Graffiti Moon Essay by Maeve Woollen

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

In the Book Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley, Lucy and Ed are two people that lead totally seperate lives. They only know each other as the girl who broke Ed's nose and the boy who touched her butt. After a disastrous date, they try to forget each other and the disastrous evening spent together. This is easy until they are forced together through an awakward night of being pushed together until finally Ed offers something interesting, helping Lucy find the one mystery that has always kept her wondering. Who is Shadow? 

 Shadow is a troublemaker. Its clear to anyone who reads this book at first. He is a spraying painting high school dropout. And Lucy has been in love with him for as long as she can remember.  And this is more than just a phase of rebellion against parents, go for the troublemaker, make others jealous type of thing. Lucy is in love with the way Shadow expresses himself through his art work, the way he puts all his emotions onto a wall in such a way it  would take hours to understand.“Open skies painted above painted doorways and painted birds skimming across bricks trying to fly away. Little bird, what are you thinking? You come from a can." Many would decide not think much of it, but Lucy finds herself infixed in how Shadow is able to portray so many things from a can to a wall. She finds herself falling in love with Shadow. But how can she? She's never met him. But that could never stop Lucy from finding him. “I guess love's kind of like a marshmallow in a microwave on high. After it explodes it's still a marshmallow. but, you know, now it's a complicated marshmallow.” 

  I find as though Lucy and Shadow very similar. On many occasions, Ed expresses the way she has a complicated mind that can make anyone wonder whats going on just by looking at her. The way dances to her own rhythm at a party. The way she looks at the sky with so much excitement when theres still not a star in the sky. This makes me think of shadow and the way he's so different from many spray painters. He's not as interested in making a mark as they are. He more just wants to show how he's feeling and whats going on in his life than to write his name. And the way he puts it out is so difficult for many to understand. But she understands it. “There was no skin on my voice and she heard the bones in my words.”. Its different between them. Its as if she seems right through him even if she's never had the chance to meet him. So the way Ed can't seem to understand her mind at all makes it kind of hard to believe that he's shadow. I would think they would understand each other perfectly, not it being a one way street. 

   I found it interesting how Ed was Shadow and the way he started to fall in love with Lucy and the way she admired his work. I found this interesting because of the way they hated each other without the art, but with they seem to really get closer. “I like that about art, that what you see is sometimes more about who you are than what’s on the wall. I look at this painting and think about how everyone has some secret inside, something sleeping like that yellow bird.” It also makes me wonder so many things about them as a couple. If they would work out or if they'd have another disastrous date and Lucy's heart be shattered for the one person she admired most in the world be a real jerk. This book leaves a lot of questions on the table as them as a couple and can only slightly be answered with the information we know of them apart. 

   In conclusion, Lucy and Ed aren't perfect. They have their differences. They have different problems and different emotions. That all comes to an end when they can share a lifestyle of Art. A happiness of Art. A love of Art. It brings them together dispite their differences and i think thats something we can all learn from. Lucy and Ed are artists in different ways but have the same base that bring them together in the end.