A masterful book, and I am very excited about seeing the film tonight. As a quiet and sensitive boy, I found myself and gained confidence through observing and becoming knowledgable about nature – a ‘nature boy’. I identified with some aspects of Kya and the way she absorbs herself in her environment, her habitat, while shutting out the rest of the world. The similarities end there.
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.
Hazard, Paint Festival 2019, Cheltenham, September 2019
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.
Hazard, Paint Festival 2019, Cheltenham, September 2019
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.
Often humorous and always tinged with a bit of edge, John D’oh’s stencils can be found on walls all around Bristol (and Cheltenham) and of course at Upfest. This year’s ‘official’ piece was a double-header, the first part of which was a witty corruption of the Infinite Monkey Theory.
John D’oh, Upfest, Bristol, July 2018
The second board is another pithy pop at Brexit, featuring Noel Edmond’s Deal or no Deal as its headline. I absolutely love these topical political stencils, and look forward to his injects about the place.
Street art and Graffiti, John D’oh, Bristol, October 2018
Coincidentally, his new book arrived yesterday and I can’t recommend highly it enough, it is one of the best graffiti/street art books that I have read in a while, intelligently written and full of photographs and commentary on his own work. Brilliant.
Natural adventures 