Be Free Art Trail In Preston

Last weekend, I woke to the post on Facebook from Melbourne street artist Be Free, that he had put in place ready for people to find and enjoy. I happened to be housesitting in the area, and so I was perfectly placed for a street art hunt.

Most of these pieces are Be Free's playful girl, and include actual playing cards as part of the paste up. These are new older pieces, which are all ones I have seen pictures of, but never found live before.

The map can be found here, and all of these pieces are within easy strolling distance. A couple of them are in small back laneways behind residential terrace houses, or the Right Of Way (ROW). But all are really easy to get to - except the one in the abandoned building, which you can only see through the high windows.

Tucked away enough to pass the test of time, before the weather may take them away before anything else, these five girls will surely still be in place long enough to enjoy for any future would-be street art hunters. Just look for the trail of playing cards!

Paterson Project - Melbourne Street Art For A Cause

A building along Smith Street is about to be demolished and made into new apartments. But before the space was ruined for progress, the three floors of space was opened to some of Melbourne's most interesting street artists.

Panels and walls painted, the building was then open to the public for one night and a day for viewing, and bidding on pieces. All money raised went to the Royal Children's Hospital.

Awesome idea, and incredible art - the Friday night was a bustle of people checking out the works, and enjoying the bar set up on one of the floors.

I put in some bids, but was there too early in the auction to win any of the pieces. Was wowed by the art creations though!

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Hosier Lane Faces

Walking down Hosier Lane off Flinders Street in Melbourne's city is always a treat - there is always some new street art to see, to be moved by, and the be in awe of. Here are some of the faces I found this month.

This third one is a piece by artist Kaffeine - so raw and powerful!

More Athens Faces - Street Art Finds

I can't tell you how excited I was to discover so much Athens street art - it was scattered throughout the neighbourhood I stayed in, and then would also pop up in my wanderings around the city, sightseeing.

The top one, which echos Picaso, was a couple of doors down from my apartment building entrance and helped me know I was home. The hatted purple man was also a similar landmark for my stay and wanderings, and I was always happy to see him, meaning I was on the right path of laneways and little streets to get home!

This bottom one is by Sonke, and it's said that the girl that he paints is a former girlfriend who broke his heart. He now paints her everywhere, as a way to work through the breakup, and maybe reminder her of him when she sees these faces around the city. These girls are pretty captivating!

Athens Faces - Street Art Finds

I didn't know what to expect when I traveled to Athens - knew nothing really of the city and the culture and feel of the place. I was delighted to find a vibrant cafe world in the neighbourhood of my AirBnB stay, with street art and other quirky features everywhere.

These faces actually guided me home from a day of exploring the city. They marked the little laneways and turns I needed to make, to get back to my apartment building.

"Welcome to Athens", says the sign with the little guy on the top of the right hand window on this derelict building - indeed!

Cape Town Murals

A continuation of my street art finds in Cape Town had me wandering around the city centre, finding spots that I had not discovered last time I had visited this beautiful city. Finding a post that directed me to a few key murals gave me some guidance about where to start the hunt. And the highlights mentioned were still present.

This "All Shall Be Equal Before The Law...." mural was in a carpark in the street with the law courts and legal offices. Powerful and beautiful.

There was also the bakery Charley's, which is painted and so cute, and across the road from that is a brilliant tribute to the late, great Nelson Mandela.


Jouljet Notes
Getting There: Just walk - I plotted out the murals mentioned in the City Sightseeing South Africa Blog post on a free tourist map
Time Spent: About an hour
Cost: Free!
Serious Tip: These murals take you through sections of beautiful city parks, and the legal precinct, so you get a real feel for city life while you wander
Quirky Angle: There were loads more pieces of street art to be found along this trail. Enjoy!

Woodstock Street Art Captures

I stumbled upon this elephant just roaming around one of the more residential suburbs of Cape Town. After a little online research, I found that Woodstock was an area rich in street art, and these are my finds from out there.

Woodstock is full of cafes and art galleries, as well as regular residential streets. It wasn't very far out of the city itself, by car, and it was pretty easy to start walking around and spotting the creative marks along the streets.

As I wandered along, taking photos of each find and becoming more and more focused on the art, a man approached me and told me it was dangerous to be walking around here on my own. He eluded to gang activity, and fully spooked me - I returned to the main street and checked out the Side Street Studio - where an artist brought me lunch on a whim! A balance of experience!

Art with a message, and some that was just stunning and impressive. This suburb was worth being scared out of the street during daylight, for the sight of some of these gems!

