of the London Urban Art Scene since the 1980s.

Sometimes, life can throw you a ball that you unwittingly go chasing, thinking that the obtaining of said ball is the goal; the ‘end game’. For instance, I once knew a guy that started singing just so that he could get the adoration of his peers and close friends as he felt like the odd one out in the group. He ended up having a successful music career. Guess what the ‘ball’ was?… Or was it?…

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For any that may have missed the point, the obvious answer was the desire to get good at singing so that attention from friends and peers could be achieved. I lost track of him once he got big enough to easily afford a big house in the country, but sadly, his success was not sustained. However, that’s not the point. The point is, this. Our perceived goals in Life can sometimes be just a precursor to the main event; what our real purpose or calling is.

Years ago, there was a time when through my creativity I craved the admiration of others and to be the centre of attention. I wanted to be the focus of thought and discussion, the orb around which creative inspiration would revolve. And for a short time amongst my peers, I was.

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Back then, pretty much before the internet — no, not quite that far back if you’re thinking of horses and carts on cobbled streets — such things were made possible simply by doing. We wanted fame, so we went out there with marker pens and spray paint. The streets, trains and highways were our journals, billboards and canvases, respectively and we were not shy or interested in holding back about what we had to say!
Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? It was.

"I began to see the potential of what we were doing; as a form of creativity, as a form of communication, as a form of protest."

Unfortunately, and here’s the irony, with all that creative freedom, angst and will to defy the very corridors of authority, what did we choose to reveal to the world about itself? Our ‘name’. That was it, just our name, garnished with the occasional dedication to a friend, family or loved one. Like an army of autistic children, we were like the Jekyll and Hyde of society, being both creative and destructive with the same stroke of our pen or mechanical brush.

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Then, as a reward for my efforts and with an interest from the press yet again, I did another interview. No circulation of millions had this paper. It was just a modest zine of creative and political thought put together by the humble photocopier.

After that article, it all changed. After that, my perspective shifted, I no longer wanted to be the naughty kid in detention whose given writing task for that extended period was to be stuck on a pre-programmed ten-second loop. I began to see the potential of what we were doing; as a form of creativity, as a form of communication, as a form of protest. I surmised that as we were young people who understood the trials and concerns of young people, why not articulate that? In other words, I began to see the potentiality of those of us that wrote on walls and had captured the interest, imagination and respect of other young people worldwide.

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As wild and crazy as it seemed, I began to ask myself, “Why not ‘say something’ worthwhile...? We could be like politicians for the young!” (without the splatterings of greed and corruption, of course). I’m not interested in getting directly involved in politics, but I am interested in getting directly involved in social and cultural change for the better. And art can do that…

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Anyway, that was then, this is now.

Times have changed. I no longer wish to be the pearl in the oyster. Nowadays, I would rather be like the grains of sand within the shell that act as a catalyst, urging the pearl to take shape, form over time and go forth into the world. For a while I was doing this through art workshops, mainly working with disadvantaged kids and young people in inner cities all over the UK and Europe. Now, it’s being expanded to encompass a wide range of new and inexperienced artists.

This is my journey now, that is my path.