Oh my, welsh cakes! When I was a student in Merlin's Town, LONG, long ago
I had a landlady who used to get her planc out once a week and cook up a mountain of them. What with her husband, three strapping sons and me, she was lucky if she had any left by the following morning! I guess I could always adapt recipes for welsh cakes and bara brydd and make some but, what with Turkish, Jewish and West Indian cakes etc being all too readily available, it's probably best that I put that thought on hold! The seaweed's good stuff though and not as strong as Nori (?). Yep, I will definitely be taking along my giant, wheely holdall, on my next trip down, and stocking up on supplies!!!
Anyway, I'm kind of excited about something totally not at all food related!! It's Banksy, or rather, his stencilling, that has me jumping about! You know, it seems like just about everywhere you look, you are surrounded by a visual assault of ____________ (thanks!) shallow and dehumanising brand logos, etc. One advantage of life in the sticks is that you are not bombarded with product advertising the moment you step out the front door. Oh no, it's all hills, meadows, woody bits. Very likely, the only thing to blight the view is the encrouching commuter belt and odd bypass, that kind if thing!
So personally, I welcome graffiti ..... even if it's just some kid's tag! Really, very little street art is actually offensive. I find the whole local government obsession with removing graffiti far more offensive than the graffiti itself and, hell, isn't it great to know that there are more graphic artists out there, more interested in making people THINK rather than brainwashing them? Who ARE the REAL criminals?
Anyway, I'll clamber off my generic-brand soapbox before I go into one!
After work yesterday, as I walked up the road with a colleague, she pointed to the opposite side of the street. On an otherwise forgettable stretch of wall, someone had stencilled "GRAFFITI REMOVAL HOTLINE" followed by a telephone number which was being 'painted over' by a larger-than-life, stencilled boy! We were both impressed and I commented that it was possibly a graffiti artist's work rather than someone just starting out and explained the process he'd used. I hadn't a clue as to who it was (until now!) as my enthusiasm for street art goes far beyond my actual knowledge about the artists themselves! Still, at least I could remember Futura 2000...! Today, I got an arts newsletter from timesonline (please don't judge me on that!), clicked on a link for an article entitled, "Spray it again, man" (
) and then on the link for Banksy and realised that HE'S the artist behind the wall enhancement!
So, anyway, if you think that stencilling is just some banal home-maker's hobby, check out the links below ..... maybe the next piece of asbo art I see will be yours!
www.stencilrevolution.com www.banksy.co.uk
"Does my bum look big in this installation?"