glue, a glove and some plyers

What's not to love?

2012-01-31T00:02:00.001Z

I originally made this with the haters in mind. An open question about why graffiti in London gets taken down or painted over so quickly (unless you are one of a handful of mostly white male street artists who are asked to put your stuff up repeatedly in Shoreditch).

But I ended up pasting it up on the weekend of my 35th birthday and it made more sense to turn it into a positive affirmation of where I'm at right now rather than an expression of something that sounds like adolescent sour grapes.

I have organized my life so that I can afford to work part time and spend the rest of my time focusing on art and activism.

I like what I do for a living but I don't have to make a living out of what I most love to do.

And therefore, I don't have to make any compromises. None at all.

So seriously, what's not to love? I can even learn to live with those wrinkles.

Pasted up on Helmsley Place in Hackney, next to the railway bridge.

(Patricia) Lam Fung

2012-01-22T21:42:00.001Z

Lam Fung was a wildly successful 1960s actress known as the Jade Girl in Hong Kong cinema. Although her career only lasted 11 short years, she appeared in over 100 films and started her own film and fashion companies (plus she could spin plates!).

Despite her success, she retired to become a wife and mother at the height of her career. She died of an overdose 10 years later at age 37. There is speculation about her death being intentional, induced by botched plastic surgery or unintentional, from mixing sleeping pills, diet medication and the painkillers given after plastic surgery, both of which are horribly sad endings.

She is honoured on the Avenue of Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui for her contributions to cinema in Hong Kong. Although she doesn't have a wikipedia page, you can read and see more about her here

prepare

2012-01-16T12:38:00.000Z

When I first learned to use Illustrator, I thought I would never do anything by hand again. Now that I've started doing everything by hand again (especially fonts), I'm wondering why I ever stopped in the first place. Painting with a good brush is so damn satisfying!

This week, I decided to break the word 'prepare' down to one small phonetic part and see where it visually and logically went, sort of like six degrees of separation. An example sentence to clarify my logic: I used my entire Sunday to prepare a piece for Illustration Friday, which meant I had to ignore the fact that my taxes are due in less than two weeks.

BTW - 'knor' is an old English word for a bump or growth on a tree and is most likely where words like knot and knobbly come from.

grounded

2012-01-09T18:41:00.000Z

I saw this fellow on the train a few weeks back. He was holding his bible, looking quite fretful about what he was reading. I'm guessing he was wrestling with some seriously big questions.

Over the past week, I've spent many hours on trains and been subjected to so many hideously boring conversations about shopping. I wanted to give some recognition to this guy for publicly thinking about something bigger than himself and his stuff.

Wonder worker

2012-01-07T23:41:00.000Z

I have no issues with wearing my love of other female artists on my sleeve (or allowing them to influence my work). Hello Swoon. Hello Nikki McClure. This is my effort to send a big old loving hello to Margaret Kilgallen.

I have this book of Margaret Kilgallen's work that I pour over on a regular basis and every time I look at it, I manage to find something new to fascinate me. She created entire worlds through beautiful typography, (mainly) female figures and evocative color schemes. She visually expressed her appreciation for old fashioned sign writing and all things handmade.

But it was her emphasis on using street art for good, as a way to communicate and share with a much wider community than just the graffiti scene or even the art world that is most meaningful to me.

She became pregnant after being diagnosed with breast cancer and was forced to choose between her own survival and her baby's. She died in 2001 at only 33, three weeks after giving birth to her daughter. She was featured in the film Beautiful Losers and this segment sums up the lasting influence she had on fellow artists.

A major part of being a street artist is obviously about reclaiming public space, however temporary a change that might end up being. For me (and I'm guessing for the other female streets artists who inspire me) it's also about deciding what kind of women should be put out there to represent the rest of us, creating something that rivals advertising and celebrity.

One of the characteristics of a saint in various religions is someone who is a source of benevolent power, or a wonder worker. I thought, why not aim higher than just challenging the media representation of women and start a whole new canon? So I have canonized Margaret Kilgallen in a typeface of which I think she would approve. As a surfer, I think she would like the place I chose to do it too.

Pasted up on the viewing platform over Porthmeor beach (in front of the Tate) in St Ives, Cornwall.

Seasons greetings from Pivo

2011-12-25T16:53:00.000Z

See the red and green in there? That's as festive as I'm willing to get. Before any Scrooge accusations get thrown around though, this isn't just about a dislike of Christmas. I put a much larger version of this up on the 15th of December for Occupy Everywhere day (with five kids in a pyramid formation, the bottom row saying 'Occupy the walls').

But it was scraped down so fast I wasn't able to even get any photographs, much less was anyone able to actually see it.

In keeping with the message these younguns are sending, I was undeterred and remade them.

So this is my seasonal greetings for the hardworking folks at Hackney's Environmental Enforcement and Pollution Control. In this upcoming year of austerity and cuts to the public sector, I promise to do my best to keep you in work. May we learn to live together in peace and harmony.

Pasted up along the cycle path on Hackney Grove.

Pivo's neice is now 21

2011-12-21T19:04:00.004Z

Ever since my niece was old enough to express her first opinion, my sister has teased the two of us that we are clones. I have to admit, it's difficult to understand how else we could have a freckle in the exact same place on our palms and the back of our knees. But mostly this has been based on the amazingly close relationship we've had ever since she was born.

