Night Owl

At last I've finally got something up on the wall you can actually see!  Went out last night with a flatmate who filmed me sticking it up with wheatpaste that was too thin, and with a strong breeze, making life extra difficult to get it on the wall quick.  Luckily, we were pretty quiet (apart from the loudest brush on wall sound ever) and it was off the main road, up a side alley were the only chance of getting caught was by onlookers from windows.

I watched a programme on Palm Oil the other night, and was so shocked and angered by it, I made a few flyers to stick up, put one up last night, near the school and it's already been taken off.  To be honest it was pretty grafic so I'm not really suprised, it's a bit of a come down though.

Going to try out a few more experiments today though and get out again tonight, maybe film a bit more.  Will fill you in again tomorrow if I get the time.

the hare versus the tortoise

Yesterday, out of all the days of this module, had to be the most rewarding.  I managed to pick up 2 HUGE roles of dead newspaper end, which will last me a life time, and are perfect to use for wheatpastes and stencils.  I started on this...

 

A portrait of my housemate out on the razz.  And so far this is what I've got...

 

It's about 1.5 metres tall and I think put in the right environment, it will look awesome.  I managed to make 3 stencils of it at once using the newspaper.  It's a tricky medium to cut on it own, but using a sharp pen knife and the thicker printer paper on top, it wasn't too labourious, except the time it took.  All worth it so far.

Went to the library over at the uni today and found a stack of street art books in it, it's going to be a handy place to know over the next few years now.  

Also tried to mix up the wheatpaste sheets with using accetate sheets with spraypainting more detail on top in black.  Didn't work as it didnt line up, and black isn't right to start off with straight away, going to try again, getting it properly lined up and using grey and black...layering slowly...

 I'm taking my time but I'm slowly getting there, and hopefully with better results than I hoped.

Still, alcohol free and the fact I've been off sick for over 2 weeks with Glandular fever has helped a heck of a lot with keeping that real!  It's pretty grim and frustrating knowing I've had so much work to keep on top of, but only fevering my way deeper into no-return!  But finally I'm fighting fit and can get back on track.  I've even had a big rethink on how to get this project on the move and how to create a bigger bulk of work in a shorter amount of time.

I'm still doing new and exciting work, with processes I've never done before, but it's along the lines of the type of art I love. Bonus!

Wheatpasting.  It's another name for wall paperpaste, but a home made paste graffiti artists use for low budget yet effective street art.  You create a large image on paper behind closed doors, and then when your'e ready to publicise it, out you go, by the cover of night, and taadaa, instant street art.

One of my favourite wheatpasters would have to be a Graffer called Swoon.  She does intricate cut stencil like pieces that she just slaps up onto outdoor walls.  The reason I love them so much is because of the way they deteriate so beautifully.  They lose their white colour and fade to a light brown, peeling here and there.  It looks awesome.  I think I'm also pulled to her work because how they are a twist on stencil work and wheatpasting.  It's just a bit different.

He's my first attempt from yesterday...

from this

to this

Now I have a few other images I want to use but create big wheatpastes of them, and putting them outdoors too.  I'm thinking of on billboards and flyer mounts.  Maybe even using old posters, newspaper etc to make them with rather than just white.  I want to get some full body photographs of drunks so I can do life size images on walls, Think it will be pretty effective.  So...bear with me...