Despite global recognition, Swoon never stops staying true to the streets. What we love so much about this maverick is that she puts just as much time in to her transient wheatpastes as she does in to her gallery work. “I know that people respect the extreme commitment that I put into my work. It’s sometimes hard for people to understand how I can spend so much time on a piece and then put it up on the streets where it can be gone so quickly.
“At first, I was precious about everything and wanted my work to be permanent. And because I knew that it wasn’t permanent on the street, I wasn’t putting all I had into my work. But then something happened where I stopped caring about permanence and started putting everything I had into the work. At that moment, everything changed for me,” stated Swoon in an interview with Swindle. “And when I finally finished it, I put it up on the street and never felt happier. And the amazing thing I learned was that the work that I put the most into seemed to last the longest.”
Using the city as a canvas, Swoon has been hitting New York with her trademark portraits full of raw emotion, and this piece is no exception.
