The Ruffled Crow

As mentioned yesterday, I’m running a day behind in my posts. I won’t however berate you about it today, although spewing Shakespearean insults does hold a certain appeal.

Just prior to our transition from Salisbury to Bristol we took a ramble around the insides of the Salisbury Cathedral. Mrs Crow believes the Cathedral deserves a post all on it’s own and I tend to agree. That noted, I may delay that post a bit or things may get even more out of order! Yeah, tough, deal with it.

Climate Change Mural by Jody. On the wall outside We the Curious in Millenium Square

Anyways, yesterday we trained up from Salisbury to Bristol. The express reason for our short stay in Bristol is the street art. I’ve always had a fascination and love for graffiti art and Bristol is probably the premier city in the UK for it. Banksy is from here after all.

There is a huge difference between ‘tagging’ that is generally for asserting ownership on a turf, spreading one’s name/’nym, or simple defacement. Street art is artistic expression on unusual and public canvases, sometimes iteracting with the canvas medium itself. (using a pole or grating as part of the art, for example) Some is just beautiful art, but much of the best graffiti art pokes fun at icons and society and/or comments on the absurdities of people or politics.

Banksy has the great talent of using known art or icons and juxtaposing, including, or altering a bit of it to make a satirical point. It looks easy, but it’s assuredly not.

Well Hung Lover by Banksy on Frogmore Street

Well, that primarily, but Bristol is a hub of art and artists here in the UK. We’ll be checking out a museum or two, but we’ll be looking more for local artist’s shops, glass and pottery, and of course, about anything sprayed on walls.

We’re rather fortunate in a sense to be installed in a hotel right next to a huge mirrored ball which we found to be a planetarium attached to We The Curious, which is likely more geared to kids, but hey, I’ve got a huge lot of curiousity in reserve so it will be a good place to burn some off so I don’t go wandering into someone’s flat or something.

Untitled by 3Dom on Frogmore Street

During our first evening’s ramble we stumbled upon Banksy’s Well Hung Lover completely by accident. As I’ve said, Mrs Crow and I tend to happen upon wonderful things quite unexpectedly. Looking at it, I couldn’t help but wonder how he did it. The piece is perhaps 15 or 20 feet up a wall, even with a road overpass about the same distance away. It’s unfortunate it has been defaced slightly with someone splattering a few blobs of blue paint on it.

The Florist by Jody on Park Street

Right nearby is a beautifully colorful and large untitled piece by 3Dom. An aside, both of these pieces are on Frogmore Street, a place we’d intended to visit simply on the strength of Mrs Crow being rather partial to frogs. (if you saw our home you’d say that she was inordinately partial to them, but that’s another story entirely.)

We also came across The Florist by Jody. It’s really rather large and takes up most of the side of a building above th roof of a low adjacent storefront.

Returning to our hotel we walked into Millenium Square from a different direction and found two pieces on the wall of We The Curious, one titled Climate Change Mural by Anna Higgie and an untitled painting of a bee by ATM.

Now, rather than tell you I’m deeply knowledgeable about street art and artists, I only found out the titles and artists via a cool little app called (drum roll please) Street Art. It covers Bristol and only a few other cities, but it’s free and perfect for my needs here.

On our single full day in Bristol, we’ll look for some street art, but widen our vision to include local art and glass!