The Giant Spoon

Last week I make a fun street art installation for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. They had launched their new range called ‘the core’ and asked me to come up with something that people notice on the street. Watch the video and see the process and results.

Decsion on Paddy Power advert by Complaints Committee of the ASAI

Download Report and Letter of Complaints Committee of the ASAI into Paddy Power’s Ladies Day advert

17709 – Case Report Paddy Power Cheltenham Festival 17709 – Complaints post investigation re Paddy Power.

Madonna in the Ghetto (gold)

It’s been 6 six years since I did this stencil. Madonna in the Ghetto came from my first show ‘Artivism’ in 2006. I created five in blue but wanted this one to be special. I was asked to sumbit a piece of work for an exhibtion to raise funds for Kasey Kelly and 1 year old whose was diagnosed with a rare malignant brain tumour known as Atypical Teratoid/Rhaboid or ATRT. This type of tumour is very aggressive and extremely rare worldwide.

An exhibition featuring this stencil and other works will be held Holy Thursday at The Front Lounge, Parliament street, Dublin to raise fund for Kasey’s life saving operation.

 www.kare4kasey.com

Meat Bass’d

Recently I was invited by Musical Youth Organisation to create a custom instrument for a charity auction in May this year.  I’ve never painted an musical instrument before, so it was a great opportunity to create something special.

I choose the bass guitar, because I love bass guitars! (I own three) When I’m not making stencils, I’m playing bass with my band, FELCH or practising at home. My favourite bass guitarists are quite diverse, ranging from Metal to Disco, such as Lemmy of Motorhead, Bernard Edward of Chic, Pino Palladino bassist with Gary Numan, Chris Wolstenholme of Muse.

One of my all time favourites is Andy Rouke of The Smiths. Rourke’s bass lines not only created the ‘groove’ of The Smiths, but considering the musical talents of Morrissey and Marr, I think his bass lines where critical to the success of the ‘sound’ of The Smiths.

With this in mind, I decided to make a ‘meat’ bass for two reasons. Firstly, if drums are the bones of music, bass is the meat, lead guitar is the skin and vocal are the clothes. Secondly, The Smiths 1985 album, Meat Is Murder is one of my all time favourite records. Not necessarily the title track, but songs like, Headmaster Ritual, What She Said and Barbarism Begins At Home have some of the best bass lines ever.

The Making of Meat Bass

I used the first bass guitar I’d ever bought, an Encore bass (an inexpensive range of entry-level guitars). I’ve played it to death so it’s been bashed about a bit.

I started by stripping the whole guitar down and cleaning the grime off (except the frets)

I sprayed on a base red colour, then added a darker red edge. After that I used a sponge with a brighter red to build up texture.

Once the paint had dried, I used paint pens to create veins of fat running through the meat based on pictures I had taken at a local butcher shop

Next, I sanded down the head stock and gouged into the wood to make ‘cracks’ – I mixed OXO cubes and a little water and painted it into the cracks (because I wanted to used ‘real’ meat’ on the bass.

I pulled out the tuning pegs and replaced them with the tops of stainless steel forks.

Finally I varnished the whole body with a gloss and reassembled the electronics and scratch plate. I restrung it and wrapped ‘barbered wire’ around the strings at the skull of the headstock with galvanised wire.

And to my relief the bass is still in tune and working order.

Cronyism

It’s not the first time I’ve taken a street art swipe at Bertie Ahern, back in April 2008 I filled Molly Malone’s statue with ‘Bertie Bills‘ on the eve his his resignation as taoiseach. I felt then, what the majority of people feel now; cheated, hood-winked and angry that the person at the highest level of office in this country can lie about secret payments for planning favours. This country needs to be purged of Cronies like Ahern, Fylnn and Co. otherwise we as a nation will never be trusted by foreign investors and by the international community.

Irish Arts Review – Street Art

The latest edition of Irish Art Review features Irish street artists making their mark. Fittingly Conor Harrington‘s work (arguably Ireland’s No.1 street artist) adorns the front cover.  The article includes work and interviews with Maser, ADW, Rask and myself. Bravo to Irish Arts Review for recognising the role of street art in Ireland today.

There’s also a nice piece about my new sell out show ‘Cause & Effect’

Cause & Effect

Can strangers collectively own a piece of artwork? Cause & Effect is a participation exhibit where 100 people are given the choice to keep or share art. I’m creating 100 stencils which fit together as four large jigsaw like works. Funders of the show will automatically own one of these pieces of work. However will they break up the larger artwork by taking their own piece or will they share it with the other owners?

Be part of this show! Fund the show and you will own one piece of work (limited to 100 people) entry to show and drink reception. Artwork signed and numbered by artist. Your name will appear on the back of the piece of the artwork. You will also get a limited edition A3 poster of one of the four completed artwork signed and numbered. Click here: http://www.fundit.ie/project/cause–effect

Mad Men

Last year, Largo Foods who produce Irish chip brand Hunky Dorys strapped models into skimpy sport gear and had them play rugby for an outdoor ad campaign. A record 300 members of the public complained about the campaign to the Advertising Standards Authority about it’s sexist nature. Using the age old rule; “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” Hunky Dorys are back again, this time the sanity clad girls are wearing GAA sports gear.

In total contrast to real GAA fans and clubs who respect women players and support openly gay players like Donal Óg, Largo Foods ad agency are stuck in a boring, predictable time wrap, with no new ideas. So I decided to create my own version of their advert.

One Day I Will Grow Wings

‘One Day I Will Grow Wings’ is a new stenciled paste-up that I created for Dublin Contemporary ‘Road Works’ project. Borrowing it’s name for Radiohead’s song Let Down I’ve wanted to produce a street art piece about homelessness for some time.

Lots of  artists  are involved in a city wide project including Mark Jenkins, D*Face, Maser, Morgan, DMC, Prefab.

Follow the project live here anewspacelivestreets.tumblr.com

Blank walls = blank minds

photo by Ian Keegan

photo by Ian Keegan

photo by Will St Leger

I recently finished my biggest street piece to date. It’s a large, blank grey wall at the end of South George’s Street, Dublin. I was thrilled when the Mercantile asked me to design a mural on their venue’s  gable end that would included the venue’s name.

I wanted something bold but fun. I decided to recreate the Mercantile’s name in an old style sign writing, but also include the sign-writer himself in a precarious situation. At 16, I was an apprentice for a talented sign- writer called Eamonn Power in my home town of Clonmel. So the ‘hanging painter’ is a homage to him.

Here’s an interview I did with Christopher Goodfellow for Totally Dublin which explains the piece more. Amazing photos too by Ian Keegan

Read the full interview here