21 years have passed since then and now she is all growed up. We still have those freckles and we still share a mutual love of certain things (like chunky knitwear).

But now every time I see her, I get to hear about the exciting developments in her increasingly adult life. Her own artistic development as a photo journalist and her activism to make her college more trans friendly are just two things that come to mind.

I was so concerned about demonstrating how proud I am of her on this special day (her golden birthday!) that I put up two of these to make sure the council graffiti squad didn't scrape down her present before I could get photographs.

Fortunately, both of them survived so now Hackney has two Britney's to contend with.

Many thanks to James Broccoli, who provided the photo of my niece that I was able to combine with my love of this classic Toulouse-Lautrec poster. Happiest 21st birthday ever!

The yellow scarf Britney is pasted up on the back of the Hackney Co-operative Development building on Crosby Walk. The blue scarf version is pasted on Richmond Road on the strange building that houses Tata Shoes, Olympic Leather and the Empowering Church. Both in Dalston, London.

Medieval times - free graphic

2011-12-13T14:50:00.002Z

This poster I designed is available for download over at Occuprint. If you haven't seen all the exciting free graphics that have come out of the Occupy movement, this is a great place to start.

As far as I can tell, mine is the only one that uses a biblical quote in Latin (Radix malorum est cupiditas) to make a point about contemporary inequality. Not that I'm being smug about it though. That's probably another deadly sin.

Note: the version at Occuprint is US legal size. An A3 high-res pdf version is available here.

Swoon at the Bank of Ideas

2011-12-10T12:47:00.005Z

We organised an amazing talk from Swoon at the Bank of Ideas on Thursday. A bunch of us were so inspired by her that we are meeting up tomorrow to talk collective and collaborative craziness. If you are in London, come along here! There are 7 short videos in this post.

More free graphics from the Caged Bird Club: 30th November.

2011-11-28T22:40:00.003Z

A couple of new, free downloadable graphics to show your support for the public sector strike on Wednesday. Put them up in your windows, office, school or paste them up on the walls.

Bullseye by Lindsay Starbuck

download pdf

I made "get the facts" prominent because the blatant lies being pumped out by the government and the media about "gold-plated" public sector pensions are pathetic. People have really bought them and, in turn, accepted the idea that there should be a race to the bottom in terms of workers' rights and benefits.

Venn diagram by Lindsay Starbuck

download pdf

James Venn invented these diagrams in 1880 to illustrate simple set relationships. A bit of old logic that still makes perfect sense.

If you don't work in the public sector you can still support the strike. Visit picket lines near your work. Bring picketers cups of tea to help them keep warm or go join them on your lunch break. Challenge your colleagues if they call public sector workers greedy. Remind them who is really greedy in our society (banks, corporations and our government full of millionaires).

Pivo: the beautiful bank of ideas

2011-11-19T19:52:00.005Z

There are times when things fit together and make perfect sense. Right now is one of those times. The Occupation in London has reached it's five week mark and a new space has joined the two existing sites. But this is not a camp, it's a huge, empty office building formerly owned by investment bank UBS in the heart of London. Welcome to the Bank of Ideas!

I've been working on info (mainly talking to the public) and spending most of my free time at the camp. As a result, my art has been very neglected. But then, last night at about 5pm I was tasked with decorating the info space of the newest Occupation that opened this morning.

Fortunately, my work consists of stencils that are pretty easy to replicate and I didn't have to create anything 'new' for the space. It was still a lot of work though, and it wasn't all up until 3:30 in the morning.

There were some new touches. The girl holding the cardboard box is releasing my favorite line from my favorite Silver Mt. Zion song: "We want punks in the palace coz punks got the loveliest dreams". Spend 15 minutes listening to this song and it might just make your day.

I also finally got to put up the Celebrate People's History posters I was entrusted with many moons ago. I'd like to think that more people will have the chance to stop and read them at this site than they would if they were up on the streets of London and most likely torn down in a matter of days.

That same little girl (in the blue sweater on the wall, not the woman in the beret on the chair) from here and here is helping out again.

And last but not least, I got to put the one that suffered an undetermined fate in Brooklyn last year up as it was originally intended. This time, I gave it a simplified but more imperative message.

A million thanks to Helen for her painting and lettering skills and to Matthew for helping me paint them, put them all up and go back again after very little sleep to photograph them. Pasted up in the former UBS building on Sun Street in London.

Caged Bird Club exhibition - London 2008

2011-09-22T12:26:00.004+01:00

The second Caged Bird Club exhibition featured photographs by Wyn Gilley of sparrows eating crumbs on a table in Berlin. You can get a better view of these amazing photographs here.

Unfortunately this exhibition, being in London, was scraped down and painted over within a couple of weeks. You can still see the stencils peeking through the new coat of paint though.

Pasted up on the corner of Greenwood Rd. and Graham Rd. in Hackney, August 2008.

Caged Bird Club exhibition - Berlin 2008

2011-09-22T12:12:00.007+01:00

I am finally getting around to posting about the first ever Caged Bird Club exhibition that was pasted up in Berlin way back in 2008. It featured beautiful photographs of Seattle house numbers taken by Matthew Cunningham. (He is also the photographer who provides all the photos for this blog and you can see more of his work here and here.)

This came to life with the help of my trusty Neukölln-based assistant and our helpful lookout.

The night after we pasted this up, we invited a bunch of people out onto the street to have a drink and celebrate Matthew's photographs. I think it was a pretty nice surprise for him.

