Street Life

Taken in GRACALisbon in 2023. A comment on gentrification?...

“Don’t it turn my brown eyes blue …”...

In an English politician’s world there are always detractors, and their ire is nowhere more visible – apart from the London daily newspaper’s op-ed cartoons, than on the walls and hoarding boards of the inner city streets.
Has life gotten you in a twist? Slightly cranky? In need of some navel-gazing, a good scare or perhaps a hard drink?
NÎMES, FRANCE. There is something very soap-opera-ish about travelling – those niggling unknown eventualities; like coincidences and chance meetings, language and barriers, inconveniences and crowds, irritations and line-ups, a winning resourcefulness and . . . ultimately – great art, wonderful food, and air conditioning.
After a quick rifle through my photographs, I am surprised to discover the mammoth number of images that focus on despair. They are as prolific as Japanese knotweed spreading through the walls.
There is a mighty word that has infiltrated the English language. Love it or hate it . . . it is here to stay!

Grayson’s advice to any aspiring artist?  “Don’t do a brown semi-abstract landscape”. Don’t you just love Grayson Perry CBE RA, the Artist and Coordinator of this year’s Royal Academy 250th Summer Exhibition in London, and his “man-in-a-dress” persona – Claire? He gets to check ALL of the boxes on my artist aptitude questionnaire, and then some. […]