MASAI IN SOUTH AFRICA ... AN ENDANGERED PROJECT

The art of being creative and creating art itself is something that has always been a part of my life since I was a kid, in fact it’s more or less the only thing I have ever felt I could do with real confidence. I began working with spray cans three years ago as I believe in constantly challenging myself as much as possible, however the constant bombardment of Internet street art viewing has left me feeling exhausted by something I truly love. It is this weariness which lead me to realise that if I’m going to continue painting on the streets and be a part of this cyber viewing craze, then I need a message and purpose behind what I’m doing. Although one of the most inspiring things that has come from this new age of accessible Internet art, is seeing that artists are now traveling the world painting walls from one land to the next, spreading their voice. Last year I spent time in Jamaica and this year I’m in South Africa, where half of my Dad’s side of the family live. With the desire to paint for purpose, I have embarked on a new painting project to highlight the plight of endangered animals, which, whilst it is difficult to be precise as many species die out without even being discovered, is a problem which continues to get worse.

Wednesday 20th February

I arrived in Capetown and sat down to indulge in peaches and juice with Indigo and her friend Raphael, at my adopted apartment for the month. By mid-afternoon on Thursday I had bought around 50 cans of paint and set to work planning my train journey up to Johannesburg. That evening I found myself in Woodstock for an art talk with Remed and Freddy Sam, which left me feeling even more amped for painting, not only during this trip but on walls around the world.

The Train to Johannesburg: Two Hours Down, 24 to Go

I’ve always wanted to take a long train journey, I’ve been on a fair few long bus journeys through South America but never a 26 hour train ride and the prospect is exciting. A few people tried to persuade me to take a flight but I won’t be told, I know when I need to tread a path, there’s an eternal passing landscape and for me, that’s the beauty of a train, the track always runs through the wilderness. Two hours in and I don’t know for sure but it seems that apart from some obvious heavy drinkers, I’m among a safe crowd. The sleeper cabins which are suggested for tourists were all full, so I’m in Third Class where all the action happens. I’m among clicks of Afrikaans and women singing, im quietly beaming.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Six Hours in a Tin Can

Blazing sun, tensions are rising, there’s now a genuine and palpable discomfort amongst some of the passengers. Is it the heat, is it the alcohol or is it just who they are? The afternoon sun draws to an end and I know it will start cooling down again soon, but not for a while. It’s time to listen to some music. Cigarette smoke fills my nostrils and burns my eyes. I can’t keep my eyes open longer than an hour, can’t keep them closed half of that. I’m learning my levels of tolerance.

24 Hours

I feel like I’m in a moving prison, my eyes are so heavy with sleep deprivation, my bowels expanded with no relief. Rumour has it we are sentenced to a two hour delay. The night got rowdy, people fought, young men prowled the train corridors looking for a pickup, everyone is drinking the boredom away. The morning is much quieter, we all shuffle on our seats looking for the next least uncomfortable position.

30 Hours Later

I’m here, I’m actually pulling into Johannesburg. Now can I go and paint please?

many thanks to ro elfberg for grammerising my punk ass

THE SEVEN OF CUBS

THE SEVEN OF CUBS SHOWS HIS HAND

Hotwell Road bristol england

i originally did this illustration for a project called the rat pack card deck...

http://cardproject.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=117610860

it was a while ago and nothing has resoleved much since then, it needs a few more artists to finish the project...so if u like the sound of it join in...any way i recently did a few wheat pastes of the illustration, in fact i think i put some up in amsterdam in the spring too but anyway since the illustration was being brought back to life i wanted to paint him....

i was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time after the see no evil project in bristol and overheard that the painting that case had done at upfest 2011 well part wheat paste was peeling off and the owner of the wall wanted it painted over, i voluntered the idea of a new painting...so stephen got it confirmed and here is the outcome...this is alink to cases painting...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/phade71/5798341162/in/photostream/

that link seems to have some of the best images of the painting, as case left it...credit to phade 71...

case is an artist that i have been following for a while now and i love his work here is a link to his website...http://www.sexyartcase.com/ i admit to feeling a bit of pressure to create a new wall that everyone would like as much as the previous...

day one left me at this stage... its going well and the passers seem to approve although a lot of people have been showing love for the old painting...pressure pressure pressure...

the bear is done and now i shall introduce the tattoos...

this shot shows how tall he is...about 15-18 ft i think...