Amazingly, we went back in September 2011 and every bit of it was still up on the wall. It had aged pretty well and there were a few nice additions from other artists on top.

Including a huge dead bird right next to the still new looking stencil.

Pasted up on Nekerstraße in Neukölln in July 2008, still there as of September 2011.

Pivo: letting go

2011-09-19T09:38:00.002+01:00

Berliners have a different attitude to graffiti than most people. My friend explained to me how the local fire station in his neighborhood has had it's entire garage door covered but there is no effort to get rid of it because the door still works so what difference does it really make? Indeed.

We also went to look at the first ever Caged Bird Club exhibition we put up in Neukoln back in 2008 and every single bit of it was still there. This is completely unbelievable to someone who lives in London and is lucky to have her street art last two weeks.

I spent a good deal of time late at night looking for a place to put this up that wasn't already completely covered in graffiti. But I was also looking for somewhere that felt safe enough that other people would feel confident to contribute to this without fear of getting caught.

I've titled this one 'letting go' because it is an open collaboration, which was the concept behind the Caged Bird Club from the beginning. The box is left open and it is up to others to decide what kind of birds are flying out and being let go.

So far I have the following artists to thank for their contributions: (clockwise from top) Matthew Cunningham, Anna Morgan, Aina West (both tiny birds) and Wyn Gilley. I hope many more will add to this bit of shared art in Berlin. If you do add artwork, please take photos and email them to me so I can post them here.

Pasted up outside the Radspannerei bike shop at Admiralstraße 23, Kreuzberg Berlin.

Happy birthday John

2011-09-19T08:54:00.002+01:00

A portrait of John's (and maybe everyone's) favorite cat pasted up in a doorway on Oranienstraße in Berlin.

Pivo: dig deep

2011-08-31T00:49:00.002+01:00

Earlier this month, my city and my neighborhood in particular got a little bit scary. Immediately, the right-wing was hardened and those in power have begun the backlash. The British public was outraged by what they were witnessing and so the politicians decided they would respond to their calls for blood and ruthlessness first with talk of water cannon and curfews and now with disproportionately harsh sentencing.

Never mind that the British public was equally outraged by MPs fiddling their expenses and the widespread tabloid phone hacking but pretty much nothing has been done about either of those, aside from a couple of slaps on the wrist and maybe some embarrassment for those who have kissed Rupert Murdoch's ass for so many years.

There was a ludicrous rush to find out why young people in Britain felt so little stake in society and the answers ranged from the idiotic to the obscene. The reactionary views that people suddenly felt able to express were as alarming as anything we had sat and watched on the news.

But these weren't only coming from the right. Pundits on the left also chimed in with ways to further their own political agendas with half-baked analysis. There were the commenters on news sites claiming that this was the first step towards the coming revolution/class war and that next time, he (I'm absolutely assuming it was a he) would be right down there fighting. It's always next time isn't it?

Or there was the always hateful Socialist Workers Party who managed to hijack the North London Unity March, the motto of which was "Give our kids a chance". They came with their little notebooks of pre-formulated chants that made people who lived along the route think it was an anti-police demonstration.

These riots are actually an opportunity to force those in power, those who are so far removed from the reality of British people's every day lives, to acknowledge and deal with the causes. It is an opportunity for the left to rise above the hateful and self-serving rhetoric and present a much needed alternative to austerity cuts, a society based on mindless consumerism and the inequality on which that depends.

I've titled this dig deep not only as a plea for a deeper analysis of the current state of affairs but also to say that this shit is not going to go away unless we even things out. That means people with money and privilege paying their fair share so that we can have things like youth clubs, playgrounds, decent education and jobs that pay a living wage. You know, all those things that would make young people feel like they have a stake in society and something to lose?

Pasted up in the playground of London Fields, Hackney.

Pivo: birthday love to her boo

2011-08-29T09:22:00.005+01:00

About two years ago, my partner started watching birds. To some people, that probably sounds like a supremely boring thing for someone under 40 to spend their time doing. At first, I might have agreed although I have always relished trips out to the countryside for a spot of foraging.

Over the past two years though, I've started to really love it. It's meant spending even more time together outdoors, a lot of which has been in urban wilderness. I've discovered lots of foraging spots much closer to home. I've seen how happy my partner gets when he spots something new and even more so when he manages to get a good photograph.

But I think my favorite part has been the exposure to other urban birders and the realization that these are absolutely my people. We met this woman and her partner at a wildlife refuge on a reclaimed water treatment site in Walthamstow. She asked for our help identifying a waterfowl baby and we all speculated, consulted books and even smart phones before we figured out that we were all hopeless amateurs since it was a common as hell moorhen.

It wasn't the first time we'd gone bird watching and had good conversations with strangers, shared ideas and even binoculars.

Some people might look at this and think it's poking fun at a frumpy middle aged woman and saying she should hide herself. It's the special few who will know that "hide" is the birdwatcher's term for the shelter that you sit in to look at birds so they can't see you. She and I are on a level.

Something about being in that place where human intervention was being slowly erased by nature and around the few other people who were there on a warm summer Saturday to do nothing more ambitious than just sit and enjoy it felt very radical. No doubt at that exact moment there were probably hoards of people out in central London consuming useless shit or sitting at home alone glued to electrical screens.

