Contextual References: Artist

I've been walking through Rotherham for weeks now, walkin past a beautiful mural & always wondering who did such beautiful work & how i could find out who did it... i couldn't knock on the doors of the shops since they were vacant, it was by a mere chance of luck that i noticed further detail while walking by leisurely in the sun light... detail specifically of a person painting/vandalizing a wall then only to realize that the person was part of the piece, it had the name on the back of a high visibility jacket 'Urban Canvas', i hadn't walked around 'High Street, Rotherham' near Primark in the day time for quite a while. so I'd never really noticed just how finely detailed they were, the face, the pigeons & of course the person. it's an incredibly innovative idea & appears to be working as a graffiti deterrent.I've noticed the daisies & street names & intricate floral patterns before but i honestly didn't put two & two together thinking it was a project funded by the council, I'm astounded at how creative & thoughtful Rotherham council have been to do this & make unused buildings such an attraction in a sense. I almost hope that no one takes over those buildings so the murals can stay in place :)

Formal Elements:

Concept: the idea behind the piece appears to be as an anti vandalism measure taken by the council & a forward thinking way of doing it since ' leaving walls blank doesn't work & putting up signs like this...

it provokes artists link BANKSY to do things like this....
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/art/category/street_art/
Audience:

HERE'S THE FACTS..... mostly from their official website...

LINK: Urban Canvas Official Website - album for Rotherham 'Pushin Up Daisies'.
Their brief for this project was...

"...Create artwork transform vacant High Street shops temporarily whilst they await regeneration

Location: Rotherham Town Centre

Commissioned by: Rotherham District Council

Medium: Hand painted using Montana spray paint onto boarded vacant properties

Design: Original design created using references to local history following community consultation

image found on google

Timescale: Design and consultation 5 days. Painted in 15 days by 2 Lead Artists on site

Comments: Big! A great project that has made an enormous impact to the High Street..."

Image taken by me

"Our handpainted artwork makes a huge impact in transforming temporary hoardings on construction sites, vacant properties, neglected sites, subways and more..."

"We can paint anything on anything and can tailor artwork to the trickiest of spaces offering solutions that large format printing cannot. We tackle various surfaces that printed medium cannot tackle and can work to a size and scale that beats printed medium also on price.

Our artwork effectively serves as a vandalism deterrent; the majority of our murals do not suffer from vandalism and fly posting, even on sites which have been heavily targeted before. Should anything occur we paint with remarkable speed... it takes no time to fix! We take great care in designing our murals considering the local environment and the community as a whole. Our projects have broad appeal, the public admire the ideas energy and skill required create our artwork"

ADDITIONAL ARTICLE/LINK: Rothbiz.co.uk -Thursday, August 5, 2010 - News: Urban Canvas on Rotherham High Street