An artist’s amazing tribute to Prince

The world is still reeling from the sudden departure of the music legend Prince. With many performers paying tribute to the purple one by covering some his songs or wearing a lot of outfits inspired by him.

One Sydney-based artist has paid the ultimate tribute to him by painting a massive memorial on the wall at Street University in Liverpool. Talking to ABC artist Graham Hoete said “I asked if anyone could help me get to the US [after people invited me on Facebook to paint a mural in Prince’s hometown]. I did put a financial request out there and had a lot of replies but didn’t have anyone come through”.

With the situation looking dire, Graham continues “Then we had one woman who lived in Chanhassen, her name was Kirsten Sampson — she’s an Aussie girl — she offered to help and ended up being the key to securing a wall in Chanhassen.” Graham concludes with “Without her I don’t think it would have happened.”

The experience has been one of a kind for Graham as his artwork went viral with millions of people sharing the mural on social media. They all offered praise to the artist as well as his inspiration for it, Prince.

Graham also was reached out to by Prince’s family saying “There was one lady who came up to me during the presentation and she slipped a piece of paper in my hand and pulled me aside and said ‘this is serious, you need to read this, this is from Prince’s brother, he’s in the car round the back’”.

In what had to be a surreal moment for Graham he was happy to receive kind words from the family with Prince’s brother reportedly saying “Mr G, I want to deeply thank you on behalf of myself and my family for the amazing mural that you’ve done in honour of the Prince”.

Tribute being paid to an artist making a tribute to another artist. It’s a touching thing.

What do you think of the art? What would be the perfect Prince song to play at the wall?