We were there communing not only with nature but with some interesting fellow humans, even if it was just for an hour or so. We were there because my partner's hobby has become part of my life and for that I'm very grateful. This will become full size street art but right now it's been painted just for the birthday boy.

Silver lining: other people's street art

2011-08-11T21:16:00.009+01:00

Much of what bothers me about the street art scene is very similar to what bothers me about the riots that have just happened in my neighborhood. The dick swinging, the macho aggression, the half-assed politics and the consumerism lurking beneath it all.

When the riot started in Hackney, I hopped a fence into an off-limits construction site in East London where they are building the Olympic stadium. But I wasn't there to cause any trouble or do anything illegal. I was there to pick ripe, delicious blackberries. It's a site I often go to forage. Two weeks earlier, I picked mulberries and some dyer's chamomile for dying wool. It was then that I spotted these lovely anonymous stencils.

They are there to inform people of the wild edibles they can find for free along the canal. This one points out the abundance of peppery wild rocket next to the wall. Something you can buy after it's been shipped hundreds of miles and refrigerated for days in the supermarket.

Part of the stencil is a handy silhouette of the plant to help you identify it properly. Although on that day in the warm sun, I could actually smell it.

Blackberries are one of the few wild edibles that people still know how to identify and regularly forage for. Often, you really can be too late to the blackberry party in and around London. I'm not going to criticize their misspelling of bramble on this one because...

...bless them, they remade their stencil and came back to show people where more blackberries were.

In an atmosphere reeking of self-interest and greed (from all parts of society) it was so refreshing to see someone else doing nothing more than sharing some free knowledge with whoever was interested. Although they are anonymous, if you know who is responsible, I'd love to give them credit.

I also had fun riding around this giant piece on the foundation of a demolished building in the shadow of the new Olympic stadium.

I have massive concerns (that I'm still very much processing) around what both the Olympics and the riots will do to the city where I live. This is not about those dark clouds though and I will certainly be back with more of my own art and reaction soon.

Pivo: leave some for us

2011-06-23T19:56:00.031+01:00

Excuse us, would you please leave us some:

clean water, fresh air, trees, bees, hedgehogs, song birds,

healthcare, schools, decent homes, places to play, workers' rights,

real food, liveable cities, untouched countryside, public transport,

civility, idealism and opportunities to fix your mess?

Actually, we've gone past asking now.

And clean the walls while your at it. They're filthy.

Pasted up on abandoned garages opposite the junction of Graham Road and Royal Oak Road in Hackney.

Pivo: Isaac

2011-04-17T12:04:00.008+01:00

I've had plans to start a series about how right-wing leaders have used anti-immigration rhetoric to encourage working class people to vote against their own economic interests throughout history. This has been waiting on my wall for a couple of months. As if purposely proving my point, David Cameron has provided this timely segue to get back to wheat pasting. So here's one I made earlier.

Meet Isaac, a Jewish boy whose parents emigrated from Poland to Bethnal Green in East London in the early 1930s. They would have arrived to find a community full of other immigrants and many left wing activists.

They managed to escape a Europe where fascism and anti-Semitism were a serious threat. But they would have arrived in the UK to find the British Union of Fascists, led by Oswald Mosely and known as the Blackshirts, also attempting to demonise immigrants and whip up fear in a depressed economy.

In 1936, the fascist Blackshirts planned a uniformed march through East London as an attempt to intimidate the large Jewish population. Rather than being intimidated though, Isaac's parents were joined by an estimated 300,000 Irish dockworkers, trade unionist, communist, socialist and anarchist individuals in what became known as The Battle of Cable Street. I stress individuals because the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Communist Party of Great Britain both urged their members to stay away from the East End on the day of the march. This was an example of a disparate group of people getting together outside of any official political banner to oppose fascism and fight for what they believed in.

Although often reported as a battle between fascists and anti-fascists, this was really a battle between the anti-fascists trying to prevent the march and the police trying to allow the march to continue. Anti-fascists carried placards and scrawled graffiti everywhere proclaiming 'they shall not pass'. One tram driver helped out by abandoning his tram in the middle of Cable Street to fortify the blockade.

Eventually, the march had to be abandoned by the Blackshirts as both they and the police were outnumbered by anti-fascists. In the same year, the Public Order Act was introduced that banned the wearing of political uniforms at public meetings. Although this legislation did help diminish the visibility and eventually the power of the BUF (in addition to the UK fighting against European fascism in WW2) it has also been used against Irish Republicans and the Miner's Strike and carries on in the policing of protests today.

Overall, the unity shown in the East End in the 1930s continues to this day, despite right-wing racists exploiting economic hardships in an attempt to divide people along ethnic lines. It is a community that I have been proud to work in since moving to the UK, including making a recent film about a community centre that has been in Bethnal Green for over 120 years. Isaac is based on the boy on the bottom left of this adorable photograph of the 'Bethnal Green Juniors' that came from the community centre's archive.

In the 2010 election, the British National Party were roundly humiliated by the same kind of people power that saw off the Blackshirts in 1936. Billy Bragg refers to this as the contemporary Battle of Cable Street. I'd say that with political leaders like David Cameron, the battle never ends.

Pasted up near the corner of Kelsey Street and Chester Street in Bethnal Green and probably the last time I'll ever try to paste on a brick wall. It really didn't stick and is already falling down.

