STREET ART SNAPS FROM A FLOOZY IN THE GUTTER

21 August 2011

Princess Hype

I'm sure you've all been on the edge of your seats about that 'shocking and exciting street art-related announcement' so I'm going to talk about some other stuff first.

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Sticky Missions finishes in two weeks time and Obit has just announced that the winner will be receiving an Ultimate Collective Sketchbooks zine (it's not really a zine though, it's 120 pages of excellent sketchbook work and hand sewn together by Obit himself). I'm now even more determined to win so I've gone through all the photos in the Sticky Missions group (only counting actual stickers though, not sketches) and done a leaderboard of the top 5 to see who my competition is:

Princess (me) - 44

I was on 43 but no one else has done Sticky Mission 44 (Put a sticker somewhere really high - Bonus point for highest) so I'm claiming that bonus point.

Case - 36

Case thinks he has 37 but on careful analysis it seems that for Sticky Mission 9 (Multi point task - Stick a sticker on police property, fire department property and metro (underground) property) you get three points for doing all of them and he's only done police property and metro property. Also, for Sticky Mission 23 (Install a 2ft by 2ft cardboard in your town centre or city centre bonus point for the photo with most people in it), Vomit had more people in his installation photo so he gets the bonus.

Vomit - 28

EDIT: I was wrong, Vom has done all of Sticky Mission 9. People need to put all their evidence in an obvious place where a lazy Floozy can find it. His offering for Sticky Mission 23 (Install a 2ft by 2ft cardboard in your town centre or city centre bonus point for the photo with most people in it) has got the most people in the photo so he gets the bonus point for that.

Not - 21

He could have 20 points if his sticker for number 36 (Make a sticker of your favourite animal and put it up in a zoo) had actually been put up in a zoo.

Obit - 17

Generally excellent work though I think it would be unfair if someone co-running the competition won it..

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Just before I travelled home to visit my parents, I finished three little canvases complete with little easels. They're all 3.5" x 2.5" and all for sale or trade apart from the green lady which now belongs to PTP in return for some goodies that I haven't seen yet. I am poor and need money for blank stickers and white acrylic so if you'd like either of the remaining ones, feel free to tell me through Flickr or my email

I've also been working on a new idea for stickers and maybe pastes using negative space, here's the best sketch I've done so far:

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Now time for that announcement! You've probably just skipped past all the other stuff I've written; shame on you!

The long-awaited annoucment is that Lisk and myself have been formulating a plan for the past couple of months to have a live drawing event featuring some of our favourite local and not-so-local street artists and now it's actually happening! On the 10th September from 7PM you can come to Street Spotted in The Spotted Dog's garden and watch at least six artists drawing/painting/pasting. So far confirmed we have:

Lisk

Wah

6TWO4

Obit

Tommy Human

Vomit

And there'll be DJs and a barbeque and you don't even have to pay to get in!

Poster and more details to come on the Facebook Event Page and next week's post when I'm back in Birmingham and available for meetings and organising. Hoorah!

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Links

14 August 2011

My Kind of Criminals

This week the vandals seem to have stayed at home to watch the rioters on TV (they didn't get very far into Digbeth, probably because there isn't much to break or steal up here, apart from Ideal Skate in The Custard Factory; seeing it battered and empty hurt my heart, show some Facebook based support here).

PTP's event on Wednesday was cancelled and though there wasn't actually much trouble that night, Subside remained closed. (Sorry to anyone that braved the risk of kids brandishing plastic guitars (3:40 Cyber Candy's window is well 'ard) to be there, I think PTP got the message round that it was cancelled, should be rescheduled at some point when he returns from the south)

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Enough about riots! Here's those daylight photos of last week's pasting activity!

(From left to right) Mew, Lisk, 6TWO4, Wah, Plimsoul, Princess, Lisk, Wah - Birchall Street

Wah - Bradford Street

Wah and Mew - Birchall Street

Lisk, Zhe155 and Mew - Lombard Street

Wah and Princess - Bradford Street

Lisk and Wah - Bradford Street

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When I was out taking the photos above I found a massive Golden Boy that must have been put up sometime between 4AM and 4PM on Sunday, also found a probably really old Golden Boy on my travels:

Golden Boy and Wah - Bradford Street

New Bartholemew Street

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While in Vudu last week after pasting I spotted AsOne and his lady and proceeded to ~~drunkenly~~ excitedly tell him how much I miss him regularly adding new pieces to Birmingham, to which he replied he'd recently added TWO new paintings, neither of which I'd found. So once recovered from my hangover I found them both on Floodgate Street:

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Sticky Missions has slowed a little (probably because I have 42 points and no one thinks it's worth bothering because I WILL WIN!). The best bits this week are:

Me and Hekar have both made stickering videos for number 31:

Hekar's Video

My Video

And Vomit did number 49 - Get a picture of your sticker on stage with a band

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I'm now up north for a week visiting the parents so instead of posting nothing next Sunday, I'll have a shocking and exciting street art-related announcement!

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Links

Mew Flickr
Zhe155 Flickr

7 August 2011

Pasting Brum! 2011

This week I've been very sociable with some of the local artists, first I met Vomit on Monday for a chat and a wander putting up some stickers and pastes.

