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. 

The Outsiders

Revealing both my age and my sad determination to never leave THAT decade, my invite to Outsiders: an unauthorised exhibition, immediately got me thinking about the Brat Pack. The best bunch of actors ever lined up in the worst possible films in history. They were GOLD: Emilio's lovelorn face, Rob's jawline, Demi's huskiness, Molly's teeth. Ahhhh those were the days.

Just as an aside, does anyone else wish it was Ralph not Tom that catapulted to Hollywood royalty?  Imagine the zeitgeist of our times hung off the cheekbones of Ralph Macchio.  Wax on. Wax Off. 

But back to The Outsiders. It was the Greasers versus the Socs (i.e. the high society).  Stay Gold, or rather, Nothing Gold can Stay.

And so I come to Outsiders 2014. This was Gold being given away. It was an absolutely professional group show with perfectly executed teasers and promo video's. The turn out speaks volumes: Reka, Dean, Alison Young (The Prof of Street Art), Toby of Just Another Agency, All Those Shapes, Street Art Melbourne, Marian Machismo. And it wasn't just the free beer. It wasn't even the free Art. Invurt says it. PROPS. HUGE.
                                                     
This show was the most heart felt, heart warming, unified-whilst-disparate, sentiment expressing, open, honest, raw, gutsy demonstration of the Artists stripped bare that I have ever seen in a group show - by the Greasers or the Socs. I loved it. I love them.
           
 The Zine reflects all of this.  It showcases 10 fine artists: Akemi, Astrotwitch, Be Free, Crib, Dexter, Fox, Hollie M Kelley, Minou, Ryan McGenniskan and Suki. What I love is their honesty.

The best thing Akemi's parents passed on was how to believe in the impossible.  And thanks I will have an eclair please. Astro(t)witch hopes for at least one other person to feel slightly better. Be Free would like a trolley full of glitter. Crib is concerned with the illusion of capitalism and wants the viewer to think.

Dexter, a little bit of an art crush of mine, has been on a brave journey back to self as many of you will know and has brought five months of solitary reflection to life in a spectacular way, Fox's parents were instrumental, Hollie's taught her not to live a boring mainstream life. Minou is claustrophobic lol, and solidly believes in people standing up for each other. Suki hopes to inspire.

   

And most of all it is Ryan who struck a huge cord with me, bearing his soul and disclosing that "in the grand scheme of things I am extremely lost at where I am physically and emotionally - I am not at all 'together'". How refreshing. Toby was all over Ryan's work and one of the first to nab one. He is surely someone to watch.....