Subject 4: Street Art

“Spy vs Spy”390 x 580 mm 2003 – a drawing of torn posters.  I had found this subject matter on boards covering up a building site in Fremantle, Western Australia.

Street art and graffiti – some people call it visual pollution.   I enjoy it.  This includes posters pasted up on hoardings and various city walls. Over the years I have done several drawings of this subject matter.  In 2004 I had an exhibition at Fremantle Arts Centre in Western Australia called “Street Theatre” which looked at the grunge of urban town and city life around me.

I invite you to look at the street art page on my newly updated website…

https://juliepodstolski.com/Street-Art~1020

“Heel!” 290 x 410 mm, 2003 – my drawing of a torn and degraded poster.  This subject was found in Northbridge (the entertainment precinct of Perth) Western Australia.

“Heel!” was from a poster advertising the film ‘Secretary’.  This poster had seen better days and was already creased, torn and taped over.   I got a comment by a bemused spectator who was fascinated but said “You wouldn’t hang it in your house”.  That comment stuck with me!  It sold at the exhibition so not everybody agreed with the lady’s observation.

“Folly”400 x 405 mm, 2003.   Colour pencil drawing.   Subject matter found in Northbridge, Western Australia.

What I like about this subject matter is the randomness of it.  The way images are spent, torn and pasted one on top of another results in an abstraction.  I think about the limited life of events.  In a short space of time the posters go from brand new with promises of wonderful happenings, to yesterday’s news.  They quickly become worn out and forgotten…from expectation to rubbish.

“Urban Scrawl”410 x 680 mm, 2003 colour pencil drawing.   I waited for a member of the public to walk past this hoarding in Fremantle, Western Australia.

“Boys Keep Swinging” (I named this drawing after one of David Bowie’s songs). 350 x 550 mm, 2004.  This area was the ‘red light’ district of Kings Cross in Sydney, Australia.

“A Vendre” coloured pencil drawing, 2012. Art-covered vacant building in Paris.

“rue du Chat qui Pêche” 240 x 340 mm, 2012  Coloured pencils.  Street art found on a wall of rue du Chat qui Pêche at Saint Michel, Paris.

I love Paris street art so last time I was there I looked for more but it seemed there had been a concerted effort to clean it up.  ‘Rue du Chat qui Pêche’ which I had seen in 2012 had been painted over.  Now it was just a blank wall.   Street art is temporary at its source; however, when I draw, frame and exhibit my selections, the surreptitious artists’ visions become permanent.

“l’art d’aujourd’hui” 240 x 260 mm, 2012  Coloured pencil drawing.  This art was on a gate blocking off a building site just around the corner from rue de Seine in Paris.

“Aberration” 250 x 400 mm, 2013. Coloured pencil drawing. Street art in Saint Germain des Près.

“le fugitif” coloured pencil drawing, 29 x 30 cm, 2013.

Low
Mixed media drawing.
290 x 320 mm. January 2014.

White Noise
New drawing finished on 19th January. The subject is street art and graffiti which I came across in Soho, New York.

A drawing of a wall containing street art by Zalez which I came across in 2012 in the Marais district, Paris.

Tableau
Coloured pencil drawing, 395 x 395 mm. Paris

Just a New York Conversation
263 x 397 mm, March 2014. Coloured pencils with a little crayon. Original source: Russell King, New York.

“Once Upon a Wall” (2017).  The original street art is by Sobr however only the head and a bit of shoulder remain of his work.  All the rest of my drawing shows layers of peeling paint on the wall.

“Once Upon a Wall”
Luminance pencils over Sennelier oil pastels.
380 x 540 mm. June 2017

“Still Life” (2018) doesn’t have any street art in the composition though it contains graffiti.  However I include it on this page as the drawing celebrates this street scene as a piece of art in itself.  It is what it is: the art of the street.

“Still Life”
February 2018

“Rebel Rebel” (2018) isn’t street art so much as a political poster, but in the dilapidated state I found it (and made a drawing from it) I put it into the street art genre.  The poster is a product of Fédération Anarchiste.

“Rebel Rebel”
March 2018

“Cornered” is a drawing of street art I came across in Milan in November 2018. Drawn in 2020.

“Cornered” October 2020

Coming across cool street art is like finding collage. I like to think of it as “urban collage”.