Chalk Strokes For Strolling Folks

Paris iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Chalk Strokes For Strolling Folks ~

Chalk Strokes For Passing Folks, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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Helmut Artiste hugs pavements and Parisian places creating temporary wonders in the cynical city dust.

When you come across him you'll be struck by the scale, which is huge, and the colours, which are rich and hugely rewarding to behold.

The guy himself is befittingly bedecked in chalk-smothered overalls looking every bit the part of the struggling artist, living for his work, although whether that even approaches the truth I couldn't begin to tell you for the moment.

All I know is his work is admirable and admired by all who pass. Admirable and bravely, inevitably ephemeral; the slightest shower and he's screwed, as it were.

Such fragile beauty is almost painful to contemplate. When I put something up in the city I'm hoping it'll be around for at least a few months; here we're talking minutes or hours if we're lucky before it's reintegrated into the fabric of Paris and carried away by a million rueful raindrops and a thousand fickle footfalls.

There's a strange mixture of pride and fatalism and determination and peacefulness in such an endeavour. He knows it won't last and yet he spends hours of his life working on it to the best of his ability.

Then again, what do the efforts of a waiter or a road sweeper or a lollipop lady leave behind them? A vague feeling of satisfaction perhaps? A positively warm sensation in the hearts and minds of the receivers of the attentions? It's not sure.

But on this day Helmut Artiste has left a photograph, an image, whether he knows it or not. And that, surely, is precious in itself, whatever else remains.

And why not...

J è  GRAB MY 20 AMAZING PARIS CURIOSITIES FREE NOW!  ç J

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