Damn lies download

2011-04-08T20:09:00.006+01:00

Damn Lies by Sav Kyriacou
Download pdf

Statistics, in the form of graphs and pie charts, make up the word 'lies'.

This coalition government has been using false statistics at every turn to justify their policies. Andrew Lansley's NHS reforms are based on misleading and false evidence - lies.

The use of the futura typeface and the sparse nature of the design is a nod towards some of Peter Saville's early work on New Order record sleeves.

LifeCUTS download

2011-04-06T22:33:00.007+01:00

LifeCUTS by Joe Stevens
Download jpeg

In thinking of the cuts I got to thinking of lifeguards and about saving lives.

Originally I had the word LIFE cut in half with someone falling - but felt that was too obvious. The image was taken from a photo of a lifeguard hut sign. I then decided to remove the F (showing decay, things falling apart) and had this where the falling person had been. I liked that if you take the F out of LIFE you get LIE.

This poster work is quite cryptic and vague about its meaning, which I really like.

benefit & multiply download

2011-03-28T19:39:00.011+01:00

benefit & multiply by Lindsay Starbuck
Download jpeg

We are stronger when we work together.

There are insects that damage the things we want to nurture, and others that will fight our corner. If our goal is to grow some parsley from seed, the ladybirds will feed on the aphids that try to suck the seedling dry.

We should do all we can to support those who support us. This doesn't mean just tolerating them but encouraging their continued survival, even when we find some of them scary. It's the only way we can win the war against the wanton destroyers.

Clockwise from top left: ladybird/ladybug: eats mountains of aphids; hoverfly: excellent pollinator, eats aphids, thrips and decaying matter; green lacewing: eats mites and aphids; garden spider: eats moths, wasps and flies.

Another free graphic from the Caged Bird Club

2011-03-25T09:41:00.009Z

(Boy) George by Lindsay Starbuck
Download hi-res pdf

The UK government have made their choice. When George Osborne announced the budget this week, he revealed that there was room for maneuver. But instead of saving front line public sector jobs, libraries or children's services, they have opted to cut corporation tax and reduce the price of fuel.

It's the 80s again. The only thing we've learned from history is the answer to Boy George's question from 1982.

Free downloadable graphics from members of the Caged Bird Club

2011-03-22T09:28:00.023Z

Inspired by the artists of Justseeds offering free downloadable graphics in support of the labour movement in Wisconsin, the Caged Bird Club has decided to offer some of our own in response to what people in the UK are currently facing. You can download high-resolution A3 size versions of each of these images and use them however you want. Please share and distribute widely.

Blind People Against the Cuts by Sav Kyriacou
Download hi-res pdf

The Welfare Reform Bill is nothing but an exercise in reducing welfare payments to people with disabilities by 20%. Blind and partially sighted people will suffer like anyone else under the new proposals. A switch from Disability Living Allowance to a Personal Independence Payment will mean that many will lose any contribution towards the extra cost of living with sight loss, making them more isolated. Linking benefits to the consumer rather than retail price index will reduce the value of benefits enormously over time.

The idea came from illustrator Joe Magee, who about ten years ago was sacked by the Daily Telegraph when one of its readers pointed out that the braille symbols that he used in many of his illustrations had hidden messages, such as "this publication supports body fascism".

The braille on the poster says: "Fucked by Cameron and Clegg!"

Election Results - Collaboration between Sav Kyriacou and Lindsay Starbuck
Download hi-res pdf

We all know the Tories didn't actually win any election. But does everyone know that's still the case after counting the votes received by the other members of their coalition when you take voter turnout into account? On top of this, they said nothing about cuts in their manifesto or during the election. They have no mandate. Full stop.

Political maps of the UK (set of four) by Lindsay Starbuck

I did a search using the phrase "against the cuts" and found opposition in every corner of the UK, from Dundee to Cornwall, from Norfolk to Belfast. At a UK Uncut demo last month, we were in the middle of Marylebone where people driving 4x4s were honking in support of higher taxation for banks.

It made me wonder, who exactly is supporting this government? The only pro-cuts rhetoric I could find was coming from the government itself and the corporations who prop them up.

On each map, the green represents the whole of the UK, the purple represents the City of London, Houses of Parliament and Canary Wharf and the grey stripes represent the Republic of Ireland.

Download hi-res pdf of cuts map

Download hi-res pdf of fair share map

Download hi-res pdf of riot map

Download hi-res pdf of fucked map

Pivo: resources - everything (pretty much)

2010-11-29T10:53:00.016Z

Unless you've been living in a cave or only have access to American network stations for news about the rest of the world, you'll know that the UK government, like many across Europe, is currently making cuts in the aftermath of the recent economic crisis. Here, the answer proposed by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition is focused on completely dismantling the British welfare state.

Obviously, any cuts in social spending affect poor people disproportionately. But what is especially insulting is that an entire generation of young people is being forced to pay the price for stupid risks taken by rich people their parent's and grandparent's age.

Part of the system created by earlier, now-comfortably-off generations is a completely unregulated housing market. Property owners are in a position not so dissimilar from that of feudal landlords, charging tenants whatever they want, with rent collected by a new breed of tax collectors, the millions of estate agents getting rich off the misfortune of many people not being wealthy enough to buy their own property.

And now tenants are facing further punishment. Housing benefit (ie rent assistance), says the government, is too costly. But instead of regulating the rent landlords can charge, the proposals are to put a cap on housing benefit, and thus potentially force unemployed people out of their homes.

