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.
on the not entirely unexpected news that Arsene Wenger will be leaving My beloved Arsenal Football Club at the end of the season. As one who remembers some dire football before he arrived, I cannot thank him enough. The pride of North London.
Ugar is a promising young artist, originally from Budapest but now living in Bristol, whose unique style of writing is getting better and better. It is the organic nature of his letters and the kind of marbelling effect he uses to fill them that stands out in his work.
Ugar, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2018
This piece , which is really rather beautiful, is on the curved wall at Dean Lane and has been well prepped and uses the wall to its full potential – not all work here is afforded the same thoughtful approach. I am enjoying watching Ugar develop.
Well this rather ‘charming’ installation appeared only a couple of weeks ago in The Bearpit, on the inner wall of the ‘Debenhams’ tunnel. It is of course by Will Coles, whose work often has the capacity to lampoon and also to offend. I don’t think there will be too many people offended by this particular piece.
Will Coles, The Bearpit, Bristol, April 2018
President Trumpety Dumpety throwing up the Stars and Stripes laced with warheads pretty much says all it needs to really. Another provocative piece by this interesting artist. Sadly, I visited The Bearpit a few days ago, and somebody had removed the piece in its entirety. May I recommedn stronger glue? Great stuff from Will Coles.
This is a really terrible picture of a quickie from Decay on the left and trademark ‘SEISMIC’ from Jee See on the right. It is always geat to see work from both of these two artists, whose work is stylistically quite different. I am really enjoying these small character type pieced from Decay at the moment.
Decay, The Bearpit, Bristol, April 2018
This board in The Bearpit has since been prepped and replaced with new work sprayed during a paint jam on 14 April 2018 – more on this to follow.
Moon Street remains one of my favourite street art/graffiti hunting grounds, because it still has that ‘illegal’ wall feel about it. I find the ‘legal wall’ concept a difficult one to get my head round. This is a nice straight forward piece by Smak, certainly nothing fancy like he is capable of, but nonetheless it is clean and tidy.
Smak, Moon Street, Bristol, March 2018
When I spoke with him a little while back he told me that he likes to find different walls in new places. I’m not sure this qualifies in that category, but I am pleased he still chooses to return to walls he has sprayed before.
About 18 months ago I was on a secondment with my work, and spent two days a week in Westminster. This gave me the opportunity to reacquaint myself with parts of London as a visitor, rather than as a Londoner, which I am originally, having been brought up in North London. I left in my twenties, lived in different parts of the country and abroad and have been settled in Bristol now for about 26 years or so.
The great thing about seeing things through a visitor’s eyes is that nothing is ignored or taken for granted, every small detail examined and logged. It is so easy to miss that with which you are most familiar.
So…to the door. This door is in the wall surrounding Westminster Abbey garden, a door which most people simply walk past. For me it is not the wood or hinges, or even the sombre utilitarian sign that holds the interest, but it is the surrounding doorway, the mix of stonework and the way it is keyed into the wall itself that I am attracted to. Of course, there is also the mystery…What lies beyond? Who goes there? How can you get in?
You can’t turn your back for one minute in Stokes Croft. If you do, you run the risk of missing out on a clean piece of artwork. This wonderful surreal piece by Tom Miller had only been up a day or two before being tagged over. I find it strange that the perpetraters respected the work enough to tag the black surround, but left the central part largely untouched. Either respect the piece or don’t, but this faux politeness is a joke.
Tom Miller, Stokes Croft, Bristol, March 2018
Once again Tom Miller challenges our conventional world with a burst of colour and a figure whose head appears to be exploding off its body. I think that Miller has an unbelievable talent and extraordinary imagination. Best of all, I like it that he uses the streets as a gallery so that Bristol citizens have free access to his talents.
Tom Miller, Stokes Croft, Bristol, March 2018
Although his subject matter might not be to everyone’s taste, it is clear that we are witnessing the emergence and development of a very special talent.