Features of Motivation for the Creativity of Street Artists: Existential-Phenomenological Analysis

Street art appeared 50 years ago, in the form in which we know it now, but the difference between graffiti, street art and public art related to this phenomenon is still not obvious to everyone. Due to the lack of specialized scientific works covering the motivational aspects of street art artists, rather than graffiti writers, we decided to focus the study on this specific social group. The study of the motivational foundations of the creativity of street artists allows us to reveal the unique existential and phenomenological aspects that underlie their creative process, expanding the boundaries of the psychology of creativity and understanding of the phenomenon of street art. It also contributes to a deeper understanding of the role of creativity in a person’s life and his desire for self-expression and self-realization. The purpose of the study was to describe and systematize the reflective ideas of street artists about their own motivation. As a result of a qualitative phenomenological study combined with a quantitative methodology, we expanded our understanding of the phenomenon of street art, as well as deepened knowledge about the motivation for the work of street artists - artists’ ideas about their own motivation were identified and described in detail, grouped into clusters of topics. In the context of existential analysis, a high average score (120) was revealed for the level of existential fulfillment of respondents, indicating that street artists live a good life, filled with meaning, with internal harmony and can bring good into the world, as they understand it