hold your colours

Politics in the fabric of Krakow

2007-11-25T14:14:00.001-08:00

Religious propaganda penciled onto the wall in our apartment building.

[God is watching, be aware!]
Free Tibet

Don't Walk That Road Nie idz tą drogą

Artistic apparitions on the historic walls of Krakow

2007-11-25T13:58:00.001-08:00

Face and masque on Westerplatte

Gramaphone at Poczta Głowna

Artistic use of bleeding on a stenciled face, Kazimierz

Slpiffy creature near Westerplatte

Blog address

Kitty spliffer, wall, Kazimierz

Mystical eyes, wall, Kazimierz

2007-11-25T13:58:00.000-08:00

Starting from somewhere near to home...

2007-11-21T16:07:00.000-08:00

A live and kicking wall in Birmingham on my route into uni for the last couple of years, always seems to be more being added to this showcase of local graffiti

Series of face profiels and the 'ride a bike' stencil surrounded by and interacting with random taggging

'Ride a Bike' anti oil war (?) stencil, a popular one around the student areas of the city

This is just highly admirable artwork, poetic and well executed

'Who watches the watchers?' very apt stencil for the UK which must be the most filmed and observed society in the current age.

All these stencil works found on this one side wall of a house en route to the university, which seems to be used as a showcase for local, especially stencil, artists. A good wall to watch, if ther is such a thing! Located in the student heartland of the city this wall likely has a tradition of this sort of expression and hopefully a future too.

В студенческих частях городов обычно существует живая граффити-культура. Это признак ли простого студенческого бунтарского духа, или форум для образования и выражения души и стоимостей следующего поколения?

This is not a conveyor belt

2007-11-20T13:47:00.000-08:00

Hello, and welcome. Привет, и добро пожаловать!

So what is this blog? And what is its purpose?

Well, firstly, it is not a showcase of my own work in any sense, partly because that would just bore me and partly because I don't get the opportunity to produce enough of my own work to sustain a blog.

It is, instead, going to be a stream of images and discussion [so feel free to comment on content, context, circumstance, opinions etc] of graffiti and street art. This is a phenomenon that really grabs me and I'm interested in how it plays out and what it means in various parts of the world, as much to its creators as to the people who just see it in their hometown on a daily basis.
Not wanting to risk any preconceptions of attitudes or appreciation, or otherwise, before I even begin I'll cut the intro there and start with the show...