Fatspatrol

Truck plate à la Fatspatrol
Think this is my favorite one yet.

FYI : these plates I paint are decommissioned and trashed from garbage heaps and road sides. Not pulled off vehicles .
This one found somewhere between Ras Al Khaimah and Umm Al Quwain
Dm if interested 🛻

No

“Buried under beautiful things are the words that no one sings”

Something I scribbled on a piece of paper during Covid lockdowns was the crux of a talk I did earlier this year at .

It was about intention really. I went through the history of journey with art/ street art; how I started out painting intuitively, mark-making for little to no money gigs but with some amount of freedom. Over time I became a commercial artist running my own little agency and getting artists paid trying my best to preserve creative integrity. But something did change. I embarked on a journey a 7 year journey of painting giant bird murals (you may remember). And yes birds are beautiful and important symbols and I did get some stuff off my chest through them but I realized I was also presenting thoughts and feelings in a super palatable, safe and people-pleasing way. One day I asked myself “are you losing your voice?”

And so the 8600 square m mural on Yas Island became my last major bird mural and I embarked on The Humans, a more honest and existential journey. Art, after all, isn’t supposed to be palatable and easy. Yes art in public space requires a level of community engagement and consideration (because public space is not free) but it’s also important to retain your voice, tell a story, say something.
And so the work you see now which is quite different from the bird era. As street art became a heavily curated and commercialized thing I threw myself into studio work work where I could be raw and emotional and, heaven forbid, dark. I started talking more about the importance of the human voice, especially in a time of AI. Of human truth and stories in a time of dehumanization and inhumanity. I do paint fewer murals now, it’s true. But I never intended to be a one-note, one- medium artist. I intend to be an evolving, intentional human with a voice and a story. Not just the artist who paints birds.

It’s a tricky pivot to stay connected to your voice and instincts and pay your bills, it’s true. But I believe in art as more than commodity. I actually wrote my Masters thesis on this almost 20 years ago so I guess I’m coming full circle.
The end

Fire on wood