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...

HELP JAMAICA...ROUND FIVE...THE LAST PAINT

HELP...                              

KINGSTON... 
NICE UP THE WALLS... 

im not even sure i know why i have taken so long to get this chapter blogged...chapter five...the final paint...it certainly was a very busy last ten days... three paintings, several live shows, lots of pasting, and an interview, we were kinda glad we had come to a closure, sad that we would be off in a few days but it felt good to finish in a school..we started in a school so made perfect sense to finish in one...

help jamaica is a purely sponsorship funded project...its run by a couple of germans that became inspired to start there own library/project after seeing the impact that trench town reading and writing school had on the trench town community...its based in cassava piece kingston, next to two rivalling gully side communities...the desire was to provide a service to two separated communities in an attempt to merge them together. There is an education programme for adults as well as children, reading writing, art, and many other necessary subjects are taught on the grounds after school hours and in to the evenings for the adults. The centre has gone from strength to strength, building more classrooms and expanding its library contents continuously...there is a particularly strong reference to afrocentric books on the shelves...

I have painted a few madarills in the last couple of years...what i love about this animal is that it has such vibrant colours in its face, i love making the features pop out of the wall...several paintings down the line and i was finally getting used to the Jamaican sprays...i wont be missing them though..hahahaha...Hille, founder of help, asked us to adorn the paintings with a message to the audience...so both our paintings adopted pencils behind their ears...these guys below started doing some martial arts practise on the wall, had to snap some shots...there were a lot of youth around us whilst we were painting this wall as u would expect in a school...it was great to give them an insight to what can be achieved with paint and some dedication...

Given that it is the penultimate intention of nice up the walls to launch a jamaican visual arts school...it was really important to link up with a centre like help...our heads were filled with thoughts and realistic scenarios as to how that will come about...i feel optimistic that it can happen and that the first stage has been incredibly successful... the next step will be a show documenting what has happened in london and then we will look for funding to fly back out there with a large group of international artists...nice up the walls is just getting started...but it has started...

click HERE for a link to help jamaica....

THERE IS LOTS MORE PHOTO ON THEIR WEBSITE OF THE PAINT

 

I wonder if hille and i saw duppy or something in this photo....

we have the same perplexed expression...hahahahaha

lindas blog soon come....click for link...HERE

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............................................................