Urban Storytellers: the world as a drawing sheet

When we are little, grown-ups are always telling us off when we extend our drawing surface to anything that isn't paper: walls, human legs and let's not forget the living room's antique table. So we learn how to not use walls, human legs and antique tables as drawing paper.
By the time we have restricted ourselves to a paper sheet, grown-ups our telling us off for coloring outside the 'lines'. Only a face should be pink and not its surrounding sky, dress, house, etc... So we learn how to stick our colored crayon in between the pre-drawn lines.
But then WE become a grown-up too. And sometimes we go back to our instinct of coloring outside lines and using the world as a drawing sheet. When that happens... the world becomes a wonderful storyteller who we never want to stop telling its stories.

Have you ever heard about knitgraffiti? Small, usually rectangular, pieces from leftover yarns are knitted together and sawn around trees, abandoned gas stations, light poles, doorhandles and even buses... Just type knitgraffiti, yarn bombing, urban embroidery and you will find thousands of amazing images. Isn't this the best way to brighten up everyone's day?
{image: Maskerade}

Well, it definitely isn't the only way. Walls is a really cool art gallery in Amsterdam, which offers artists the opportunity to rent a strip of their wall for two months on one of the city's best locations. This is where I discovered the work of José van Tilburg. She uses words from old love letters, lyrics, poems and picked-up dialogues which she then translates into images made out of fabric or paper, stitched together with thread. Like three-dimensional memories. Just imagine how it would be to wander around the city surrounded by beautiful and touching sentences sawn and stitched across grubby walls.
{image: Walls}

Another way of decorating the urban landscape has been coined by UK artist filthyluker. He creates large scale inflatable limbs, like the tentacles of a giant octopus, which emerge from buildings, making it appear as if the whole building has been devoured by a massive creature. Have a look at his work: it's like walking into a real life horror B-movie...
Oh, I almost forgot to tell you about the eyes. He dots urban nature with peering eyes as if they are wondering themselves what on earth they are doing in between all the concrete. Do try this at home, the effect is strangely eerie and surreal.
{image: filthyluker}

The other day my Love and I were walking in our neighborhood when suddenly I noticed our feet were surrounded by birds. Literally, as they happened to be drawn on to the pavement tiles. After inspecting the area, we noticed more floor graffiti like the ones with the birds and it didn't turn out to be just art: by placing stencils on the floor and turning a high-pressure sprayer on, it's possible to clean selectively thus making this a very cheap option for advertising. But as long as you have a high-pressure sprayer at hand, you could turn every square in the world into a giant canvas. Or why not use this to show off your portfolio?
{image: Croasters}

When photography meets urban coloring meets an amazing creative personality, you get Katie Sokoler. This freelance photographer and street artist from Brooklyn isn't just someone we would secretly all want to be. She is an inspiration volcano of urban intervention. What about giant pacmans trying to eat humans? Or small hearts coming out of pipes? Her biggest invention (largely copied but nobody does it better than Color Me Katie) is the thought bubble. Katie sticks large thought bubbles on a wall and waits around the corner just till the moment someone walks by... creating a life-size cartoon. Wouldn't you ever wish to know what other people were thinking? Her latest project involves miniature, playing silhouettes which she places on 'shadows' creating a playground of the world.
{image: Color Me Katie}

Today I have bought an old box of crayons...

... and no paper.

Have a lovely day,

Miss Moussetache