Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Art

Street Art: Mary Vallely uses colour to beat her depression

The Big Issue's Street Art page gives talented, marginalised individuals an outlet for creative expression

‘The Face of Big Business’

by Mary Vallely

Mary studied art and design for five years in college and has been working as an artist in London for 10 years, selling and exhibiting work through Café Art and Crisis. “Art helps with my depression,” she says. “I have a history of homelessness and use day centres to access art materials. Without these I would be unable to create my work. I love using colour; it helps my mood. The sadder I am the more colour comes out. The pain becomes beautiful.”

Support out street artists over at The Big Issue Shop.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

Do you know how Big Issue 'really' works?

Watch this simple explanation.

Recommended for you

View all
I'm an artist who used to be homeless. Here are five things I wish I'd known before I started
Advice

I'm an artist who used to be homeless. Here are five things I wish I'd known before I started

Meet Rene Robbins, the 100-year-old artist who survived homelessness: ‘I'd cry myself to sleep'
1oo year old artist Rene Robbins
Art

Meet Rene Robbins, the 100-year-old artist who survived homelessness: ‘I'd cry myself to sleep'

Gilbert & George: 'Homeless people tend not to end up in a picture'
Gilbert & George's artwork - Number Twelve, featuring their friend George Crompton
Art

Gilbert & George: 'Homeless people tend not to end up in a picture'

Yungblud's Beautifully Romanticised Accidentally Traumatized is making one London street sing again
The opening of Yungblud's store and community space on London's Denmark Street in Soho
Denmark Street

Yungblud's Beautifully Romanticised Accidentally Traumatized is making one London street sing again