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Posts Tagged ‘geelong’

Well it seems the last time I updated here was early January…not sure where Feb, March and April went?! Where does the time go?

Oh well…so what is new…

I have moved out of the Factory 21 studios into a new bigger studio…G-Cubed Studio.

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So the move took some time over Jan, but we got there and the new space is now decked out and looking sweet. (Big props to Boom Gallery for fitting it out for us.)

The Powerhouse kicked off in Geelong at KNS, the old power station in North Geelong. I did a few pieces out there including a street based version of the Ritz as a straight up stencil.(Amazing piece by Adnate in the background!)

 

I took part in Summer Projects 2 at Boom Gallery pushing out some new graphic prints of urban scenes. I also got to show a colab I did with JoanneKemerer…being the tagged up head that she sculpted titled. ‘defaced’.

10841854_319041318305737_6403778465329185280_oMy Ritz install at the Geelong Gallery finally came down after its extension. This was to mixed views…it seems people are going to miss it and wanted to see it it stay. But keeping in true form with street art, it was always going to be ephemeral. What goes up must come down. Thanks Geelong Gallery for having me.

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Now we are well into the year, I just took part in Geelong After Dark last week doing a projection from Oxide Gallery in McLarty Place. It was a quick project…but it went off seamlessly once set up, which is always good. Thanks to Sue for the opportunity to base myself in her gallery, and Lou for adding me to the website at short notice. Note to self…must do paperwork!

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Recently, I had my artwork featured on a wine label by Livewire Wines.(Image pinched from their insta…Thx Livewire Wines!). Haven’t got my hands on one yet, but i have had their wines before and they are very good…and this one is largely organic with just a small amount of sulphur for bottling. So one not to be missed. I think Union Street Wine bar are stocking it locally to Gtown, or contact Anthony at Livewire directly to get your hands on it.

DV8 wine stolen FB

On top of this I have some work in the next Boom Gallery exhibition…a stable group show(two solo shows opening the same night too!), opening Friday 15/5 at 5:30…so come along if your free. I have something new and a bit different for me on show around the theme of water…and a big work too.

I currently also have a few murals on the go in the background which could get the go ahead at any stage…but I will talk more once they are in real motion. So stay tuned.

I have another little solo exhibition ‘Zone 1’ coming up in the Little Window of Opportunity at Port Jackson Press in the second fortnight in June(Starts on the 16th). After the last show basically sold out…yay! I got the call back. So fingers crossed it goes well again. It is an inner Melbourne focus for the work this time, with areas that I have been very familiar with over the years or lived in.

Flyer below:

PJP DL flyer mockup 2015And in final news…only public last week. I have been selected as one of 15 emerging artists from around the country to take part in a series of exhibition for the first Australian Print Triennial in Mildura set for October this year. This was a real honour if you go over and have a look at the line-up.

So it looks like it is going to be a busy year ahead as well…while still working 5 days a week!

So lets see what develops next.

Thanks for the ongoing support,

NF

 

 

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Well it has been a little while since I have updated here. I have been consumed by working my day job and now a new second job writing the course content and getting it certified for a training organisation. On top of this I am working towards a large solo exhibition ‘Territory’ coming up in August at Boom Gallery in Geelong where I have made about 80 works over the last 12 months with about 60 odd to go on show. All are welcome, so come along and have a look on opening night, say hi and enjoy the art.

The opening night is on Friday the 8th August and there are a couple of concurrent exhibitions opening the same night in the gallery for Casper Raglus and Dave Bowers.

See the flyer below for further info…

territory flyer 2014

Hmm…So what else is new…

This weekend just gone I spent up in Ballarat as I had the Altered State assemblage book that I put together a year or so back on display as a part of ‘Page.Print.Post: 50 Years of Artists Books’. The exhibition looked amazing with over 500 books by artists covering printmaking, assemblage, political books and zines. So there is something for pretty much anyone interested in artists books. The highlights for me were seeing a box of work by David Dellafiora (Field Study international) who also opened the exhibition, Seeing a beautiful book made by Chuck Close as well as Sunset Strip by Ed Rushca. But there was too much great stuff to mention…so I suggest you get up to Ballarat and see the show at Post Office Gallery (Open wed – Sat 10 -4pm).

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Above: Altered State Artists Assemblage Book

Below: Post Office Gallery Overview

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Below: Artists Book by Chuck Close

Bottom: Exhibition Flyer

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ballarat book show 2014

On a different front I completed the ID:5G mural Project for the City of Greater Geelong. I painted Chrissie Amphlett as a tribute about a year to the day after her passing. I got some awesome feedback, the image went a little viral online getting nearly 2000 likes and the work even landed me on the front covers of both the Geelong Advertiser and the Geelong News. The stencil was a massive 3x3m six layer effort.

