THE WRITING IS NOT ON THE WALL

Apparently, I can’t name this blog “The writing is not on the wall.” Since my computers doesn’t like full stops. This is just one of the limitations the modern world offers us to reduce our creativity. Never has limitations been more obvious that seeing murals displayed on the side of walls of buildings. I mean every graffiti artist must be limited to the physical presence of a surface. I have yet to see a permanent display of art created in mid-air and which remains undamaged and unmoved forever. Of course, we all know about cave drawings although I am not sure one would recognise them as murals. Certainly not graffiti or any kind of vandalism.

A recent holiday of mine saw me wandering around Bangor in Northern Ireland where murals are all over the place but strangely none on the road’s surfaces. Well, there were some strange markings but these related to well-worn direction markings offering the visitor little chance of escaping. Why would you when free art is all around. What fascinated me was some of the art had obviously ignored and service interference such as pipework and electric cabling. The paint just flowed over these little bumps. I have often heard it said that there has to be a good service on the base before the paint can adhere, but I am not sure if this is true. It maybe that in years to come on my next visit then all the paint has fallen off into the roads and formed perfectly into well-defined road signs!

I popped into a gallery in the high street called Bradley Art. More about him here https://www.terrybradley.com/ and was wowed with the thoughtful artwork on display. Clever murals on the wall were enhanced by smaller versions in print for sale. Clever having murals inside when everyone thinks they should be on the outside. That’s not exactly true of course as I was privileged to join an artist who had been invited into a local school of mine to explore ideas for a mural on the staircase wall. Designed using ideas from the pupils. Exciting stuff and hope it all work out. Funny thing is about schools is that there are always a lot of kids running around!

I had an Aunt Muriel, or should I say I have an Aunt Muriel since she is well and truly alive. It’s not a name I hear often now. When I was younger, and people spoke about murals I thought they were talking about my Auntie and presume she was always drunk or extremely ill. I was told that someone had just seen Muriel (or a mural) splattered all over the wall!

What impressed me with the Bangor murals is that they look ed extremely professional and maintained well which I guess meant no one objected and have become almost a tourist attraction. The same could be said of the ones I saw in Belfast but then again even though they definitely are maintained well there must be a political influence in choice of design.

It’s not all about paint though as on the harbour wall in Bangor there are mosaic designs which tell the story of the town. Clever uses of a three-dimensional material offering a two-dimensional image. It doesn’t take a great leap of imagination to then think how glass can be incorporated in similar situations. I might start sticking glass to my studio walls. I know what people will say, since I use clear glass then there would be no visual impact on seeing clear glass objects stuck on a wall. Well try running your fingers along the wall then suddenly red becomes the dominant colour without fail. Of course, I wouldn’t do that but broken glass on roofs to deter pesty birds has been done. Same for pesty vandals trying to climb a wall to paint It!

My plug for Bangor then focusses on coloured walls and ignores the friendly people, the entertaining pubs, the magnificent marina, and the fine music. Oh well I don’t think it matters much as this is not a tourist board promotion blog. In fact, I am not sure it’s a blog but it’s going on my blog site since I need to up my production. I didn’t realise that a blog is short for a weblog and meant to be used as a marketing tool. They seem to be losing favour now in preference for other ways to sell products. Just my luck when I get to my seventieth blog which is my aim before September 10th then this “beast” will cease to exist!