Category: Inspiration
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Oscillating scrawl dance to the sound of the city, transforming surfaces into a beautiful opera of tagging, drips, daubs, overspray and movement
RISING OUT THE DARKNESS OF LIVERPOOL STREET STATION we ascend into a pandemic stricken City of London – three days after (MOST) legal limits on social contact were removed; this was July 2021, the second summer of fear and lies. Bishopgate was like a dream (NO PEOPLE) slash post-apocalyptic nightmare (SCARED PEOPLE), masked, double-masked and…
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What if, when you die here, you really die?
DEATH IS YOUR GIFT — THE PROPHECY BESTOWED on Buffy by the first Slayer. She wasn’t wrong, for Buffy or for any one of us for that matter. It’s the only constant, for sure; not thinking about it seems like a high–risk strategy for life (especially with hindsight) don’t you think? We know what you’re…
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I heard you making patterns rhyme like some new romantic looking for the TV sound
WE WERE SEVEN YEARS OLD WHEN 1980 arrived. The currency of music in the playground was without doubt the compact cassette tape and the beloved mix-tape. We spent hours sitting next to the radio trying to time the perfect recording of 1999 and hustling friends for their uninterrupted version of Take on Me or Mirror…
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Paintings of purring lines, zips and tongues cavort and play on an epic scale
ON A COLD AND SOGGY WINTER DAY we set out for London to visit the major retrospective of artist Bridget Riley. She is one of those painters that has to be seen in person. There is definitely a sense of being transformed by or through the colour relationships she explores in her paintings. The result…
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Wildlife has plummeted by an average of 60% since 1970
THERE IS NOTHING BETTER THAN SPENDING TIME exploring a hedgerow or wild field or woodland. Butterflies, hoverflies, beetles and even the odd frog will show itself. Spending time in nature is vital for health and well-being. Find your nearest nature reserve, park or botanical garden head for whatever is flowering and take your time. It’s…
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Sometimes I feel so happy, sometimes I feel so sad… but mostly, you just make me mad, baby, you just make me mad
THE OPENING LINES TO PALE BLUE EYES, written by Lou Reed and recorded by the Velvet Underground has become a personal and abstract expression for a feeling I have been experiencing lately. To be specific, the feeling happens when walking in my neighbourhood, city and in nature. The sadness doesn’t come from lost love as…
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Pavements gleam with a kaleidoscope of colourful pollution
WHY ARE THESE IMAGES INTOXICATING TO LOOK AT — is it because there are both beauty and destruction all in one spectacle? The blends found in these expanses of colour are fascinating to stare into, the way they twist and wave into a glowing pattern is like a tractor beam of sorts. The transformation is…
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Positive affirmations and street art tribute–acts perform against a psychedelic explosion of colour
STUMBLING OUT THE DARK CAVE OF LIVERPOOL Street Station on to a bright sunny Bishopgate we head east for Commercial Road and immediately run into Minty, a SKELETOR hopelessly in love with his closest friend: Frida. She is suffering from bad dreams of Brexit and family disagreements about the socialist agenda. The walls call out our soon to be…
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Stay-at-home order arrives with a clean sharpened hue of blue and 1970s yellow ochre tones
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN LIVING MEMORY, (AT LEAST OURS) the people of the UK gathered around a simple set of collective principles to make change happen “Stay home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives”. The lockdown of the UK was announced on 23 March 2020 by the Prime Minister with measures to mitigate the spread…
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Seven Stars Yard drips with ripped colour and painted layers in a living street art collaboration of accidental narratives
STUMBLING OUT THE DARK CAVE OF LIVERPOOL Street Station on to a windswept Bishopgate we head toward Hanover to replenish our ‘PLANT BASED FOOD SYSTEM’. Walking against the current of hurrying people, we follow a cloud of friendly neon skull winged butterflies wandering playfully. We listen to their fluttering as they casually flock together singing…