It was a brilliant trip walking the streets + enjoying the graffiti of Manchester, England...hope you enjoy it too...

Locations, top to bottom:

Outside bar Common, Northern Quarter
Stevenson Square, Northern Quarter
Koffee Pot, Northern Quarter
last 2 in graffiti gallery, Upper Space, Norther Quarter

all photos taken by FreeArtWorcester in Manchester, England

Ahhhhh, we've missed this town + so sweet it is to be back bumbling 'round on it's gritty streets. This place has evolved so much in the last 12 years since the IRA bombed it and they had to rebuild a good chunk of the city center. And it keeps on changing, so many new crazy cool buildings had begun being built while we lived her for 5 years and they are all pretty much finished. But the city hasn't stopped there even since our last visit in Jan. so much more cool stuff has popped up. And despite all the new sleek buildings and new facades going up, Manchester retains it's edge through all it's musical and visual arts talent.

We forgot our camera cable so we won't be able to post any new photos till be get back in 2 weeks but we wanted to give a shout out to a new gallery here in Manchester that we visited earlier in the week. It's called Upper Space and features the best UK and international street artists work. The guy who opened this place is also responsible for the killer events held here, London and elsewhere called International Doodle Bug Day. For a few years it was held at Manchester's art house cinema, ConerHouse. Basically on this one day peeps could come in show um' your sktechbook and you'd be let loose on the walls of the cafe and on the windows then the work was left up for almost a month. Wouldn't that be a wicked cool event to see happen in Worcester?!!! Just maybe, one day...

Check out the Upper Space and get a taste of what could be ours if we got a few of us together!

Peace.

Well, that is the 22 FreeArt projects we promised and all before we fly back across the pond to visit peeps in Blighty for our holiday. We'll be taking all sorts of photos at Solfest in Cumbria as well as loads of graffiti in Madchester. Hopefully we'll do some posting while we are there but there will be a lot of pub crawling between snapping photos + visiting the street art gallery so pleaz be patient with us. Enjoy the rest of the summer + thanx for stopping in to visit the site. Don't forget to let us know if you found one of the pieces or any general feedabck. We'd love to hear from ya!

If you look carefully you can see the string that holds these boards together yet when hanging up they are suspended separately. We hung this one down at the outdoor smoking spot across from the parking garage at the bottom of Elm just before you get to Main Street. Hope someone from one of the offices took it to brighten up their cube.

Graffiti in Rochdale, England

graffiti artist unknown

photo taken by FreeArtWorcester

Maple + Main Streets

Graffiti in Barcelona, Spain

graffiti artist: Angel (?)

photo taken by FreeArtWorcester

Maple + Main Street

Graffiti in Barcelona, Spain

artist unknown

photo taken by FreeArtWorcester

oops, we forgot where we left this one. Anyone wanna tell us where out favourite lil' gurl is?

If you have ever spent any amount of time on Flickr you will know that there is a wonderful world of street art being documented and posted up there.

An interesting project we have stumbled upon is called, ' It's Yours, Take it". The project describes itself as being:

"Born from the bowels of the Free Art Friday Flickr Group, the "It's Yours, Take IT" project has been a great success of global artists joining together in impromptu street exhibits in cities around the globe. Cities visited by IYTI crews:
Tel Aviv, Israel
Southport Hampshire, UK
Chicago, IL., US
Honolulu, HI, US
Tempe & Phoenix, AZ, US
Germany
Coffs Harbour, Australia
Winnipeg Manitoba, Canada
New Orleans,LA, US
Singapore"

18 August was the deadline for the upcoming It's Yours, Take it - Boston exhibition. So check in at their Flickr site or their blog for details once it's up. FreeArtWorcester is participating in this event and just sent this painting in to meet the dealine last week!

Front Street bus shelter, north side of City Hall

Stencils + tags in Manchester, UK

artists unknown

photo taken by FreeArtWorcester


Front Street bus shelter, north side of City Hall

Friendly, yet vicious + adorable when attacking...

Elm + Main Street

Graffiti in Barcelona, Spain.

Graffiti artist unknown.
photo taken by FreeArtWorcester

Elm + Main Street

More Worcester Luv!

Elm Park at Russell Street

This photo is of graffiti that was commissioned by Cord Bar in Manchester's (UK) Northern Quarter, the city's arts district. The wall often changes and since this photo was taken a couple of years ago we're looking forward to see what is up there currently when we visit next week!

Graffiti artist unknown
photo by FreeArtWorcester

Bus shelter directly in front of City Hall

Graffiti in Manchester, England

Stencil Artist unknown
photo taken by FreeArtWorcester


Franklin Street bus shelter across from Bancroft building

Corporate, Hungry. Must Feed.
Stencil found in Manchester City Centre, UK

Stencil artist unknown
photo taken by FreeArtWorcester

Franklin Street bus shelter, across from Bancroft Building

The Box Car. It conjures up images of the American landscape given to us through stories by travelers (also referred to as hobos) as well as the imaginative insight given to us by graffiti artists who use the side of these cars as a canvas. Ahhhh, smell the romance in the air...

Graffiti comes in all forms that are 'illegal' as well as 'legal' and we bet a lot of people out there have committed the crime of 'illegal' graffiti activity at one time or another. Think about it, humans have been scrawling on walls for as long as we've been able to document history. We have a natural tendency to want to leave our mark: cave paintings, hieroglyphics, lovers carving their names in the bark of trees, religious pilgrims who carve their names into pillars in cathedrals, and the signing of guest books or yearbooks. Give a kid a pencil or a crayon and what is the first thing they want to do when you are not looking? Scrawl on the wall!

Humans are expressive creatures who crave a community and shared ideas. This is an important aspect of our survival. Why do we try to stifle each other? So if you found this little box car painting get out your markers and scrawl a little something on the side of this car. It'll make ya feel good, we promise. And send us a photo of it would ya? We'd love to post it back up here!

Bus shelter across the street from City Hall

Rochdale, England in pedestrian walkway - created in legal graffiti zone ordered by local City Council

graffiti artist unknown
photo taken by FreeArtWorcester

Bus shelter across the street from City Hall

Bus shelter directly in front of City Hall

These thrift store shoes were painted as a reminder to celebrate individualism. We would be soooo bored if we all looked and acted the same!

Federal Square Bus Shelter