This is an interesting work by the very prolific Sepr. I am not too sure what the story is with this, but the pigeon has the ring! The work is immediately adjacent to the Andy Council mural featured in a recent post.

This is an interesting work by the very prolific Sepr. I am not too sure what the story is with this, but the pigeon has the ring! The work is immediately adjacent to the Andy Council mural featured in a recent post.

An evening at
the flicks with the family;
Spectre spectacle
by Scooj
This mural rather dates itself with its portrayal of the obsession of the selfie. I guess it is called ‘I’m taking a selfie’. It is one of several works in the immediate vicinity that have the ASK signature on it.

OK, so I am new to all of this, but it took me quite a while to find out who or what ASK is. It turns out that ASK is a Bristol crew, the acronym stands for After School Klub. As far as I can work out, there are four members of the ASK crew, and they are Epok, Sokem, 3Dom and Sepr. I am not sure which of them is behind this particular work, which is perplexing.

In addition to ASK, some of their individual or collaborative works are tagged with ASK KTF or ASKTF. The KTF is another TLA (Three Letter Acronym) which I understand to be ‘Keeping Things Fresh’. I will feature more of their works soon.
UPDATE June 2016 – There are at least 14 or so members of ASK, but I still don’t know which members are responsible for this piece.
A golden tide sweeps
in and children kick about
having fun; then rest.
by Scooj
I had originally thought that this was an advertising piece, because it is so well proportioned and executed. Of course I was wrong, and have grown fond of the ‘So far so good’ mural by Akarat and Hoax.

Akarat is another Bristol street artist who has emerged from the hip hop and reggae scene. His works usually have some kind of social commentary to them. His favoured techniques would appear to be similar to those used by Nick Walker; stencils and sprays, freehand and rollers. He often collaborates with Hoax another Bristol artist who also enjoys making political statements. I’m not sure why, but Hoax’s signature has been painted over since this was completed.
7/10
While shopping today in an old Bristol department store, Gardiner Haskins, in an area I don’t often visit, I discovered a whole area of street art that I haven’t seen before. So many murals.

I love this Sepr mural ‘no petting’ it is quirky and humorous. He is incredibly prolific in Bristol, and I am pleased to have found this work. More from this area to follow.

8/10
There is a lot of building work going on in the old centre of town, mostly the construction of accommodation blocks for students. Of course this means that there is a fair amount of permitted street art space on the hoardings around the sites.

Andy Council is an artist who lives in Bristol. His works usually incorporate dinosaurs or other animals and architecture, and much of it is about Bristol. You can see his work all over the place, frequently in community spaces that need brightening up. He is also the ‘go to’ designer for all sorts of leaflets and other communications material.

This work painted in 2014 is a typical piece. It is temporary and likely to be gone soon.
During the ‘See no Evil’ event in Bristol in 2012, Conor Harrington dropped over from his native Ireland and painted this mural in his distinctive style. It is called ‘the Duel of Bristol’.

Harrington now lives in and has a studio in East London. Like so many before him, he started off as a graffiti artist, but is now a celebrated muralist gaining worldwide acclaim. There is more about him in this excellent Frankie Beane post.

This mural happens to be located in one of my favourite parts of Bristol, tucked away behind the church of St John the Baptist and through the old city gate – I love the way it is framed by an ancient/modern setting.

8/10
A wife and three girls
desperate for any news;
Daddy please come home
by Scooj
prompted by small notices strapped to lamp posts around Bristol centre this morning.
Standing on the bridge at the bottom of Park Street looking North East, you are treated to the most wonderful stencil by Banksy.

‘Man hanging’ which probably goes by several different names was sprayed in 2006, and led to something of a watershed in a permissive stance from the Bristol City Council regarding what was then called graffiti. There is a lovely article written at the time from the BBC website. How things have come on in relatively few years.

I am fortunate enough to walk past this iconic Banksy twice a day at least, and I am never bored by it. In 2009 the work was attacked with blue paint, calling into question all sorts of difficult conversations about street art and graffiti and vandalism and ‘he had it coming to him for selling out’ etc etc. For me it is just a pity. It seems that with his art, if you are not there in the first day or two, it will get damaged or removed.

9.5/10