Well, this is surely one of the more unusual pieces from Hire, that indicates he is enjoying pushing boundaries. When I first encountered his work a few years ago, his USP was his spiky, sharp letters that could poke your eye out if you weren’t careful. Contrast that with this organic green piece spelling HIRE.
Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, August 2024
Each letter resembles a bushy tree with green branches and canopy, in various orientations. The letters are set on a dark conifer woodland silhouette. This is a very nicely considered and executed piece from Hire – connecting with nature.
Recently I have managed to miss out on a couple of Hire pieces, because I have just been too slow, and for some reason, his work has been getting overpainted quite quickly lately. I think it is bad timing on his part more than anything more sinister than that. So I was particularly pleased to catch this one.
Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2024
I have been an enormous fan of Hire’s since the first pieces I saw, many years ago. He consistently turns out brilliant graffiti writing and occasional rabbits to such a high level of precision. In this piece he has used the willing combination of pink and blue to create his HIRE lettering, but what I particularly like here is the interaction between the letters and the brown background, which is impacted by, and augments the letter shapes. Very nice work from Hire.
When I think about Hire’s art, I pretty much always visualise it in Dean Lane, and although he has painted other spots in Bristol, it is his favoured spot. This long piece of graffiti writing spells out ODIAH. I am not sure why Hire sometimes writes the word, and I have checked in Google translate that it isn’t a Polish word – something to ask him next time I see him.
Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, February 2024
Hire has prepped the wall nicely in this writing/character combination piece, creating something that is neat, clean and tidy. I suspect that writing on brick walls is a little easier as the uniformity of the letters can be measured on the brick courses, making things easy on the eye. I have no idea what the panda is all about, but it looks a little menacing, with its eye patch (clever) and broken bottle. It is always good to find Hire’s work, always.
Even when he paints a smaller, simpler piece, Hire puts in admirable effort, and I am not too sure that the words ‘quick one’ come into his vocabulary or thinking. In case it wasn’t obvious enough from the letters, Hire belongs to the BF crew, and occasionally substitutes his HIRE lettering for BF.
Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, November 2023
Starting with the background, Hire pretty much always paints on a prepped wall, to help his letters stand out from the surrounding graffiti ‘noise’. His chrome letters are lifted by the clever use of the green and purple patterning that sits behind them, and the fine white lines bring a little bit of definition to the piece. Fantastic, thoughtful work from Hire and a great shout out to BF.
I was a little lazy with photographing this magnificent fish piece by Hire, and decided to squish through the leaves of a thick hedge, rather than walk round the perimeter of the swimming pool area to get a clean shot.
Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2023
Hire has cleverly disguised his writing BF into the body of a rather fierce looking fish, which isn’t a proper representation of a real creature, rather it is more of an archetypal fish, with an extra dorsal fin. I am always up for some fish graffiti’s although there is something about this one that makes me feel a little uneasy.
It might be the colour palette, I don’t know, but there is something about this piece that instantly grabs you and says ‘hey, I’m special’. Hire’s work will be a familiar to regular readers of Natural Adventures, and he is one of my favourite graffiti artists in Bristol, and I think that what he has done here is exceptional.
Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2023
Three things stand out for me in this piece. The first is the colour selections for the letters and the background and the way they complement each other so well – very pleasing to the eye. The second is the almost imperceptible difference in colour shade used for the H and R, compared with the I and E of his name, so subtle and so clever. Finally, I think that the little squiggles surrounding the letters are brilliant and remind me of a visualisation of Brownian motion. Each of these elements lift the piece from being great to exceptional.
I remember quite clearly the first collaboration I saw between these two artists, and it was also the first time I encountered Hire’s work; it was in Armada place and had a vibrant pink background. That was in April 2017, and both artists have come a long way since then.
Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2023
To the left of the collaboration is a squat HIRE from Hire. There is a softening of the jagged edges he is known for, but other elements of this style are intact, such as the mid-line running through his letters. Two things help this piece stand out, the subtle flame coloured accent lines which give depth to the shadow and the solid white border, so very neat and tidy.
Laic217, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2023
To the right, Laic217 continues his purple patch with this typical skeleton character. As ever, the folds in the fabric of the hoodie and baseball cap are trademark skills that the artist excels at. Interestingly, the skull has an ear, which adds to the intrigue. The piece is brought to life with the red skull badge on the cap, without which the piece simply wouldn’t shout so loudly. This is a fine collaborative wall from the Polish artists.
Laic217 and Hire, Armada Place, Bristol, April 2017
I was lucky enough to run into Hire and Cort when they were painting alongside each other on a rather lovely afternoon a week or two back. You don’t often get to see Hire’s work on this roundabout wall, so it was a pleasant surprise to see him painting there.
Hire, M32 roundabout, Bristol, April 2023
As I would always expect, his piece oozes quality and class. Set on a wonderful blue background, Hire has spelled out HIRE and added a wonderful angry bunny accompaniment. Just in passing, this photograph illustrates the weight of decades of paint that has been plastered on this wall and which ripples and bubbles – at some point large chunks of paint will tumble off the wall under its own weight.
Hire, M32 roundabout, Bristol, April 2023
The letters are outstanding, and their uniformity of design is touching on calligraffiti. Little puffy clouds are intertwined with the letters. Of course, Hire has given us the extra light of a bunny, that is like a mega-tag for the artist.
It is great to see that Hire is getting out a bit more these days. His stunning pieces have been a constant backdrop in Natural Adventures over the last few years, alongside other favourite artists. His work is always beautifully presented, and he appears to take pride in his work, albeit incredibly modestly.
Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, April 2023
This piece spells out BF, which old ‘sieve brain’ here has forgotten despite being told what it stood for, only last week. The letters are crafted in his jagged writing style, tempered with a smoothness that has crept into his work more of late. The red centre and brown shading around the outside complement the work expertly. Imagine what this would look like without the accompaniments. Classy work, and a classy shadowed signature too.
This door at the far end of the skate park gets quite a lot of attention from artists and taggers, and is a candidate for the ‘One Wall‘ series of posts that I do. This time it hosts a lovely rabbit piece from Hire. These are not to be confused with other rabbits that were a common feature in Bristol, until the artist, Eldey (followmyrabbits) was jailed for rape and attempted rape in 2021. Hire’s rabbits were the original Bristol rabbits and have an element of edge to them.
Hire, Dean Lane, Bristol, March 2023
A yellow rabbit on a green door is the stuff of children’s picture books, I had a particular favourite called ‘Go Dog Go’, which features coloured dogs and trees and so on… I digress. This is another fine rabbit from Hire in a long sequence going back to when I first started photographing graffiti and street art in Bristol.
Natural adventures 