"Watching television is like taking black spray paint to your third eye."
- Bill Hicks, comedian 1994 R.I.P

Thursday, August 21, 2008

HOLIDAY!

Well, that is the 22 FreeArt projects we promised and all before we fly back across the pond to visit peeps in Blighty for our holiday. We'll be taking all sorts of photos at Solfest in Cumbria as well as loads of graffiti in Madchester. Hopefully we'll do some posting while we are there but there will be a lot of pub crawling between snapping photos + visiting the street art gallery so pleaz be patient with us. Enjoy the rest of the summer + thanx for stopping in to visit the site. Don't forget to let us know if you found one of the pieces or any general feedabck. We'd love to hear from ya!

Black, Blu + Red Starrs



If you look carefully you can see the string that holds these boards together yet when hanging up they are suspended separately. We hung this one down at the outdoor smoking spot across from the parking garage at the bottom of Elm just before you get to Main Street. Hope someone from one of the offices took it to brighten up their cube.

Message in a Bottle Project #6 of 10


































Graffiti in Rochdale, England

graffiti artist unknown

photo taken by FreeArtWorcester

Maple + Main Streets

Message in a Bottle Project #7 of 10






















Graffiti in Barcelona, Spain


graffiti artist: Angel (?)

photo taken by FreeArtWorcester

Maple + Main Street

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Message in a Bottle Project #3 of 10


































Graffiti in Barcelona, Spain

artist unknown

photo taken by FreeArtWorcester

oops, we forgot where we left this one. Anyone wanna tell us where out favourite lil' gurl is?

It's Yours, Take it - Boston


If you have ever spent any amount of time on Flickr you will know that there is a wonderful world of street art being documented and posted up there.

An interesting project we have stumbled upon is called, ' It's Yours, Take it". The project describes itself as being:

"Born from the bowels of the Free Art Friday Flickr Group, the "It's Yours, Take IT" project has been a great success of global artists joining together in impromptu street exhibits in cities around the globe. Cities visited by IYTI crews:
Tel Aviv, Israel
Southport Hampshire, UK
Chicago, IL., US
Honolulu, HI, US
Tempe & Phoenix, AZ, US
Germany
Coffs Harbour, Australia
Winnipeg Manitoba, Canada
New Orleans,LA, US
Singapore"

18 August was the deadline for the upcoming It's Yours, Take it - Boston exhibition. So check in at their Flickr site or their blog for details once it's up. FreeArtWorcester is participating in this event and just sent this painting in to meet the dealine last week!

Gear Flowers



Front Street bus shelter, north side of City Hall

Message in a Bottle Project #8 of 10
























Stencils + tags in Manchester, UK


artists unknown

photo taken by FreeArtWorcester


Front Street bus shelter, north side of City Hall

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Vampyre Boo Boo Bunni


Friendly, yet vicious + adorable when attacking...

Elm + Main Street

Message in a Bottle Project #1 of 10






















Graffiti in Barcelona, Spain.


Graffiti artist unknown.
photo taken by FreeArtWorcester

Elm + Main Street

Monday, August 18, 2008

Woosta2


More Worcester Luv!

Elm Park at Russell Street

Message in a Bottle Project #10 of 10





























Corporate, Hungry. Must Feed.
Stencil found in Manchester City Centre, UK

Stencil artist unknown
photo taken by FreeArtWorcester

Franklin Street bus shelter, across from Bancroft Building

Message in a Bottle Project #4 of 10
























Graffiti in Manchester, England


Stencil Artist unknown
photo taken by FreeArtWorcester


Franklin Street bus shelter across from Bancroft building

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Squares + Rectangles on Rouge


Bus shelter directly in front of City Hall

Message in a Bottle Project #5 of 10


















This photo is of graffiti that was commissioned by Cord Bar in Manchester's (UK) Northern Quarter, the city's arts district. The wall often changes and since this photo was taken a couple of years ago we're looking forward to see what is up there currently when we visit next week!

Graffiti artist unknown
photo by FreeArtWorcester

Bus shelter directly in front of City Hall

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Box Car


The Box Car. It conjures up images of the American landscape given to us through stories by travelers (also referred to as hobos) as well as the imaginative insight given to us by graffiti artists who use the side of these cars as a canvas. Ahhhh, smell the romance in the air...

Graffiti comes in all forms that are 'illegal' as well as 'legal' and we bet a lot of people out there have committed the crime of 'illegal' graffiti activity at one time or another. Think about it, humans have been scrawling on walls for as long as we've been able to document history. We have a natural tendency to want to leave our mark: cave paintings, hieroglyphics, lovers carving their names in the bark of trees, religious pilgrims who carve their names into pillars in cathedrals, and the signing of guest books or yearbooks. Give a kid a pencil or a crayon and what is the first thing they want to do when you are not looking? Scrawl on the wall!

