Take to the Streets

Down by the Luas Lines in Dublin
Down by the Luas Lines in Dublin

Latimer: Recently I’ve been taking a lot of notice of street art. To the point where, as I walk down the street and come face-to-face with an empty wall, I start to daydream about what maybe I could put there…

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I imagine images weaving across the concrete. And I start to think, leaning back and getting some perspective on the wall – ‘That would be fun!’

My daydream then takes me to the street at night-time, wearing dark clothes and carrying a bag of spray-paint cans. I’m going to unfold my masterpiece image. I’m going to fix it to the wall, by climbing a steep rickety old ladder that stretches up six floors to the roof. And I’m not afraid to do it (this would never happen, I’d be crying if I had to climb a ladder).

I spray-paint the stencil. I scramble down the ladder and race across the road.

Girl in an egg, Barcelona
Girl in an egg, Barcelona

No police catch me.

I admire my mural, and then, I fade into the darkness like a thief in the night. A wispy shadowy creature of the witching hour; in the morning people will pass the image, wondering – who did that? How’d they do that? And I’ll pass by, smile a secret smile, and walk on.

Then my daydream ends with the harsh whack from the reality stick. I don’t go down that street at night-time, because it’s too dark and could be full of people baying for my blood; like gangs of New York.

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I don’t dress in all black, because if I remember correctly I don’t have a black hat and I threw out those black jeans the other day. Where would I find the stencil? That’s a big wall, the perspective would be too much; I mean drawing on an A3 page is the most I’ve ever done. And I’ve never made a stencil…

No. I’d get caught! Definitely; if anyone would I would. The police would catch me. I’d get in trouble.

It's too risky!!
It’s too risky!!

Where do you get the spray paint anyway… is it expensive… etc. etc.

Yup, the dream fades pretty fast.

So, I’m left as a voyeur on the street art of others. I like the secret pictures and I like the mysterious people that flit in the night, spicing up the streets with quirky images. Their work waves at me as I pass the streets, from time-to-time, and I smile thinking, “Well, hello there piece of art!” Like it’s a secret discovery, belonging to just me and the street.

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After you see one, as with all things, a door opens and suddenly they’re everywhere. It used to be a Dublin thing, now it’s a world thing. The images from people I’ll never know, waving across countries at me, a little Latimer they’ll never know.

Here are some I found in Barcelona.

IMG_20130909_113628 IMG_20130923_074622 IMG_20130909_093310 IMG_20130909_091921 IMG_20130909_091750 IMG_20130909_091407IMG_20130908_171353 IMG_20130908_171244 IMG_20130908_171029 IMG_20130907_222821 IMG_20130907_222135 IMG_20130907_221858

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Keep an eye out on whatever streets you’re walking! There are cool secret artists out there! Thank you for sharing your art!

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I’m not sure who the artists are, so if anyone knows, drop us a message and we’ll tag the photos etc!

4 thoughts on “Take to the Streets

  1. I love street art, especially when it is really good and you just have to stop and say ‘I wish I could do that’. Never tried any of it myself, I’d probably just make the wall worse than it already is, people would be stopping and staring for all the wrong reasons.

    1. I know! It’s sooo cool to look at you just get swept up in the dream of …. ‘could I also do this?!’. Totally know what you mean though, it always ends in ‘ah, no I can’t do that!’.

  2. Hi Latimer!
    Grand post. I love how you are describing your secret discoveries – and also your daydreams about creating some street art work!

    Recently, I saw a documentary, if I remember that correctly it was about Barcelona, where they had something like a street art project going. The images you are showing on your photos remind me a lot of what I have seen on TV. They also have something like a Walking Gallery. I found two links regarding this. Might be they are interesting for you:

    Barcelona Street Art: http://www.barcelonastreetart.net/
    Walking Gallery: http://www.walkinggallery.com/

    Much love to the Emerald Island!

    1. Oh wow! Thank you so much for those links Stefanie!
      Barcelona is one stunning city, the street art there is so amazing! It makes sense that they have a project going! There were lots of amazing pictures I missed from the look of things – I better go back one day and do a street art tour or something!
      Much love to Germany 🙂 🙂

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