A routine screening
for signs of bowel cancer
sigmoidoscopy.
by Scooj
* In the UK the NHS offers a bowel cancer screening appointment to all adults at age 55. I had mine today, and thankfully all seems to be ok. It is free screening programmes like this that do so much to protect the health of the nation that are at risk of being ‘privatised’ should we leave Europe without a deal. Trump already has his eyes on our health service, and I am sure he is not alone.
The whole Cheltenham experience was new to me, but I had heard of the Honeybourne Line before I went to visit the town for the Paint Festival earlier this month. This disused railway line is now a beautiful footpath leading from the station into the town centre. The tunnels under a footbridge often play host to street/graffiti art, and the walls are buffed each year for the Festival. I will be posting more pieces from this spot in due course, but this first one is by Thisone.
I have seen (and posted) some of his work from London, but this is the first time I have seen his work away from the capital. His archetypal work is in shades of black and white with an animal or bird as a central character, usually dressed with some jewellery. This curious piece meets all of these criteria, but the beast is an unusual one, looking like a cross between a bird of prey and a rat. I was lucky enough to meet the artist, and will talk more about our encounter when I post his other Festival piece in due course.
In Millennium Square, a cultural centre of Bristol, a new piece by Jody has been commissioned and the piece is riding high on the crest of the wave of enhanced public awareness of environmental issues.
I’m not too sure where the commission has come from, but the subject matters owes an awful lot to the iconic film Jaws (one of course). Instead of an unwitting swimmer, the sea is full of floating plastic and the ‘prey’ a plastic bottle of water. The sad truth behind this sensational and clever piece with a strong message is that it does tell a story of our heavily polluted seas. It is a homage (probably the wrong choice of word) to the Anthropocene epoch. Such a piece of public art could not have even existed a hundred and fifty years ago. What have we done? Nice piece by Jody.
.
In a smoke drenched box
brought from my late father’s flat
a forgotten man.
.
by Scooj
Another rather decent piece by Nightwayss at the St George skate park. I got to this one early in the morning and looking at how unskuffed it is I would think it was probably painted the night before.
Something a little different from Nightwayss, with an interesting background and hollow writing. Of course no piece by this artist is complete without a monkey and this one is rather handsome, beautifully reversed out where his body comes into contact with the letters. Keep ’em coming.
I don’t think these two have stopped all summer, one collaboration after another keeping the walls at Dean Lane skate park lively. The No Frills duo are Slim Pickings on the left and Biers on the right.
Slim Pickings usually paints the letters TES in pretty much exactly the same format every time he hits a wall, but this one is ever so slightly on a slant, like a little touch of italics has been incorporated. Also, I don’t think that the line through the E and S is Slim Pickings’ work, it just feels a little incongruous. Tidy work as usual.
On the right, Biers, who I call Biers because he used to write Biers, has written OYeah, which is what he writes these days, so I suppose I should call him OYeah, but I’m not going to because I call him Biers. No character this time, but it matters not, his writing is so full of character and movement that it is like a character in itself. These two work so well together. I wonder if they share the cost of the paint…
You kindly lingered
longer than you should have done
time to say goodbye.
by Scooj
What a wonderful piece. This is Face 1st at his traditional best. It was pieces like this that first attracted me to the work of this Bristol artist, and although he has diversified his subjects a little this year, this one is right back to his core work and rather comforting for it.
The piece is clean and fresh, it has a crispness about it. The colours in the hair, spelling out FACE, are nicely selected and contrast strongly with the yellow surround. So good to see a piece like this in one of his favourite haunts.
On a ramp at St George skate park is this rather tasty clean and tidy piece by Fiva. I have only been visiting this skate park for about three months and it has yielded so many lovely pieces. The turnover here is quite high, because all the surfaces get pretty scuffed pretty quickly – luckily I got to this one when it was stil pretty fresh.
I am racking up quite a decent collection of pieces by Fiva and this one is a little different from many, with a slightly more forgiving font and softer cloudy background although the whole thing is set on a rather austere blue brick wall background. I like Fiva’s work a lot and always get a bit of a kick out of finding new pieces by him.
Away from the crowds
a scene of tranquillity
untouched by mankind.
by Scooj
Natural adventures 