Smile Windsor: An arts student's public message

Jeff Bassett, a visual arts major at the University of Windsor has a simple message for the city: Smile.

Bassett uses five letters and pictures of penguins, puppies, babies and other cute and funny photos, gets them approved from friends and puts the prepared message on Windsor's abandoned, burned out and derelict buildings.

"I’m sick of people walking around in their environment and experiencing their day to day lives ignoring everything around them. They’re lost in their phones, they’re lost in their iPods," Bassett said. "I’m trying to draw a positive from a negative.

He has also used the pictures of Mother Teresa, Jimi Hendrix and Ghandi.

Bassett said what he does isn't graffiti, it's street art.

"The difference between street art and graffiti is a fine line. Graffiti has connotations to gangs. Street art has positive connotations," he said. "These are buildings abandoned by society."