We’re celebrating the end of one year and the beginning of the next by thanking BSA Readers, Friends, and Family for your support in 2023. Picked by our followers, these photos are the heavily circulated and “liked” selections of the year – shot by our Editor of Photography, Jaime Rojo. We’re sharing a new one every day to celebrate all our good times together, our hope for the future, and our love for the street. Happy Holidays Everyone!
Don’t ask us, we just report what we see. And really, this mural captured the attention of many on our site and social accounts – so it appeals to, or puzzles, many.
This year, the painter, who is one-half of Telmo Miel, gave us the background of this attenuated portrait placed upon an apartment complex. “I don’t know. I was photographing my son, um, and took these from him, uh, with him looking through the holes of the toilet rolls.” The sparrows fit nicely, he told us, possibly inspired by the themes of freedom, autonomy, nesting, and natural beauty. Later he looked at the shots of his son and decided to include him in triplicate.
“Uh, they’re toilet rolls,” Miel says plaintively when asked what are the mysterious shapes that reappear throughout this newly painted mural for Nice Surprise Festival in Stavanger. You shouldn’t be surprised, though – he was setting up some figure studies with his young son, who decided to keep himself entertained with the unusual/usual household item while his father set up some photos.
“I don’t know. I was photographing my son, um, and took these from him, uh, with him looking through the holes of the toilet rolls.” The sparrows fit nicely, he says, possibly inspired by the themes of freedom, autonomy, nesting, and natural beauty. Later he looked at the shots of his son and decided to include him in triplicate.
In a captivating twist of street art photography fate, our lens wizard, Jaime Rojo, found himself at the perfect moment to capture an echo of this mural in everyday life. Just as the final layers were drying on the wall to be frozen in time, a local resident nonchalantly strolled into the frame, proudly carrying a tower of toilet paper on his shoulder. Ah, the marvel of the mundane! As our pal, Carlo is fond of saying, artistic sparks often arise from the everyday tapestry of life, the quotidian. So, why not in this very spot?
Nestled within the embrace of these sleek, modern ivory apartment complexes, this newly unreal creation will be a visual companion for many here for the foreseeable future. The denizens of these chic abodes hold the ultimate gavel on this whimsical medley of influences and components; all swirled together in a soft, ethereal palette of light and shadow.
After all, the residents here get to decide what inspires them. So far, we have witnessed that the reviews of this one are quite positive when opinions are sought. Particularly those of a woman who calls herself Guro, who stops by to enthuse at the top of her lungs at Miel as he paints three stories above us.
“I live over there, right there. So I open my door, and I want to look at this.” Without any unsolicited advice from folks standing nearby her regarding the content or inspiration or how to measure it against art canons or political winds, she gives her opinion and observations about what she sees before her.
“He must love birds. He must have a connection to them. They come to him so freely. Maybe he’s been feeding them. Maybe he’s been raising them. Maybe,” she says. It is a thoughtful assessment. She says she didn’t know there was a new street art festival called “Nice Surprise” this year, nor that this mural was part of it.
“You see all the birds?” she asks a visitor with a glint in her eye. “They are relaxed. They’re happy wherever they are. And that’s how people should be. You know, everybody deserves to feel secure and loved and taken care of and not feel frightened by the surroundings.” For her, this is a canvas for emotions.
“It is just so wonderful. And it’s wonderful that we can go here and take a look at it and, and have your feelings flow. I look up, and I think you feel compassion and love.” The enthusiasm for this one is forceful as if vitality bursts from every stroke of the master. It is just as palpable as her disapproval is unmistakable for a mural by Doze Green a short stroll away.
“It’s dead. It doesn’t give me anything. It’s not three-dimensional. There aren’t human forms.” She does not have a favorable view of a formalized art world either, as she continues the critique.
“That makes me feel like that represents the cold world where art is supposed to mean this and that. You just give them a lot of nice words and then you’re supposed to follow. I don’t buy that. I don’t, so I don’t like that kind of art.”
Luckily for her, for us, and perhaps others who will be treated to these fervent opinions, the new piece by TelmoMiel can stay happily here in her neighborhood.
“Look at the colors. I look, oh, I think it’s, I think it’s just marvelous. I think it’s marvelous.”
Anticipation buzzes in the air as Stavanger braces for TelmoMiel’s upcoming, completed piece, a highlight of the Nice Surprise Festival that honestly has already produced several surprises across the city this summer in this seaside city in Norway.
Though just a day away, the unveiling of this tall mural promises to be worth every moment of the wait. This week, the senior residents of this verdant complex have been stopping by, their curiosity piqued, craning their necks skyward to decipher the enigmatic and surreal tableau taking shape before their eyes.
As Miel readies to return to Amsterdam by Friday, he reveals that the true depth of this evolving piece might continue to elude the casual observer. The elongated and intricately reproduced forms, playing with shadows and reliefs, deviate from conventional norms, yet they merely hint at a narrative woven into this captivating work-in-progress.
