Awesome Street Art Blogs (first installment)

Precious Little

Doctor

Vandal Spruce

Now there are of course many many more just 3 I am loving today

Birdhat's in town

And worth 2 in the bush... There has been a bit of skulking and bird-hattery in our streets, I can't wait for more, although they seem to have a bit going on in Newtown too so it may have been a flying visit.

Flake & Durban Poison

I'm letting the images do the talking here, the good Durban Poison has me mellow in a soft lounge chair, dry mouth, big smile ...this shit is good! Flake is doing everything I love in street art too. Keep it comin' guys.

So you know I'm still here

Mundane realities have robbed me of time but not of will. I may not be bloggin' a whole lot lately but I am still smellin' the roses ... And have finally prioritised some time to get my ass over to see the Phoenix exhibition cant wait!!!!! In the meantime ...

You Sold Our Lifestyle Out

I sense tension. I can only report on it and declare no allegiances. Fitzroyalty tells us that DN needs to meet Tres. Tres declares all over Rone's face that he has "sold our lifestyle out". I blame the unnecessary clean ups (Fitzroy is gentrified enough stop this purification!!!!) freaking us all out. Maybe you know the deeper story. Maybe it's a widening gap between purist crews and emerging artists. I will leave you all to ponder but will add to this debate that we need you all. Nufevah to Ghost Patrol, pieces to paste ups. The diversity articulates a dialogue that is of difference, but difference is at the core and it's good. I implore you all to raise the white flag for each other and declare war on the true enemy that is scrubbing down a wall as you read this...

Look Again

I don't know what's happening to me lately - whether my mind is playing tricks on me, but I keep walking past walls I know so well and seeing something new. Or maybe old. Or maybe I am just not sure - how have I missed that before? Whether it's a grand paste up, or a tiny tag, everything seems to be alive and changing faster than my visual memory can keep up. That's the energy of street art, one piece goes up, there is a response, another follows, the shape and mood changes, the wall evolves. I've said before, blink and you miss it, you snooze you lose. Like many places in Melbourne and indeed the great CBD itself, Fitzroy has some ancient walls, and each layer ads depth but doesn't erase the previous (unless some twat cleans the wall). You look past the more recent art and you see Ha Ha, or a few lines of a face that could be Ghost Patrol. The remnants of Phoenix I see everywhere. Then there are all these stencils that I can't quite place, so many of them, tiny stencils, and I think about the time that they were new, and eagerly anticipated. Lately I have spent more time close to old paths so I have really stopped to look into the eyes of these walls and ask them to speak to me of their history. It feels like I am staring at one of those 3D pictures that when you slacken your focus reveals a new image. So this blog is a hats off to the old, a welcome to the new, and a celebration of the little things...

Small Victories

I would like to congratulate everyone who assisted in counteracting the shameful vitriolic explosions against Melbourne Street Artists, that I like to call the WordPress fiasco.  The website formerly known as (I will certainly not promote its name)...is now, on the basis of its countless illegalities, reduced to a shadow of its former vindictive self.  What I personally learnt from this was to be more clever in how I promote the talented artists I love so much.  With such learning I continue on my Flashin' journeys.  Sometimes you may notice I have under represented artists, dropped off links to their work, or just not named them.  I hope as time goes everyone will proudly shout out from every laneway wall, from shoptops, on the cobblestones in sculpture, and in the exhibition spaces that showcase you.   In the meantime, I am quietly resuming business as usual, albeit with one eye open.

Going Off Air Briefly

Peeps - has to be done.  Off air for a coupla weeks.  See you on the flipside...

The Smilies

Okay, I am officially defeated and haunted by these cutest of cute yet slightly unnerving smiley faces in bowler hats.  I have tried every Google search I can think of, scoured Flickr and berated myself for not recalling that one reference to them I did briefly see out there in the ether of internet street art commentary.  Arghhh these faces they taunt me, they sit there waiting and they see me coming, and smile down at me as a reminder of my failed detective work to date.  Well either that or I am being paranoid, self referential and melodramatic.  Either way can someone please put me out of my misery and tell me who does these? The prize of the title official far  superior sleuth awaits whoever can answer this, as does the satisfaction of helping the needy and slightly pathological.  

Indolent Dandy does it better

I need a zoom.  But you can check out far better photos of the images from my last blog entry, with a whimsical link, from the Fabulous Dandy. 

Who Is Vandal Spruce ?

I am not telling you anything new here, but in 2011 there are heaps of great new Paste Ups.  There are several "Hot Spots" in Fitzroy, where some artists are layering Paste Ups over old tags, pasting en masse, and generally just creating a visual explosion of colour and texture.  Think Flake, Drab, Suki, Doctor, Fresh-Chop and Kaff-eine, along with some that I am yet to recognise by name, so if you can help me out on that front please do.  What I am loving the most is this layering, its big Art on a grand scale.   I have just discovered the name Vandal Spruce, and it seems others got there before me.  I can be a bit slow on the uptake.  Their huge scale paste ups are mega cool, their choice of where to paste up even cooler.  I have also found "Captain and the Skipper" has filled a void where Ghost Patrol and Kali the Destroyer have been ripped down.