Mohammed Khalid Al-Otaibi, is a 23-year-old student surgeon who found his passion in art. His mother Huda Al-Otaibi, who is a classical painter, passed on her artistic skills to her son. His art happened to be of a different kind. They call it the "street art." Mohammed started his enthusiasm as a hobby in high school, trying then to copy the works of one of his friends who was an artist. Due to the fact that there was no training available for such artistic skills, he curved his skills further through watching YouTube channels, only to start his own business in 2009. His father lent him SR2,000 to buy his first airbrush set, but asked him to return the money later, as a way to challenge his son to succeed in what he chose to pursue. Mohammed in three months could make SR18,000 through selling T-shirts with hand-made printed graffiti. It was at that time when he felt the real taste of success. In an attempt to take his talent to the next level, he used to take several long walks when traveling outside the Kingdom so that he could observe graffiti on the walls. Back at home, he would be inspired to do his own version of what he saw, on a paper. After many repetitions of such practice, he started to paint on walls. His first formal achievement came after he received a call from “Time Agency,” an organization owned by Princess Ameera Al-Taweel. They asked him to paint one of their outside walls. It took him a lot of efforts and time to perfect it, as it was his first official wall. “Graffiti is an art that expresses thoughts in modern, flashy colors. Just like any other kind of art, it can be used positively or negatively. When I had my first gallery in Maison-Bom in Njood mall around six months ago, I wanted to educate the public about graffiti. Most people still think that graffiti has no rules like other classical types of art. Some people would even think that graffiti is a few political phrases put on a wall to spread general hatred. That can’t be further from the truth. The attendees actually showed a lot of interest in the canvases that were each made personally in their names. “Graffiti isn’t well-known yet in Riyadh, however, it’s known in other cities like Dammam and Jeddah. This is mainly because the art itself isn’t welcomed yet in Saudi society as a whole. One should obtain a formal permission before he can paint a wall. I tried to talk with officials from municipality, though they were interested at first, I couldn’t obtain any permissions.” “I aspire to be an international artist like Alexander Mijares one day. I also hope that talents are offered walls to paint on. Our mission is to spread awareness in society about graffiti so we can employ this art to serve our society,” the artist said.
