First published in May 2015, I felt this haiku deserved a repost. I had kingfishers on my mind.
Slow lowland rivers,
pulling nets for a living,
those halcyon days.
by Scooj
Tag: fish
2569. New Stadium Road (21)
Another fine collaboration, this time from Conrico and Crafty Cicada, with a strong oriental theme going on. While I have posted many pieces by Conrico, this is the first from Crafty Cicada who I can only presume was on a visit to Bristol and kindly left us this beautiful work.
The left hand side of the collaboration is unmistakably by Conrico and as always is more than just a piece of artwork because his work always has such a strong narrative, a story going on. In this piece a cartoon character is serenely sitting cross-legged, as if meditating on the back of a very large catfish – so what’s the story?
The other half of this collaboration by Crafty Cicada is an altogether more stylised with a fish (of unknown genus and species), a rising sun, some bamboo and some Japanese Kanji characters. There is a peace and tranquility here, and on seeing this, I would be very interested to see more from the artist.
A lovely and unexpected collaboration on a wall favoured by Conrico.
2006. Millpond Street (6)
It is great to see yet another EAT crew piece on this exclusive wall on the side of Domestic Drain Services. Their last piece has been over sprayed in what feels like the blink of an eye because it had suffered from being getting rasined on, and the paint had not stuck to the wall leaving behind a bit of a mess (one that I liked incidentally, but there we go).
EAT are of course SPZero76 and Kid Crayon who have formed a joyous partnership bringing together their contrasting styles in a seemingly effortless way. SPZero76 has a sharp clean and highly detailed style and Kid Crayon a much softer, rounded and organic style, each one exemplified by the writing in the middle of the piece.
On the left of the collaboration are a couple of characters chilling out to some music and using some spray paint – SPZero76 has replaced the ’94’ on the spray can with a ’76’. I am guessing that the 76 in SPZero’s name relates to the year of his birth, it would kind of make sense.
On the right is a character (is it a self-portrait?) also spraying and in his rucksack along with his roller and spray can is a fish. I do very much like Kid Crayon’s obsession with fish…it is something I can relate to. All in all this is a fun piece and more than makes up for the loss of its predecessor.
1714. Upfest 2018 (39)
The artist for this piece is Rosie McLay, not to be confused with Muffin Mclay the old English sheepdog in the brilliant book ‘Hairy Mclary from Donaldson’s Dairy’ by Lynley Dodd. I digress. Rosie is a graduate of UWE in Bristol where she studied drawing and applied arts. There is more about her in this interesting short interview on the ‘Sky Light Rain’ website
Her piece for Upfest of course appeals to me because it is centered on a fish, and some readers might know that fish hold considerable significance for me. I love her sketch style and there are some interesting concepts to the piece, the bones in the mouth of the fish and a hand emerging by the tail and a skyline along the base of the piece, I would love to know the back-story to this one. Great work from Rosie McLay.
1639. Upfest 2018 (1)
I thought I’d kick off Upfest 2018 with one of the highlight walls of the festival which speaks volumes to me (a marine biologist by training), and really brightened things up.
One of the less celebrated, but nonetheless special, walls at Upfest is this side street, Mount Pleasant Terrace, just off North Street. Previous occupiers of this wall have been Sokar Uno (2016) and My Dog Sighs and Snub 23 (2017), so it has a great pedigree. This year the mural went big, spreading beyond the first floor and covering the entire end of row wall.
At first glance it might not be obvious that this is a Louis Masai piece, but a closer inspection gives away some of the tell tale signs, such as a patchwork turtle, and of course a signature!
I was pretty spaced out at the festival, absorbing so much visual information but not really seeing things right in front of me – sensory overload if you like. I didn’t take a proper look at the wall until the scaffolding was down a couple of days later and then it hit me, this is a brilliant piece by Louis Masai.
There is so much to look at in this coral reef scene, but of course it comes with an environmental message, and there floating around the reef are a couple of Tesco bags, which once seen can’t be unseen.
I love the way that he entered into the spirit of the Simpsons theme of the festival and presented us with a cartoon mutant fish with three eyes gawkily cruising across the reef. Some serious messages interspersed with a bit of fun. A great piece to start with. Hats off to Louis Masai.
1478. The Bearpit (144)
In recent months I have become aware of a tag appearing all over the place, that is better than your average tag, and of course being a fish it gets my seal of approval. I have no idea who it is by, but I think they might belong to DBK crew, as those letters are never too far away.
The first of four tags was in The Bearpit not too long ago. Lots of drug references here.
I am not too sure what the letters spell, but to me it looks like ‘SOA’ and then I guess it is possible that the tail fin is also a letter.
As with all tags, the graffiti artist has got the consistency down to a T and can probably run one off pretty swiftly.
As I am writing this, It occurs to me that the whole thing says SOAK, and that the fish tail does form a letter, the letter K. Soak is a graffiti artist in Bristol who I featured not too long ago. It all makes sense now.
1405. Jardins de les Tres Xemeneies, Barcelona (2)
Once again I find myself in unfamiliar territory presenting a beautiful collaboration in Barcelona without knowing a single thing about it. Writing about street art away from home is a challenging enterprise and one that requires research time that I have difficulty freeing up. I seem to be much happier improvising my copy when writing about Bristol street art. What I am clumsily saying is that I am way out of my comfort zone with this one.
Firstly I goofed taking pictures of this collaboration between ‘Bumble and Worm’ and Meisone – I don’t have an image with both of the fish side by side. My bad.
The fish on the left is by Bumble and Worm who are Sarah Charlotte Watson and and David Goode Hill, who I think are a couple and collaborate as B&W. They are from Mallorca, although they sound like expats to me.
The fish on the right is by Meisone, a Chilean artist living in Barcelona. Regular readers will know that I am particularly partial to fish street art, tapping into my marine biologist roots, and this collaboration ticks all my boxes.
