The Rainbow Warrior, a street artist based in Albuquerque, N.M., has received some notoriety these last few weeks, as city leaders see his/her awe-inspiring work as sheer vandalism that will cost tax-payers money.

The Warrior, an artist who spills rainbows of paint off of the sides of these decrepit and often depressing-looking buildings, did not seek to damage property in a meaningless fashion. In fact, many of his or her targets are buildings in limbo, set to be torn down or unfit for residence. Those rainbows, locals find, stir an array of emotions, and have never been found to be a nuisance in a neighborhood and depressingly gray as the artist’s targets. For the longest, there was no telling who the Rainbow Warrior is or what is his or her purpose, but after officials painted The Rainbow Warrior as a threat in an article printed by KOAT news, he or she anonymously answered some fascinating questions about his/her intention with The Alibi.

 

“About three or four years ago ... I was feeling really depressed and I had this notion that if I went out and painted a rainbow, maybe someone would see it and feel what I was feeling or feel anything as intensely as I was. The first one I did, I just literally dumped the paint over the side of a pretty ugly, abandoned, alleyway building.” The Warrior replied when asked about the inspiration behind the act. “It symbolized future and promise and dreams. Imagination. I kinda want to just give that back to people. When they see that, maybe they’re having a rough day or a rough year or life and they can just look at it and find peace for a second and remember what rainbows meant when they were a kid, or when they could look up at the sky and see one instead of seeing billboards and half-finished buildings. I want to let anyone find enjoyment in the rainbows.”

 

When told the paint spill on the decrepit Anasazi building which was the Warrior’s target that got negative media coverage drew attention to the state of the area and the object which had been there for years, he or she had this point to make: “Why are we spending millions and millions of dollars painting the ditches? Graffiti removal is part of Waste Management, and they’ll go into a ditch and walk over a couch, past a homeless man and over some broken bottles to buff over some graffiti. Why not pick up the couch, sweep up the bottles and feed the hungry? That’s what we should be focusing on, not painting an arroyo where dirty water is washing into our rivers and polluting our water supply.”

 

Even the moniker of Rainbow Warrior itself carries the weight of many meanings. The legend of the Warriors of the Rainbow, a folklore shared with several Native American tribes, tells the story of a sick earth and the Rainbow Warriors who will save it. This tribe of warriors will not be from one culture, but people gathered from all walks of life, from far and wide. Though the Rainbow Warrior is not associated with the legend, he or she does mean for the symbol to be for everyone and intended to be interpreted in as many ways as possible.

One final quote from the interview speaks volumes about the Rainbow Warrior's medium of choice:

“I want to inspire other people. That’s part of all my art; it’s always positive. I think I chose street art to inspire somebody else in a way that’s outside of the box. Like somebody who wouldn’t normally be exposed to street art, somebody who would just walk past it. Street art really saves a lot of people who are down in their lives and on their luck. This is their one and only outlet. Plus, you get an immediate response from people. A lot of times it’s just, Look at that graffiti on that freeway wall. But maybe the graffiti on the freeway isn’t the ugly thing, maybe that’s not what they’re angry about. Maybe they’re angry about how for the last 10 years you’ve been driving through this prison freeway with these bigugly gray walls and it just took the graffiti to point out the ugly that was already there.”