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Above: Close Up of Chrissie

Below: Mural Overview – Denny’s Lane Geelong (Next to Beav’s Bar)

Bottom: Addy Front cover

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Addy picture

Apart from this I have been spending a bit of time developing my audience on a new platform with my new Facebook page. Click on the link and come across and show me some FB love if you feel like it! ( facebook.com/nofrillsart )

Oh and I just realized that I didn’t post any of the Ctrl+V pics on her as yet so here are a couple from the project. The first picture is me putting up my image of the shell refinery, and below is a shot of the other works by the ten artists I was coordinating(Oops…one artwork is missing in this picture still), and their works in situ on the hoardings around the new Geelong Library and Heritage centre site.

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ctrlv overview

Secret Project…Shhh! I also have a big project in the wings as we speak, but I am currently not in the position to announce it, but stay tuned for big news around Sept this year for the announcement and Nov for work to begin. Seeing as I can’t tell you too much more about this yet, here is a sneak peak at one of my latest artworks for my upcoming solo exhibition. Rumour has it since I have created this artwork these shops have been knocked down…or earmarked to get demolished which is sad and poignant.

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So I guess you can see that I have been pretty flat chat which is why the updates have been a little on the quiet side. I think I have enough work on the go at the moment that the next break will most likely not be till Christmas…where I am looking forward to sitting around relaxing and not have to do anything.

Hope life is treating you all well!

NF

 

 

 

 

 

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This weekend myself and a bunch of other artists will be transforming the hoardings around the Geelong Library site in Johnston Park with large format Paste Ups. So if you are in the area pop by and say hi and have a look. Also on at the same time and location is Figment a participatory arts event, so there should be lots to do and see.

ctrl v flyer FB

 

In other news last weekend I was out in Inverleigh for ‘The Intervention’ festival. I was spray painting white rabbits around town. The rabbits had a map running through them of the highway through Inverleigh, with the location pin used as the eye. The concept related to bringing street art to a rural area with the white rabbit used as an Alice in Wonderland reference to ‘I’m Late!’ with the perception of time management in the city versus the country. The rabbit being white also symbolised colonisation in Australia, and was chosen as rabbits as an introduced pest in this country were released between Inverleigh and Winchelsea. There was a bunch of other stuff going on including a shrink wrapped tractor, inflatables, robots, printmaking workshops, sauce making…you name it.

rabbit 1Above: Under the bridge into town

Below: Main street at the bus stop

rabbit 2

 

And I had some of my stencils in the Red Door Cafe who were hosting the event.

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How cool is that Mirror piece by Mark Cuthbertson on the right?! Oh and below is the afore mentioned shrink wrapped tractor also by Mark Cuthbertson…cool huh!

tractor blog

And on a positive note I just sold these two large ‘A0’ pieces that I was working on for my upcoming show in August. They are at the framers now…can’t wait to see them all framed up in float frames for the customer. Woot!

ritz blog

 

Marnock Mill blog

 

oh…I am now also officially represented by Boom Gallery, so that is a big step forward for my art. And i started a Facebook page…I can be found by searching Glen Smith- Artist. Go check it out and show me some love with a like or a share. Thanks! 😉

Stay tuned the next few months I have heaps on!

Cheers,

NF

 

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Well everyone I have been a little slack of late with updating this site due to work commitments. But hopefully the new year will see me having a little more free time and I will update more regularly. So what has been happening…

The murals with the city are still on hold or in the works. So stay tuned! And in terms of street based stuff, I have hardly got anything up around town for ages…so that must be a new years resolution.

The article in the weekly review came out in early December with my profile in it…and as a positive note from this article, I sold two large works in week one of the gallery reopening this year with a buyer who had seen my work in the magazine in December and wanted to see more. So that was an awesome start to the year and will go towards framing a bunch of other artworks. So thank you to Julia and the Weekly Review!

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This weekend just gone I worked at the 2014 Festival of the Photocopier at the Town Hall in Melbourne. It is always fun to share the same room as around a hundred other artists into making artists books and zines. While there I was also filmed for an interview to do with my practice, zine culture and the role of Sticky Institute. I am not a hundred percent sure what will come of the interview…but if I find out I will link to it at a later date.