so the tattoos are in place and below is a few close up 

the tattoos represent the human attribute in the image...tattoos are something i don't feel the need to have on my own skin, but i really enjoy putting them into my artwork...i want to work on the technique of how tattoos illustrations look more, i think i probably should have done these lines a bit thinner...

love the clubs...

hate the spades...

there is no hate without love, there is no love without hate...love who you are and learn to love what you are not...that is the idea behind this painting...

i really like how these stars turned out using the transparent black helped to create shadows that made the tattoo look like it was moving on the pad of the paw...

ca cest fin....

a little plant growing hearts and diamonds...does money grow on trees....does love grow on trees....i feel that this part of the paint helps to remind the viewer that the image has strong references to a pack of cards...and links back to what the illustration was originally about...

close up... im loving how the shadows turned out on this...

watch out lola theres a bear behind you....

special thanks to stephen hayles at upfest for sorting this out for me...

http://www.upfest.co.uk/

FORESTGATE GETS A LICK OF PAINT

THE LITTLE SHOP OF HUNTERS

i painted this for the local pet shop in my neighbourhood...FORESTGATE NEWHAM LONDON...its the beginning of a big project i am going to attempt...the project will be titled the animals of forestgate, heavily influenced by a favourite book of mine when i was a kid..the animals of farthing wood...the idea is to create a trail of animals down to the forest from one end of the hoods to the woods...

when trying to encourage someone to let me paint on their shutters , walls etc it always pays to attempt to work with their ideas, in this case the shop wanted fish as they are trying to expand more towards selling tropical fish...i immediately thought it would be fun to have a kitten hunting for the fish...the shop sells cats too so it wasnt too hard to get the idea across... 

although i have painted lots of gold fish and koi carp in the past iv never done tropicals or for that matter with sprays, so this was a fun challenge... the cool thing about tropicals, is their bright colours against translucent whites and the same can be said for the painting of them...the black background made it even more exciting watching the colours pop out...

the fish were painted completely under street light, which is the first  time i have really painted at night and so i was a little apprehensive as to how they might look in the day time, having said that with exception to sundays these shutters will mostly only be seen at night anyway so the fact they look ok in the day also is a bonus...

so lola what ya think about an oversized kitten taking over your local pet store?

well obviously im outraged...and hope that a canine appears somewhere soon, and it had better be one of me...nuff said...i will be pissing on it when ur not looking by the way....hehehehehe

THE TIGER PRINCES GET FALSED ON BRICK LANE

THE TIGER PRINCE CUBS

my good freind false and i went for a paint this sunday, we decided that brick lane would be a good spot since we hadn't painted there together yet.

some flavour being dropped by false here

we were painting over a painting that was a gudden, i felt a little bad, especially as the locals seemed to really like the prexisting painting..but determined to impress and maintain a standard we dropped some paint, in the end the locals were happy to have a new squatter in their run down east end carpark...

on sunday the light faded to black...we were a late starter, and so we returned to do touch ups, im so glad i didnt take the lazy route and actually finished the crown cos it looked like shit when i left it sunday night...yeah, so day two... monday, turned up at the spot, and some people that turned out to be barzillian were filming, two girls were being filmed...after a while, i was asked if i could be filmed painting for their Brazilian programme airing... i thought yeah no worries, i wasn't paying much attention to what they were doing as wanted to get this done  and get going...again i was asked if i minded and this time if the girls being filmed, could change behind me, i was thinking yeah i don't care but u have to ask linda, she was sat sunning, with lola....anyway turns out the girls weren't changing they were stripping and they were being filmed......um wha that fuk man...they wanted me to sign a consent form, after asking what it was about, i discovered it was for a porn site and i was like yeah no thanks u dont have my consent....what a weird day that was...

dedicated to  my linda zina aslaksen the tigress...

oh yeah i didn't mention on the sunday, we were painting away three hours went by, no problem, feeling comfy because we were hidden from all the sunday hustle and bustle on the brick lane street, nice wall blocking us from street view...and all of a sudden some commotion kicks off... turns out the police were sorting out illegal market sellers, fucking great, we got a bit apprehensive, as we were painting illegally...somehow despite the copper being a turd, we blagged our way out of a fine and all that shiz and we resumed painting...phewwwwwww...thanks to that man living in he carpark that said it was refreshing to see us doing what we were doing...one love 

love what hipstamatic did to this photo

oh yeah see that, thats sun...it was sunny this ....autumn...haha..mmmmmm...

