Yesterday, we wrote about a popular ‘Banksy’ Instagram account sharing an image of three pencils after the shocking terror attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Readers quickly notified us of the original artist behind the striking tribute—London-based illustrator Lucille Clerc, who shared the image across her social media accounts with the caption: “Break one, thousand will rise #CharlieHebdo #JeSuisCharlie #raiseyourpencilforfreedom”.
The powerful homage, which went viral on the unverified ‘Banksy’ Instagram account, was not previously accredited to Clerc.
Clerc told Mashable that she was not upset with the mix-up.
“This is irrelevant, I don’t want it to turn into polemic and distract people from the real issues.”
“There are way more important things to talk about at the moment, and in the end what matters is that this image speaks to people, so the more it spreads the better it is.”
“I am French and a woman and I was lucky enough to grow up in a free country. I never had to fight for my freedom of speech or opinion, neither for my right to be educated.”
“This is my treasure, this is our most precious treasure. I believe in these values and so many people do just as much. I am truly devastated and all my thoughts are for the victims and their families, there are no words to express how much they will be missed.”
“My drawing was a spontaneous reaction, I didn’t expect it would have such an echo. Ideas don’t break, ideas don’t die. Charlie became immortal yesterday and I hope that this terrible day will make us cherish and protect our freedom with even more wit and humor. I can only hope it will inspire people to use their pencils too and that there will be thousands of drawings like this very soon.”
[via Mashable, image via Lucille Clerc]