THE CALLY SQUARK

Cally Fest is a community run street festival, based in the northern lands of london. After the painting that i created there last year of lola my recently passed boxer dog i feel a very close attachment to the street. I spent the whole of last week up a monkey lift painting this new mural being asked.. if i done that painting of the bulldog round there...yup thats me...thats proper mate, proper... Its nice to know that even as a painting my girl has made impacts on peoples lives...any way so a new year, a new wall, one i been eyeing up since November last year... timed perfectly to launch this years Cally fest as lola did last year.

Cally website 

HERE 

when i decided to paint macaws on this street, i wasn't really aware of why, other than i thought it would be cool to paint with so many insanely vibrant  colours. After a week of painting i realised that it was humorously apt that the squark of cally road matched the squark of parrots.

 The actual street that i was painting-Tilloch street is the boundary of one of the gangs...they are mainly youth and they all ride on bikes or mopeds, seldom on foot. They are pretty un threatening or at least they were accommodating to me, but one afternoon two kids decided to throw bottles and stones at me whilst i was balancing some 50ft up in the sky, balancing on the tip of the lift, painting this guys feather tips...and i do wear flip flops so yeah was a bit sketchy at times...

macaws come from latin america and in conjunction with my current works i added fabric patterns to the feathers. I also added a few musical apparatus in an attempt to link in the painting i did last year of lola... where she is wearing headphones.

Unfortunately the monkey lift didn't reach to the top of the wall and so i had to stop three quarters up... its my aim to get some funds together to finish the wall with a couple more birds... any ideas are welcome at this point.

it didn't seem right to be painting this street on my own and so i invited some friends to join in on the fun...enter hunto, tizer and milo...hopefully more pieces will continue to arrive...

tizer

WEB LINK

hunto

WEB LINK

milo

WEB LINK

with thanks and praise to one of my favourite london street art photographers 

Myriam Preston

50 GAZELLES AND A MOVIE

THE HEARD OF 50-GAZELLES

Just before i left london i released a print called my african ears...on the last layer i pulled through 50 newspaper prints in black...these are the prints now adorning jamaica...i took 50 because jamaica is celebrating this year its 50th anniversary of independence...it seemed apt to link these two elements together...i also love the fact that there is 50 over there roaming like a heard of gazelles would do in africa...

OK so you know how they say multi tasking is something that you can either do or you cant...well i always see my self as a bit of a multi tasker...so i forecasted us painting, promoting, setting up meetings, photographing and yeah also filming everything we were doing...louis...that aint multi tasking thats just plain ridiculous, attempting the impossible...is it?

 we managed to somehow film and edit this little movie which still needs a few typos sorted but im very happy with it...nuff love to my man irfhan for doing the editing....

MOVIE HERE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkpMunzdINM

Below is a selection of the prints that were put up...

CASAVA PIECE KINGSTON

HELLSHIRE KINGSTON

HELP JAMAICA KINGSTON

PORT ANTONIO

TREASURE BEACH FRENCHMANS COVE ST ELIZABETH

  

TUFF GONG KINGSTON

 GAYLE ST MARY 

UPTOWN KINGSTON

 OCHIO RIOS 

A ROUTE MAP OF WHERE TO FIND THE WORK IN JAMAICA

NEXT STOP IS THE SHOW IN JUNE...

KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED...

ONE LOVE...

NICE UP THE WALLS round four tuff gong

TUFF GONG STUDIOS

THREE MILES

KINGSTON

                    As if i was going to leave Jamaica without painting Panthera Leo...

people have been asking for this since i have been on island...but i was saving it. We had met up with Lorna from Tuff Gong a week or so back to discuss what walls we could paint...they showed us a few and i said...ummmm...can i have that one up there please...another roof top...and a nice big one at that...probably gonna run out of paint but it will be seen from the main road so gotta be done...on telling Lorna i was painting a lion and with the Ethopian crown she went from a very chilaxed sisterin to a jumping screaming bean...so i guess she was happy about that...she asked when we wanted to paint and i said well would be cool to do it on Bobs Earthstrong....hang on Lorna, stop bouncing now...i think that twice i gave her the answers she wanted to hear...

SOOOOO 6th february started for us down at the Bob Marley museum, with lots of true rasta. Chanting to Nyabingi drums...o yeah and Sizzla was with us dancing away...then we made our way towards the Tuff Gong to paint...another beautiful sunny day in Jamaica...maybe a bit too much sun for my empress though, heat stroke is getting to her...and o my Jah Jahs way too many mozzies and just as the repellent ran out...so not cool...

Took two full days painting, largely due to heat though, its definitely slowing me down... plus trying to swack a mosquito half way up a ladder with my shorts falling off, pockets stuffed with tins and hands full...not an easy circus skill...

    
Had to drop back down to the wall a third time to put up the logos as we had forgotten the stencils the previous day...you know how they say things happen for reasons...well Craigy T from T.O.K happened to be visiting. He posed for some flicks, and told us how the guys had been considering setting up a visual arts school on island just like we are hoping to do...SHUT up Craigy, you fe real...so looks like a link up is gonna start with these guys...following on from that he said, im getting you some press coverage, two days later we back again being filmed for intense long side TVJ...nice up that...
here is a  link to the VIDEO broadcasting...
linda is always telling me "louis... law of attraction...u see mi..."...okay, okay... seen linda, seen...

