During the pandemic some people haven’t been able to get their kicks where they usually would due to everyone being stuck indoors. This has resulted in a few problems here for Chanel, she always been a bit into voyeurism but due to lockdown can’t exorcise those demons and has resorted to some pretty ingenious ways to get her kicks.
First, she tried webcams but there was no fun in that at all, everyone knew she was watching them. Then she thought a simple bit of people watching out her bedroom window would work but with the shops closed and her living in the centre of town that didn’t work out too well.
Eventually, she came across the notion of watching people through their letterboxes. If she’s careful enough not to make a noise the only thing that gives Chanel away is the occasional gust of cold air through the letterbox then it’s usually time to beat a hasty retreat….
It is A2 in size and made using acrylic, watercolour and paint pen.
With the ‘Beast from the East’ in to visit the UK is experiencing a surprisingly cold spell which is apparently going to herald the end of Winter. I’ll believe that when I personally experience it. Now given the sub zero conditions I wouldn’t like to be out painting a wall but that doesn’t mean all bets are off graffiti-wise. You just have to be a bit more open minded. And quick. So when I spotted some crazed ice on a windscreen (I think it may have been cracked underneath) I realised it was time for some temporary vandalism so swiftly removed my hand from my glove and whacked in a heart with my nice warm digit. Job done. Ice graffiti complete. Bring on Spring.
With the spectre of gentrification hanging over the railway arches in Brixton we went down to do our small part to raise the profile of the #Savebrixtonarches campaign by painting up some shutters alongside a few other artists. It may not be much against the juggernaut of urban redevelopment but it gets us out of the house on a Sunday at least.
Once we’d arrived and found our spot we managed to draw some inspiration from the red and blue ‘HOT’ and ‘COLD’ lettering above the shutters to give us a colour scheme to work with and some idea of where we were headed. After we’d got that much nailed it was pretty much plain sailing. This design is reasonably minimal for us and it took a fair amout of willpower to overcome the urge to get a load more paint on the shutters and just walk away once it was completed. Righto, what’s next?
Cheers (and a big thanks to Monoprixx for taking the shot!)
So, our good friends put a picture of their new baby girl up on Facebook with a caption along the lines of ‘finally our little eskimo has arrived’. A few people thought that she was actually named Eskimo and much hilarity ensued (most of it along the lines of ‘have you really thought this through? Won’t she get grief at school?’).
At this point the muse demanded that I create a little Eskimo themed piece for them using one of their pictures of her as the basis. After some design and a bit of computer jiggery-pokery we have a little Eskimo girl outside her igloo on the frozen snowscape waiting patiently for her parents to come back with some tasty seal or arctic fox for her lunch. Now they just need to get it printed and framed and they have a nice memento of their first baby related internet gaffe. Oh how they’ll laugh in years to come…
edit: Since doing a little research after writing the post it would seem that perhaps Eskimo is a perjorative word. So, apologies to any Inuit-Yupik’s out there but the story just wouldn’t be the same if I changed it…
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