Faces Of Adelaide

At the very end of the Words To Go Blogger conference I attended, I spotted some impressive pieces of street art on my way back to the hotel. A new-to-me area of the city of Adelaide too.

The top two faces are familiar works to me, from all the street art spotting I have done in Melbourne. The top one, found on the side of a terrace-sized building along Leigh Street is a Rune piece, and the striking middle piece is an Adnate work of art. Don't recognise the boy, but he is a mischievous paste up that also caught my eye along the same pedestrian strip.

The Bridge Beauty was still there, too. Adelaide does have some life about it after all, if you going looking for it!

Remembering Mandela Around South Africa

Visiting South Africa not that long after the great man's passing, it was emotional seeing images and remembrances of Nelson Mandela almost everywhere. The man responsible for the birth of the Rainbow Nation, and it's constitution built on equality and human rights, the former President is remembered all over the country.

One of the most significant sights around the nation was the very new Mandela statue on the grounds of in Pretoria. The 9 metre bronze version of the great man, with arms outstretched, overlooks the gardens and then the spread of the South African capital, and is very impressive.

The temporary Nelson Mandela exhibit within the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg at present is powerful, and lays out the journey of the powerful work leader from his childhood, to his university and working days, into his political and activist involvement, before his imprisonment. It works through the history of South Africa's anti-apartheid movement, and the eventual election of Mandela as President.

Another significant vision of Mandela around the country  is the metal cutout of him in the Voting Line of people, standing strong on Donkin Reserve in Port Elizabeth. Representing the monumental vote in 1994, and depicting people of all walks of life within South Africa.

After the Port Elizabeth Test, I hit the road on my own on a mission to visit Qunu - the tiny rural town which was where Nelson Mandela spent his childhood, and where he is now buried.

It was incredible to see the small rural area, and the very basic village life, of the area where such a significant man to the world's understanding of equality came from. Such very humble beginnings.

The little village is not at all set up for tourism, and the Nelson Mandela Museum is not fully finished nor ready for visitors. When I made it up to the gates, after a harrowing drive through rain like I have never seen, the groundskeeper agreed to show me around nonetheless. The open space overlooks the N2, and the Mandela home was pointed out to me across the vast countryside. I had just unknowingly driven past it - it's not at all marked from the highway.

The Museum is Mandela's idea, and houses learning spaces and accommodation for conferences, in addition to 2 rooms displaying timelines of history and the Mandela story.

Robbin Island off Cape Town is another important place to visit, to gain an understanding of the life of Nelson Mandela - which I went to visit, including the cell in which he was imprisoned for 26 years, back in 2006.

His image is really everywhere - it adorns political and public health messages, is outlined on buildings in the cityscape of Cape Town, and is the inspiration of many brilliant pieces of street art around the land.

The death of such a man touched the world, and is remembered well all over South Africa.

Faces On The Donkin Reserve

Spotting quirky street art is something I love to do at home, and away, and South Africa was no exception. My last day in Port Elizabeth before hitting the road for the rest of my roadtrip included a wander over Donkin Reserve, after spotting the space on the way to the cricket the previous few days.

Here on a public space on the hill, overlooking Mandela Bay, was an area reserved with historical and political importance. A huge national flag floats above it, a stateu of Nelson Mandela is prominent, there is a lighthouse, and then there is a sprinkling of art around. It is a revamped space in the city, a result of the FIFA World Cup across the country a few years ago.

These faces caught my eye as a piece of humanity and sassy, as you wander through the reserve. Each showing the strong personalities of the Rainbow Nation, unique, different, and intriguing.

Words To Go – Tips And Inspiration

A gaggle of bloggers was invited to Adelaide for an event within Tasting Australia, to chat about food and travel and social media and photography. A lot of networking, loads of great tips and words of wisdom, and a host of amazing photos were shared across the forum, and the following day of touristing, as part of Words To Go 2014.

The forum was held in the kitchen of the Adelaide Central Market, and after being greeted at the airport and catching a much needed night of sleep, I joined the group early on the Monday morning, ready to be inspired. There were some impressive speakers on the agenda, and within the gathering.

Follow Your Heart

Lauren Bath, Australia’s top Instagrammer, who now does it for a living, talked about focussing on what interests you, shooting for yourself. She has learnt photography through her IG, and now does it for various tourism boards around the world, among other clients.

