Bubbling over with
enthusiasm, new hope
and creative joy.
by Scooj
Tag: Street art
2240. Upfest 2018 (142)
One of my biggest regrets of Upfest 2018 is that there were a few outstanding pieces that I never saw in their finished state, including this perfect collaboration between Braga Last1 and Kowse.
I’m afraid you’ll have to make do with work in progress shots as that is all I have (first world problems huh?), but I think you get the idea of just how great this piece is even from these pictures. Braga Last1 has been a regular at Upfest and always turns out brilliant work, quite often containing a self-portrait. Kowse’s other piece at Upfest 2018 I think was probably my favourite of the whole festival, so having these two together is a dreamy collaboration.
There are several oblique references to The Simpsons in this piece, the Homer skull, Krusty haircut and clown’s nose and a Simpsons fish… there may be more. All in all a wonderful collaboration from two extremely talented artists.
2239. Upfest 2018 (141)
So it has been a while, and since there isn’t an Upfest festival this year, I am going to have to post another series of pictures from Upfest 2018 (there are still so many more waiting) starting with this utterly awesome piece by Insane51.
This extraordinary artist from Greece specialises in 3D street art and has created dozens of huge pieces which look fuzzy because they are double images, but when viewed through the red and blue specs stand out from the wall in good old-fashioned 3D.
This particular piece went up over about three or four days and was impressive enough in its halfway stage when the female portrait was complete. Insane51 then added the blue skeleton layer to the piece. The magic really happens when you view the whole thing through 3D specs one eye at a time. Rather helpfully, Insane51 did the job for us on his Instagram feed.
Definitely one of the finest walls at last year’s festival and a real crowd-pleaser. I got rather lucky and managed to grab a few words with him and during the course of our conversation he gave me a little goody bag of some stickers and the essential cardboard specs. It would be great to see him return again and wow us with his extraordinary talents.
2238. Dean Lane skate park (214)
Strictly speaking this is not actually Dean Lane skate park, but is actually a Dental surgery on the corner where North Street and Dean Lane meet, it is however, adjacent to the skate park. Over the last year or two this whole wall has become progressively grubby as taggers started a job that then moved on to rather useless throw ups. Something had to be done.
I was down at the Deaner a couple of weeks ago and was lucky enough to run into Nina Raines and Ali Hamish Campbell who were just finishing off this fun commission for the dental surgery. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of what it looked like before, but this is a dramatic improvement, and just demonstrates how uplifting great street art can be.
Nina told me that she designed the piece (she is a scenic artist) and the pair of them collaborated to paint it, Nina drawing on Ali’s experience of using spray paint. Overall this is a really nice commission, and hats off to the dental practice for making it happen. A win-win situation.
2237. M32 Cycle path (27)
Another tremendous piece of writing from Smak along the M32 cycle path from a few weeks back. In some of his more recent pieces I have noticed that he is going for this style of blocking out letters in different ways, along similar lines to SkyHigh, and here, the M and A in particular are outstanding.
All the letters are blended and yet individual, clever work, but for me the jewel in the crown is the box around the A and circle around the M which make this piece extra special. I had difficulty photographing this piece, because it was very bright every time I visited, and the way the light falls in this alleyway makes photography really tricky. Yet another outstanding work from Smak.
2236. Dean Lane skate park (213)
Tight. That is the best word that I can think of to describe this amazing piece of wildstyle writing from Dibz. He is the master of executing the most complex of pieces from the sketches and drafts in his black book. This wall was painted in the very good company of Cheo (to the left) and was nicely prepped with the brick-red wash which offers a very clean finish to this work.
With a vanishing point adopted for the shadowing, the piece stands out really nicely and the blue background adds interest and depth. I don’t think I have ever seen a piece from Dibz that isn’t technically excellent.
2235. M32 Spot (41)
Silent Hobo manages consistently to paint these amazing character pieces on the tall thin upright concrete pillars under the M32 motorway. This latest arrival of a Bristol youth gathering is wearing a yellow t-shirt overa shirt with collar (is that a thing?). Best of all is his fetching Jacques Cousteau red woolly hat – I want one of those… really.
You can just about make out another Silent Hobo character on the adjacent side of this pillar that I posted a little while back. I know I’ve said it pretty much every time I write about Silent Hobo, but he is brilliant at capturing a youth mood, without glamourising it. These are not ‘snowflakes’ but ordinary urban people caring about ordinary urban things, like in this case music (base head) and probably drum and bass at that. Always great to see a New Silent Hobo piece. I believe he has done some cricket world cup pieces in milennium square… I’ll have to take a look.
2234. North Street
Well, this picture is a bit on the slant isn’t it? Such was my excitement at just admiring this incredible piece by Loch Ness, my photography skills went to pot. Sorry about that. Loch Ness is a bit of a specialist at these long walls, managing to create a psychadelic journey through an unintelligible story, but a story nonetheless.
I think that there is a bit of a climate change and biodiversity story going on. A bird on a healthy tree to the left seems to be interacting with the central bear character. On the right some buildings and clouds, maybe representing emissions, take the eye to a dead or dying woodland.
I will be forever indebted to Loch Ness for the two hour spray paint lesson he gave me in May 2018. From that he gave me the confidence to buy my own cans and give it a go. My experimenting so far has been tricky – this is a whole lot harder than it looks – but enormous fun. I am mostly getting used to the pressure and the caps and thinking about layers for cutting in. I’m also having fun sketching out drafts and ideas, which from a non-artist is rather fulfilling. Thank you Loch Ness.
2233. The Bearpit (182)
Always lighthearted, the work of Nevla is instantly recognisable by his cartoon style and minimal use of colours. Often although not always, his pieces are on the small side and generally speaking are simply sprayed ove other stuff, a bit like a throw up really. To give the piece a bit of defiition he goes round the whole thing with a thick colour line, in this example it is a blue line.
I don’t know if his caption ‘soul contact’ is a wordplay on ‘sole contact’ or not, but it kind of works. His whole style feels very free, and looks like it would be equally at home on the page of a sketch pad as it is on The Bearpit wall. Great to see that some artists are still painting this spot, in spite of a council clampdown.
2232. Moon Street (71)
For the last 11 years there has been a rather mad festival centered around the Stokes Croft area called RaveOnAvon. It is frankly a bit of a booze, drugs and music party that is focussed on three or four live music venues but spills out onto the streets from dusk until dawn. You simply would not believe the mess the following morning. The links between graffiti art and the Bristol music scene are close, and this rather funky piece by Jaksta rather emphasises the point.
You know you are getting old when one of your children actually goes to an event such as this one. I didn’t ask too many questions. Jaksta, a member of the RAW crew, is a brilliant character artist and creates these wonderful exaggerated bodies ina cartoon style that never disappoints. It is also great to see something decent appear on this particular bit of hoarding, because recently it has been a bit trashy.
This was the last RaveOnAvon ever, because most of the music venues’ days are numbered. They are due to be demolished soon to make way for… da da daah… student accommodations. Gentrification will rob us of a major strand of Bristol culture and provide housing, not for those that really need it, but for the ever-growing student population in Bristol. Of course, students need to live somewhere, but I fear this particular growth bubble will burst, and maybe then affordable housing will become available.
Natural adventures 