Sprainter and Street Art

Street art in Rome

Note: The pictures appearing in this post are not my own. Any issues, please let me know.

Street art and some of the artists who work in this style are the background/setting for my young adult dystopian novella Sprainter.

Basquiat - Untitled "Skull" 1984

In Sprainter OZone, the female heroine who shows up in Tronno, asks MrE, an acolyte (religious) street artist who spreads the messages of hope and rebellion through street art, "How's spray painting Bible passages gonna stop the killing?"

The street is the perfect public space for MrE and his group of graffiti artists to spraint (spay paint) their art. MrE usually writes a short Bible reference, such as John 3:16, and then he adds some religious iconography to decorate the text.

Yes, graffiti is vandalism, and no, I do not endorse it. But for a fictional setting, I thought it presented a unique chance to examine the possible lifestyles of two of my favorite artists in a piece of fiction; Bansky and Jean-Michel Basquiat, to begin to pry the lid off this type of artist, and to also bring my characters' religious zeal into the public sphere of action.

Jean-Michael Basquiat

All street art is essentially propaganda. Much of it is political satire, contributing to some aspect of the current political discourse, be it in . This defining characteristic suited my purposes quite well, since I wanted the street artists in Sprainter to be fully involved in their world, regardless of their relatively young age. I want the young adult readers to realize that it is possible to do something to fight injustice - something besides creating a Facebook page and garnering "likes". I do not personally think those pages make any difference, and I seriously worry about the future of political activism when it is reduced to such trite acts as creating a FB page.

Bansky, street art

Towards that end, I love street art. It is big-scale, in-your-face socio-political activism! It can be simple, or complex, but it is always driven by a desire to expose social injustice, and to sometimes point the way to change the status quo. These are two traditional characteristics of  great art.

In Sprainter, I sought to bring this artist-revolutionary spirit to the forefront of political-religious activism and this story afforded me the opportunity to explore such extremes, including how zeal (religious or otherwise) can, if propelled by reasons other than love, can itself easily slip into oppression and persecution.

If you're interested in young adult romances, art-themed fiction, a dystopian setting, and religious inspirational fiction, then you will enjoy Sprainter, available from Smashwords and most e-tailers.



Just a note before leaving you. I wish to clarify any possible misunderstandings about Basquiat and Banksy: To the best of my knowledge, neither artist has expressed their religious views in their street art the way MrE does in Sprainter.

Jean-Michel Basquiat died of a heroin overdose at the age of 27 in 1988. Banksy is wanted by police agencies throughout the world. Although his identity has been a well-guarded secret for years, I just discovered this recent photo.

 ~JT~

Why I Wrote Sprainter

Today I'd like to share my reasons for writing my inspy young adult novella Sprainter.

Sprainter, Young adult fiction

As I wrote Sprainter, I realized that I was being given a great opportunity to teach along the way. My background includes teaching Philosophy (with an interest in aesthetics) and Art History. Most of my fiction deals with some aspect of art. By the time I finished Sprainter I had written a 100 page novella that spanned five genres: art-themed, young adult, romance, dystopian, and inspirational. Let me say a bit about each genre and how/why they fit into Sprainter.

Dystopian: I thought it was important to show what the future might look like if we allow individuals and organizations to curb or take away our religious freedoms and to close down our churches. This can only happen if we allow it to happen. Regardless of denomination, Churches are integral to one's spiritual development. I thought it was important to create a setting of extreme religious oppression to get that message across.

Art-themed: I believe that true artworks are an important medium to convey revolutionary ideas. Street art, because it is a genre of art that is particularly propaganda/revolutionary, fit perfectly with my characters' use of art to fight against oppression. The point I want to make is that no one is ever powerless. Yes, evil exists in the world, but we must always seek out a way to fight it. Even teens, who oftentimes feel so powerless in the complicated world of grown-ups, should be empowered political/religious activists.

Romance: Sprainter initially began as a teen romance between my two main characters, MrE and OZone. As their relationship evolves, I discuss the topic of intimacy by setting the issue against the backdrop of religion-based chastity. It isn't that I think teens will read this and think: "Oh, Therrien's right! We won't be intimate with each other until after we're married!" But I did want to present another point of view. As the story develops, my characters fall in love with each other, but they have important decisions to make, and one of them is whether they can commit to an ideology that promotes mutual respect among individuals. Yes, it's preachy, but where else will teens be preached to?

Inspirational: I want teens to read a contemporary story that inspires them to action, to hone an attitude of vigilance about fadish trends in the world that could one day (soon) affect their freedom to worship in a religious institution. I want teens to learn to say Grace before meals, I want my readers to look up the Bible passages that MrE and his band of rebels spray paint on the city walls.

Young adult: I want teen readers to have an inspirational story to entertain them and which they can also relate to. There isn't enough young adult inspirational fiction out there to inspire our teens to action and to deepen their (Catholic) faith.

Sprainter is at times what I would call a gritty story. One of the reviewers summed up the story: "Escape from New York meets the Holy Bible." This is in part true; I included some violent scenes because I also wanted to show that even good intentions can lead to bad results, especially when they are taken out of context. There is a fine balance between being devoted to a cause (or a religion), and being fanatical about it.

I hope that I've given you a taste for reading Sprainter. As you can see, there's something in it that will appeal to everyone!

You can buy Sprainter at Amazon, Smashwords, and most e-tailers.

~JT~