Sharrow Jam 2014

I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to put this post together,but it has. The jam at the ball courts, Sheffields biggest graff event on the calendar, was as always well attended with many of the great and the good from here and further afield turning up to paint.  Byne and Haste were on it, in the same spot as last year, I believe.Iron Man being wonderfully recreated by Mace.Ryak, dressed appropriately for the weather,as were many others, because it was blooming hot!, working on their signature pieces.Si2, Hull Graffiti working his magic again, I’m so glad he likes coming to this city.Kosh painting a pooch.Trik9, having a little dancing interlude.

Only paid a flying visit to the jam on the day, due to having a very hot dog with me! Here’s some finished masterpieces.Si2 Hull Graffiti.Meth, CoLor, Kode and Lone.Byne and Haste.MTH, Irek Onger and Suer.Surge.Sone.Haven’t got a decent shot of this complete due to the goals being put back up, don’t know the artists name either.Cantastic Art.This one was spoilt by the goal too.I don’t know the names of these guys, sorry.Trik9, Prone and Xanone.Pawski and Shoe.Public Offender.Open and Link.Ryak and ?.Core.And finally…

Sadly, as much as this is an annual event, so too is the dogging of some of the pieces as soon as the jam is over, lucky there was some star who came and retouched them all…… warms the cockles of my heart! 🙂

Whistle Stop

Paid a brief visit to Peace in the Park, met up with a few friends who were having a very good time! CoLor Meth and Mila K found time to have a paint while they were there and I think the posing peoples were in a band,Spotted a few of these about, don’t know who did them.Eug with one of his awesome characters.Stewy paid us a visit to drop this stencil featuring Jarvis Cocker, one of several different characters he’s done in various locations on the route of the Tour de France.Lovely tribute piece to the late Patrick Moore by Rocket01.Kosh and…., I’m not guessing…I don’t know who did this either, but I do think it’s quite sweet.Venom, by Mace, superbly gruesome.Jiro?Angry Kitty (not it’s real name) by Mila K.Rambo and Nofx doing what they do best.Pretty lady by Black.C3 pasteup being reclaimed by nature.Don’t know who but much like.Love this too.I love my graff and I’m constantly amazed at the quality of work produced in this city, but I don’t often go wow! anymore, I did when I first saw this. I do have a bit of a soft spot for anything Batman related, but this is truly special.

G’day! (Well 2 of them actually)

It’s always great to meet people as passionate about my hobby/ obsession as I am, so imagine how happy I was that one like-minded individual, was not only making the trip over from Australia to the UK (and Europe), but made it as far as Sheffield too! And it was my privilege to show her the sights over the two days she was here. Lady P as some of you may know is a graffaholic and I think it’s fair to say we have a lot in common. We tried to fit in as much as we could, but didn’t make it to all the spots I’d hoped. It was strange to realise how much I no longer notice, just because it’s there. It was good to see each place through another persons’ eyes.

Despite having never been finished the Phlegm piece above is still amazing.

This Mega Production by Kode, Lone, Gzos and Mars was one I’d not seen up close, looks pretty special.Bumped into some of the new crop of artists in the city,was good to put names to pieces, the one above is by Desmond.Lady P caught in action photographing Peachz at work.The latest piece of loveliness from Eugene Booms.Lady P was able to see CoLor Art and Narke creating this fabulous piece, I think she took a few snaps too.I don’t know anything about Anubis, but I really like what he does, this is my favourite so far.Spied a beautiful Coloquix lady.Lady P was quite taken with this wall by H2i.Solo, I hope I got it right this time! Really like it anyway.I’ve not heard of Purpz before, not sure whether he’s local or not, cool piece though.Sico, seems to be all over the place at the moment. 🙂 Rather fond of these little critters by ABC.A horned lady by Casino, love the style of these.Really like this combination of paste up and paint by Dala.Making use of the architectural features, Meth. Another making use of the architecture, can somebody tell me who it is please? I now know it’s Brisk 🙂Robo x Brisk, enjoying watching their styles and skills develop.Dyson consistently good.Paid a visit to the studio where Foundry works with his brother,and found this sexy lady on the wall.Lady P was keen to see as much as she could in her time with us, this piece by Rocket was the next to the last she saw on her trip.

It says a lot for Sheffield that someone like Lady P from so faraway, would be aware of what is going on here and want to come and see it for herself. I think we gave her a pretty grand tour, giving her a proper Yorkshire welcome and introducing her to a traditional English chippy and the questionable delights of dandelion and burdock!

It was a real pleasure to have her here I do hope she enjoyed it as much as I did…….Oh and by the way, she never said g’day once!

