Sounds of Bristol Pride
cascade across Redland Green;
dogs play joyfully.
by Scooj
2320. St Werburghs tunnel (88)
Another artist who seems to have spent the winter in hibernation is Daz Cat, but he has certainly woken up recently, and this rather uplifting pun-message (have a mice day), and perhaps slightly less uplifting image is a recent piece from St Werburghs Tunnel.
What is interesting about this one is that Daz Cat has shown time and time again that he can paint these great cats, and dogs too sometimes in his wonderful style, but judging from this piece, I think a bit more practice on his mice is needed.
Now that I have started trying to spray paint myself I know how difficult it is so it is perhaps a bit rich for me to be too judging of other’s work. Perhaps this is why theatre critics don’t act or direct.
2319. Dean Lane skate park (231)
It is the shape and style of the letters that give this artist away, it is of course Cort, but he has recently taken to writing PAD, although here it looks like PIADY. There are many things to admire in this piece, which was painted solo, rather than with his friend Laic217.
The two contrasting backgrounds of pink and blue add interest to the piece and the little details such as the red dots and lines and the gold rings are typical motifs used by the artist and ones that make his work so distinctive. Unusual and full of interest.
Delivery
Child-like excitement
a parcel addressed to me
full of spray paint cans.
by Scooj
2318. St Michael’s Hill (4)
Well, well, well this piece by John D’oh caused something of a stir locally, and I shall try and give a brief description of why. It first appeared down a little side lane off St Michael’s hill about three weeks ago. I had spotted it from a bus on my way to work and registered it as one to come back to to photograph. The first lesson here is always take pictures of street art when you see it, because if you wait it will be gone next time you pass by, and this is exactly what happened with this.
The following week I was on my way to five-a-side football and it was still there and I made a mental note of coming back ASAP to take some pictures. On my way home an hour and a half later it had been buffed with white paint.
At pretty much the same time, there was a story on the Bristol Live website that it might be a Banksy, and stories like this always cause a stir. The piece is actually a clever adaptation of a Banksy work painted in Los Angeles entitled ‘Playhouse foreclosure‘. The core elements are the same, but the builder is absent, and the little girl is standing on the other side of the playhouse facing the other way.
The central point of the piece however was to enter into the realms of debate over the copyright of street art. It is critical of the stance taken by Banksy (and his lawyers) who recently won a case against a museum in Milan for selling Banksy Merchandise. Banksy has always had a pretty firm position of being against copyright and intellectual property rights, so this piece is simply highlighting the hypocrisy.
Having said that, this is a really difficult area for street artists and one that causes a lot of lively discussion. I know that John D’oh admires Banksy greatly, and has in the past used Banksy’s work and inspiration for his own work. In this instance I think he is being deliberately provocative to highlight this copyright/ideology minefield.
So how did I get my pictures? Well the great thing about stencils is that they can be used again and again, and within a couple of days, John D’oh had returned and repainted the piece (you can see the white paint that had been used to buff the original). Who buffed it in the first place and why, well we might never know, but all’s well that ends well.
2317. L Dub (1)
So I have two people to thank for pointing me in the direction of this out-of the-way graffiti spot in Lawrence Weston, Paul Harrison and DJPerks, and how fitting that when I got there for the first time, one of the first pieces I saw was by DJPerks himself.
I have met DJPerks a couple of times because he, like Paul and me, does the rounds photographing street art and posting it on Instagram. What I was not quite so clear about, and this is a tribute to his modesty, is that he is an accomplished spray painter too. He has been a bit busy about the place lately and this is a really rather tasty piece.
The writing is good, and the pattern radiating out from a central vanishing point is great. Hats off the DJPerks for this one. What I particularly like is his shout-outs to a whole ton of Bristol artists all around the piece, artists who give him inspiration and encouragement. More to come from DJPerks.
Thursday doors – 11 July
Doors 78 – Dorchester doors (2)
A real rush to get these doors out – 10 minutes between finishing work and going off to play 5-a-side football… so not much of a story here, simply some more doors from a trip to Dorset some three weeks ago.
Sorry for rushing it, but nothing gets between me and my weekly football. Please go take a look at the Norm 2.0 blog – the originator of Thursday Doors where there are links to yet more doors in the comments section at the end.
Have a great end of week and weekend.
Scooj
Think big, start small
Representative
of a changing food landscape;
nature meeting snack
by Scooj
2316. Dean Lane skate park (230)
It is impossible to tire of the beautiful and bold writing of Subtle. This magnificent recent piece in Dean Lane is a perfect example of his writing style that is always so instantly recognisable.
I like the fact that he has taken time to prepare the wall properly and chosen such a magnificent pink/magentafor the letters which are so cleanly painted. As is often the case with his work he has included just a few little highlights on the letters that lift the whole thing up another level. Subtle consistently turns out these superb pieces, which in this case is anything but subtle.
2315. Norrisville Road (3)
Well this is another magnificent mural from Michele Curtis and Paintsmiths in the series of seven saints of St Pauls that celebrates the life of Audley Evans who played a leading role in the Bristol bus boycott, a campaign that overturned a racist ban on hiring black or ethnic minority staff to work on the buses in Bristol in the early 1960s.
There is a rather touching video on the Bristol Live website featuring Audley Evans’ daughter who talks about the mural and her father. The project is a truly inspired one and is a fantastic way of celebrating the great contribution made to the civil rights movement in Bristol by immigrants who arrived in a hostile and racist country, but through their persistence and persuasion made changes that have greatly enhanced our city and country.
Technicaly, this mural is spectacular, and you’d expect nothing less from these amazingly talented artists. The portrait is striking, but it is also the wonderful and vibrant design and beautiful flowers that injects vigour and celebration into the whole piece. Utterly worth a trip to see it.
Natural adventures 