This Friday see’s the opening of Look See 2011, the exhibition component of the annual Look Hear art & design event held in Newcastle. Showcased will be a diverse range of works comprising of illustration and design, painting, photography, video and street art—from not only this years Look Hear 2011 speakers, but previous years and also works from a select group of both established and up and coming talents from around the Newcastle region and further afar. Special guests on the night will be Secret Wars for their first time in Newcastle, where locals Malade will battle it out against visiting Sydney fellas Houl and Sprinkles. See flyer for all the deets or check the Look Hear 2011 website.

It was a pretty darn drizzly old day on Saturday up in Newcastle, but in between the showers I managed to complete the piece below titled The World Is Your Monster. Here you can see my little fella being dwarfed by it, standing at nearly 3m tall it is by far my biggest stencil to date. If you are in the neighbourhood you can check it in Keightley Street, off Hunter Street Mall. A big thanks to Simone Sheridan from SAW for making it all happen. Rumour also has it that some pretty big names may be gracing more of the surrounding walls soon…so stay tuned coz’ like I have said before, Newcastle is one town to watch!

If you are anywhere near Newie you should get along to this. A milestone for public art in the City of Newcastle and Australian Street Art in general.  With initiatives such as Renew Newcastle and now SAW (Formerly walkArtbout), this town is one to watch.

Newcastle’s This Is Not Art (TINA) festival is an annual event now in it’s thirteenth year! This year I was asked to be involved in walkARTbout along with several other artists, each designated wall space in the city to do their thing. TINA 2010 is special because it is the first year an actual street art component (well legal, anyway) has been added to the event program. This is somewhat surprising when you learn that the the festivals namesake is derived from the infamous (well, if you are from Newcastle) graffiti which once graced the then derelict Latec House.

Organizers in previous years had struggled to incorporate “street art” into the event with opposition from local townsfolk, business and council. This was mainly due to many misconceptions, fear and probably for the most part ignorance. Come 2010 however, attitudes have shifted and the addition of walkARTbout has been welcomed and the overall response has been a positive one, so much so, it will be a permanent fixture in the TINA program for years to come. Full credit and a special thanks must go to Festival Coordinator Simone Sheridan, walkARTbout Curator Carli Hyland and the rest of the TINA 2010 team.

Below, the infamous “This Is Not Art” piece…..

…..and here are a few snaps and video below from artWALKabout 2010.

Damien Mitchell

Daniel O’Toole aka Ears

yours truly

Trine Deans

Umpel (stencils) & Ben Foster

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjwdcn_WiLg[/youtube]

Video via Erik Strapparo

If you are near Newcastle this long weekend you should get there to check the annual This Is Not Art (TINA) festival. Included this year for the first time is artWALKabout, where a bunch of local artists and out-of-towners, such as myself, have been invited to decorate the streets and lanes of the city…below is my contribution “The World Is Your Monster”.  For information regarding the event and other contributing artists go here and here.

Pic snapped by artWALKabout contributing artist Trevor Dickinson