Robyn Eckhardt of Eating Asia fame also talked about blogging for herself. She spoke about how the discovery of a place when travelling can be very personal, and discussed that discovering a new place is really about finding how that place along your travels speaks to you.

YTravelBlog’s Caz spoke about setting outlandish goals, and to never let anyone tell you that cannot do something. To find the thing that you love – travel for her and her family – and do that. It feeds her soul.

The amazing Katie Quinn Davies from What Katie Ate told us she was an ‘all or nothing’ kind of person, and that she too advised to put everything into what you do – which is what she does. Focus too on the incidentals, the details.

Get Amongst the Locals

Robyn and her partner David Hagerman, photographer for Eating Asia, spoke about visiting a market in a new place as a starting point. They both spoke about standing back and observing, to watch a place, and to wait for things to happen. Robyn spoke about lingering over a meal or a coffee to watch – watch what the locals are eating, how they are eating, who pays, who makes the decisions, are they sharing or having individual dishes. Sit and watch what goes on, to really learn about a place.

David spoke about how food is a window into different cultures. The people behind the food, and how they interact with their environment, how they tell the story of a new place.

Robyn also told us all to say yes to unexpected encounters when travelling, and that a traveller and photographer needs to leave themselves open to things. Like being invited to a local’s home for a meal, for example, which we would never do at home.

Robyn introduced the idea of following a particular thing around a destination – focus on an ingredient, for example, from the market, and then follow how it is used, sold, eaten, grown. This gives a new places an added life, and an added very real story. She also talked about giving into your obsessions, about taking photos of a particular thing. Go with it!

Tips

I hope Lauren gets a cut of the download volume on SnapSeed, because she shared this phone app with us as her number one way of editing and improving her raw photos, and I am pretty sure the majority of the forum downloaded it there and then. It’s really great!

David spoke of getting an overview photo of where you are at, and then to capture specific moment shots, before getting down to elegant detail shots. He talked about using people in the photos, to bring the scene to life. Start with people, he quipped, and the rest becomes more interesting. Being mindful of the background of your target, composing back to front. David also talked about how he interacts with people to be part of the shot, with such amazing results.


We were treated to an array of photo examples throughout these talks, which inspired us all even more. Our later walk through the market displayed many of the tips that were shared!

Along with the tips and invaluable blogging, travelling and photography advise, I met some awesome fellow bloggers, such as Maureen from Orgasmic Chef, and Tania from My Kitchen Stories. I got to catch up with Nicole from Bitten By The Travel Bug, and share recent travel stories with Jenny from A Taste Of Travel. I also met Sam from Travelling King, Heike from But It Tasted Good and Aga of A Matter Of Taste. Plus I have a new list of other blogs to read and discover!

Melbourne Laneway Eyes

She peers out of the bend in Croft Lane, right in the middle of Chinatown. You need to risk the smell and dank of the back alleyway to see her, but there she is! Gorgeous and mesmerising!

IJ's Nauru Street Art

This has been the only street art sighting I have had for these weeks on Nauru, a colourful and bold splash of creative tags on a shop wall facing the road around the island. 

Collingwood Laneway Beauty

She's tucked away in a laneway off a side street from Smith Street. I spotted her as I walked around this week's neighbourhood in Melbourne. Amazing!

Be Free In Melbourne

It's fair to say I have been a little taken by that little girl with the striped tights and umbrella of late, with quite a few new pieces popping up around town. The one above is the first I spotted in the last week, by chance, sitting above the old East Brunswick Club, enduring that purple rain.

This next one you can enjoy no more - because it was been painted over. Or at least, the paste up has been scrubbed off. Following Be Free on Facebook, I had seen the stencil for this one develop, and then read that she was put up over night, just next to the Northcote Social Club.

A few days later, after I had popped over to take a look, I read someone's post that it had been painted over, by the owner of the business on the other side of the wall. What a GRINCH! To be honest, I have walked along this street to the pub hundreds of times, and never paid attention to what the business was here, until I took notice as our girl was there. But now that I know they had her scrubbed away.....

Street art is meant to evolve over time, with other pieces added around or over, or they weather it out and fade. But I am stunned that anyone would try and rid the world of our girl on an otherwise unutilised white wall.

These two, above and below, are new commissioned pieces in Richmond, at the Saigon end of Lennox Street to try and bring life to the strip again. Among the bamboo, Be Free and another artist have collaborated to bring this brick wall and tin fence to life.

Lastly, again after seeing the phases of development on Facebook, I walked through Degraves Street especially yesterday to see the city's new Be Free addition.