Dandelion Graffiti

At a community graffiti day in Easton, Bristol, I painted a dandelion growing up from the pavement. A nod to the defiance of nature in the face of so much cement and tarmac and the steady decline in our collective knowledge of the environment around us.

The word 'dandelion' had recently been taken out of the children's dictionary, along with 'cheetah', 'bluebell', and 'porridge'. Being replaced with words such as 'broadband' and 'bullet point'. Equally, dandelions and other beneficial plants have been waged war against by those with pesticides and eager spades.

Dandelions have extensive benefits, all parts of the dandelion are edible when processed in different ways and contain vitamins, minerals and potent antioxidants. This is why they are so loved by bees and insects, they also flower through the insect hunger gap, when few other plants are flowering.

When doing the mural, a child walked by and asked their adult what I was painting, "a dandelion" they answered (June 2019).