This is an absolutely terrific piece from a Bristol fave, Hazard, and she has really stuck to the brief by painting a piece that links to literature and in this case the Maya Angelou autobiography ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’. I have not read this book, but clearly it is a favourite of the artist, and she has created a beautiful atmosphere of reading with this long wall mural.
What I like about this piece is that it has a real sense of calm about it, from the soft decorative bookends to the gentle light touching the reader’s face, a reader who it utterly absorbed by what she is reading. The piece is in stark contrast to its surroundings but cleverly draws you in so that all you can see is the reader.
I was fortunate enough to meet Hazard for the first time when she was setting up to paint the wall, and I was pleased to discover that she knew about Natural Adventures and had read some of my posts about her work.
I always feel a little embarrassed about striking up a conversation with street artists, because what I do is a little bit niche and consuming and I am prone to being a little bit star-struck on a first meeting. This is an utterly irrational position, because in my experience street and graffiti artists are some of the most down-to-earth and decent people that I know.
I love this Hazard piece.
