Angliss Childcare Centre Footscray, mural detail

This road mural is located along Walnut Street, Cremorne to identify it as a ‘Shared Zone’, where pedestrians occupy the street in conjunction with motorists. It alerts drivers to slow down and take care of other users.

The artwork is a bold topographic map and has multiple purposes: to illustrate a geographical vision and history of what lay below our roads before they were covered in bitumen, encouraging people to ask, ‘What was here before the city?’, ‘What was the lie of the land in this area?’ and  ‘What could our future cities look like?’ The mural creates the illusion of walking through a map and plays with scale, reminiscent of an immersive and altered reality in a computer game or maze.

The colours are intended to warm the space and bring in an earthy natural Australian association. They have been used as they contrast with traditional road marking colours. The curved lines and hand-painted aesthetic also act to mark the space as ‘different’ and to make it more pedestrian orientated. This is one of a number of place making initiatives being rolled out in local streets by Yarra Council. The intention of these place making initiatives is to create more liveable street environments that move local streets away from a purely transport function.

PROCESS Shots:

studio photos by Shannyn Higgins

Recent private commission.

Hard to know where to start telling the story of our time up here in Warmun in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia. Many many thanks and love to all involved! Below are a selection of photos from our time and some of the murals we painted, including the big mural Warrarnany Gooningarrim-noongoo (translated as ‘Wedge-tailed Eagle Dreaming’) and the “Snake and Rocks” ground game at the Rec Shed. As part of the ‘Art in the Streets of Warmun’ project in July I worked on public art projects with local Gija people, Warmun Art Centre, Warmun Youth Centre and Samantha Edwards and Swinburne University of Technology. With thanks to Samatha Edwards for some of these photos and much more!

 

Honoured to be invited to Singapore for two weeks to paint murals for the 50 Bridges events! Thanks again to all the friendly locals and all the organisers at the Australian Embassy who made this ambitious 50 Bridges event happen! To see some time-lapse videos go to my Vimeo page. For more on the event go to http://sg50oz.sg.

“Gatherings”
Taman Jurong Neighbourhood

This mural shows the simple concept of people coming together. The wall hopes to communicate without language this simple concept of people and the environment, and nothing more. Showing our connections to each other and our connections to land. The red, yellow and orange colours hope to warm the space with the aim to make a nice local hang-out area where people can sit, chat and play while making up there own story of the mural.

“The Path”
Chinatown

This mural shows the path of life and how we find ourselves within it. I hope people can maybe identify with a character in the story of the mural. I also like that people can make their own story of what the mural is trying to say – is it a parade, a race, a migration, or just a path with people walking in the same direction. I chose the red, yellow and gold to link into the colours of Chinatown. There is also the lone ‘spirit’ within the mural with the circle of dots around them. I have my own story connected to this character, but again I like that the viewer can make their own story around this symbology. Is this character meant to represent the viewer or artist telling the story, a spirit ancestor, an aura, a leader, or something else?

“Water’s Edge”
Vista Point

This mural shows a story of ‘Stick Folk’ exploring and playing at the waters edge. Like fairies, guardian angels, or sprites, ‘Stick Folk’ are ancestral spirits of a new folklore. The mural shows sticks, leaves, frangipani (Plumeria) flowers, a crab claw and shells washed up on the waters edge at different tide lines. As a dragonfly hovers over head representing our connection to water, as dragonfly’s metamorphosise from nymphs in water to land.

“Community”
Woodlands Mart

Again this mural shows the simple concept of people coming together. The wall hopes to communicate without language this simple concept of people and the environment, and nothing more. Showing our connections to each other and our connections to land. The red, yellow and orange colours hope to warm the space with the aim to make a nice entrance to the neighbourhood mall. Also I like that people can make up there own story of the mural and it can also act to spark conversations.

“Full Moon Rising”
Telok Blangah Rise Market

This painting is in the tradition of the ‘tree of life’ concept, with a full moon behind framing the story. This mural shows a story of a single ‘Stick Folk’ sitting on the branch of a tree. Like fairies, guardian angels, or sprites, to me ‘Stick Folk’ are ancestral spirits of a new folklore.

Friends of the Earth totally hand-drawn and watercolour poster! Celebrating 40 years of creative resistance for FoE in Australia! Grab a copy at FoE cafe and office on Smith Street Collingwood. Offset printed A2 size at Black Rainbow Printing, East Gippsland. #FriendofFoE#friendsoftheearth www.foe.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Free Badge Sheets, from 2005.

Melbourne May 1, 2015
https://www.facebook.com/sosblakaustralia

Road Repair Map Murals! We did it! Thank you to all the organisers and amazing volunteer painters who made this road mural possible! This birds-eye-view topographic map mural of a scale of about 1:1 is a landscape architectural vision of what many of our roads could look like if we dug them up and repaired the soil underneath! The North Point on the East side of the road mural is perpendicular to the road and accurate to True North, a reference to this part of Melbourne that is all gridded North, South, East, West. The city as a compass!

The road mural is on Florence Street, Brunswick, near Anstey Train Station. With thanks to Kate Longley for some of these photos. For more on the Anstey Better Block Party that took place on top of this road painting go to: ansteybetterblock.tumblr.com. If anyone has any dream future large scale road repair map murals do get in touch to talk more. X Tom