Mind 49 has always been an activist, and although his art has mellowed in recent years, his principles are still very much intact. This anti-war piece is striking, poignant and beautifully presented.
Mind 49, St Werburghs, Bristol, July 2025
Skulls are a common motif/subject in street art and this is one of the very best examples I have ever seen. Mind 49 has captured the tones, shading and depth perfectly. Strangely, the helmet almost seems as though it is painted by a completely different artist. It is lacking in detail, the perspective is slightly out and the flags a bit untidy. I don’t know why this is, whether it is a deliberate device or that Mind 49 has absolutely cracked the skull and needs to work on helmets. It is a mystery.
The message to take home is clear. ‘Destroy the war machine’, which is directed at the UK, the USA and Israel. I could go into a long and thoughtful essay about the war in Palestine, and the impotence of voices that want an end to the killing and suffering. History will not look favourably on the genocide and the parallels with WWII concentration camps and justifications for extermination. Can’t people see the paradox? I’ll stop there. It upsets me too much.
Totosoapcity, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2024
Every once in a while I take a trip through my archives and spot pieces that I failed to post first time round, and give them a second chance. This is a piece by Totosoapcity from a year ago, July 2024, before I knew his name, which is why I probably didn’t post it then.
Totosoapcity, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, July 2024
All of Totosoapcity’s pieces are instantly recognisable, because of the shape of his letters, which is quite unique, and doesn’t seem to deviate too much from piece to piece. I think the letters spell ARSA, with the ‘S’ reversed. In this piece he has gone form the trusty pink and blue combination with a cream and red striped drop shadow and red border with decorations. Decent, unusual and distinctive writing. Watch this space for more of his work from my archives.
I can’t think how many times Dibz and Fade have teamed up in the last couple of years, but it must be into dozens, and this piece shows the true nature of total collaboration, where both artists created this incredible work together, and it isn’t possible to know who painted what. Lots of crew shout-outs are scattered around the outside of the piece in pink. Wildstyle writing at its best.
The piece spells out, rather appropriately, ‘Wild Style Addicts’ which probably sums up these two rather well. The gold and purple colours complement one another well, and it all looks very neat and tidy on the black wall.
I will have mentioned that Zinso has been rather busy of late, and also that he appears to be relatively new to Bristol. How wrong am I? I was looking through archives and noticed that I have posted pieces by the artist way back in 2019 and 2020, but those were character pieces and not writing. I can’t believe that in the intervening years I haven’t noticed his work, so have to assume that he has found a new burst of energy and time recently
Zinso, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2025
This is a rather neat piece of bubble writing with a really deep 3D drop shadow, lifting the piece nicely off the wall. The piece is really nicely finished and greatly superior to most bubble writing that I see, that is usually associated with quick throw ups. Loads more to come soon, and below are a couple of his pieces from a few years ago.
I wish I had photographed this piece before it got tagged up at the base, because it is another truly classy column piece by Silent Hobo underneath the M32. I have noticed that many of Silent Hobo’s recent pieces have a rather melancholic tone, and I wonder if he is expressing himself through his art and the stories it tells.
Silent Hobo, M32 Spot, Bristol, June 2025
In this piece, a young man is looking rather sad, and has a wooden stake piercing his heart. I would interpret this as being heartbroken, but perhaps I am reading too much into it. What I can say is that Silent Hobo’s portrayal of Bristol youth and their preoccupations and joys is unparalleled.
These are three small boards outside a café on Narrow Quay, which I assume are commissions, or at the very least, permitted by the establishment. The artist is #DFTE and illustrate perfectly his philosophical musings delivered in his singular letter style with plenty of drips.
#DFTE, Narrow Quay, Bristol, June 2025
The first declares “love you too” presumably in response to a statement. The second is s little more challenging, and is perhaps a great reflective motto, “Don’t believe everything you think.
#DFTE, Narrow Quay, Bristol, June 2025
The third board in this trio, “Your anxiety is lying to you” is, I think trying to be helpful, but to anyone who suffers from anxiety, it probably just confuses and upsets – I can imagine tying oneself in knots over that statement. These original pieces represent a great way of integrating street art into our everyday lives. Nice work from #DFTE.
