For the past 10 years I have been self employed as a large scale muralist/ street artist, currently based in the UK.
Within this time I have been blessed to travel to many countries with my work, painting large scale murals across the world in places such as the United States (Miami, Michigan & Los Angeles), Mexico, England and North Africa – Which leads me on to why I have set up this project…
I have been through my own personal struggles with addiction and mental health.
I know how dark and lonely it can be at the worst times. Sometimes interacting with other humans can be the hardest thing in the world.
Over the past 11 years I have been looking into how I can make a difference to people who are struggling, but trying to come up with an idea that is different to what is already on offer out there.
During the last six months, after many talks with like minded creatives, service workers and clients, together we have created: The Butterfly Effected project, which uses art as a vehicle to spread hope, positivity and inspiration through everyday walks of life. Artwork will be painted in schools, hospitals, care homes, wellbeing centres, detox units, community centres, youth clubs, rehabilitation centres, permission granted street pieces and many other venues, such as private and corporate businesses and services. The project name ‘The Butterfly Effected’ resonates with anyone who has been affected by anything in life such as trauma, addiction, depression, illness, anxiety, abuse, relatives or friends of these people and so on – anyone who has been affected by absolutely anything along their journey.
The butterflies or murals will be painted and a QR code, butterfly and hashtag will be signed next to the pieces – the QR code links to the website where people can leave their inspirational stories of previous struggles to help persons currently struggling with nowhere to turn or not wanting to talk.
As it stands at the start of 2023 there are 5 commissioned walls and numerous “TBE” stencils across the UK, Mexico and the USA.
By the close of 2023 we will be adding Europe and hopefully Africa to the list.
Within 5 years we aim to have most countries across the globe coloured with butterflies leading to inspire people with stories of hope.
It is still really early days but already the project has started to evolve at a decent but manageable pace.
This is a brief outline of the project but the initial aim of the project.
Christian, Founder – The Butterfly Effected