As a general principle I dislike graffiti. I specifically dislike it when it is sprayed on someone's home, a place that for many people is an extension of themselves and their largest single asset into the bargain. It is an act of gross disrespect to not only the people who live in the house, but to the community as a whole.

And often the "artistry" on display is less than that achievable by a 5 year old.

Recently we have seen a spate of that in a street near here. Indeed it went one step further, with the piece of human waste product also spraying a smiley face on the side of one resident's car, reducing the value of the car by a few hundred dollars. One wonders how the "artist" would feel if another person felt that they had the right to trash all of the "artist's" possessions.

But murals are not graffiti, and many of them are indeed art. Scattered around a number of the commercial and civic buildings of Wollongong you'll find work by some amazingly talented individuals, which I'll capture in this gallery over the next few weeks. There are two near this spot, very different yet the equal of each other in terms of the skill applied. They were created as part of the Wollongong's Wonderwalls festival which ran for three days in November 2013. The festival was the work of a Sydney-based art collective called The Hours, and the Wollongong-based Verb Syndicate.

I opted to go for the, um, more electrifying of the two murals to lead off.

I decided to leave some of the building behind in the frame for a sense of perspective. Aside from which this particular mural is probably better photographed from a "leading in" angle. Not that I had a huge amount of choice as there's not a lot of space behind me and I'm light on for genuinely wide angle lenses for the Olympus.

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