The last few days in photos #2
1
Earlier in the week you may have heard me as a caller on TV show The Wright Stuff on Channel 5. The discussion was on the topic of ‘Graffiti - Art or Vandalism’. I don’t make a habit of getting involved in conversations like this as it’s something I could talk about all day long and bore your brains off with. I emailed the show putting across my point of view based on my experiences, and they asked to call me back on the air. I’m not sure how well I came across (I was on the phone in a car park and haven’t dared to watch it back), but here’s my story and opinion, if you are interested (If you’re not, scroll down to number 2 for the rest of the weekly blog).
A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, me and my friends painted without permission. For me, the appeal was two things; the scale of painting on a wall, and the desire to display my visions in the public domain. These are two things that have still not left me to this day, I’m just fortunate that now people give me the opportunity to do them.
When I look back at the friends who I painted with, one of them is now an illustrator, one an art teacher, one a graphic designer, and I get to draw stupid pictures for a living. Although the work that all of us are producing now is quite far removed from graffiti, I’m certain that none of us would have taken an interest in the arts if it wasn’t for graffiti.
I compare graffiti to the way that skateboarding used to be, with skaters being considered criminals for damaging street furniture. Nowadays there is a skatepark in practically every town in the country and the top athletes are house hold names. I don’t think that graffiti should be legal, but I do think that there should be a lot more public walls where people are allowed to paint legally.
After the show Matthew Wright (the presenter of the show) personally emailed me to compliment me on ‘some great artwork’.
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2
On Tuesday I painted a bedroom mural in Andover. The theme was a sky scene with hot air balloon vehicles. The piece spanned a whole wall and the kids went nuts for it! The photo shows a small section of the work.
3
On Thursday I was up in London to meet with a gallery. I had twenty minutes to spare at Waterloo so headed down to the Southbank and spent ten of them painting this super quick piece, showing everything that I was thinking.
Starting from the bottom -
* My shoes are wet
* Everyone on the train is staring at me because the spray cans in my backpack are inexplicably noisy
* This piece would look a lot better if I had a roller
* Drinks tonight
* There’s some really good skateboarders here
*I need to spend more time drawing
*I’m hungry
*It’s very Christmassy in London
Not the best thing I’ve ever painted, (in fact technically it’s probably one of the worst) but I don’t care. A lot of my favourite musicians can’t play their instruments very well.
4
On Friday I was back in the studio finishing up this bowling pin commission for a customer. It’s a portrait of his girlfriend who’s into rockabilly. Bowling pins aren’t the most flattering shape for portraits, but then again my portraits aren’t the most flattering anyway.
5
I have been commended as a top rated artist on the website See.Me . As well as a feature on their facebook page with 165,000+ friends, my profile has been displayed on the homepage of the website for the past couple of weeks. Have a look at it at http://www.KevMunday.See.Me
6
The final photo shows a section of a large creature crowd drawing I’m working on. All done with fineliners on cartridge paper. I should have it finished in the next few days.
