International news dropped a bomb today. They speculatively revealed the identity of a famously secretive artist.

This artist has impacted a generation. You’ve surely seen this person’s work. Yet their true identity has remained largely anonymous for decades.

Who they are isn’t important. Their message is what matters.

While living in England, I met a woman who knew this individual — one of the most anonymously famous people on earth. She mentioned them in passing, and in doing so, removed some of the mythology, made them real. The humanization of them caught me off guard. This woman unknowingly gave away part of their identity by acknowledging their coexistence as youths attending school together.

Still, though the veil was subtly removed, the mystery remained mostly intact. And I still feel that this person is one of the greatest artists in history.

Few people have had such a global impact, carried such a mantle, and voiced such incredible messages with little more than some cardboard stencils and a few cans of paint.

But they’ve remained publicly silent, probably for good reason. The mystique of their anonymity is part of the reason that we feel their work.

We don’t need to give the artist a face. Sometimes silence is what makes things sacred.

Not all artists need to be seen.

Let their work speak.