Long before Bristol became inundated with Nevergiveup’s jolly bunny rabbits, there were some rather more moody, sinister even, rabbits lurking in dark corners. They were the creation of fellow Polish artist Hire. A little while back, Hire sprayed a few of these at Dean Lane, and this one with those scary eyes was, in my view the pick of the bunch.
Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, October 2018
I haven’t seen any of his work for a little while now, but that is the name of the game… artists, just like the rest of us have peaks and troughs in the spare time they have, and maybe Hire is in one of those troughs. I really do like his rabbits, they have an edge to them.
On sitting down to write a post about this Elvs piece from the M32 roundabout I have come to realise that I know virtually nothing about the artist. I know about his work and love the intricate lettering which usually has a vanishing point somewhere behind the piece, but I have never met him nor do I even know where he comes from. This secrecy is quite common amongst some street artists and is completely understandable… however it does lead to an awful lot of waffle filling the column inches.
Elvs, M32 roundabout, Bristol, January 2019
This particular piece includes some pixels which might be a little nod of recognition to Aspire, but then again it might not. It also looks a little bit like there is a tide line on it, where the bottom third looks a little washed out. This effect is heightened with the wet pathway below the piece. Great work from this DBK artist.
It would appear that Soap is a happy man these days, or at least his mouth motif has a joyous demeanour which may or may not reflect the artist’s own disposition. It is noticeable though that his recent pieces are all a lot more expressive and smiley than some of his older work.
Soap, Lawrence Hill roundabout, Bristol, February 2019
This is a colourful and nicely embellished piece that screams out laughter and fun and is definitely a welcome addition to the rather drab tunnels at Lawrence Hill roundabout. I really like the squiggle decorations around the piece which might be Soap’s original tag. Good work.
I am still struggling a little to find new doors, and haven’t done an awful lot of travelling lately, so I have retreated to my safe heartland of graffiti doors because there is never ever a shortage of them in Bristol.
The featured image door and the ones below are something of a curiosity. They appeared back in January 2017 and were attached to some walls in what I thought at the time was an effort to disrupt the work of street/graffiti artists, but I think that they might have been a part of a campaign about homelessness. Either way, they introduced a new dynamic to the Bristol scene and presented a challenge to local artists. The doors remained in situ for many months before disappearing as quickly as they had appeared.
Doors on a Wall, Moon Street, Bristol, January 2017Doors on a wall embellished by Ryder sitting over a Mr Klue piece, Bristol, January 2017
The next few doors are classic graffiti doors in Bristol:
Coin-Op Militia, Mr Klue and DNT, Stokes Croft, Bristol, January 2017
Spot the cat…
Door, Leonard Lane, Bristol, January 2018Heavily tagged door, Stokes Croft, Bristol, November 2017
So that’s your lot for this week, I wish you all the very best until next Thursday.
I guess that Big Bird from Sesame Street is known to pretty much all of us who might have been watching TV since 1969, and here is a terrific tribute by Rezwonk to the Jim Henson creation on an end wall of one of the tunnels on the Lawrence Hill roundabout.
Rezwonk, Lawrence Hill, Bristol, February 2019
The backdrop to Big Bird is a spread of Rezwonk icons, these with smilie faces on them. It’s funny, but it doesn’t seem logical to put a yellow subject on a yellow background, but somehow in this piece Rezwonk carries it off perfectly. I love this piece in one of the newer spots to me. It’ll be interesting to see how long it lasts, as I don’t yet have a feel for the turnover of work here.
How is it possible that I can still keep finding Laic217 pieces in my archive? This one is from October last year on the M32 cycle path but probably didn’t get published immediately on account of the poor light quality. This particular wall is very hard to photograph without getting flaring from the sun or bright sky behind it. So much about photographing street art is dependent on light quality and time of day – I get it wrong too often, but with a full-time job I am rather constrained in the times I get to go out.
Laic217, M32 cycle path, Bristol, October 2018
I rarely say this about Laic217’s work, but in my view this is not his best. The shirt material is exceptional , but I am just not sure about the face. I think a partially decomposed face is probably very difficult to do and the teeth and nose don’t quite seem right. Having said that it’s all still pretty good and utterly likeable. Will I be able to dig out some more oldies from Laic217…?