“I’m just shaping, re-shaping reality, actually,” the artist says as he lowers the cherry picker to the ground for a few minutes to talk about the piece that continues the duo’s practice over the last decade of crafting visually arresting, imaginatively surreal narratives that you may not deconstruct, but you’ll engage with. “Yeah, I’m just digitally trying to find new ways to make the composition,” says Miel, “and make it interesting.”
Not the first place you think of for a mural festival: Salina, Kansas. But there are new mural festivals in downtowns across the globe right now, and their longevity, among other barometers for success, varies greatly. In addition to having a distinct point of view, we have observed that towns and cities that are beginning public art projects must have a serious budget and an excellent sense of organization. “Boom!” appears to have both.
The pacing has been good too – with the Australian Guido van Helten starting the momentum by painting a sweet scene in 2021 of local children here on the ‘canvas’ that has become a signature for him, a cluster of grain elevator silos. His realistic renderings, fully contextual, are romantic without becoming sentimental and outpace many with his painterly can-control and technical ability. Somehow the Brisbane native may have lit this fuse.
Following that Salina Kanvas project (there are a few initiatives on the boards) comes the first organized festival with a solid mix of talents from the international scene crossing murals, street art, and graffiti roots – not easy to accomplish with such a short roster. Like van Helten, the talent is self-assured, and some of it goes deep in self-knowledge and in the culture that fuels today’s scene. Thanks to private donations, corporate sponsors, and the Chamber of Commerce, initiatives like this community-building public art project are well-backed.
Add to this mix the world-renowned photographer Martha Cooper, who captured the scene that birthed this one about 45 years ago in neighborhoods where it started, and balance it with the high-flying image of Kansas’ most famous pilot Amelia Earhart, who pioneered aviation and capitalized well off her self-made brand. This year’s curation may well have put Salina on the mural-fest map in one fell swoop.
Martha shares some of her shots with us today – with a few from the organizers as well.
Ms. Cooper tells us that “I would have liked to have time to shoot more freights,” a historical method for transporting unsanctioned art and writing across the country on the sides of freight trains that is peculiar to American history as it braids with archetypes of rebels, hobos and cowboy mythology. “The train tracks run through Salina,” Cooper remarks with some relish, and she notes smaller details that a documentary photographer would catch. “The main street had lovely plantings of prairie grasses evoking what we outsiders think of as typically Kansas.”
Here is a sampling of the works and artists from this inaugural “Boom!”. We hear the second one will make some noise as well.
Boom! Salina is an annual mural festival in downtown Salina, KS. Boom! Salina is backed by the Salina Kanvas Project.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening: 1. REFLECTIONS: Guido Van Helten and The Wellington Dam Mural 2. Mear One in Los Angeles via Bird Man 3. Telmo Miel: Tunnel Vision in Brussels
BSA Special Feature: REFLECTIONS: Guido Van Helten and The Wellington Dam Mural
A trip today to Wellington Dam, a jewel in the national park in Southwest Australia, only a couple of hours from Perth. Queensland Artist Guido van Helten took care to study the history and people from the dam area to understand their connection to it better – and in the process, it found a more profound connection to the water by some of the people who have lived there for many years.
“It’s just weird to feel like you’re this ‘issue’ in society and that the world is divided with how much they should care about you or how much they should listen to you or should be concerned with issues around your life. It’s weird to be like a battleground,” says co-director and subject Kwesi Thomas says in the opening of the film.
Using a bespoke swing stage, the artist painted the 8000 square meter mural with the help of serious engineering talents from the dam authority, who moved him 30 times to paint in enormous strips of texture and memories.
“I was basically painting while it was moving up and down, up and down,” he says. Part of The Collie Mural Trail that consists of 40 murals throughout the town, Guido says that “Reflections” is inspired by local stories and photographs. In addition to the sheer size and impact of its focus, the video also tells a rather moving story.
Behind the scenes: The making of the Wellington Dam Mural by Guido Van Helten
Mear One in Los Angeles via Bird Man
The Melrose alleys in LA provide inspiration here in this video shot and directed by Birdman – of the tribute to the Czech painter, illustrator and graphic Alphonse Mucha by graffti/muralist Kalen Ockerman, known as Mear One.
Choosing the goddess Gaia as muse, Mear One talks in his over-narration of what he say as Mucha’s treatement of the feminine and how it was reflected in the beauty of nature, its harmonious design, function and aesthetic. “I always loved how he expressed visually the spiritual and mystical,” he says. The clarity of his focus is apparent here as he pays honor to the artist as well as science, art, and philosophy.
Telmo Miel: Tunnel Visionin Brussels
Here is a tunnel in Brussels artists Miel (Amsterdam) and Telmo (Rotterdam) painted a human chain metaphorically connecting the neighborhoods of Machelen and Diegem. The public work is meant perhaps to ease among residents amid news reports of increased vandalism, drug use, and traffic nuisances among some. As in many western countries, it may have something to do with economics, race, and class. Says organizer All About Things, a private gallery-fueled public cultural initiative that has locked in many international street artists to beautify the area, “this mishmash of people indicates that we are stronger together.”
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
