.
Emaciated
attic refugees, unseen
but never unloved.
.
by Scooj
Month: December 2017
1172. M32 roundabout J3 (55)
It can be very difficult to identify wildstyle writing sometimes, especially when the artist isn’t local or doesn’t spray too often. Having said this, my job is made so much easier when the artist plasters his or her name all over the piece.
This stylish piece is by Aona. That gets me so far, but no further. I can’t find much about Aona on the Interweb, so this entry is brief. To the writing itself; it is beautifully clean and crisp and technically excellent and the colour selections really work well. It is uncommon to see wildstyle writing complemented by stencils, but it works rather well. Great to see different artists in town.
1171. Upfest 2017 (110)
I have featured Skor85 a few times on my blog, and had some confusing information about her identity. I have decided to disregard everything I thought I knew and defer to her Upfest profile, which reads:
Skor85 is a Bristol based creative of Polish origin. She is a self taught artist experimenting with any media available at the time from sand grains to spray paint. She has started her graffiti adventure 4 years ago being influenced by the diversity and music scene of some of the most lively European cities like beloved Bristol Barcelona and Berlin. She is heavily involved in Bristol drawing scene organizing sketching events immortalizing city landscape and live music events as well as running the Sketch Factory (themed life drawing sessions). Creative freedom of expression with others is one of her biggest pleasures in life and paint jams are a big part of it. Characters she paints are pure fantasy and often represent current mood- happiness and worries of the day. Often dreamy or scary but always true to that moment.
Part of the confusion arises out of the fact that her online profile is utterly different from his (sic) printed profile. The one above is more aligned with my previous posts.
This is a terrific piece and has had a lot of care and attention poured into it. Many of her pieces feel quite raw, often because of the locations she chooses, but this has a finesse to it whilst maintaining her unusual style. There is some symbolism here which is tricky to decypher. Nice piece.
Imagined advice
.
And in time your heart
will heal, life will carry on;
oh…and what great times.
.
by Scooj
1170. Upfest 2017 (109)
It looks like Hoshiko had a pretty miserable time at Upfest this year. He wrote over his own piece saying what it should have looked like, but for the weather. It was abandoned and unfisnished, but it doesn’t detract from his participation and effort at the festival. He was not alone, some artists didn’t even show up.
Hoshiko is based in the UK and works mostly with stickers and mixed media paste ups. Heavily influenced by Japanese culture (no shit Sherlock) he has a passion for robots and candy.
1169. Upfest 2017 (108)
This is a wonderful piece by Stephen Quick, a brilliant Bristol stencil artist and, I understand, YouTuber. I have to say that I never got to see this piece in its finished state, which I am really annoyed about, but have seen it on Digital Social Media and it looks spectacular.
Stephen has a style that mixes and merges ideas and iconic figures to produce blended stencils of the highest quality. Stephen quick has a lot to say about this piece on his website, and to save myself the time I have pinched his text and offer it below:
‘Pop Girl’ is my modern day mash up, pop culture heroine. My idea being if my recent generation get a call to arms we will arm ourselves with items from our pop upbringing, Inspired by Tank Girl, she wears a R2D2 helmet, armed with the Sword of Omen from Thundercats, with good luck charms from Harry Potter and The Legend of Zelda, she is ready to take on the world!
In my pictures, the Harry Postter charms are missing. and background not completed, but I didn’t want to leave it out of my Upfest updates. I do like his work very much.
1168. Upfest 2017 (107)
There were so many great pieces on the long wall at Ashton Gate, a new venue for Upfest this year, and I have barely started to cover them yet – several of them were whole crew collaborations and I’m not sure how to post them. However this is a wonderful piece from artist Leo Boyd.
Leo Boyd is a Belfast-based screen printer and artist who is branching out into screen printing on walls, which this fine piece demonstrates beautifully. His biography on his website is very funny, tells you little about the artist other than his sense of humour and what is important to him. Worth a read.
There is some really interesting stuff going on in this piece, but I am not sure what the story is. My take on it is an environmental one, but I don’t think that is necessarily the artist’s intention. I think it is more about the relationship between mankind and technology. Make of it what you will – it is in my view, a striking work.
1167. Upfest 2017 (106)
There can be few better ways to honour a fellow street artist than to paint an enormous portrait of them, and this is precisely what Ian Phenna did at Upfest 2017. The portrait is of the magnificent Nol, who was himself painting during the festival.
I do not know about Ian Phenna or his work, although his Upfest Biography says that he is a mixed media portrait and figurative artist originally from Liverpool. He has a dramatic approach to portraiture, often with hidden themes…
I really like this piece, and especially like the additional homage to Nol…the inclusion, albeit in greyscale, of one of his little monsters in the bottom right of the portrait. There are stencilled numbers all around the piece, something that Nick Walker likes to do too, but I don’t know the significance of them.
I think the whole thing is called ‘BrizNol’ which I rather like. This is a thoroughly enjoyable piece and one of my favourites from the festival.
Busker
Haunting sounds.
Accordion plays
minor tones,
singing soft
with melancholic stanzas;
I hold back the tears.
by Scooj
Not holding my breath
Parts of the country
prepare for a wintry storm;
not expected here.
by Scooj
Natural adventures 