“When are you going to stop writing on the walls and make some money”

Jaers very clever tribute to Beat Street, with a little help from Kisk, recreating a piece by Ramon whose work was tagged by the infamous Spit! Must confess I haven’t seen this film, I’ll put it on my list.Eug x Mila x CoLor Art, quite a busy trio lately, love this….…And this by Eug x Mila x Color too!A taster of Mila Ks’ secret Konfess Exhibition, featuring the seven deadly sins. To appreciate this fully you should blink rapidly to recreate the strobe effect, that was brilliant but slightly disorienting on the day!Bine x Xhastexo, love the mixture of styles with these guys.Alien by Mase, stunning awesomeness!Marilyn by Pawski, his best yet in my opinion, simply jaw dropping.CoLor Art painted this handsome Troll, my new girl Stella is keeping him under control, I’d wanted her to sit with Alien, but he was far too scary 😉 I’ve an idea who did these, not least because I saw them doing it, but I’m not risking getting the names wrong. Obviously the Volt sticker is by Volt, but I have no clue as to who did the character.And finally this curious stencil, it’s odd but I like it.

My next post will have a slightly Antipodean flavour, good times 🙂

Yorkshires Top Graff Tourism Spot?

I read an interview with D7606 on New Urban Eras website, now there’s a guy who travels the country photographing graffiti, pasting his quirky telephone boxes on the way, and where’s his favourite spot? Sheffield! Hardly surprising really.

I’m guessing the paste up is another of the new batch in the city, all good.Rocket01s’ tribute piece to Neil Armstrong has been widely covered so I thought I’d post a close up, the facial features are amazing.Riseone and (insert name here), got a green thing going on here, I like. Meth,love this and the new big one I haven’t seen in the flesh is brilliant.I don’t know, made me smile though. 🙂This is just beautiful, I think it’s a real work of art, Foundry has excelled himself with this lovely lady. Solo, really like the colours and fill with this.Coloquixs’ lucious lady, gets about she does…Alex Ekins has been at it again, paste up Sherpas this time. This one’s my favourite.H2i have got the city looking lovely at the moment, this is a close up of  Maces’ latest in the centre.Pawski, definitely one with an eye for the ladies this fellow 😉 Evo and Mars, bangin’!Gzos with an ace piece to celebrate his mate Pete triumphing over cancer. Lovely tribute.

Perhaps I’m aiming too low with Yorkshires’ top spot, perhaps we’re the top spot in the UK, well nearly 🙂

Frankly My Dear I Don’t Give A Damn

Managed to get here just as this piece was finished. This is a close up of the Pawski and Foundry collaboration.The wall in all its glory featuring Ryak, Mace, Pawski, Foundry, Gzos and Jaer and some fellow with a camera 😉Love these, no idea who they are by.Xhastexo and Bine, brilliant piece that wasn’t there for long.The style looks familiar, but I’m not certain. Spotted whilst half way up a very dodgy ladder.  Eug Booms in 2 minds with himself.Syco and Robo, good to see they’re keeping busy. Colourful little number from Narke.Skint and Kosh, Let me take a Selfie, brought out my inner child this one 🙂

I’m a little bit behind with stuff at the moment, I’ve been a little pre occupied with my new pooch! Normal service will resume soon.

The Future’s So Bright So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades!

Good to see Ryak, Jaer and Gzos making the most of the sunshine.The finished wall, positively burnin’………… pass the factor 50!The glorious weather had brought Faunagraphic out to play as well.Lovely isn’t it?Of course the sunshine is all well and good but can be a bit of a nightmare with a camera, so this awesome piece by Foundry is slightly cropped to remove the shadow of a lamppost!Mr Kent,getting a little darker me thinks, looks like he’s been raiding my childhood toy collection.Eug with another of his evolving characters, one of the early ones is coming to live with me. 😀Fishy business from the Fisherman, the walls of Sheffield are quite a spawning ground for fish with legs, should we be worried? Mace and Pawski working wonders again, gorgeous. I’ve destroyed all my photos of the first 3rd eye, that went a little wrong ( good to know they’re only human though! 😉 )Sead with an another cracking contribution to this famous wall.I think I’ve seen a couple of characters about by this artist, I know nothing about them, I’m curious to see how they develop.

I had a lovely walk in the sunshine and bumped into lots of great people I hadn’t seen for ages. A few days later I had another walk cut short by hail rain and snow, I love spring! 😉

