Only the crying
gulls break the monotony
of overcast skies.
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.
436. North Street, bus stop at Fairfield Road (2)
This wonderful piece appeared a few days after Upfest had ended, and I guess Feoflip decided to stick around and improve some bare walls. I really love this piece, the soft pastel colours give the piece the look of an illustration. The character looks like it has just walked off the pages of a children’s picture book. I would love to read that story.
Feoflip was unknown to me before Upfest, but I have now seen several of his pieces all over Bristol, and will be sharing them over the coming weeks. He is fast becoming one of my favourite artists. I love the combination of organic and mechanical, it works very well, as with his piece at Ashton Gate School.
The more observant reader may also notice the Gregos mask just to the left of this piece which I wrote about last year.
To Dom
Tears of a grieving
mother, stained in red tribute
where he used to skate.
by Scooj
- I was deeply moved today when I met a lady roughly my age spraying a cardboard stencil tribute to Dom. I stopped to ask her who Dom was. She told me through her tears that he was her son, aged 21, who died two days ago on a basketball court. Too tragic for words. Sometimes life is just so very tough. Such sadness. As a boy Dom used to skate here at Dean Lane skate park.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/university-basketball-captain-died-after-11976867
435. Wilder Street (9)
Just once in a while you see a wall and just go ‘wow’. This was one of those walls. Deamze, Voyder and Soker have collaborated before and seem to really go to town when they do. My only regret posting this is that these pictures really don’t do the wall justice, the pinks are absolutely amazing.
Deamze has a brilliant theme going on with a cartoon character rounding off his moniker. A quick Google search informs me it is from Dexter’s Laboratory – not a cartoon I am familiar with…it’s my age.
Deamze, Wilder Street, Bristol, September 2016
Deamze, Wilder Street, Bristol, September 2016
Voyder is in the middle, as usual, and sprays his signature with those beautiful curving letters. I wonder if their positioning is like the ‘Ant and Dec’ thing where one always has to stand on one side, and the other on the other.
Joining the work of Voyder and Soker is a ‘tweetie pie’, I’m not sure which of them sprayed it, but it spans the two pieces well.
Soker rounds off the triptych with great wildstyle writing that we are used to seeing from such a master. These three pieces together are genuinely breathtaking. Let’s hope these three get together again soon.
To love
Once it’s out it’s out
it can never be contained;
everlasting love.
by Scooj
434. Upfest 2016 (50)
Without question, one of the highlights of this year’s Upfest was this magnificent mural by the fabulous Louis Masai. His works are nearly always highlight threats to the environment or endangered species and on that ticket alone he ranks highly in my own personal favourite artists.
His recent murals have featured animals painted with a patchwork quilt kind of effect, and in this case the rhinoceros is being stitched together by a honey bee and a bumble bee.
Louis Masai, Redpoint, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Louis Masai, Redpoint, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
It is difficult not to be impressed with this work, and not surprisingly Louis Masai’s status in the street art world has grown in the last year or two.
Definitely, definitely in my top five pieces from this year’s festival. It is a pity that it is slightly off the beaten track as many visitors to Upfest will have missed it. The piece is on the Redpoint Bristol Climbing Centre on Winterstoke Road.
It would be great if he could return next year, although I’m not sure he could better this one.
London Underground
.
Pasty faces and
an absence of eye contact;
packed in like sardines.
.
by Scooj
433. Upfest 2016 (49)
Seeing Bristol street artists’ work at Upfest just felt right. In amongst all the exotic invitees to the festival were the artists that put Bristol on the map in the first place. If there wasn’t a street art scene here in the first place then there would be no festival.
This cheeky piece by Kid Crayon is yet another great work by one of my favourite Bristol street artists. I read, I think on KC’s Instagram feed, that he was not happy with the piece and that the sun had played havoc with his spray cans. Havoc or not, KC never fails to please, with his bright colours and Picassoesque ‘blue’ figures. Keep them coming!
Autumn
.
Her calling card dropped
without any compassion
for lingering hope.
.
by Scooj
432. Upfest 2016 (48)
C3 is a street artist I admire very much. The distinctive cut out pasteups C3 produces were very much in evidence at Upfest along the hotly contested spots of North Street. There wasn’t a biography of C3 in the Upfest programme, so I am not certain that the works were entirely official, which in my mind makes them all the better.
The work of C3 will often feature, as in this wheatpaste, a backdrop of newspaper, typically with an image of a woman in black ink and red hair. Instantly recognisable and each telling a story of love or heartbreak. Since seeing C3’s work in Bristol, I have photographed a whole lot more in Shoreditch, which I will share soon. Worth a quick squint at C3’s website too.
Natural adventures 