During a television broadcast on May 30, 2022, a huge painting by Dutch street artist Judith de Leeuw, also known as JDL Street Art, was revealed in the port city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The painting ‘Brightness in the clouds of cancer’ is an immense mural that Judith made especially for KWF Dutch Cancer Fund.
The mural depicts an intimate scene: a woman embracing her child while being engulfed in a fog. For the design Judith took her inspiration from the stories of three cancer patients that were interviewed for the fundraising event and who symbolize all those people living with and after cancer.
Sensitive matters are no stranger to Judith, who has known turbulent times during her adolescent years. Ever since childhood, Judith loved to draw. She used her drawings as a kind of diary, like people who write things down, she drew to process different events in her life. As a teenager she was pressured to put aside her creative expressions. She was told that if she wanted to make something of her future, she should focus on school rather than on her creativity. This advice was completely against her nature, which eventually made the situation untenable, leading it to escalate both at home and at school.
From the age of 15 she became a ‘rebel’, left her parental home and came under the supervision of youth services. She lived in many places during her adolescence and never felt at home in any of them. What do you expect from an institution where fifteen teenagers, each with their own problems, are thrown together and expected to shape identities and, eventually, lives. From solitary confinement to physical violence, abuse of power, living with young people who have been placed in juvenile detention – an extremely unsafe situation for a fifteen-year-old child. In the end she met her regular group of friends on the street, who were also all involved in drawing and graffiti and this proved a safety net for her. Yet Judith says that these experiences made her who she is, if it hadn’t all escalated like this, she would never have started graffiti and she would never have met her friends. If she had never been in an institution she would never have been able to practice so hard and without that practice she would never have been accepted at Art & Design, an arts program where she was able to develop her techniques for another three years.
It is therefore not surprising that Judith cares about people who are having a hard time. The subject of cancer also touches her on a personal level. The second mural to point out is titled, “A Victory during Cancer.” This stunning mural was painted at the St. Anthony hospital in Padua, Italy and depicts the story of two loved ones; namely Sanne and Casper. When Sanne was diagnosed with severe breast cancer Judith’s adoptive brother Casper didn’t think twice and asked her to marry her in order to be there for her in the best way he could. The painting, more than 20 meters high, shows a man and a woman who wrap themselves in a powerful embrace, dissolving and crumbling into abstract forms from the waist down. After the fresco was completed, the portrait was first shown to the Dutch couple who had been completely unaware of the work’s existence until then. Judith wanted to give them something important and memorable. The painting was made during the second edition of the “Super Walls” street art biennale in which 39 international artists participated.
The most recent murals revering to cancer are a series named ‘Love is stronger than Death’ Vol. 1 in Puglia Italy, ‘Love is stronger than Death’ Vol.2 in Targu Jiu in Romania and ‘Love is stronger than Death’ Vol. 3 in Belgrade, Serbia and ‘Love is stronger than Death’ Vol. 4 in Taranto, Italy.
The question that arises when one receives a cancer diagnosis, both for the patient and the loved ones around them is: What if it doesn’t turn out well?
This series of four murals tries to console us in this delicate matter. In her painting, ‘Love is stronger than Death’ Vol. 3 in Belgrade, Serbia, Judith shows a more spiritual side of herself and people in general. Having lost a loved one, she depicts the spirit of this dear friend as a kind of saint (halo) who, despite the absence of the physical, is still there for her. “I don’t have to be present to be here with you, because love is stronger than death” he told her before he died. The mural, in her recognizable black and white realistic style — but here supplemented with turquoise and gold — has a remarkable detail, namely the halo. The realism of the folds, hands and hair contrast with the hardcore graffiti-associated use of paint applied to this little circle of light. Could this be a reference to one of her friends from the graffiti scene in which she was able to grow into the person and artist she is today? The mural was part of the Runaway International Street Art Festival, under the guiding eye of curator Andrej Josifovski.
The second mural in the series ‘Love is stronger than Death’ was created during the Strad’Art International Street art festival in Târgu Jiu, Romania. This mural shows a sculpture of two hands holding each other as they burst into pieces. The inside of the arms reveal a golden chain that remains intact. This painting also represents the idea that we don’t need a physical presence for love, because the real (but invisible) essence is something much stronger and deeper than anything limited to the human eye.
‘Love is stronger than Death’ vol. 3 was painted in Stornara in Puglia, Italy during the third edition of the Starmurales festival. It shows us a beautiful girl (model Tess Mirani) painted three times from different sides. The girls overlap the geometric shapes of a circle and a triangle. We have seen the circle more often in Judith’s work, but the triangle is new. Could it symbolize the past, present and future or should we rather think of body, mind and spirit? In any case, the three corners of the triangle correspond to the three facets of the woman depicted. The middle figure has her eyes closed and in her hands she is holding a slightly faded flower, most likely a Dahlia referring to the symbolic meaning of the flower; inner strength. The figures on the left and right have their eyes open as if looking to the past and future.
The most recent wall in the series ‘Love is stronger than Death’ vol. 4 is located in Taranto, Italy and was made during the T.R.U.St. festival di arte urbana. It shows us the figure of a woman (model: Dutch ballerina Floortje Eimers) surrounded by a number of arms. The female body is reminiscent of the Hellenistic images of classical antiquity, in which drama, emotion, surrender and a brutal design take the upper hand. The apparent emotion has everything to do with the recent death of Judith’s father – the wall is dedicated to his remembrance. On her Instagram, she writes ”We can all learn something from the people that are unseen. Even after death”. ‘This is followed by the somewhat cryptic comment: “In this artistic case, the physical presence remains intact”.
Once again, this artist succeeds in taking the viewer to higher spheres or levels. The dominant realism, so often pursued in Street Art, has given way to the imagination.
A cancer diagnosis can completely turn your view of the world upside down. The people Judith has spoken to over the past year all indicated that they enjoy life more consciously since the diagnosis. According to Judith, we can learn a lot from these cancer patients, and their strength and love for the people surrounding them. With or without a diagnosis, we must learn to see the value of life through the gray clouds, because tomorrow it could just be over – and then there will be only love.
