First up, let me apologise for being so poor at posting regularly! The past month and a half have been particularly busy – I’ve unfortunately had to get two jobs - proper, meaningful employment jobs – in order to cover the costs of moving to Norwich and all the other incidentals life throws at you (like getting the car fixed, paying rent… eating…). This has left me with far less in the way of creative time than I would have hoped, and almost no time at all to document or share any of it! Time to fix that, I guess…
Let’s start with the important, fresh stuff. I will be at UpFest this year, painting at the Tobacco Factory over the Saturday and the Sunday. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of hearing about or going to UpFest, it is a free festival dedicated to street art and graffiti, and is hosted yearly in Bristol. This year they have a ridiculous number of artists heading down, across and up to smash some serious paint around.
There will be 250 artists and 40 DJs, Groups & Human Beatboxers spread over 3 sites inBristol city centre and it’s free. Seriously. Click on the flyer and get yourself down there on the 4th and 5th. I might give you a beer you never know!
Another festival that I had the pleasure of getting involved in recently was the Fierce Festival. Based in Birmingham, Fierce is spread out a little more that UpFest, and has a much more eclectic vibe to it. Myself, Tempo33 and Lisk were invited to come down and paint at a site-specific interactive installation near millennium Point. Working with Fierce, a group called EXYZT had created a meeting place out of shipping containers and reclaimed timber, using local resources to create a local space. They didn’t have a license to sell alcohol, but as it was public land, no-one could stop the influx of tins from various off-licenses around the city centre. Good music played, and we artists developed our responses to Birmingham’s love/hate relationship with itself. My piece took influence from Brum’s Anglo-Saxon roots, using a decorative motif found on jewellery unearthed as part of the Staffordshire Hoard, as well as focusing on the attitude of many Birmingham residents: “Brum may be a bit crap, we’re the only ones allowed to say that, because it’s ours, and we love it, and woe betide any person not from Brum who slags it off”. Many thanks to Adam Ragg for these snaps from the morning after:
Painting in the dark on steel with thick as hell corrugations is a little tricky, at least when it comes to straight lines and details, but the piece says what I wanted it to.
Of course, I’ve also been as busy as time will allow me to be in Norwich. I’m now painting with Vandals Have Style, and I’ve been dropping the odd wheatpaste and skateboard around as well. Have a look at the flickr stream for recent work in that category. I’ve also been painting the legal spots a bit just to keep my hand in and to work on my letters – NOYZ from VHS and I painted a quick freestyle piece the other day which I was quite pleased with…
In the pic below you can see NOYZ VHS on the left and Ments on the right – unfortunately this wall sees a lot of dogging and cheap fame, but I guess it means we have a good excuse to keep burning over it time and time again!
Right then folks, I’ll leave it there for the moment. I’m working on new sticker and T-shirt designs at the moment, which I’m planning to drop as soon as I possibly can, and of course I’ll keep you all updated on the UpFest vibe as and when. I will be “tweeting” (God I hate that word) from UpFest as the weekend progresses, so be sure to keep an eye out for me on your twatstream over the 4th and 5th.
