Having been a homeless person myself once I know how difficult it can be to try to satisfy your creative needs when you are busy all day trying to fulfil the most basic human requirements of shelter, food, personal hygiene and warmth.

Such vital needs for expression don’t however just go away.

In the face of your predicament; the absence of basic essentials of survival often accompanied by family and relationship breakdown, loss of work, self esteem and sometimes even addiction issues, self expression becomes more vital than ever.

The solace and the comfort gleaned from some small expression of ones soul, however small, may be the fuel that keeps the inner fire of selfhood burning.

Even a token flourish of pencil or paint, or arrangement of words into prose, is enough to scream ‘I am somebody’ if only to yourself, and that can sometimes mean the difference between two very different paths.

So when Damion Mulrain from the homeless charity Centrepoint from London’s Soho contacted me to ask if I could give a little of my time to pop into their Summer University graffiti project to chat about formulation of ideas, can control and give a few pointers on graffiti, I was delighted to oblige.

Damion has a strong background in graphics and the arts, and is passionate about his work with Centrepoint, so he was able to run and organise the course very effectively himself with the help of his colleague Louisa, my role was merely to enhance his skills with a touch of oldskool authenticity and be there to guide the young people and answer questions when they came up. I also lent the project my collection of graffiti books a few days beforehand and Damion got them all practising on paper long before the cans came out…

We needed to start simply of course…

…and after watching my demonstration of basic techniques extremely intently…

…everyone seemed to approve, so we all decided it was high time to get cracking with some free expression…

…all of their own…

…and really started to pull some fine ideas out of the bag…

…with the idea of learning some basic can-control skills.

…which they followed up on day two with some more substantial concepts of their own.

Everyone was given the full range of equipment to do all kinds of graffiti, including scalpels and cardboard to make stencils, and despite being warned how much more difficult it was to get a pleasing effect, everyone chose to work freehand.

Damion and Louisa from Centrepoint…

…along with other staff members who dropped in…

…seemed to be having just as much fun…

…as the residents themselves!

Not bad for beginners, huh?

Drip control strategy in full operation…

The rabbit character between the letters ‘SB’ begins to take form…

Despite how it may look this really is HYDE’s first ever piece, outline and work totally his own, just a few pointers from me…

The others too, seemed to take to the task very well indeed, and were rightly pleased with their results.

Lots of fun was had by all. Thanks so much to Damion and Louise for inviting me take part and thanks to all the young people from the project for for allowing me to help them with their expression and to witness them pinning down their visions and ideas so beautifully. Good luck to all for the future!

Thanks also to the guys at Chrome and Black paint shop for looking after Damion and Louisa, nice one!

>>>You can donate money and help to get a homeless young person off the street HERE<<<