Its been a while for me to make an effort to go to jams. Theres loads of reasons why I don’t go to them, and non of those reasons have anything to do with not supporting the scene. I love graffiti, its practically my entire life these days, but I just find jams uncomfortable. I only go to ones that I really truly want to, and generally for a specific reason – there will be someone I particularly want to see paint, there will be an area I haven’t been to before or there will be a damned good reason that someone went through all the hard work – and making jams happen is a HUGE amount of work – to create one. And this jam – the Getting Up North Jam, Preston, July 2017, really ticked all those boxes. The event was in honour of a gentleman called Mick, a relative of the organiser and for me making a graffiti event in honour of someone really is a beautiful part of the graffiti culture. The fact that this was Prestons first ever large scale graffiti event and that it was brilliantly supported, organised and produced some beautiful walls was also a massive part of it.… Read the rest
Its funny you know. A single question from a writer that I was asked a month ago hasn’t stopped bothering me. I keep going back to it. Its lead me to stop and think loads about all sorts of things and allow myself a little dwell on some of the amazing stuff I have done over the last couple of years. Now, I have always been a sort of ‘what will be will be’ kinda girl. I still am. I think. I still think that we are meant to be where we are doing what we are supposed to be doing even if its sometimes seems that we are not and that everything is a bit pointless. I still believe that. Some days I believe that a bit more than other days, but still……
Now there is no denying that I have had a few turbulent years. I have had things happen that have quite literally knocked me from pillar to post. I have had time when I have just stopped and stared at my navel for hours, having planned to do something, write something, be somewhere, then just not managed to leave the sofa/bed/house. These times have then been followed by a mass amount of guilt poured on myself by myself like petrol – with the fact I have ‘wasted time’ being the wick my thoughts then ignited. … Read the rest
I don’t do events. I do do events which involve me flying or being invited (generally) though – and I damned sure was going to do THIS event as it involved both. I’ve never been to Glasgow either so there were a lot of boxes that I got ticked by travelling up to the Yardworks Event arranged by a local writer Gaz Mac a few weeks ago. I’m not sure why, but I was convinced that Glasgow was going to be wet – mostly because in previous (not many to be fair) visits to Scotland it has always rained but I was still excited to be going up and when I got there to be greeted with glorious sunshine, a huge welcome from people I already knew and from people I didn’t it was a really lovely weekend. The following are a few shots I haven’t shared anywhere else, a few I have but also a few of the beautiful City itself. Big ups to Glasgow, twas lovely….
Little Wing Lost, Glasgow, May 2017
With massive love and thanks to Gaz Mac, The Easy Riders, Akme, Tizer, Sokem, Cheo, Bonzai, Rask, Mac1, Astek, Musa and all the other amazing people who I had never met before but made me so very welcome x… Read the rest
Ah I couldn’t even tell you when I took these shots. This post is all about a long time ago though and its full of a many many really ace walls by many a well known and pretty amazing graffiti writer. Enjoy this trip back to Brighton …..:)
Little Wing Lost, Brighton (anytime between 2009 and 2012 – who knows!)… Read the rest
Ive been reading a lot of stuff about ego and validation recently. And Ive also been spending less time on uploading and looking at my Instagram accounts. I also recently got accused of ‘showing off’ about something (which horrified me as I haven’t/didn’t intentionally). And all this has led me to start thinking about how the world has changed and for me to take a really honest look at what I actually think/perceive/project.
Its tricky isn’t it.
You can’t really win in this world. If you work hard you get the opportunity to do things out of the ordinary and then they become the ordinary to you. If you share that then you can be seen as being cocky, showing off, getting ‘too big for your boots’. If you share things – why do you? Personal gratification? Showing off? Pride? Over indulgent ego?
But if you do these things and you don’t share them why did you do them? Personal gratification? fear of showing off? shame for your skill/culture? or to smother your over indulgent ego?
For me its really simple. I genuinely do the things I do because I love taking photographs and I love a challenge. I get a HUGE personal satisfaction from my photography and from the adventures I have or have had.… Read the rest
One of the reasons for this blog is to speak. And speak I shall. I want to share loads of things. I want to talk about good stuff and I want to set a few records right. As much as I love Instagram, and I do, I love looking at the graffiti and making contacts for my travels what I don’t like about this world we live in now is what I think we used to call, ‘chip shop paper mentality’. So what you see someone do today you forget about tomorrow, or what you see on social media allows you to make entire assumptions about that person. My life isn’t a throw away thing. No ones is. I have some awesome memories and I want to get them written down before I start drooling into a glass looking for my teeth and denture glue. As I said at the start (keep up – read first blog entry) this is about me hahaha. And Im writing about it for me. So…….
Back in 2009 I travelled down to Bristol with my children to visit the Banksy Exhibition at Bristol Museum. Now this is truly shocking news – wait….its STREET ART! …worse still its BANKSY….… Read the rest