Finding the meaning

I stumbled upon this piece of street art in Newcastle, NSW. I’m struggling with the message, I’m aware that may make me stupid.


It appears as if the lady is talking messages of love to the dog, as it appears to be a speech bubble rather than a thought bubble. But her mouth is closed… So maybe the speech bubble is someone else’s graffiti added later on? Without it, she simply looks like a lazy cleaner, sweeping things under the curtain. This makes sense on its own.

But with the speech, I don’t know what message it conveys. Is she angry at the dog for making a mess and she is trying to teach the animal some human morals? Is it a thought bubble and although pretty mad at the dog, she is trying to remain a compassionate person?

Sadly, I haven’t been able to find info on this one, so we may have to resort to personal perspectives. What do you think?

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46 thoughts on “Finding the meaning”

    1. I usually rely on the words from the artist themselves to understand many bits of art, unfortunately this time around I was unable to find that. Maybe I will eventually find out!

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  5. I agree with previous comments about timing of second piece. But where I would like to discuss further is the point that you be made about artist description of art. Sometimes it matters, but not necessarily: the art should be a piece on its own , speaking for itself. Now here, most likely we have two artists. While the first does not require any explanation, the layer addition is more interesting. Because to my vision ( might be totally different from artist’s idea) it reflects that a person can find piece and love even cleaning dog poop. If you clean, you minor, it is similar to mediation. 🙂 nice post!

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    1. Thanks for adding your thoughts. I do prefer to read the intended message from the artist if there is one, although I am open to my own interpretation if a message isn’t obvious or added by the artist. I like your perspective, although what throws me off is she doesn’t look happy… Maybe the second artist tried to put a twist on it to change her mood and make her seem happier than she was originally. Thanks!

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      1. Just a little note for both of you, Sam and Sound Eagle: I should admit that I truly enjoy reading your blogs because it feels like those endless conversations about sense of life with a glass of wine:)) so Happy New Year!

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      2. That was such a nice comment to read, it’s the kind that inspires me to keep going! Thank you truly and I hope we keep putting those kind of blog posts out there. I’d have a glass of wine with you if I could 🙂

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    1. Thank you so much for this, truly. I haven’t participated in this before, so I will take a look. Thank you again for recognising me, I greatly appreciate it! I hope you are having a lovely day.

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  9. The speech bubble does look like it’s been added by someone else–at which point, to me the message of the art appears to become: “Only peace, love and happiness are allowed in this house; sh*t’s gotta leave.” haha

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    2. Interestingly, my initial thought was exactly the opposite. To me, the message of the art was “going to sweep peace, love and happiness under the rug” and the dog was thinking something like “are you sure that’s a good idea?” …

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      1. Actually now I look at it again… It could very well be! If the bubble was more of a thought one and not a speech bubble, I would probably say that this is what is going on. At least the dog has sense in this case!

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    1. Thanks for commenting. For me, the confusing aspect of it is the rest of the graffiti. Why is she upset whilst saying this? And why is she brushing it under the carpet? 🙂

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      1. I think, if my memory serves me correctly, that it is an imitation of a famous Banksy piece of graffiti, and he was quite political in his “art”.

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      3. Ah yes! I found the piece of art in the article and it does seem to be inspired by Banksys, with a few obvious but small differences. I had forgotten about this piece, thank you for reminding me and helping shed light on this bit of street art in Newcastle 🙂

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