Raindrops

As personal as it is powerful, counterculture street artist STIK’s Raindrops (2009) tells a story of gratitude and hope by way of his iconic sheltered stick figure. Rendered in glowing orange and stark black and white, STIK’s ubiquitous character huddles under his own skinny arm to protect himself from the coming storm, in a position all too familiar to men and women across London sleeping rough in what all too often proves a punishing urban environment. As an antidote to the pervasive problem of homelessness, The Big Issue launched in 1991 with the goal of offering employment opportunities to people in poverty through the commercial distribution of a high-gloss magazine. Published in weekly installments, The Big Issue magazine simultaneously equips readers with the pop culture news of the day and vendors with a pathway towards a brighter future. In 2009, STIK collaborated with The Big Issue to fill 90,000 copies with an editioned STIK print, while the artist himself bunked at St. Mungo’s hostel in London’s Hackney borough, another organization dedicated to ending homelessness by supporting resources to rebuild lives. Out of thanks to both organizations for their work in his community, STIK imagined his Raindrops figure – brought to life on found board as a gift to The Big Issue and on immovable brick as a mural at St. Mungo’s. Linked in time, theme and material, these two pictures bespeak an autobiographical impulse underlying STIK’s most poignant work. In paint and in life, the artist remains equally committed to both acknowledging the damaging repercussions of a life on the streets and seeing such a life eradicated for all.