Doors 317 – Doors of Godalming, Surrey, March 2025 (Part III)
A quick one this morning as I haven’t left myself much time to write. This is the third selection of doors from Godalming, a small town in deepest Surrey, a place that on the face of it is reasonably affluent, and definitely has some lovely buildings dotted about the place. I hope you enjoy these doors:
Blue door and high chimney stacks, Church Street, Godalming, March 2025Yellow door, Church Street, Godalming, March 2025Blue door and covered passage, Church Street, Godalming, March 2025Door with large hinges to St Peter and St Parl’s church, Church Street, Godalming, March 2025A pair of inset doors, Church Street, Godalming, March 2025A rather nice blue door with fanlight and lamp, Church Street, Godalming, March 2025Unusual wide and low door, High Street, Godalming, March 2025A classy old studded door, High Street, Godalming, March 2025Shopfronts and doors in the early evening, but it is those windows that are really special, High Street, Godalming, March 2025
I rather like this selection of doors and the range of periods, but that last building is a beauty in my view. Here is an excerpt from a website called Geograph, about the building:
Godalming High Street: Nos. 74-76
I was puzzled by this building. A date-stone says 1663, but at first glance I thought that unlikely – probably because I was taken in by the honeycomb glazing bars.
Later, dipping into the Surrey volume of ‘The Buildings of England’ I found Ian Nairn having one of his rants: ‘Nos. 74-76 . . . coming right at the end of the C17 Artisan tradition of brickwork in Surrey, and a deplorable end too . . . All sense of proportion, and even of picturesque outline, is gone’. He makes the useful point that the window design is of 18th century origin – lifted from one of Batty Langley’s pattern books.
Nairn goes on to concede that (along with No. 80, somewhat similar) Nos. 74-76 are ‘good fun to have in a town’ – even if they lack architectural merit. My own view would be that brick-built structures dating from the 1660s are pretty rare in a small-town context, and we should be grateful for those that survive.
So That’s it for this week, more to come from Godalming next time.
If you have made it this far, you probably like doors, and you really ought to take a look at the No Facilities blog by Dan Anton who has taken over the hosting of Thursday Doors from Norm 2.0 blog. Links to more doorscursions can be found in the comments section of Dan Anton’s Thursday Doors post.
This is a wonderful old school combination piece painted at the L Dub spot by Turoe, although I think that the character might be by Veks. Everything about this oozes class and experience.
Turoe and Veks, L Dub, Bristol, June 2025
The character wearing a baseball cap has been buffing the wall with a roller, thus indicating a form of self-portraiture. The letters, spelling STYLE are perfectly filled with blended horizontal shades transitioning from purple through red and orange to brown. A striped 3D drop shadow rounds off this piece off nicely and create a metallic sheen effect.
Mage and Piewaste, Stapleton Road, Bristol, June 2025
This is one of those stacked collaborations that have to be taken as a pair, because separating them might look a little bit awkward. I am not 100% sure that it was painted as a collaboration or whether both artists painted their pieces separately, but you can see that Piewaste’s piece overlaps Mage’s piece above it, and was therefore completed second.
Mage and Piewaste, Stapleton Road, Bristol, June 2025
Mage has presented a regular set of letters, but with a creative fill that includes a dashed line pattern reversed out. It is great to see an artist reinventing himself in the way he has with a completely new set of letters, although I have to say I preferred his old letters.
Piewaste, who has written WASTE in letters that are close to anamorphic, creating a strong sense of depth and three dimensions, also includes his trademark eyes looking out from the writing like a cartoon forest at night (kind of thing). Nice to see these two pieces together like this.
It seems today that it is all about Hypo – the previous post was a birthday tribute to Hypo from Subtle, Ulow and Minto, and this is one of his very own pieces from L Dub. Hypo has had a purple patch that has been continuous for about two years now and shows no signs of abating.
Hypo, L Dub, Bristol, June 2025
The letter blocks in this piece are each assigned a different colour, and have a lot of strong graffiti writing motifs, such as the arrows and little double bars, stitching the letters together. It is interesting to note how different the ‘H’ and the ‘O’ chrome letters look quite different due to the different colour drop-shadows. Another nice piece from Hypo.
Natural adventures 