Wall/Street Canvas Vandals

Creation of Adam - Graffiti Style

Ah, the East End. If one lacks a sense of direction, beware of your surroundings. A map would be helpful to have on hand. Or perhaps a trail of colorful pebbles. The twists and turns of the alleys along with dead ends can be frightening to a newcomer.

Half of one wall painting

Whether you are lost or not, make sure to pay attention to your surroundings. The neat thing about the East End in London is the large amount of graffiti that covers any empty wall an artist (and other) can vandalize. In between the vintage clothing boutiques to the Bangladeshi and Pakistani restaurants, there lurk the ever-growing and forever-changing creatures, waiting for you to notice, wanting you to notice, around every corner you turn and in any direction you walk. From walls to shop shutters, all kinds of art await your judgment, some sadly fading into obscurity while others stand poised and demanding all your attention.

Print-on painting - Japanese Olive from Pop-eye

Some walls are far more intricate than others, with many artists competing for a spot or working off another person's existing addition to the public canvas. Some like the wallpaper methods. Others prefer the traditional paint. Vinyl stickers to graffiti stenciling also exist too.

Its a George Double-ya love bomb.

My favorite one is the below simply due the colors and the roundness of it. A grey-ish tone with only blue serving as a vibrant color. Must more eye-catching this way. This one probably had the clearest artist signature than some of the others. I would guess that its a light-house. No idea.

Do you notice me? - Blue Wooden Pallet

I shall call you, Pinky!

The only street artist I've ever heard of before heading to London was actually Space Invader. I was pretty excited to see that he had tagged the East End with his infamous tile art. There were 2 other artworks, if that's what they were, displayed nearby too. A pink alien dino eating a cookie and a destroyed car with a green snitch like ball crushing it.

Om nom nom, a classic, and a rusted snitch

In the alley/backend where these 3 were on display was a food market going on. I didn't really try anything, but a lot of the food stands were foreign foods like Chinese, Indian, etc. Pretty smart since the graffiti tours would end up going through there with hungry patrons ready to dispense gold for some form of sustenance. Not a bad place to eat either with 2 weird works of art to think about.

One man's wreck car is another man's work of art.

Lots of shopping was done in this area. A great place for vintage clothing or thrift shopping. I bought myself a Halloween colored dress. I still wear it from time to time. Probably the only orange article of clothing I own today.

Voila! The final work of art spotted outside one of the larger, vintage thrift shops we visited before leaving the East End. If you can't tell, its about 3 stories tall. Pretty impressive work.

Caw!

A Twist on the Past

It's been a while since I last thought about this blog. I had intended to write about my daily adventures, but I must have been preoccupied with living in the now (or then, I suppose). As the past 2 posts were quite lengthy with no photos, I thought it would be appropriate to start now.

Fountain in park near our flat

The great thing about the UC London study program I did was where our student housing was situation or even the classrooms themselves. Yes, classrooms. The program was based more in an institute type setting rather than the universities other programs had.

London had many parks scattered about to create the garden city effect. There were quite a few around my area, like the park the fountain above was in. It was just around the block. Convenient and lovely to stroll through.

Please excuse the mess. My 3 person shared room.

Our student flats weren't too bad. Located right in the center of London, we could walk to most things in about a half-hour or so. Our flats were worth about 1 million pounds. The only bad thing about living in London are the mice and water pipes. We had a little friend visit us twice and my shower room kept flooding due to bad piping.

The best thing about our neighborhood?

THE BRITISH MUSEUM

A museum within a museum!!!

I truly adore this museum. The exterior and interior architecture and design are so awe-inspiring and calming. The above is what you seen upon entering into the main area. The ceiling design is my favorite. Just triangles creating a spherical pattern. I probably stood there dazed and in wonder. Most of the permanent exhibits are of European history here, with rotating global exhibits year round.

Do you feel nauseated?

Bonus! I wish I had a DSLR or anything fancier than my 10 year old camera. I tried to take a spooky shot of the British Museum during one of my nightly strolls through the city. The blur is quite strong in this. Hopefully, the small size mitigates the nausea a bit more.