Vom and I met at half 8 so I didn't expect any pasting to happen until it got dark but apparently he is utterly fearless; well prepared with wheat paste in a 2 litre Coke bottle with the top cut off (the pasting brush fit perfectly in it! ingenious!) he got to work getting 6 pastes up all over Digbeth in under an hour. Usually he doesn't have a lookout and he's been caught twice with a spray can in his hand so he's got his speed-pasting technique down. Despite his paste competence he's only been doing none-sprayed work for a fairly short time and finds the nature of Flickr friendships and sharing work online all quite new and a bit odd.

After a good walk round some of the best spots he was off to catch a train to one of the many places he floats between - you can see from his Flickr page that he regularly vandalises Derby, Brighton, London, Nottingham and of course Birmingham, to name but a few. A lovely chap who even took a few of my rubbish little stickers in return for his excellent ones and has since put them up in London, hopefully next time he's here it'll be for a bit longer.

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Last night (Saturday), 6TWO4 (and his lovely mate Smed) came down from Nottingham to meet Wah, Lisk, Mew, PTP and myself for drinking, pasting and general merriment. A good time was had by all and everyone got some pastes up (apart from PTP but I'll let him off because he's usually the only that bothers and he's been getting ready to move house next week (sob)). There was even bit of spray action with my 99p Store black car paint that I needed to complete number 10 of the Sticky Missions challenges, more on that after photos!

Photos of the pieces in the daylight and some Wah pastes we did after getting back from Vudu (not a bad place, the cheapcheap drinks balance out the sweaty air) on next week's post or as a rare mid-week post. Or you can just check my Flickr.

Really fun night and always good to hang out with random people you know from the internet.

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Sticky Missions has slowed down a little this week and the deadline has been announced as the first week of September so you'll only have to read about it for another 4 weeks! I'm now on 40 points and showing off in an enraging manner. Here are the best offerings:

10 - Spray paint your character and write Sticky Missions next to it

6TWO4

13 - Create a sticker using only pasta

PTP

17 - Make a zombie sticker

6TWO4

17 - Make a zombie sticker

32 - Make a fake advertising poster with your character, bonus for putting it up.

34 - Make a pop up book of your character

To see all the pages click on these links (some of them contain the kind of foul language I wouldn't dare use on this blog in case my Mum sees):

Page 1 Page 2 Page 2 detail Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7

Vomit

37 - Make your own pen and use it to do some handstyle stickers

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Live drawing and saying farewell to PTP is this Wednesday at Subside, he'll be there at 7 with boards, I'll be there at 8 with my camera. Should be an excellent evening of drawing and frivolity, be there or be at home.

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Links

31 July 2011

'When Brum goes calm, it means big things are soon to come'

A very quiet week, the Boards of Fame are crying out for some fresh paste activity; don't they look sad!

As Mr Tempo33 says though 'When Brum goes calm, it means big things are soon to come'.

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There has been a little bit of activity from Philth, PTP and I've put a few stickers up (mostly 6TWO4's).

Philth (Custard Factory, Gibb Street, Digbeth)

PTP (outside Subside, City Centre, Birmingham

6TWO4 (High Street, Digbeth)

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Local mystery! Over the past few weeks, Chinese symbols have been appearing in Digbeth that appear to be painted with a brush not a can. Who is the Chinese tagger??

Zen Ice Cream Van, High Street, Digbeth

Alcester Street, Digbeth

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Sticky Missions is still going and the stakes have been repeatedly raised over the week. Here are my favourite missions of the week:

Vole

14 - Make your character into your favourite super-hero or villain

6TWO4

19 - Draw your character on a jigsaw

Case

25 - Get an old photo frame, draw your character in it and install it as high as you can

Case

26 - Make a sticker using just glitter

Mosa

28 - Sticker at the beach

6TWO4

33 - Remake a film poster/dvd cover with your character

Vomit

36 - Make a sticker of your favourite animal and put it up in a zoo

Vomit

42 - Make a fake food or drink label and replace labels of legitimate products in shops

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I've got myself up to 35 Sticky Missions points this week, here are my favourite efforts:

3 - Do a 25 sticker combo

8 - Make a home-made stamp and use it to create 25 stickers

(My stamp was pieces of wool glued to card in a crown shape, made a really nice textured stamp)

9 - multi point task ---- stick 1 of your stickers on:
-- fire department property

16 - Make a piece of clothing with your character on and take a picture of you wearing it out in public

29 - Make a zine

38 - Make a potato stamp with your character or tag and use it on the street

I have plans in motion to have at least another 9 points by next post, the competition has been really good for giving me new ideas of how to rework my character and do slightly daring things and now I really want to win!

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If you fancy watching a few of the local vandals doing their thing in a legal setting come down to Subside from about 8ish on Wednesday 10th August. PTP will be relocating down south the weekend after so come say farewell to one of the most active artists in the area, I'll be in the corner with a pint quietly weeping for the loss of Malcom the dog, duckies in various costumes and mushrooms.

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Links