THE CHESHIRE STREET CAT

HE WENT THAT WAY - NO HE WENT THAT WAY

this is painted on cheshire street off brick lane in east london...i spotted malarky throwing some paint on a wall next to where this painting now is, i was on a mission around brick lane for some legal walls...malarky is what you might call...up...at the moment, in east london he's killllling it, literally in one summer he has taken east london out...anyway back to me cos this is my ego here... i asked him who's wall it was and i got introduced to roger...hello roger how u doing, i want to paint a wall please...can i paint that one please...i do photo realistic animal portraits...how bout i do the modern version of the chesire cat that malarky is already painting...he seemed to think it was a good idea...i thought it an even better idea when he offered to pay for my paint...result...thanks malarky....laterz...leave some walls behind for us you greedy artist...

the original version of the ol' cheshire cat and his devilishly deceiving grin...

and thats the newer version...the one jonny depp was starred with....

i realised that although i was painting a cat next to a more obvious cheshire cat on cheshire street a lot of people might not get my take on it, so i added the pink and purple colours to the background and added the famous quote... he went that way...is it that famous...o well who cares, it  made me feel i was fitting the breif....and so no one probably has a clue... but its a good eye i did there...

so what ya think lola...should i do one of your mate loke next time, rather than some stranger on flickrs cat...damn i cant remember where i got this photo now i should be crediting it...

bad louis...bad creditor...sorrrrrrry

THE BURBERRY BOY

THE BURBERRY BOY

I did this original illustration a couple months back now and have been wanting to paint it for ages. i thought it would be a canvass before it became a street piece but there you have it its on a westbourne grove wall outside west bank gallery now...

since living in london the foxes and what they get up to has been something i find really exciting...they are shifty little guys, they clearly live everywhere, as i find out each morning i let lola out, they have shat in her food bowl and all over the lawn... last summer the cubs kept us up all night long, this summer not so much..but i know their there...a forest gate fox, is actually almost how it should look, healthy coat and still fox like...ive seen them in the canary wharf area and they looook like shit, mangled, mal-nourished and their coats are barely even orange anymore...

bit of a close up on the eye

ive seen foxes during the day and it would seem that the street lighting at night has confused these guys soo much that they have forgotten that they are nocturnal, i should imagine that the shear noise of the city has stopped the element of fear for them...yeah anyway so foxes sly around the place and i find my self reminded of a london chavie kid...its a connotation that i find my self smiling about and so i added some burberry to the foxes ears...

burberry is a fabric pattern that has been crowned and conquered by chaves, townies, pikies, kevs what ever u and ur mates coin these guys we all know who wears burberry in the last 10 years.... the funny thing is that they not the only ones that wear burberry...the rich do, in fact its considered a hunters pattern, which happens to coincide nicely with my fox which is hunted....im sure that if u was to ask one of the kids on london streets how they feel they are treated by the police. they probably say they feel hunted...another link to the fox for them...yeah im actually quite happy with this link i made...

is that one of your ancestors lola..the chavie fox.....

DOWN IN THE DUMPS

 so.... see no evil - saw a commission for me...

this is what i produced...

DOWN IN THE DUMPS

the painting done at se no evil was of a young orangutang with her lips out smacking the attitude out of the show with some lipstick in hand...susie the lady i did the commission for loved it sooo much she wanted me to do something for her company...natracare....here is a link...

http://www.natracare.com/Default.aspx?CultureId=en-GB

natracare make organic naturally biodegradable tampons...yup not the normal sort of company id imagine wanting me painting for them but i guess it has worked out...

there was no specific breif, just do what ever i wanted really but i knew she loved the orangutang and i wanted to recreate another angle with the makeup....

i have managed to find a whole heap of really cool orangutang photos too so it kinda seemed to make sense to do another one..this one is a lot older and i loved her slightly saddened look...

it was really important for me in this image to get as much makeup on the face as possible a bit like a clown, for two reasons to establish her femininity and also to ensure the lipstick was not just really red lips...especially as i wasn't doing the hand and lipstick tube this time...

really pleased with how the tag layering worked on this paint 

something new for me here...susie wanted a landfill in the background at first i was baffled as to how to achieve this as a landfill is just mushed greys and random muffled colour...no point of reference except for a digger...thank god for the digger....

i layered up colour splats then mushed it in with greys whites and dusted the shit out of it eventually this appeared along with the enlarged bin bags i got a result....phewwwww...actually i kinda liked it in the end....a shit hole for you...haha

this painting will be going on little road trips at event marketing that the company does from now on...she should get out at least three times a year i guess....niceeeeee...