FestivalPhotocopier 2014

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I have also spent most days in the studio over the christmas holiday period and I have about thirty or so new works  from the last two months. Similar in style to the last show…but getting a little grungier and a bit more industrial.

new work 1 2014 FB

new work 2 2014 FB

And the final bits of news are that I have started up a Facebook Artists Page which I hope to update often with new works as I head towards another solo exhibition in August this year at Boom Gallery (This time in the big new second space that opened just after my last exhibition). The FB page can be found by searching Glen Smith – Artist on a Facebook search or at www.facebook.com/nofrillsart . It has quickly grown to over two hundred likes in the first two weeks and is climbing strongly which is exciting at both the thought of being able to connect to a new audience, but also in terms of being able to filter my work to select the best works for the upcoming exhibition.

Oh…And in other news, just to keep me on my toes I have been doing a bunch of Graphic Design on the side as well as starting to plan for a project in the works out in Inverleigh…but more on that closer to time. I also have three new publications out, ‘Art Club’ , ‘Sporadic #3 (With David Dellafiora)’ and ‘Life finds a way’, but I will do a feature on the new publications next time.

Well I think that is about it for now…stay tuned…And I hope you all have a happy and safe 2014!

NF

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Over the weekend just gone David Dellafiora and myself ran a workshop on zines and making artists books at Cloverdale Community Centre. It was a fast paced day but over the day we did manage to produced issue two of Sporadic. It was a fun day enjoyed by all involved and we were very happy with the quality of the finished zine. I think there are a few more of these workshops still to come over November so stay tuned or keep an eye on Cloverdale’s Facebook page if making zines is your thing.

sporadic issue 2 oct 2013

 

Flyer below…

NP flyer

Workshop Photo…

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And while on the topic of Artists Books I saw a copy of the Artist’s Book Yearbook 2014-15 thanks to Dave, which happens to feature three of the books/zines that I have made recently. It was a pleasant surprise as flicking through the book I was unaware that they were in there!

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and below are the pages with my work featured…including Altered State, Don’t feed the Humans and NWO. This publication is produced by the University of West England. It is 21 x 29.7 cm, 296 pages, black and white offset print. Published September 2013 by Impact Press, UWE Bristol ISBN 978-1-906501-07-5 and are available to order online here. It looks like a great resource book for anyone interested in this field.

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There is also an excellent article on Field Study written by Sue Hartigan in the publication. So one more reason to get your hands on a copy!

In other news I have an invite to place some works in a show in Melbourne in December and have a few murals that are in negotiation with the city currently…more to come as they all get more concrete!

I did an interview with Weekly Review Magazine that may/or may not be coming out this week. So keep your eyes peeled! And over the last few weeks I have got back into the swing of making things with a new mash up zine ready to go to press and new paintings on the go. I have about ten new small mixed media paintings done now, and I am heading towards a new solo show at some point but nothing is set as yet. These new works are all on found wood supports and are capturing abandoned buildings and other landmarks in the region.

Below are the first two that I did: Erskins (Before the reno)

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I think that about sums up the last month, or at least everything I haven’t already discussed on the blog previously. Stay tuned as it looks like it may be a busy few months between now and the end of the year.

Cheers,

NF

 

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Recently, I worked on a large street art inspired mural with artist Glenn Fry at One World Child Care Centre. Having been friends for a long time, G2 and I had not yet collaborated on any projects of this nature and it was a fun opportunity to be able to do this together. A big thanks also must go out to our assistants Tom Armstrong, Darren Wescombe and Patricia Wade who made the day go super smoothly. Also a big props to Kitty the owner of One World for her foresight to commission a mural for the kids that is a lot more edgy than what you would normally expect to see in an environment such as this. It was a fun day and I think all parties were happy with the results and the starting point for the wall. Hopefully it inspires the kids making art on the streets of the next generation!!!

Below is a panorama shot of the entire mural along with a few shot of my components in the mural.

one world street art mural

Above: Panorama Overview shot

Below: Kids artworks that I made into a large stencils

kids art

Below: Laneway Paste up for a little authenticity

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Bird Stencils

bird stencil

And my dalmatian stencil…

dog stencil

 

This artwork is forming the base for the wall and will be added to by both the kids and Glenn Fry as he will be doing an artists’ residency at the venue. It has since had a wash over the wallpaper section and Darren has done some airbrushing in one section…I look forward to see how it evolves over time!

