Artist in Residence program

For the last few months I have been hanging out with a bunch of really talented 14 & 15 year old artists. It's been a blast.

Every Friday morning I've been up bright and early (maybe less of the bright and more of the early...) to head off to Strathmore Secondary College in Melbourne's northern suburbs to join the class of 24 for their Artist in Residence program.

The program involved, in a nutshell, me talking about my art practice and then showing the students how to do what I do. Not that these guys needed too many tips in the drawing department, I was not making work any where near as good as most of them when I was their age!

My time there evolved into one big paste-ups workshop, which I have to say was pretty cool. Our first exercise was pasting up small artwork around the school - which was received with excitement and enthusiasm by teachers and students alike.

As we planned our next project and started working on new designs we took a short trip into the city to see what other artists had been doing on the streets as well as checking out the Space Invaders exhibition at RMIT Gallery.

 Checking out a Drab paste up off Drewery Place 

Union Lane

Sniders Lane

Feeling very inspired, the students spent the next couple of weeks working really hard (lunchtimes and afterschool!) to finish their paste ups for the wall they were to collaborate on. We did a paste-up collage on the fence at the Corner Café on Woodland St in Strathmore. Some students worked in small groups of two or three, others flew solo, but the wall as whole looked pretty amazing after the first week of pasting!

Most of the larger paste ups went up on this first week of pasting, and some more were added last Friday. I will snap some shots of the updated artwork next time I am up that way. The locals are loving it and the beauty is that it will continue to evolve.

Sadly though, Friday was my last day. I was spoiled by the class who bought me a really big bunch of flowers and made me one of the best cards I've ever received - 4 pages of really lovely messages from each of them as well as some photos of their paste ups.

A big huge thanks to Lauren, the co-ordinator of the Artist In Residence program for inviting me to be the artist for the last semester. I had a great time and I felt pretty lucky to be surrounded by such a great group of young artists, who I'm sure we will see around in the not too distant future.

Film clip goodness!

About a year ago my mate Joe over at Pots and Pans recorded a catchy little tune called Against the Grain (plus a few others) for Melbourne based muso Hudson. I then did the artwork for the EP titled Open Up Slowly.

 

 Just recently Hudson teamed up with Dropbear who put together this amazing clip. Given my love for pencils, I gotta say this could easily be my favourite film clip of the year (and I've had a few faves!) Nice work guys!

In other music video news, but still in Melbourne, we have a very cool clip by Bright Knights. Over a thousand people contributed to the making of the clip to This Love. I have a frame in there somewhere. A great collaboration, it takes quite a few views to take it all in!

Street Advent paste up

Having found a killer spot in the city for my Street Advent piece, I couldn't resist the urge to be the first artist in the line up!

This piece is located in Centre Place in the heart of Melbourne's CBD.

On December 2 we had Year of the Shorts contribute some nifty pieces around the Brunswick area, today we revealed Phoenix's piece off Franklin Street outside the Blender studios in the CBD. I've had a sneak peek at tomorrow's piece already and it's a quite fun and festive work by one of Melbourne's favourite street artists, so keep a watch out on the Street Advent website for photos! The participating artists are (in a completely random order to keep the good ol element of surprise)

Rena Littleson
Benjamin Reeve
skulk
Guz
Mason (Canada)
Mishap
Dopio
I & The Others
Year of the Shorts
Phoenix
Kaff-iene
Blomtrog
Decycle (Germany)
Andros
Olive47
Klara
Jinks
Terrible Horrible
Pete Daniells
Birdhat
Nommric
Facter
James Belveander
Fezwitch
Internet

Can't wait to see a new piece every day!

New paste ups

It was great to get out on the streets of Fitzroy & the CBD this week, on a warm balmy night (which seem to be few and far between these days) and paste some new work with my ever reliable and enthusiastic pasting pal Christy. Here's a taste below, more images and locations on Facebook

Christmas approaches: Street Advent!

"What!?" I hear you say "An Advent Calendar on the streets? Crazy!"

Yes, a little crazy, but what a fun way to play with the city in the lead up to Christmas! My good mate Matt and I are rounding up 25 artists to partake in this calendar project. Each day in December, until the 25th we will be revealing a fresh new piece of street art to the world, just as those little perforated doors revealed Rudolph, candy canes or maybe it was just Santa's shiny red face. No red faces here though, just talented artists!

Head to our website for the full brief and to register interest in getting involved. Of course we are on Facebook too. Spread the word!

Outpost & Paste Modernism 3

Tonight is the opening night of Outpost on Cockatoo Island in Sydney. This festival is set to be the biggest celebration of street art Australia has seen. Running for 5 weeks and involving over 100 artists, both Aussie and international it's going to be an event not to be missed.

As part of Outpost, Paste Modernism 3 celebrates the humble paste up. Running for it's third year and curated by Ben Frost, Paste Modernism 3 involves over 250 artists and countless paste up art.

I sent my package of paste ups north to Sydney a couple of weeks back and am hoping to make it up there between now and the 11th of December to check out the amazing display of work.

More images can be seen via the PM3 Facebook page

Charge Group

Last Friday night here in wet and cold Melbourne town, Sydney band Charge Group had a single launch at Gasometer in Collingwood. The gig was great and as well as selling their brand spankin' new single Run, they were also selling T's designed by yours truly. 

I'm loving the new tunes from these guys, the clip for Run is also pretty damn awesome. Looking forward to the album in March!