Humans are expressive creatures who crave a community and shared ideas. This is an important aspect of our survival. Why do we try to stifle each other? So if you found this little box car painting get out your markers and scrawl a little something on the side of this car. It'll make ya feel good, we promise. And send us a photo of it would ya? We'd love to post it back up here!

Bus shelter across the street from City Hall



Message in a Bottle Project #2 of 10
















Rochdale, England in pedestrian walkway - created in legal graffiti zone
ordered by local City Council

graffiti artist unknown
photo taken by FreeArtWorcester

Bus shelter across the street from City Hall

Pink Boots



"I cried because I had no shoes, then I met a man who had no feet"

painted thrift store shoes

Chatham Street between Irving and Oxford

Friday, August 15, 2008

Message in a Bottle Project #9 of 10
















The Message in a Bottle Project is a series of 10 photos tucked inside 10 glass bottles. The photos were taken in 2005-2006 in Manchester, England and Barcelona, Spain of graffiti found in various locations in each city.

This killer piece by 'Throne' was found while walking an underground pedestrian walkway within a rotary or roundabout in Manchester's city centre.

photo taken by FreeArtWorcester

Federal Square

Will She Ever Know?


"Yet if a woman never lets herself go, how will she ever know how far she might have got? If she never takes off her high-heeled shoes, how will she ever know how far she could walk or how fast she could run?"

-Germaine Greer

house paint on 2nd hand shoes

Federal Square

Doodles


Just doodlin'round.

Federal Square Bus Shelter

"You cannot put the same shoe on every foot"

These thrift store shoes were painted as a reminder to celebrate individualism. We would be soooo bored if we all looked and acted the same!

Federal Square Bus Shelter

Glyph (inspired)


These shapes were and arranged and inspired by Mayan glyphs. Glyphs are elements of writing that use images instead of words. In Mayan art they are found on various architectural structures as well as sculpture. This inspired glyph translates into whatever you can imagine!

Franklin Square Bus Shelter

Thursday, August 14, 2008

FreeArt Bombin'!

2night we were out in full effect FreeArt bombing Worcester's Main Street from Franklin Square to Maple Street! 22 pieces in all so we'll be busy posting over the next several days. If you visit here and don't see the piece you found hold tight, it will be posted soon so check back and give us a shout out!

Enjoy. Peace.

Pie and Coffee, a Worcester Podcast #47 Creative Laundry

Hey Hey, thanx Pie and Coffee for your coverage of the upcoming one day art event at Elm Park Creative Laundry AND for giving FreeArtWorcester a mention! We will definitely be out at Elm Park on Friday to participate in Creative Laundry and hope to join lots of locals creating together.

This has been a great summer for art in Worcester. We caught the Strange Fruit performance outside City Hall yesterday afternoon that was brilliant and the Art in the Park at Elm Park is pretty wonderful too! We're sorry to say we'll be missing Start in the Street again this year as we will be on another trip.

We're about to do a BIG drop of FreeArt downtown before we head over to England for 3 weeks to do some graffiti hunting. We plan to post the new FreeArt photos up in quick succession next week but we might try to do a little blogging from Blighty's Manchester which is an incredible centre of graffiti outside of London and Bristol.

Peace!

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Wearin'um Out


"One thing children wear out faster than shoes is their parents"
-John L Plomp



Franklin and Salem Streets

Friday, August 8, 2008

Why Do we Kill People, Who Kill People?...


Don't react, think about it.


Franklin Street, City Hall side across from the Telegram & Gazette Bldg.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

America is Not Just White Folks!

These were done as a gentle reminder to those out there that think Americans are only white folks.

A year or so ago we were coming back into the country from a trip abroad and after getting off the plane we were shuffled through immigration and were told that those with American passports were to go in the line on the left and those with other than American passports in the line to the right. So we follow instructions and get in the line on the left and in front of us is a woman in her 50s maybe 60s and in front of her are a couple we believe to have been Sikh by the traditional garments they were wearing. Cool we're in line and waiting. Then the woman in front of us says in that loud exaggerated tone people use when speaking to others they assume don't know English she informs them they have to go to the other line for foreigners. The couple are conversing amongst themselves and pay her no mind so she repeats herself again with more persistence. This is a disgrace we are thinking to ourselves and just as she is about to say it again we ask her if she ever gave it a single thought that they might be American citizens and maybe she should mind her own business. At this point her jaw drops and she hurriedly turns around quietly. Sure enough as we continue to stand in line we notice the passports in the couple's hand are indeed American passports.

Now this isn't the 1st time we've seen our fellow citizens act like fools when dealing with people of different races . Is it any wonder the rest of the world looks at us so funny? Is it any wonder that some people in this country don't feel welcome here and more and more keep to themselves and their own wonderfully close knit community? All we're sayin' is be more mindful to others. take the time to be kind, smile and don't assume all that you have heard is true. Isn't it time we got over all this racial tension crap and move on? We need each other more than ever these days, particularly after all the damage done by our government in the last 8 years. We need to stick together or we'll continue to fall apart.


Pleasant Street between West and Crown Streets
and Worcester Historical Society