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Recently, I have been working on a large scale paste up collaboration with artist Darren Wescombe(Darren Wescombe illustrations on FB). We were asked to interpret Daniel Longo’s image (See fringe advert down below) that he produced for the Geelong Fringe Festival. Darren and I have very different styles with Darren using illustration as opposed to my collage based images…however I think we tied them together really well.

courthouse arts paste upAbove: Aerial View of the foyer

paste up

Above: Overview shot of the full paste up (5 x 1.2 metres)

Paste up detail

Above: Paste up detail shot – Centre Panel

Below: Daniel Longo’s Image for the 2013 Geelong Fringe Festival

Geelong Fringe

 

And while I am mentioning the Geelong Fringe get on down to Courthouse Arts to see some of the awesome events on offer over the festival. More info and bookings at courthousearts.org.au

peace out!

NF

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Recently(Last Friday), Boom Gallery opened their latest show ‘Big Boom‘. It coincided with the galleries expansion which sees the gallery nearly double in size…which is massive thing for Geelong, being that the gallery was already fairly large! The Big Boom exhibition was a group show with about twenty artists work on show including; Jeff Raglus, Tibor Novak, Anita Iacovella and many more. So although eclectic, the show is bound to have something that will cater to everyones tastes.

It runs till the 14th Sept, so pop in and have a look if you want to see some fresh art.

Boom Gallery Hours are 9 – 4pm Wed – Sat – 11 Rutland Street Geelong

Big Boom

Further Info: www.boomgallery.com or find them on Facebook.

Below is one of the works that I had in the exhibition. I decided to use the fact that I only had to put in a few works to be a little experimental and put in some straight stencil works that were stripped right back to give a design edge to them. A bit different and less busy than my usual work.

Bird Stencil by Glen SmithBirds of a feather #1 – Acrylic Spraypaint on plywood, 2013. (45x45cms)

In other news…

I have been back painting more little bits and pieces at the Eureka, I have been doing a bit of graphic design for ‘Future Digitals’ a new media concept/group starting in the northern suburbs/Cloverdale. As well as all this, I am also currently working on a large scale paste-up collaboration with Darren Wescomb as a feature for the upcoming Geelong Fringe Festival (Pictures coming soon!).

Further info on the Geelong Fringe visit www.courthousearts.org.au .  It has been a while since the fringe festival has been in Geelong so be sure to get along and support it.

And just for fun, below is tonights little piece of culture jamming…

a little sticker run for the next art jam session coming up at my studio.

Enjoy! NF

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I have  new solo exhibition opening this Friday at Boom Gallery in Geelong. So if your free from 5:30 – 8 pm pop in and have look at the new artworks and have a nice glass of wine and a chat.

Click on the flyer for larger details or visit www.boomgallery.com.au

(or find them on Facebook).

Hope to see you all there!

Cheers,

NF

Local_GlenSmith_webflyer2

Att: Press Release: 

What:                        ‘Local’ a contemporary art exhibition

Who:                          By Geelong based artist Glen Smith

Where:                     Boom Gallery, 11 Rutland Street, Newtown Geelong

( Regular Gallery Hours:     Wed – Sat      9:30 – 4:00pm )

“ Local ” by Glen Smith

25 July – 17 August 2013

(Opening: Fri. 26th July 5:30 – 8pm    –    All Welcome)

Why/Synopsis:

Local is a new exhibition by artist Glen Smith. Grungy street art inspired urban environments and skylines captured in their full illuminated glory. Artworks that are specific in their Geelong locations, yet captured in a glimpsing manner allowing for both familiarity for the locals with their intimacy of the physical locations, while also creating broader associations of inner city environments for a wider audience base through the use of common urban symbology, architecture and constructs. Through portraits of places, street scenes, fleeting snapshots and panoramas, ‘Local’ captures the very nature of the inner city of Geelong and the general atmosphere of ones surroundings when living in a contemporary cityscape.

Physically the work borrows its aesthetics heavily from the streets that it aims to capture, with urban/street art traits and techniques inspiring and informing the paintings through stencilling, spray painting and various contemporary print techniques. Metaphorically, the artworks are Psychogeographic, mapping the artist’s personal environment and his day-to-day travels instilled with memories, associations and experiences. On a Philosophical level, the works geo-tag Smith’s daily life while depicting the beauty of his urban travels and views about the beauty inherent in the entropy of his environment. All captured at street level.

Local can refer to familiar places or a state of mind. It can be a positive or a negative. It may mean home to some while others see it as an anaesthetic. However you view local, be it favourably or otherwise we are all locals somewhere.

Contact:               0417555101 /   0428305639

or Email:           info@boomgallery.com.au

Further Info:         www.boomgallery.com.au

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Currently the Eureka Hotel is in the process of getting a massive street art makeover by some of Melbourne’s best street artists. The artists working on the project are HaHa, Vexta, Kaffine, Drew Funk, Shida, Klara, Lucy Lucy, s-701a, and a bunch more. Somehow I was  lucky enough to also manage to get an invite to come along and be a part of it. The first order of business for myself was to do a massive 3 metre high bear on the front of the venue.