On top of this the government aims to redefine homelessness so fewer people are entitled to help in the first place.

This government came into power with the mantra of "We're all in this together" (this being the economic shit). Clearly some of us are in it a lot deeper, though.

The government is also proposing cutting Education Maintenance Allowance (a benefit that helps poor and working class young people afford the books and transport to complete their pre-university/college education) plus tripling university tuition fees for those who manage to make it that far.

But unlike their parents and grandparents, young people have decided that they aren't going to just sit and watch things fall apart around them. The last couple of weeks have seen a major demonstration of university students in London and a nation-wide walkout from schools and colleges, with more planned.

Across the country, students have picketed and occupied their university's administrative buildings. At the University of East London, the students are working in solidarity with the cleaning staff to demand that they earn a living wage as well as resisting cuts and rising tuition fees.

It may look like this little girl is facing an impossible task to get over that wall and indeed, it would be if she had to try to do it on her own. For the first time in generations though, it looks like there may be enough people (young and old) unwilling to accept that the government has a mandate to actively or passively ruin the lives of the people they are supposed to represent. What we can hope for is that rather than future generations having to climb up to the same height, the walls will come down altogether.

Pasted up on Wilton Way, across from the Hackney Council Housing Office.

Pivo across America - Brooklyn

2010-10-04T21:37:00.005+01:00

Everyone needs a first time to completely lose their street art before they can even take a photograph of it. Mine ironically happened in a Brooklyn neighborhood that was absolutely covered in graffiti. The only thing left in the morning was the text (share what you don't need).

It could have been taken down by the pounding rain and high winds that lasted through the night or the owner of the building could have ripped it down before it dried. Whatever happened, I think the message works on it's own.

Pivo across America - Cleveland

2010-10-04T20:45:00.009+01:00

Cleveland, for those of you who don't know, is a city in the Midwest. More accurately, it is a city in the Rustbelt, a swathe of the country that used to manufacture nearly everything the US consumed. The US (and most of the developed world) now consumes mostly stuff manufactured in other parts of the world. This means that lots of people haven't had jobs for a long time and many cities and people have been left to fend for themselves.

Across the country, we saw entire towns that had partly or completely failed. They are a dime a dozen along the railroad tracks in a nation that no longer has enough passengers to run the trains more than once a day.

I pasted this up in west Cleveland on one of four houses in a row that had been condemned. There are abandoned houses all over Cleveland in the middle of neighborhoods where people are trying to live. These invite all sorts of problems; some get turned into crack houses and/or set on fire. Needless to say, a burning house is a serious threat to any nearby timber buildings that happen to be people's homes.

But people do fend for themselves. My friends live in this neighborhood and have worked with their neighbors to turn some derelict land into a beautiful community garden. The local brewery has donated their spent ingredients for them to use as mulch. They are currently using cinnamon sticks that release their aroma when you crunch them underfoot. They also share a brood of hens, their eggs and one noisy rooster with seven of their neighbors so everyone takes care of them one day a week.

When I mentioned where I was planning on pasting this up, my friend's neighbor (and helpful lookout) said that it was right across from a school where they were hoping to start another community garden. My hope is that whatever happens to this house (and my art), the future owners will take part in turning these city blocks into a thriving neighborhood again.

Pasted up on the front porch of 1909 W. 57th Street, Cleveland, Ohio

Pivo across America - Grand Haven

2010-10-04T19:02:00.007+01:00

I didn't know that there was going to be a local art competition when I went to Grand Haven, Michigan to see my parents but it ended up being the perfect opportunity to paste up some street art in a town that rarely sees (or at least keeps) any graffiti. To try to ensure this didn't get taken down prematurely, I even faked an entry form by cutting out the logo for the Grand Haven Artwalk from their brochure and pasting it up next to my 'entry' (it's the little blue square on the left).

Although Grand Haven is where my parents live, this piece is meant to celebrate the people in my life I consider family who I'm not related to. They made this trip across the country possible by housing, feeding and entertaining my partner and me.

One of them even managed to do this despite being out of town by giving us his room in Brooklyn and his two roommates (who we'd never met before) were unbelievably welcoming. Obviously, NYC would have been one of the most expensive places for us to shell out for a hotel on our trip. I hope I can adequately repay the generosity we encountered when people visit London.

The whole series I made for and pasted up in America was meant to emphasize the ways in which we can all be more giving. It was born out of frustration with the levels of selfishness I encounter every day living in London.

What happened along the way was that I was reminded about how many people are already generous and good. This is dedicated to them.

Pasted up in the parking lot on Franklin Ave between 2nd and 3rd Streets, Grand Haven, MI.

Pivo across America - Seattle

2010-10-04T18:52:00.010+01:00

In Seattle, I spent the day with my 92-year-old grandma walking around her neighborhood, visiting her farmer's market and looking at the amazing P-patches.

When I was growing up in the Midwest, I spent Christmas and most vacations with my maternal grandparents in Dayton, Ohio so I didn't see much of my dad's parents in Seattle (featured earlier here.) The glasses on this grandpa are actually modeled on the pair my Ohio grandpa is wearing in an old photograph I have up on my wall.

The summer after my grandpa in Seattle died of cancer, when I was 11, I visited my grandma on my own. We hung out in her trailer home and she gave me a copy of Are You There God, It's Me Margaret that I read excitedly every spare second I had. We also ate lots of great Seattle donuts and I had my first taste of Chinese food.

