Street Artist Judith de Leeuw
“The Escape” By Judith de Leeuw and help by SMOK in Eindhoven, Netherlands for Gemeente Eindhoven. Photos by Rian Nijssen.
Judith de Leeuw: When ‘Anonymous’, here after called ‘Sam’, entered the high-end drug criminality scene, he did not consider the fact that nearly nobody has ever been able to get out. From that moment on, Sam signed for life to live everyday in fear and trouble without any chance of escape. In some cases these criminal organisations are shaped by families who raise their children to be in crime, passing generation after generation. From birth, these children are born in a criminal prison where they can’t get out.
As trapped as they feel, this is how trapped Sam felt. When he wanted to get out, he got threatened with his life. Sam witnessed nearly all of his relationships in criminality exiting in solely two ways; either dying, either ending up in prison for life.
When Sam got out of prison after years, he managed to turn his life around in 180 degrees. He got a job where he works with children, and got back in touch with his daughter that he lost because of his crimes. Sam managed to, against all odds, to escape. It required great courage and a hard fight in order to better his life.
This mural is a reminder and tribute for the fight that we have to go through in order to escape and chance for a good cause, no matter how hard or impossible it seems.
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