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Below are a bunch of process shots of the bear getting done.

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and a few process shots of some of the other artists at work.

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Above: Ha Ha hard at work

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Above: Kaffine in the cigar bar

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and finally Lucy Lucy sketching out a drawing for a colab with Kaffine. In my opinion this ended up being the best piece in the venue when completed.

More finished pix to come after opening night(29th June…this saturday!)…So get the word out and come have a look at some awesome street art.

NF

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This weekend I worked at Paper City zine fair at the town hall in Melbourne presented by Sticky Institute. The day saw over 100 tables all selling zines and small press books. It is kind of interesting to see so many people interested in such an alternate practice in one place at the one time. It was really cool to catch up with the regulars, see new audiences developing and starting their journey with zines. It is also always fun to sell and swap  a few publications with the public and other stall holders.

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Below are a few pix from the day. The first one is of the whole set up from the balcony looking down.

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While this one is of my table including my new book ‘ Your conversation may be monitored for quality control‘ in the foreground.

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In other news I undertook a workshop cutting stencils for a local community center a week or two back. It was a fun day with the kids all being good to work with…and demonstrating some promising skills towards becoming the next generation of artists. However, It was the first time my participants had all been under about 12 or 13…eek! This meant that I had to do all the cutting of the designs due to the liability side of things, so for me it was like a small scale stencil sweatshop! However, the kids all enjoyed it, and I think they always seem to enjoy the spray painting part of it the most anyway.

I am still settling into my studio. I have been wanting to take a bit of a break from making art after the solo exhibition at the end of last year, so i have applied myself to doing less creative and more manual constructive tasks of late. I have always wanted an old wooded plan file, however i could never justify the expense…so I decided to build one. Not exactly is building things out of wood my strong point…but i am pretty happy with the end result.

plan file

And finally, I just received a copy of ‘Who is Ha Ha’ small press zine produced by Michael Fikaris of silent army in Melbourne. This is a compilation book that i was invited to take part in focusing on NZ/Aust. Artist Regan Tamanui. Below are a few pics of the book and my page on the right.

haha zine

 

I think that is about it for now. Take it easy!

NF

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It seems like it was just yesterday that I put up all the work for my solo exhibition down at Boom Gallery…but as they say in the classics, all good things must come to an end! So if you haven’t seen the show yet you have till Saturday arvo to see it.

Anyway, moving forward I have a couple of new(probably still wet) artworks in the upcoming Boom Chrissy show. So if your around drop in for the opening and have a few quiet ones, enjoy the artwork on show by a wide range of artists from the greater Geelong region and celebrate christmas with the gallery.

enjoy!

NF

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Recently at work I had to look into some resources for making jewellery for a colleague. It was intended to be quite user-friendly as it was to be for jewellery making classes for high school students. Below are what I came across while looking into it and what I produced when I decided to have a play with the materials.

I had never made jewellery before… so it was a bit of fun!

Materials: Silver Plated, Resin & Digital Prints

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Recently I put together an artists book/zine/small press exhibition in the cabinet at the West Geelong Library. The exhibit focuses on books made by artists in Victoria, and even more so within Geelong. All items have been drawn from the No Frills Art archive. It is a fairly eclectic collection…but well worth a look. So if you’re in the neighbourhood pop in!

Below are a few pix of the cabinet:

And a few close-ups of each shelf:

 

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Recently I had the privilege of working with a group of boys from Afghanistan on a Stencil/Paste Up workshop. After getting past the initial stage of figuring out the level of language skills, which to my surprise was very high considering the boys had only been in the country for about six months, we spent two days focusing on urban art. Day one we created a series of tags, as names were a common denominator between myself and the participants. Then we created a series of poster designs using both English and Darhi/Pashto and undertook a paste up session on the community centre where we were working. On the second day we worked our way through creating stencils which we then applied to T-Shirts. I think this was the session that gained the most positive response…then again who doesn’t like to get their hands on spray cans?

The Cloverdale Community Centre went to the effort of ensuring some Middle Eastern food was available for the lunches, which was delicious. And in the ten or more years of undertaking public workshops this was the most polite group that I have ever worked with…

So a big thanks to all those who took part!

Above: Participants with the paste up Below: One of my paste ups at the centre

 

Above: Stencil in progress      Below: One of the finished T-Shirts

In other news I have a piece of Art in the show opening below. It opens soon at Boom Gallery, so if your about get on down for the opening!

Enjoy!

NF

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