Twenty years passed before I ended up spending some more quality time with my grandma, who is now my only surviving grandparent. So my first paste-up in America is just a reminder that it's never too late to get to know your grandparents and find out more about where and who you come from.

Pasted up on the corner of Massachusetts and 12th Avenue in Seattle, WA.

Pivo: A little squirrel dialogue

2010-07-08T22:25:00.021+01:00

A conversation between someone's anonymous stencil and my wheatpaste. Original print (with more legible text) can be seen here.

Red squirrel: Oi! Get off my land, you Yank twat!
Grey squirrel: Dude, I'm Canadian! But how can you even say that anyway? We're, like, brothers, man.
Red squirrel: Brothers? You're having a laugh, aren't you? You come over here, eat our acorns, nick our trees. And now you're saying you're here to stay?

Grey squirrel: We've been here since at least the 1800s, bro. How many generations do we have to live here to finally be considered native?
Red squirrel: Never! No one wants you here! You know what you are? An invasive species. You need controlling. Or better still, sterilising.

Grey squirrel: Whoa! Haven't you noticed that those corners you guys live in are also the only parts of the country that haven't had the forests cut down? We can totally survive in cities, surely you can't blame us for being adaptable.
Red squirrel: So what?

Grey squirrel: So it's not about you against me, dude. It's about the Man, man. People drove you to near extinction by killing off your habitat. Then they blame it on us. It's classic divide and conquer.
Red squirrel: So you reckon the only way to survive is to rise up together and overpower our oppressors?!

Grey squirrel: Exactly! ...wait a second, was that a hazelnut that just fell over there?
Red squirrel: I saw it first, you scrounging foreigner.
Grey squirrel: Yeah? Let's see you make it across the street without getting flattened, redneck!

Pasted up on Essex Road, Islington London near Essex Road train station.

Pivo: neighbourhood cats

2010-06-13T21:25:00.007+01:00

In the small row of gardens that mine is in the middle of, (equivalent to a small city block) there are at least three black cats on the prowl. One of them has a very memorable face but Tipsy leaves a more indelible mark when seen from the back.

The tip of his tail is completely white, hence the nickname (Tipsy is not his real name).

He also has the brightest pink butthole I've ever seen on a cat. The way it contrasts with his black hair is impressive. So here's to an under-appreciated view of Tipsy.

Pasted up on Wilton Way (between Navarino Road and Greenwood Road) Hackney, London.

Pivo: resources - homeland

2010-06-07T17:10:00.014+01:00

The French town of Collioure is renowned for attracting artists. Matisse, Dali and Picasso spent time there, and it is now a place where people go to buy work by living painters and sculptors. But I was interested in examining another part of Collioure's history in my street art.

Twenty-eight kilometres from the Spanish border, Collioure is in the Languedoc-Roussillon region, a place with a strong Catalan identity. I don't think I saw a single French flag anywhere - instead the yellow and red of the Catalan flag dominated every available mast.

Collioure was one of many French towns that refugees from what was soon to be Franco's Spain fled to during the civil war in the late 1930s.

The refugees and escaping Republican fighters from Barcelona assumed that they would arrive in Catalan France to a friendly or even a hero's welcome. They were wrong.

The men were separated from the women and children and all were put into internment camps. These were very makeshift with few to no facilities and people became malnourished and died of preventable diseases like cholera.

One camp was set up in the ancient templar fortress in Collioure, today a major tourist attraction. It was used to hold what the French government considered the more dangerous refugees - male Republican officers and representatives of the International Brigades. Another camp in a nearby town held most of survivors who belonged to the anarchist Durruti Column.

The male refugees were given very limited options if they wanted to stay in France - basically join the army, the Foreign Legion or work in agriculture. Only when he agreed to one of these was his family allowed to stay in France.

Obviously for many Republicans, male and female, returning to Franco's Spain would mean imprisonment or very likely death. But joining the French Foreign Legion, with its associations with Spain's Francoist Legion, was politically unthinkable.

When France fell to the Nazis in 1940, there were still thousands of refugees living in the internment camps who ended up dying in them. Of those Republicans who somehow negotiated their freedom, many fought and died as part of the French resistance movement.

The photograph that this painting is based on was a propaganda piece printed in French newspapers to demonstrate how well the refugees were being treated by the French authorities.

When we went back the next day to take photographs, a local woman approached us and asked if we knew who had made the art. We said we didn't know but she seemed appreciative. I asked her about the house, assuming it was abandoned as the back garden was boarded up and it was all overgrown.

She explained that the house belonged to a 95-year-old woman who refused to maintain it. I instantly thought about how appropriate it was that I put this on the wall of someone who was alive and could probably remember a darker history in her quaint little town where not maintaining your garden is now all it takes to make people feel aggrieved.

Pasted up near the intersection of Rue Jules Ferry and Rue Militaire in Collioure, France.

Pivo: resources - water

2010-05-23T19:29:00.017+01:00

The first part in a series looking at how we use, share, waste and own (some of us) the resources that everyone needs to survive.

The original inspiration for this piece came after reading this article about how detrimental some international development work can be if it is misinformed. And of course, how killing and poisoning a bunch of people in the developing world hardly even makes the headlines (outside of the left wing press) in the west.

