Toasted

The biggest and best addition to the streets this week came from Insa who visited Brum and painted a massive mural at the Custard Factory:

Yayyyy!

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Another mystery paster has appeared, but they've found me! The Hores created this pastey goodness:

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Lisk was in the Birmingham Mail this week (31st Jan). Don't worry, he's not been arrested; a photo of his paste on Floodgate Street was the 'Reader's Picture':

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On Wednesday, I stood in the cold in Wolverhampton for 2 hours to get my hands on 1 of 20 Toaster popcorn boxes and then watch their film 'Everywhere', there was some tweeting (@gutter_floozy) during this:

The film itself was about half an hour of elegantly and artistically (but not pretentiously) showing the Toaster's different ways of getting up, literally everywhere. The film shows their journey from the beginning in Wolverhampton with hand-drawn stickers, to the banners at football matches, to painting a giant toaster on the road during the Tour de France and how they've constantly reinvented the Toaster image to keep it in people's heads. With fond and humorous interviews from the likes of D*face and Space3; the Toaster love was pretty evident on screen and in the room. The screening also meant an opportunity for some Brummy street artists to get drunk together; Lisk, Mew, Tempo33, C3, the Rebel Gunslingers and Vomit were all spotted being a bit rowdy (apologies to the pub and the train that got covered in stickers).

FAHQMT on the train, also spotted with Wah on Floodgate Street:

Flames and Ladies!

This week C3 and the Rebel Gunslingers were on a joint pasting mission:

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An unknown artist added a pretty birdy to the white boards on Bradford Street:

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This is on Wednesday, see you there?

Everywhere!

On the streets this week; Rebel soldiers and the result of Tempo nearly falling off a ladder:

Rebel Gunslingers, Moat Lane

Tempo33, Birchall Street

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Birmingham (well, Wolverhampton)'s own; The Toasters, have achieved worldwide legend status and are now releasing a film. Here's what they had to say to (the excellent) VNA about it:

So the film 'Everywhere' is about to be released. Could you tell us a bit more about the film?

TOASTER D: It's a rollercoaster of a novel packed with sizzling gypsies... ha ha. No, it's really an insight into the Toaster project. 99% of the footage will have never been seen before and there will be some new work that the public did not know existed. Running through the film will be people's reaction to our work, from other artists to the man on the street.

TOASTER A: Typical of the Toaster project, it is not just purely about street art. For me it's also a part of the project not just a documentation of the project. The aim was always to get our image up and releasing a film is another way of doing this.

How different is it documenting your work in video form compared to still photography or have you always tried to do both?

TOASTER A: D and B are the filmmakers.

TOASTER B: With photography we have tended to document the piece when it is finished. With filming we tend to shoot the whole process, which has actually helped us analyse our painting techniques and improve our work.

TOASTER D: Well, this film started as a book as we have millions of photographs. Then we thought we've got a story to tell. Making a film and putting it out online would make it far more accessible. Filming the new pieces we've done this year has been really challenging, particularly on the bigger productions. Just the logistics of balancing the camera, framing the shot, getting the piece still looking good and not attracting attention!

- Words by George Macdonald and Geoff Whitehouse

I will be at the Wolverhampton screening, attempting to talk to one of The Toasters without melting. See you there!

March 2011: The Toasters with Space3, Zime and Tempo33, Adderley Street

 March 2011: The Toasters with Space3, Zime and Tempo33, Fazeley Street

June 2011: Toaster and Zime stickers, Park Street

Happy New Year

It's 2012! The world will be ending soon so lets get it covered in some pretty art, shall we?

If you look up there, you'll notice I have a new blog title! Lisk finally got 'art' done for me, I think you'll agree it was worth the wait:

He also now has a Facebook, go like him.

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The streets have been fairly quiet since I last posted over a month ago over the festive period; I was lookout for Vom on 12th December:

 Bradford Street

Meriden Street

Fazeley Street

He also now has a Facebook.

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Golden Boy was out in December drawing attention to our oral hygiene:

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The Rebel Gunslingers have been busy (unlike me, who has still not conducted the interview with them or even written the questions) throughout December and into the new year. I think the flames are my favourite:

Bradford Street

Green Street

Bradford Street

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Wah (another person who now has Facebook) and Tempo were out together and separately in the new year, hitting some nice spots:

 Bradford Street

 Green Street

Floodgate Street

Alcester Street

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Tempo's mate Mustard Tiger has a paste up on Birchall Street:

Their 'Disconnected' piece in Liverpool was mistaken for Banksy earlier this year, more in Brum please!

Photo by Col Armstrong

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Before Christmas I was making knitted leaves to decorate the streets because I felt Digbeth was missing out on lovely autumn-ness, here they are:

All finished and sewn into five strips

Green Street

Birchall Street

Floodgate Street

I've only got on-the-night photos of the other two because they've now disappeared!

Floodgate Street

River Street

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Floozy's New Year's Resolutions:

1. New blog post every Sunday
2. New blog post up before tea time
3. Interview some interesting people
4. Use and put interesting things on my Twitter and Facebook
5. Organise a summer Street Spotted that is even better than the last two
6. Get some knitting on the streets in London or Europe

A giant woolly jumper

Ouch was out this week with his cans! More please!

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Also out again this week were C3 and Grr-izzly, this time with new ladies and penguins:

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I've finally actually gone into town and seen The Bullring's bull with his winter jumper on, knitted by Stitches and Hos who meet once a month at the Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath. I plan to go to their next meeting and see if they want to be friends.

Detective progress

So last week was an unofficial, early Christmas holiday for the blog but this week we're back to normal!

...Well, I'm not actually in Birmingham at the moment because it was essential that I helped decorate Christmas cakes with my mother/mess about with icing:

So, street art... I have some development on the mystery paster from a few weeks ago:

Tempo33 has 10 videos on YouTube of Birmingham street art from 2008 and 2009 (as well as videos of him pasting in Amsterdam and whatnot), they're an interesting watch to see what was around in Birmingham 3 years ago, some work is still on the streets now but the main reason I'm plugging them is because the mystery paster appears in a couple of them:

Tempo has also said that he knows the mystery paster and he lives in Birmingham but he won't tell me his name. I've tried comparing the 'shouts' at the end of Tempo's videos with the mystery paster to see which of the names I don't recognise come up on them all and I think he could be 'Wanted' but I can't read all the 'shouts' because the fonts are pants and 'Wanted' is such a common word it's impossible to Google 'Wanted street artist' and find what I'm looking for.

So hopefully after whining about it on here; Tempo will bow to public pressure and I won't have to go out knocking on doors and putting up 'Are you the mystery paster?' signs.

An artist I do know is Vomit, who appears in one of Tempo's videos from 2008!

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I've decided to start doing proper interviews with local artists for the blog, probably while having tea and cake or maybe by email if I'm feeling lazy. The first interviewees will be The Rebel Gunslingers because they're my new favourite paster propagandists (and because they drew a hard-looking bear that loves me and pasted it up round the corner from my house):

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Finally a bit of street art hilarity from New Zealand; two taggers were caught vandalising a couple's fence and were forced to dance (while being filmed) until the police arrived. Of course it is now on YouTube for your viewing pleasure: