.
delicate flower
beautiful beyond compare
yet beauty deceives
as you spread your roots and leaves
you’ll not be mine celandine
.
by Scooj
.
delicate flower
beautiful beyond compare
yet beauty deceives
as you spread your roots and leaves
you’ll not be mine celandine
.
by Scooj
I really enjoy the political edge that street art brings to us, and one artist more than any other in Bristol, challenges the status quo and presents us with philosophical and political thoughts. ObjectØØØ.

It is a while since I posted anything from the arches of the Carriageworks, but things have become busy there recently. This piece by ObjectØØØ is of an organic robotic creature and carries a stark warning:
‘As all these incredible new technologies come online, who benefits? The warmongers and profiteers. Maybe technology can save us, but not in the hands of self-serving elites…‘

This is ObjectØØØ in full flow and at his creative best. Full of rage, anger and passion. I love this piece. RESIST.

I include these pieces by Mr Draws, because they represent a strong reference point for the role street/graffiti art play in social commentary. In Bristol, and I imagine in cities all over the World, we face changes to our local communities happening at a rate faster than ever before. Globalisation and the advent of the Interweb have driven change, and along with the ‘progress’ this affords us, it also brings with it casualties.

The Bearpit sits at the end of the A38 (Cheltenham Road/Stokes Croft/Gloucester Road), which is famed for being one of the longest continuous ‘independent’ high streets in Britain. This is a claim that is disputable since a number of supermarket chains and coffee shops have moved in. As independent shops have struggled with the economic downturn, their premises have been bought up by supermarket ‘local’ outlets and by global coffee chains. It is this ‘changing of the guard’ that vexes so many citizens, particularly in a fiercely independent part of a fiercely independent city.

As for the works themselves, these are quick pieces from an artist normally associated with his stylised mountains. I like this political twist to his work which is becoming more and more creative as time goes on.

A week wouldn’t feel like a week without posting a piece by Laic217, and his productivity shown no signs of slowing down.

This piece is from about a month ago and was situated on the West underpass into The Bearpit. Several of Laic217’s favourite motifs are present in this work;the bucket hat, an alien, weed, smileys and a face distorted, this time in watery reflections. A nice piece from the master of freehand graffiti art.
Same place, same artist – here is another reasonably recent piece by Deamze in one of his favoured spots. This is one of his monochrome pieces, which is in the wildstyle plus cartoon character theme that he often adopts.

His monochrome works are really clever, using only shading and black to create a fully functional piece. A bit like watching black and white TV…remember that?

I have no idea who this cartoon character is but can be pretty sure that Deamze has done it justice.
At four forty nine
the stairs creak and I wake up
a nightmare enters.
by Scooj
This was a piece I photographed back in December, and most unlike me I let it slip away…unusual because I am a big fan of Sled One. This is a nice wildstyle piece tucked away in the St Pauls/St Werburghs border, close to the M32.

With a bit of getting your eye in, you should be able to read the word SLED, as well as a small crew tag ‘ASK’. Sled One’s work seems to have such confidence in technique, often combining several different spray effects in one piece. In this example we have strong, hard, angular lines combining with curvy softer lines and misting around the edges together with some black and yellow decoration which one would think would ruin the piece, but in fact complements it perfectly. It is always a pleasure to post his work.

It is clear that Deamze really favours this spot for his pieces, and I have seen several different ones here over the last few months. This is a bright piece, in his typical widlstyle format, with a character popping up at the end. In this case it is a beautiful Felix the Cat.

I admire very much the way Deamze recreates cartoon characters with such accuracy and sharpness, and his range seems to have no boundaries. All good really.

.
Heavy with blossom
ornamental cherry trees
provide welcome shade.
.
by Scooj
On one of my walks a while back, I took a little detour away from the M32 cycle path, and what a good thing to. I came across this amazing spider by Andy Council. I think that it is one of his older pieces in Bristol, and since I took this picture has been almost entirely obscured by the bins adjacent to it.

Andy Council’s work is possibly the most recognisable in Bristol, and he obviously commands respect on the streets as his pieces have incredible longevity and are rarely tagged.

The spider contains local landmarks, including a nearby mosque. Another classy detail is the web etched into the filth on the wall around the spider. Consistently great work.