SNUB23 x PRHBTN 2019
This adventure began like many with an email, which at first sounded too good to be true. ‘Please come to Lexington, Kentucky and paint a massive mural. With each further contact our excitement grew, a personal but professional attitude from the organisers reinforced our determination to make this wall special.
We knew it wouldn’t be easy, but also knew that with a bigger wall and more time than we do at most of the weekend events, we could really leave our mark in this faraway place.
“PRHBTN is an annual celebration of art forms that have been criminalized, marginalized, and under-appreciated in the mainstream, featuring public murals alongside an exhibition of street art works in a space that complements the raw, powerful nature of the message and artistry of each piece.”
Our design took plenty of planning, from calculating the amount of each colour we would need to the scale of each cube. We built a model, tested colour combinations, setting our scale and worked out a schedule.
As with all our painting trips, this one started with a long journey, London to New York then on to Cincinnati, we had totally lost track of what day it was already. From the moment we met John (one half of the mighty PRHBTN duo) we knew that we’d get on, good sense of humour and sarcasm always help. The drive to Lexington flew by and we arrive at what to us looked like a big house from an old American horror movie.
After a day of unpacking kit, cutting stencils and fighting jet lag our first night out was a VIP PRHBTN Launch party at Oracle tattoo shop. Sipping our first real Kentucky bourbon the rollercoaster began, it seemed that everyone we met from that point was someone we’d get on with. We saw the artwork of Patrick Smith, who was exhibiting there, then met the man himself, he is now a good friend. Free tattoos were available, we resisted. That night was a sign of things to come, late nights with good people followed by happy days in the cold and sunshine painting.
No sooner had we begun, than visitors and local business owners visited, all with smiles, some with treats and one woman with the comment "I know what it is... it’s a chicken!" Followed by her own raucous laughter.
Day two of painting marked the arrival of Alex, a wandering art warrior who we met at Art Basel, Miami last year. We are so lucky to meet such great people, Alex is easy to like and it wasn’t long before he became a big part of our trip, even coming along to our fancy dinner at Tom Fielders home. He is now back on the road and leaving his art and happiness wherever he goes.
As you can see from the progress photos, the start was slow and the size of the wall daunting, all that white space seemed endless. But step by step and cube by cube Sprite and I smashed into it, focus and determined.
PRHBTN set up the project just right, taking us to and picking us up from the wall, feeding us delicious food, laughing at our Englishness and putting on a beautiful exhibition in a deluxe location Loundoun House. We saw great art and again met more good people, Sprite met her double and I met ‘Flash Gordon’ well not really but turned out Pat Armstrong is just as much a hero as Flash. We had one day off in the 12 days of painting and we spent with Pat, he drove us to his land in the mountains, we learnt about and fired a bunch of guns while talking about gun control and the land his family left to him, then we hiked across that very land. Then on the way back we took the sky lift (cable car/ski lift) to the natural bridge, a giant chunk of sandstone the formed a bridge across a canyon, we saw it from afar, walked under it and across it. The whole day is one neither of us will forget.
We would like to thank John and Jessica, team PRHBTN for inviting us, supporting us and all the other artist who have been lucky enough to be part of there vision of what a city can look like when it embraces large scale murals.
And a big thank you to the support and generosity of everyone we met.
Clay
Graham and Geoff of Square Pegs Studio
Alex
Rolling oven pizzas
Mirror Twin Brewing
Eppings on Eastside
Blue Door Smokehouse
Paul our Air BnB host
Patrick and Katelynn
Pat Armstrong
Nick and Michelle Hardesty
Kobra paint USA
GRAVITY FLUX at Artbase
GRAVITY FLUX
Escape this reality.
Painted over 3 days at a decayed mental institution the Domjüch, near Neustrelitz, Germany.
Commissioned by Art Base Festival with support from Preh.streetart
Photography by Roland Klaffke
CUSTOM SNUB LAMBRETTA SCOOTER
For a while I’ve wanted to brighten up one of my scooters. When I was riding my Lambretta home from the Big 7 rally in Kent I had one of my brilliant ideas (which don’t always turn out to be brilliant), which was to get the panels and horncover painted by a street artist. I’ve been photographing street art for a couple of years, having learned of its history on a hip hop tour of New York. I then started tracking it down, mainly in Brighton but also further afield in Toronto, San Francisco and Lisbon.
Getting just the panels painted would be cheaper, easier and quicker than getting the whole scooter done, but would tick my boxes for wanting something unique and colourful. I ran it by Lee, my husband, who is my yardstick for whether my ideas are indeed brilliant or not, and he was surprisingly positive so I set to work to find an artist and choose a design.
Choosing a street artist
I really wanted to use an artist that I knew, and also one from Brighton as it feels like home these days because I’m over there so often. It was a post on Instagram which inspired me to ask Snub23, and a garden wall he’d painted which captured my imagination
The wall featured Snub’s trademark isometric shapes applied skillfully using stencils, arranged to give a 3D effect. I thought it looked amazing and would work really well on a scooter.