Waders Not Included

So it’s throwing it down, freezing cold, howling gale, time to go hunting for a piece next to a swollen river, obviously. I guess there are worse things to have as your last view on the world than a cat-carrying water siren by Coloquix.Gzos, Pawski and Shoe, another awesome wall to brighten the city centre.Stabby women, the new batch from Kid Acne, particularly liking the unicorn.Not an especially new Xhastexo and Bine collaboration,but a really good one.Espre, first one of the year, one of many I hope.Almost impossible to comprehend that this is a first piece by an artist, but the Inksurgeon, as his name suggests, normally performs wonders on a much smaller scale. It’s not bad for a debut (!), wonder what he’ll do next…I never was a fan of the Muppets, the only characters I ever really liked were Waldorf and Statler, Rateone must have read my mind!Saul Goodman from Breaking Bad, another cracker from Pawski.Skull by Mace, crikey what a scorcher.Skint and Sour collab, apologies for the poor pic, but they will paint in such awkward places!.Gradually disappearing as is the nature of all things graffiti, the first cat/manatee by Phlegm. Although as some pieces go this is probably antique.Some of Sheffields up and coming, mixed with a few that have been around a while, don’t think that slow fellow will go far though…

Can somebody do something to stop all this rain please, I think I’m starting with trenchfoot. Thank you! 🙂

The End Is Nigh!

I don’t like to get involved in the politics of the scene, but I do feel the vibe in Sheffield is really bad at the moment, it saddens me and it’s taking away much of the pleasure I got from my passion. There is far too much hate on individuals when it’s roots are not necessarily graff related. If you don’t like a style, fair enough but to publicly diss and damage individuals work is pointless. Not everybody likes everything, and why should they? Some ‘acclaimed’ photographers started by only photographing the work of one artist, some have stayed like that. For myself, I try to encompass as much of the scene as I can, and yes I get it that it must be frustrating for certain writers and artists that some of the newcomers to the graff photographic community will ignore many quality pieces to get to a piece by a specific person. But I think all this infighting is missing the point. It’s a good thing that there is a wider interest in graffiti/street art, more interest = more public support and more legal spots, good thing, yes? I think so. It has a down side though. I know there are many who believe that real graff should not be on legal walls, I get that too, the problem, as I see it now is that the areas are being blurred. I’m not getting into the bombing aspect, I mean the less legal sites, in derelict buildings etc. are being treated, by some, as in the public domain, they’re not. They were never meant to be mainstream,discovering and accessing these sites was never supposed to be openly discussed on social networks, it kind of defeats the object. I love the work on legal walls, the more the better, I think it looks amazing and it’s great to see more appearing in the city. But I loved the thrill of finding something unexpected or hidden too, I’ve spent hours and in one case months searching online and walking miles to find that special something, now that’s gone, chances are you’ll have seen a photo of a piece by loads of people within hours of it being done, you’ll have to join the queue to access the site and if you’re lucky, you’ll get there just before somebody’s dogged it! In my opinion this is not a good thing, it’s killed the urbex scene and it’s doing the same to graff. I was reading an interview the other week with an american graff photographer,he said much the same thing, it would appear it’s a problem everywhere. What’s the answer? Buggered if I know, all I hope is that some new fad takes over leaving those of us who like to spend our days sniffing paint fumes dodging syringes and standing in pigeon poo to get on with it. I think it will happen, I just hope the scene hasn’t imploded on itself before it does. We have some fantastic writers and artists in Sheffield, the city is becoming renowned for its graffiti and street art nationwide, even worldwide, long may it continue…. please.

So, rant over, good to see Phlegm back in the city with his Urban Foxes.

 Funny Ideers by CoLor, just a little bit festive.Our friends from the North East, have paid a return visit.D7606,with a cheeky little bit of Marilyn.

Trik 9 with 2 of Santas’ little helpers. I can’t really do this wall justice on here, it has to be seen to be believed. ‘This is Sheffield’ the epic collaboration between Mace, Jaer, Gzos and Pawski.Nice to see Ryak coming out to play.Good to see Black out and about too, don’t see too much of his work.I really like this, Jonas x Meth.

Thanks for your support over the last year it’s much appreciated. I hope your 2013 has been better than mine and that your 2014 is better still. Happy New Year!

My Milkshake Brings All The Boys To The Yard…

This is what I’ve seen on very recent expeditions. Sour, pushing boundaries with this piece that looks like it’s raised up from the wall.Alex Ekins, little fox, lovely.Kid Acne x Petro, for reasons I don’t understand, a bit of a ‘marmite’ wall.H2i (Pawski, Mace, Mars) and TIO (Gzos, Jaer) came together for this fantastic tribute marking the tragic extinction in the wild of the Black Rhino.Trex, not a regular contributor to city centre walls, more usually seen on the outskirts. I have now been informed that this is a different Trex and the original is not impressed.Cantastic Art has taken to night time manoeuvres recently, must be sponsored by a carrot farmer!Boaster MTH did this sneaky little character on a recent visit to Sheffield, love it!This wonderful owl, something a little different from Mars, awesome.Managed to catch two of the H2i fellows working on this stunner of a wall featuring Chali 2Na, (I confess, I had never heard of him, but the likeness is amazing!) The finished wall by Shoe and Pawski, completed just as it went dark, lucky to get a half decent shot thanks to fading light and dying camera batteries.And finally… another Bunny!