Sylvia Ji via C215

I was checking out some of C215's latest amazing street art pieces - and if you haven't seen any, then do! His stuff is decorating streets of Europe and the USA, but none here.

 

I was wishing he'd come to Sydney and bomb us with his street art treasures, and I followed a link to a link to a link...

...and then saw some amazing art by Sylvia Ji. Bless Google and Flickr! Stumbling across new art is great fun.

Sylvia Ji is an west coast American, born to artistic parents: her mother sketches, her father paints. In her art, those who 'know' say she explores beauty, sexuality and social notions of what it is to be feminine. Some of her paintings are symbolic reflections of herself, portraits of people she knows or just nameless faces.  She has works on display in both San Francisco and Los Angeles galleries.

 

 

I see stunning, curvy women in amazing colours with a dreamy feel. The faces remind me of Mexican death masks. Locally I've seen some of those masks at Mao and More on Cleveland Street, Surry Hills.

You can check out her many paintings on her website as listed in our links http://www.sylviaji.com/paintings_2011or look at C215's amazing street art also listed in our links http://www.flickr.com/photos/c215/ .

None of these pics are mine, but borrowed from Google images. Credit to the photographers who took them. Great work.  Apologies if you aren't credited, but if you let me know they are yours, I'll add the attribution!

Enjoy the colour,
J in JAM

Mechanics Like Street Art Too

So many people like street art! In fact my own words were repeated to me by Greg, a car mechanic, yesterday "If you have this (gestures to whole wall of a funky tagging piece), you don't get this (gestures to scribble and vandalism on another space)."

Had a couple of hours free so I popped to the neighbouring area of Chippendale to search more streets where I encountered Greg and Greg at Gregory Strange's Motor Mechanics on Cleveland Street. We had a great chat about street art.

Greg S (for Strange, the owner) commissioned the racing car piece on his wall. He told me the name, model and make of the car in the mural and artist who did it (Steve Smith). The 2 Gregs also took me to see the other piece they have (given to a street artist who changes it regularly) on their back wall.

They are proud to be involved in street art. We agreed that it would be good for Sydney, tourism, artists and businesses if MORE people got behind street artists and gave them space to express themselves legally.
 

Sugar Shark

Midget, Chief Executive Officer

After meeting Midget their dog and 'Chief Office Executive' and being invited to return for another chat, I set off wandering the area a little more and found a few interesting bits and pieces including a huge Sugar Shark piece, another Charlie Chaplin, Box Ed, Max Berry, Phibs, etc

 

 

 
I also found another knitting piece near an Art Gallery - I assume it's by Grrl+dog. I love finding them!

A very enjoyable couple of hours. Too bad the weather is looking bad for my next break.

Street art unites us,
J in JAM

Dunlop Factory Adventure

It all came together yesterday. Both with an afternoon free, sunny weather, cameras, batteries, tripods and enthusiasm....Though I was momentarily distracted by the promise of discount shoes and handbags at the nearby factory outlets, the promise of a photographic adventure easily won.

It was our first, long overdue visit to the Dunlop Factory in Alexandria. It's an amazing place as many street artists and photographers already know. Spoilt for places to aim the camera.

Getting in can be 'interesting', but the gates were open on the afternoon we visited as a fashion shoot was underway. Security looked at me but decided I was with the fashion shoot. Luckily I have a face that says "school teacher". Comes in very handy some days.

Even though it was unplanned we were ready in our sturdy shoes and jeans and the camera bag now has spare batteries, memory cards and the car boot is the permanent home for our tripods.

 
Yesterday there were heaps of tags, some murals, lots of pieces, some stencils and a fabulous car. Some may have been fresh as the smell of aerosol was very strong in a couple of spots.

We are very happy with some of the shots, but are already looking forward to our next visit where I will grab all the shots that didn't come out the way I wanted. I am still learning the manual settings of my bridge camera. And auto focus drives me nuts sometimes!

Have a great weekend whatever you're doing,
J in JAM

Anti Graffiti Strike Squad

 Today I discovered there is a whole squad of golf carts out there whose only purpose in life is the removal of street art! I vaguely thought there was "some guy" from the council who cleaned off graffiti, so when confronted with the squad in Chippendale I was dumbstruck.

Most of them had passed by before I actually thought to take a photo. Up until this moment, I hadn't found much street art to be honest, but there were heaps of spots that had been 'cleaned' or painted over. The penny dropped and I cursed them!

Rubbish bins and cars are bad enough! Now there's a hit squad?!*^$%!!

I found a few paste ups, stickers and stencils and 3 of MIM's cat stencils and quite a few SMC3 paste ups.

I found a fun Alien paste up, some great googly eye stickers and a "You are here" sticker so I came away with a smile on my face after all.

  

Beware the anti-graffiti squad,

J in JAM

Glebe Tram Sheds

Yesterday was probably our last trip out to the Glebe Tram Sheds, redevelopment is occurring now and a new fence and screen has been placed all around the perimeter. It was our third visit in this amazing place and it will be sad to give up such a wonderful photographic subject.

The day started with a stop off at Leichhardt to photograph a Syke mural and one photo in, my batteries died. Our backups were also flat! Not happy Jan. Anyway my partner managed to have both batteries and a memory card and did the honours. 

We saw the "Blue Mox" of the Natural History Museum of London (car and garbage bags blocking the view), an interesting power box and toilet block. Unexpected discoveries are always sweeter.

Lucky for me, but not my wallet, a small corner store had batteries at somewhat inflated prices and we stopped for fish and chips at a place claiming to be the "BEST" fish and chips in the suburb. I doubt it.

The tram sheds are always interesting and we had a great time finding the changes since we last visited and searching out new ideas for photography.

I felt like I was saying goodbye as we left. It's obvious things are changing now and workmen were on site nearby, even on a Saturday. If you haven't seen the tram sheds at Glebe, you've probably missed the boat. No doubt some new place will spring up in its place and that will be a new adventure.

Happy hunting,
J in JAM