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It is the best day
when swifts announce their return
invisible cries
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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.
6917. Stokes Croft
There are some newish hoardings at the bottom end of Stokes Croft, as the gentrification of the area once more picks up momentum. Kid Krishna has, as you would expect, pounced on these blank canvasses, but he left this space for Hemper, and what a banging piece it is too.
Overall, the piece has a copper metallic feel to it, with the highly illustrated letters spelling out HEMS. The piece is obviously an homage to DJing and to sound systems, perhaps a reference to the Blue Mountain Club that was knocked down behind these hoardings. There is too much to describe in this sensational piece, so perhaps the best way to enjoy it is to spend a moment looking at each element of it.
Of course, you can take a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. These two are symptomatic of the world we live in, where shutting yourself off and hiding behind headphones is the norm – no effort required, no thought given to exploring the world right in front of your eyes. C’est la vie I suppose.
6916. Dean Lane skate park (830)
Painted on one of Bristol’s most iconic walls, the curved wall in Dean Lane skate park, this is a birthday tribute piece to Soker by Dibz. Pieces like this have the capacity to confuse, because the letters do not spell the artist’s name, and I have in the past misidentified pieces because of it.
Dibz really is a master of graffiti writing and is at the top of his game, something he has maintained for such a long time now, without any dip in form. The letters are filled with a solid black fill, and finely written ’50s’ indicating it was Soker’s 50th birthday. Great to see one of Dibz’ small signature tags in red at the top right too. Excellent work, and a fine birthday tribute.
Hourglass
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How much time is left
I ponder on it often
unhealthy pursuit
.
by Scooj
- written at 5.40 this morning when I awoke and had trouble getting back to sleep.
6915. Stapleton Road
In terms of content, Nice One is one of the most dynamic artists in Bristol, he has created characters, landscapes, animals and here he offers up a dust cart, I mean… who’d have thought it?
The piece reminds me very much of Merny’s trucks and cars, in so much as the style is quite naive, with some interesting wheels for example. I love this piece, it is just so unusual, but demonstrates Nice One’s love for art and creativity in his inimitable style. I also love it that he kind of ‘owns’ this hoarding, like it is his private gallery.
6914. St Werburghs tunnel (495)
This is an interesting wall at the entrance to St Werburghs tunnel. It is a space that can be filled with one or two or even more pieces, because of its length. There is a bit of a difficulty with the full length pieces, like this beauty from Mr Draws, and that is there is quite a bit of street furniture in the way that makes it a little challenging to photograph.
The spot also suffers from shading on sunny days, so being there at the right time is quite important. On the day I took these pictures, it was dazzlingly bright, indicative of the remarkable spring we are enjoying. Mr Draws has written his joined up letters DRAWS with a very nice horizontal striped fill pattern of magenta, turquoise, blue and yellow, which works remarkably well. The letters are broken up with a shower of ‘leopard’ spots, which offer a really interesting texture to the piece. There are some nice drips too. This is a really good large piece from Mr Draws, no messing.
Shipley Glen
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High above Saltaire
where Victorians played
wildlife thrives in peace
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6913. M32 roundabout J3 (678)
This piece is from another out-of-towner, Eatz, the second post featuring a visitor in a row, which is one of the wonderful aspects of Bristol street art. Because Bristol is nationally and internationally known for its street art and graffiti culture, and its most famous contemporary son, Banksy, a lot of artists from about the place will visit and drop a piece while they are here.
Eatz has created a rather interesting monster, with multiple eyes and a hand holding a glowing stick of some kind, emerging from a puddle of blackness. Lots of great colours and a bit of a story behind this alien in a spacesuit. The piece was painted alongside a Lupa piece, and I wonder whether they are friends/acquaintances, or whether they met of the first time as part of the paint jam.
6912. Cumberland Basin
I love this kind of slightly unconventional, not quite anti-style, unconventional graffiti writing, which, although it looks a bit scruffy is actually technically really well thought out, designed and pulled together.
It was painted as part of a large collaboration, with each piece sharing a common background and base colours, but each with its own unique style. I know nothing of Rozda, the artist, so would guess that they were in Bristol as a visitor for this paint jam. I like this a lot.
6911. St Werburghs tunnel (494)
Mr Klue has been on fire this year and has continued to paint his ephemeral pieces in the tunnel on an alarmingly regular basis. In my view, this is a very good thing indeed, because I like his unique style, and watching him paint gives me an appreciation of how deliberate each ‘brush stroke’ is in his pieces. His work may look random, but it is based around the form of the letters KLUE, and the shading and colour patterns are carefully thought through.
As far as I can make out, Mr Klue paints each piece in a freestyle way, meaning that he doesn’t paint from a black book, but rather from the heart in a well-rehearsed, but improvised way, if that makes sense. The white and lavender colours gives this one a lightness of touch, and the subtle lime green tints on some of the edges, adds depth and rounds things off nicely. So much more to come from Mr Klue.
Natural adventures 