Press Here to go to Lindas blog for more info on her painting at Tuff Gong....

Next stop is... 
ROUND FIVE...
Reading and writing learning centre, HELP...


ONE LOVE

NICE UP THE WALLS - round three...black scorpio records

My sound, my sound, is the baddest sound around...an even if it weren't who gonna challenge a towering 6ft, whatever he is man (BFG) that go by the name scorpio...yeah thats what i thought...pipe down you...but trust me the production out of this mans two studios is somewhat ridiculously good...with artists like Capleton, Everton Blender, General Trees, Gentleman, Halfpint, Luciano, Buju Banton....blah blah blah blahhhhhhh....im like a little kid in this country, i get so excited because i been collecting this music for the past 15 years...we were staying with Jack Scorpio whilst we were in Kingston and as a result was taken as his guests to Rebel Salute and the trench town Bob Marley EARTHSTRONG celebrations...via Jack i met people like Queen Ifrica, Capleton, Damian Jr Gong Marley, Stone Love, blah blah blah...sorry lets get back to the painting...

Im used to painting furry things with big eyes and finding ways to link in something friendly or funny to the image...a scorpion...okay...its got a bit of hair on its legs...actually the ironic thing is that i have been toying with the idea of painting some insects soon, so its a kick in the right direction...first roof top i done too, so that was exciting...what wasn't, was that in Jamaica all the roof tops still have the foundation iron poles sticking in the air, this is so they can build extensions...my flipflop worn feet aint no match for that, and apparently i don't learn neither...blood cuts and bruises...

So here we have Jack Scorpio in the flesh, showing some love for the wall...nice up father...another wall done and now we off to Tuff Gong studios for a paint...HUH...yup...thats right time to be a little bouy agin...


click HERE to get some images and stories from linda...

You want more...
Round four...
Soon soon...


ONE LOVE............................................................

Nice Up The Walls.... ROUND TWO

FRENCHMAN'S COVE TREASURE BEACH ST.ELIZABETH

ROUND TWO

MADAGASCAN LEMUR

Almost Three weeks on island. Two attempts to paint One madagascan lemur...im a fond believer that a problem is a mistake and a mistake is presented so that one can learn from it. My problem was, the person i asked permission for the use of the wall to paint my lemur, wasn't the owner of the wall...she leased the building. First thing in the morning after confirmation the night before, i started outlining and filling first coat of the lemur on a restaurant back wall... it faces the oncoming traffic to everyone entering frenchmans cove...a nice wall to nice up...

"what you doing..." 

"painting"

"have u got permission to do that"

"yes"

"no you don't...my father in law owns that wall and i know he wouldn't want you doing that"

.....oh shitttttt....

"owner of the restaurant say i can last night"

"well she don't own the wall, my father in law does., im gonna have to get him down here"

.....please dont be big and bad and ugly....

So after the owner came down, he did alot of cussing an fussing, refused to reason with me and order i paint it out...have to say i was pretty bumbed out...sympathetic towards his annoyance but vex he wouldn't talk it out...anyway en route home, an american woman form newyork popped out and said... "hey come and paint my wall instead..."

Thats me painting the americans shack above...resolution....lesson to be learnt for i an i, check person saying yes is the owner...

I remember reading an article about the lemurs in a metro newspaper last year, it stated Mister Richard Branson was planning on exporting an entire Madagascan Lemur colony to his own Caribbean island... to help save them from extinction...don't think it was granted, probably a good thing too...but i get to gloat that i got one over, and he didn't....hahaha...i have used the same african fabric pattern as the prairie dog on this piece and its in both the tail and the hands...

Owners of the building

When u see lindas peice next to mine both characters are holding the jamiacan kite...we wanted to give the painting a Jamaican reference and since the lemur is dancing it seemed to be pretty fitting... 

TO READ ALL ABOUT LINDAS PAINTING FOLLOW
HERE

Part of the journey, was to discover if any other street artists had been out to Jamaica to paint.  We did find a few, but these guys were the first we found and had wheat pasted the whole of the front side of a bar shack on the beach. The Everlasting Freshness Crew come from Australia and the artists is RONE...it would seem he's on a tour, hitting up miami, cuba and hawai...and by the looks of it we missed him by about a month... Frenchmans cove must think a sign is hanging above them pointing artists in their direction or something...anyway....

links here

Black river...named, because its bottom is of a black mud...on a sunny day the water is completely transparent clear but u wouldn't know cos the mud is so dark, so they say...it was a rainy day when we were there, so who knows...home to the most species of ferns in the world, and fresh water crocs...why...no one knows, perhaps they were dumped in the river by germans after the war, maybey they swam down from florida...our guide said there were over 100 around...we saw some biggins, but they very timid and there w alot of tourist boats checkin em out, so no wonder...above is some cool rasta looking roots dropping into the river, this is how the trees get their water...

More of the herd of 50 went up and this cru were keen to get a photo shoot underway...Blessup Treasure Beach...the ones that were on our side that is...

Round three... soon come...

Kingston...

Black Scorpio Records

ONE LOVE