Attack of the 50 foot reclining woman!

Ok, so you would have to be blind to miss this one if you are travelling along Washington Street in Cork. It's a mural of a beautiful young woman, wearing tattoos and a "The Frank and Walters" t-shirt, reclining gracefully along the façade of the old Kino cinema.

 

 

The mural was painted by Fin DAC, a street artist who is based in London but is from Cork originally. The piece seems to be called "Jackie Oh!!!" It would be interesting to know if traffic accidents have increased in this area of Washington Street lately....

 

A few articles have been written about the mural, of course, and about Fin DAC and his background, so I won't go into all that. I've put links at the bottom of this post to all the relevant material.

 

 

 

You may or may not know that The Frank and Walters is a Cork band. I have heard of them, but didn't know they were from Cork. I do now.

 

One of the articles I've linked to below mentions the "mysterious tattoo" on the girl's arm. It looks to me like symbols related to the 1850s American novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville. That seems to be right as the streetartnews.net article linked below mentions that there is a connection with the 1956 film Moby Dick, as some scenes were filmed in Youghal and of course the mural is painted on the side of a cinema....

 

Any way you slice it, this is a hard mural to photograph, but I managed. I took all these photos in June 2014.

 

 

LINKS!!!

 

Video of Fin DAC painting the mural:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLxizumI2s4 

 

Fin DAC's Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/finbarr-dac/102099492162

 

Fin DAC's Flickr page:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dragonarmourycreative/

 

Fin DAC's Instagram page:

http://instagram.com/findac

 

Article on the mural by Marc O'Sullivan in The Irish Examiner:

http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsfilmtv/artsvibe/street-artist-fin-dac-wows-cork-with-stunning-murals-269420.html

 

Article on the mural by Ciara Flaherty on breakingnews.ie:

http://www.breakingnews.ie/discover/new-mural-transforms-corks-kino-630659.html

 

Article on the mural by Clare Devaney in Insert Title:

http://inserttitle.ie/interview-artist-behind-kino-mural-fin-dac/

 

Article on the mural on streetartnews.net:

http://www.streetartnews.net/2014/05/fin-dac-new-mural-cork-city-ireland.html

 

The Frank and Walters' Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/frankandwalters

 

The Life and Works of Herman Melville:

http://www.melville.org/

 

Kino's website:

http://www.thekino.ie/

 

Trailer for the 1956 film Moby Dick:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7dSTdHziMs

 

Trailer for the 1958 film Attack of the 50 Foot Woman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2cLmbCyzhE

 



Hot Dogs!

A quick post today of a couple of pictures I took this week of a stencil on an old house on Blarney Street in the city. It shows a hot dog walking a "hot dog" dog (dachshund?) on a lead. Kinda funny...

New Work at the Camden Palace Hotel

Some new street art work appeared on the walls of the Camden Palace Hotel this spring. The first two pieces I have to share are painted on the wall and gate along the west side of the building, on Pine Street. I took these pictures in March 2014.

The coloured piece on the left is by Psychonautes and is called "Angry". The black and white work on the right is by OneR and seems to be called "Night Call".

 

 

The next, more colourful, piece is also by OneR. It's on the front of the Camden Palace Hotel. It's around a bit longer. I took these pictures in October 2013.

EXTRA CREDIT

Psychonautes also has a couple of large skull paste ups put up across from the Camden Palace on Pine Street. I took these pictures in October 2013.

FYI: other views of the Psychonautes pieces can be found on his Flickr pages at the following links:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/psychonautes/13180117074/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/psychonautes/9857878066/



And Plenty of Tea...

This piece has been up a while, and if you live in Cork you have probably already seen it, but it is still well worth sharing. It's a mural in the pedestrian laneway that runs between Brian Boru Street and the Lower Glanmire Road. It's a very striking piece. The only problem for this post is I can't really make out the name(s) of who painted it.



I took all the above photos in December 2013 or March 2014.

What the Fork?

I came across some charming stickers around the junction of the South Mall and the Grand Parade recently. They feature Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen in stylised shots taken from a couple of their films. They were both done by an artist named "Fork".

Yul's image is taken from his role as the western hero Chris Adams in The Magnificent Seven. This sticker is clearly labelled with Fork's name.

Steve's image seems to be taken from his role as the American pilot Hilts, "The Cooler King", in The Great Escape. The sticker has Fork's name subtly written on it.

I later came across another great sticker by Fork in the White Street car park. It came in many hues and shows actor Alan Ford having "a moment" in his role as the gangster Brick Top in the film Snatch.

I took all the above photos in March 2014.

In case you are interested, here are links to a few clips on the 'Tube, showing these actors in character....

Yul Brynner as Chris (with Steve McQueen in the background):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcmzHtokiMw

Steve McQueen as Hilts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3KbLBwQFW4

Alan Ford as Brick Top:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xUynRdzzsM

Drive the Cold Winter Away

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programme....

Sorry about the seven-month hiatus. Let's get back to work.

I have been pretty much hibernating over the winter. Understandable, considering how miserable the weather was. However, we had a few nice days before St. Patrick's Day, and I managed to stir myself, dust the cobwebs off me camera and head out to see what new street art might await me.

Today I'll share with you the lovely pieces I found down at Crosse's Green quay, near St. Fin Barre's Cathedral. Some of these may have been around for "a while", but I thought it would be good to give a slice of what I found on the day.

The following photos were all taken by me on 14/03/2014. I'll try to note the artist. If I make a mistake, please let me know and I'll make a correction...

Lou Reed tribute by Foundry

Lou Reed tribute by Foundry

A bicycle piece (not yet finished) by Emmet

A bicycle piece (not yet finished) by Emmet

Beautiful woman by Kone

Beautiful woman by Kone

Tags by Kone

Detail of a bird by Kone

Rooster by Dusto

Rooster by Dusto

Rooster by Dusto

Frog by Psychonautes and Foundry

Frog by Psychonautes and Foundry

Skulls, etc., by Psychonautes

Skulls, etc., by Psychonautes

A nice head, but artist unknown

A nice piece, but artist unknown

And last but not least - on the off chance you are interested - here's a link to the Horslips' version of the song "Drive the Cold Winter Away" on the 'Tube....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJqeZmj6X2Q

And a blog post about same....
http://zeegrooves.blogspot.ie/2014/03/horslips-drive-cold-winter-away.html

Shandon Street Festival

There is a great mural painted along the east side of Shandon Street. It was sponsored by the Shandon Street Business Association (SSBA) and the Shandon Area Renewal Association (SARA). I'm not sure who actually painted the work, however...

It shows a festival in full swing all around the Shandon area. it's a lovely lively piece with lots of nice touches, like clowns, the Butter Exchange Band and the Shandon Dragon!

FYI, the Shandon Street Festival takes place in June, while the Dragon of Shandon street parade takes place the night of 31 October.

I took all the below photographs in July 2012....

The piece is so big I had to photograph it in two pieces. This is the left side....

And this is the right side....

And here are some lovely details...





Here are the links for the Shandon Street Festival and the Dragon of Shandon Parade:
http://www.shandonstreetfestival.com/
http://www.dragonofshandon.com/about.html

Here's a link to the Facebook page of the Cork Community Art Link. It has some photos of the festival and dragon and other area events:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cork-Community-Art-Link/189692277413#!/pages/Cork-Community-Art-Link/189692277413