Pain(t) Spotting: Cheers to the Photographers that made 2014

There will be no images in this post. This is a written tribute to the spotters. That unique pack that are religiously devoted to the documentation of what is happening in street art in Melbourne, this year. You fuckers call us paint spotters. Pfffff.

Us 'paint spotters' will know the following questions well and will ask ourselves daily:

1. Am I an artist?

2. Am I just a collector of names, images and knowledge?

3. Am I a hobbyist?

4. Do I take the shot so people see the work, or so that they see me?

I don't doubt many of us street art photographers are artists who have chosen to stick with the medium of photography. Yet frequently we are derided. Most insultingly, we are often viewed as fans, when in reality, we can be, and often are, the greatest wing-man an artist could hope for.

I want to take my hat off to a special few who I admire greatly in my own little hyper local world.

1. David Russell - energetic, open, generous and collaborative. He is amazing. What he doesn't know about the inner workings of a camera is not worth knowing.

2. Dean Sunshine - he is so easy to be in love with. Not like that, just in terms of wishing you could bottle a piece of him for yourself.

3. All those shapes - how does one person know so much about so many?

4. Arty Graffarti - in the Graff world, he is the equivalent of All Those Shapes.

The four people above, in my opinion, are shaping this scene more influentially than I think anyone gives them credit for. 

Power Grouse

Yes, grouse. There is no other way to describe walking through a massive space full of people doing art. I mean the painters and the spotters, too.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Posted with Blogsy

Places I go

No words. Well these words. But this post is a visual of the places I go. More specifically the places I went yesterday and the day before. Also the places I went last week. Hashtag #deansunshine #landofsunshine #factor #cantonese #hongkonghouseguest #viggietang #faither #shida #dammad (yeah this dude is back!) #barek #smel #klara #lewisfidock #fidock ... More hashtags late

Posted with Blogsy

Not Pretty Enough (bei mir bist du shayn)

I lived in St Kilda when Muso's and artists were moving on, paving the way for grunge to evolve into cool. They left the gays and Jews to cohabit in a blissful marriage of tradition and experimentation: The 1990's. It was all designer runners, comic teeshirts, 3/4 denim, warehouse parties, Midsummer, Miss Candy, The Palais, Russian bakeries.

To fireworks, dance music and Calvin Kleins (the pills not the jeans) the new millennium was welcomed. The Y2K bug didn't destroy us, but the new era killed St Kilda. The place soon became so cool it was hot, and it melted into one big festering mess of poo-beige.

The pretty people demanded nicer amenities, the removal of the prostitutes from each street corner, a clean up of Blessington Street, and a curfew on noise. They wanted a gentrified St Kilda. A nice place to raise designer kids and irritating dogs...or was it designer dogs and irritating kids? 

The old Jews survived the most horrendous experience of the holocaust, arrived on our shores, and built this wonderful city. Then they not only existed but thrived through it's darkest days, its hard days and its party heydays, to be left with this...Meh.  Nudne.*

Which brings me, of course, to Fitzroy this week... bushland? FFS!!!?! 

"... Cr Fristacky said she would have preferred a mural of scenery of bushland or the Abbotsford Convent. "I would say [the Sofles piece] is OK in a magazine or a book. But in public art I have my reservations."

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/trouble-brewing-fitzroy-street-mural-could-be-censored-20140828-109h1w.html#ixzz3BqNMTxkB

To see the offending Adnate Sofles Smug collab check out Dean's page 

 *Apologies for bad, inappropriate or offensive Yiddish I am just a Goy