.
Uncomplaining they,
while I watch them play netball
in the pouring rain.
.
by Scooj
Author: scooj
I am Stephen. I live in Bristol, UK. I decided to shorten my profile...to this: Wildlife, haiku, travel, streetart, psychogeography and my family. Not necessarily in that order.
594. Upfest 2016 (88)
This is a rather fun piece from an Austrian artist, originally from Graz, called SizeTwo. He is largely a self taught artist who is constantly striving to improve his skills. As part of his road to improvement, he has moved to Berlin to ‘broaden his horizon’.
His work, I have just taken a look at some of it on the Interweb, is highly accomplished, and I hope that he will be returning to Upfest next year, so we can get another glimpse of his work. I do like a monkey in a spacesuit – it seems to be a common theme for street artists, and this is at least the third I have posted.
593. Upfest 2016 (87)
Jody is no stranger to the streets of Bristol and I have featured works of his before, most recently this Virgin Mary just off North Street. He was one of the established Bristol artists at last year’s Upfest and took over a tricky wall that had previously been occupied by Osch and his tiger.
I watched this piece by Jody take shape over the two days of the festival, and visited the scene a few days later to get a decent view of the piece. It is absolutely stunning. Clean, fresh and with a story going on.
This wall, however, must be the most difficult to photograph of all the walls used at Upfest. Try as I might, I just don’t seem to be able to get a decent shot. I notice that Jody took one from the top of the building opposite, but not all of us are fortunate enough to get such a privileged view.
I do like this piece, and admire it every time I walk up North Street. A great piece by the self-styled ‘aerosol artist’.
Hurt
.
I cannot recall
A performance of yours that
I did not enjoy.
.
by Scooj
Let me be
Summer daydreams are
rudely interrupted by
the here and the now.
by Scooj
592. Upfest 2016 (86)
I absolutely love this beautiful work by N4T4, and was lucky enough to visit it several times during its creation at Upfest 2016. It is an outstanding piece by an artist who left his mark so memorably at the previous year’s event.
It is always a privilege to see a street artist at work, at least that’s how I feel, and of course, when so many are in one place over two days that privilege is filled to the brim, and some. The eyes in the picture above show the evolution of the work…drafted out on the left and near complete on the right.
The finished work has something about it that I really like. It might be as simple as it is really beautiful and easy to look at, it might be the style, with so much going on within the piece itself, I’m not sure, but I know I love it.
I haven’t seen any of N4T4s work other than the two pieces at Upfest, so it would be great to see him return next year to lighten up the place.
591. Upfest 2016 (85)
One of the first pieces I saw at Upfest 2016 was in the back garden area of The Steam Crane pub at the eastern end of North Street. These remarkable pigs are by brothers who paint under the name Id-Iom.
Their entry in the Upfest programme reads: “In a nutshell? Determined never again to suffer under the yoke of an oppressive employer, this is the ongoing tale of two brothers who are going to take the world by storm or die trying!”. Well you have to admire their ambition.
Id-Iom have a great WordPress site, and unlike many artists, they keep it very up to date and post their artworks regularly. Well worth a look. I can work out that they might originally be from the Isla of Man, but now operate out of London.
The pigs in this piece remind me of Animal Farm, but that is probably because it is a book that is very front of mind for me at the moment. It is a brilliantly stencilled wall and a piece that really set the standard for Upfest.
It’s a very British thing
Some things are just too
funny; Johnners and Aggers
corpsing still kills me.
by Scooj
- Reminded of a small piece of cricket commentary:
590. Upfest 2016 (84)
One of the largest pieces of Upfest 2016 is this magnificent mural by Odeith. It is located on the same wall where this Thierry Noir pair was painted for Upfest 2015 and it shows vividly how different art pieces can change utterly the character of a wall.
Odeith was one of the festival’s lead artists and one I haven’t written about before, although I think I have seen his work on the Interweb. He is from Damaia in Portugal and has been spraying since the 1980s. Odeith has worked a lot with perspective and shading to create some amazing 3D effect pieces, a style which he called ‘sombre 3D’. This piece, however is something else altogether.
It is brilliant for so many reasons. Firstly it is an extraordinarily lifelike painting of Benny Hill (anyone not know who he is?) and it is technically excellent. Secondly it is hugely topical and relevant, being a commentary on the Brexit vote in the UK. It openly mocks the vote, implying that UK (Plc) is a clown and viewed as such by the rest of Europe, and probably much of the world. I love this wall and all that it says. It is a constant reminder of our national stupidity. As an aside I ought to say that I always rather liked Benny Hill – especially in the Italian Job and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
589. Upfest 2016 (83)
I like 23 Magpie’s work so much that I recently bought a small piece that she was selling through Instagram. It is waiting for a frame, along with several other things that need frames…I really do need to earn a little more money.
As well as her official work, 23 Magpies left a treasure trail of paste ups all around North Street, some of which I have posted on this blog, and others that I have yet to post. I think I may have got them all, but I can’t be sure. This is a fox painted with a design onto sheet music, something that she does quite a lot. It is always a pleasure finding one of these.
Natural adventures 