Time lapse of my recent mural painted for Brisbane City Council as part of their Brisbane Canvas program. The mural will also be included in the 2018 Brisbane Street Art Festival. I wouldn’t consider myself a ‘street artist’, but I guess it’s art, and it’s on the street? Either way, the other people included are fantastic at what they do, so a great honour to be part of it.
People who paint large scale murals don’t get enough respect. It is HARD work. I learnt a whole lot of lessons.
Lost & Found is a phrase I really like as it’s so unusual when taken out of it’s usual context. When people saw it being painted on the wall I had so many questions about what it meant. My response was usually, ‘what does it mean to you?’, but that didn’t usually go down well! When I was putting the idea together it came from the dramatic urban renewal of Teneriffe. My experience with the neighbourhood was many visits to Paddy’s Markets as a child (btw this was the best place to get canvas school bags back then). It’s now a very different place. Interestingly, Teneriffe was literally ‘lost’ when the suburb was absorbed into Newstead in the 70s then ‘found’ when it was re-instated as a proper suburb again after becoming one of the most desired (and expensive) places to live in Brisbane. The design is inspired by the fantastic art deco architecture and typography that remains in the area.
The call out for design proposals happened at the perfect time for me as I had just attended a fantastic art deco lettering workshop by Nick Misani and this was a great opportunity to try all those new tricks out.
It’s up to the viewer to determine if Lost & Found is a positive or negative statement on this change. For me, especially after spending a week there, it’s a little bit of both. You tend to see the best and worst of a neighbourhood when you’re spending entire days hanging out there, it was actually a very interesting experience and a great way to get a feel for the location. The irony of commissioned public art (a typical feature of gentrification) is not lost on me!
The mural took on another meaning after we saw someone hit a dog with their car in the street right in front of us. They slowed and then quickly took off… the dog bolted off closely chased by my wonderful dog whispering partner who spent the afternoon trying to find him. He was lost for a few hours before being eventually found hiding at the end of the day. A vet visit revealed some scratches but no serious injury. We painted a small dog in the mural as a tribute to ‘Bowie’ and his Lost & Found adventure.