My original idea even included a warning sign above the tap about the hazardous water these girls were gathering.

But when I started working on the image, I was thinking about how obscene it is the way people in the developed world waste drinking water doing superfluous things like washing their cars. Fresh water is a resource that is absolutely essential to life, yet people are still denied that basic need in a highly advance, globalized system.

I started thinking about how I would manage trying to get by on one jug of water a day. The image of these two girls collecting their daily allotment of water transformed into a positive demonstration about the rational use of a limited resource.

In places where water levels are still dictated by rainfall and natural supplies of groundwater, considering the needs of others around you is as vital to your survival as it is to theirs. Surely, we should all strive to develop that level of empathy and self-awareness for our own good.

The hasty paste up before the police drove by on the corner of Fir Tree Lane and Air Balloon Road in Bristol.

Pivo says: cats should be outside on a nice day

2010-05-21T16:14:00.005+01:00

Exciting new stenciling technique used.
Pasted up on Graham Road in Hackney.

pivo's grandparents

2010-03-15T12:51:00.020Z

Lifesize portrait of my grandparents from a photograph taken before they were married. Pasted up to celebrate my Grandma's birthday last month and to watch over and protect her while she undergoes breast cancer surgery this month.

The dress is printed with rubber stamps made from old bicycle tires.

Pasted up on London Fields Westside, across from the Lido; here
Scraped off the wall surrounding an abandoned building by some humorless jerk very soon after.

Pivo in Brussels

2010-02-07T22:44:00.010Z

I was born in a blizzard and every year have to make the best of horrible weather on my birthday. In honour of celebrating any way you can this is pasted up on Rue du Chevreuil/Reebokstraat (right off the Place de Jeu de Balle) in Brussels.

Illustration Friday - Wilderness

2010-01-15T18:59:00.007Z

If this is a confusing image for you, try googling "grey squirrel persecution UK". I fully understand the idea that squirrels can be pests, but what bothers me is that all the language used to direct vitriol at 'North American' grey squirrels is just coded xenophobia. Native vs. Invader, that old chestnut (or maybe acorn in this case).

I might print this bigger and hand it over to Pivo to paste up around London parks.

Pivo - Illustrating the walls

2010-01-06T10:40:00.012Z

It's been a long time but hopefully worth the wait. Introducing Pivo the street artist and her project to help the people of London rediscover the lost art of empathy. There's something really exciting about making one off work and handing it over to the world. These photographs will be the only evidence that this painting ever existed in a few weeks.

Excuse me sir - you dropped your cabbage.

Wheat pasted on Wilton Way in Hackney.

final website logo

2008-09-30T16:26:00.004+01:00

website logo - interviewing

2008-08-26T20:06:00.002+01:00

website logo - photography

2008-08-23T10:29:00.003+01:00

website logo - writing

2008-08-22T09:55:00.004+01:00

new logo for digital:works website - fine arts

2008-08-13T12:19:00.004+01:00

playing with colo(u)r

2008-07-17T18:33:00.004+01:00

Any preferences?

climate change comics

2008-07-17T10:23:00.004+01:00

This is from a series of educational comics I made to help young people understand climate change and what they can do about it.

paring down

2008-07-15T17:09:00.008+01:00

For the longest time, I've rendered every tiny detail in my drawings and paintings. Sometimes, it's these details that make something special and also make them look like my art. But sometimes the details and obsessive fabric wrinkles come at the expense of nice shapes that show movement.

And frankly, thinking about working on a comic book while still paying respect to every tiny line makes my head spin. I'm making an effort to practice simplifying things as much as I can. I think it's also an issue of materials. Good paper, good pens and ink will make this much easier. To the art supply store tomorrow.

illustration friday: foggy

2008-07-14T12:48:00.005+01:00

I've been waiting for a reason to illustrate a boat after all my recent trips to the seaside.

wallpaper two

2008-06-12T18:44:00.004+01:00

wallpaper design

2008-06-07T21:05:00.004+01:00

My partner asked me to make some wallpaper designs for a book he's making. Repetition is great. I wish I had this on my wall now.

illustration friday: baby

2008-06-03T11:42:00.004+01:00

The male model in my life drawing class this week was as hairless as an infant. How serendipitous.

Saint Drogo

2008-05-06T18:29:00.006+01:00

I was watching a documentary about Medieval Christian mysticism and the cult of the saints sounded a lot better than the cult of celebrity we are now expected to worship. Drogo is the patron saint of mental illness, coffee houses, sheep and unattractive people (I've illustrated him before the nasty accident he had on pilgrimage). More saints to follow.

Gemma T. Cat

2008-05-06T15:04:00.002+01:00

illustration friday: seed

2008-05-04T12:37:00.004+01:00

So many seeds fail to germinate but we can still hope.

the ghosts that broke my heart before I met you

2008-05-02T13:22:00.006+01:00

Laura Marling's Ghosts and the imagery in the lyrics kills me (no pun intended). I love the idea of us all forever living with the ghosts of lovers who have broken our hearts and who's hearts we've broken. But that it won't ever stop us from loving again. I had to illustrate it. The video also has super-cute animation.

cheese sandwich

2008-04-28T09:57:00.005+01:00

This boy wasn't so much eating his sandwich as he was holding it aloft for all to behold it's perfect corners.

illustration friday: wrinkles

2008-04-27T09:28:00.006+01:00

It was actually pretty warm when I saw this guy.