I first met Seth and his girlfriend Amy (another artist whose tag is Sprite) on Christmas Eve in one of the most popular locations for street art in Brighton, Trafalgar Lane. I was in the middle of chemo, looking like a bloated hamster from steroids and frumpy in my wig, on one of my regular pilgrimages to this colourful street. We were checking to see if my angel wings were still there, and coincidentally they were being painted over right then by another artist, Ed209.
I introduced myself to Snub, and asked who he was (it’s an odd thing when you meet an artist because you probably know them already from their work and their ‘tag’). When he replied ‘Snub’, I was slightly in awe having photographed his work around the city for the past couple of years. It was like meeting a celebrity!
After a quick hello we left them to get on with their murals while we went for lunch and by the time we’d returned the walls were finished and the artists were long gone.
Here are the Christmas Eve walls!
I kept in touch with Amy and Seth and when I saw the garden wall they’d painted I knew that was design I wanted. Seth is very into his maths and has been painting the isometric designs for a few years, so I dropped them an email and luckily they said yes!
Isometric
adjective
1. of or having equal dimensions.
2. relating to or being a crystallographic system characterized by three equal axes at right angles
Here are some other ISO walls Seth and Amy have painted.
They are really busy and in demand for private commissions and one-off pieces for other artists, but luckily managed to squeeze my scooter in between other jobs so we dropped off the panels and horncover and waited to see how they would turn out.
Spraying street art on the scooter
It turned out that scooter panels, and particularly the horncover, are a bit more tricky to paint than a nice flat brick wall. There are pesky corners and curves involved, and it’s on a much smaller scale. Seth had to make bespoke, mini-stencils and used a special technique to accommodate the curves.
Amy sent me these progress pics and I was so excited! The brief I’d given them was that it needed to be bright and colourful, and they certainly ticked that box.
After a week we went over to Brighton to pick them up, and I was so pleased with them. The next step was to get them lacquered, and there was only one man for that job – Dave Rose, aka DRC. Dave has sprayed a few of my scooters over the years and always does a superb job. For this project he applied seven layers of clear coat, which produced an awesome, shiny finish. The isometric cubes really ‘pop’ and the 3D effect is just what I wanted.
My street art scooter
Lee put the scooter back together, and changed the rubbers around the horncover from their previous grey to black, which looks a lot better.
The next step was to take the scooter back to its spiritual home in Brighton for a photoshoot. We went on Pride weekend which posed a challenge as the town was heaving, even on the Sunday, and there were many roads closed.
The perfect spot was in front of one of Seth’s large wall murals next to the Trafalgar Street car park.
Scooter Details
Model : Spanish Lambretta LI125
Paint : Seth aka Snub23
Lacquer : Clear coat by Dave Rose aka DRC
Engine : Built by Gary at Allstyles Scooters using a Comet 186cc kit and Sito Plus exhaust
Next we went to Trafalgar Lane, where we’d first met Seth and Amy. One of Seth’s trademark robots is there, with some ISO shapes in the background.
Next we went to find the artists! They were painting a wall next to the Prince Regent swimming pool so we scooted over there. They were amazed by how well the scooter had turned out when it was all put together. We got loads of attention from passers by, all stopping to take photos! It had been such a brilliant project, working with two really great people.
We had to get a photo of Seth and Amy on the scooter. I think it suits them although their electric bike is probably more practical for zooming around Brighton.
Who is Snub23?
Snub23 is otherwise known as Seth, a full time artist based in Brighton. He works with girlfriend Amy, aka Sprite, on street art commissions and other pieces.
He comes from an artistic family, surrounded by creative people, and after gaining a graphics degree in London the financial crisis hit and jobs in that industry were harder to find. He became involved in the graffiti scene there and ended up working for an exhibition company, creating stencils for corporate clients and at events such as music festivals.
This led to him working on commercial projects and now he is in demand for all sorts of commissions which he works on with Amy. On their days off you’ll find them painting walls all over Brighton and beyond.
Seth’s robot artwork originates from comic book drawings, and is paired with the isometric blocks which are used on the scooter. He loves mixing digital with analogue, the idea of ‘ordering the chaos’ using regimented geometric shapes, and how different colours are used to produce the 3D effect.
To contact Seth and Amy about commissions or buy one of their pieces click Snub23.com or visit Snub23 or I.Am.Sprite on Instagram.
I can’t wait to ride the scooter more, and it’s just about run in so I’ll be able to open it up a bit more to really test it. If you see me at a rally or rideout please stop and say hello!
BRIGHTON PRIDE FOR THE NHS
ISO PRIDE 2019
Colour makes us very happy, so when the NHS asked us to paint a wall for Brighton Pride this coming weekend, we knew it had to be this.
Thanks to all the kind people who stopped to say they love it.
Painted with Sprite
Painted with Kobra Paint
SNUB23 GARDEN WALL MURAL COMMISSION
Last year a local Brighton resident commissioned us to paint a mural in their back garden, featuring our colourful iconic Isometric cubes. We selected a palette of bright vivid colours to really brighten up the area and make it feel larger.
A year later the very happy client got back in touch and asked us to extend the mural onto the other walls in the garden.
It was really nice to see that after a year the original piece still looked so new and vibrant. Even the plants which were cut back when we first painted the mural had now grown over and integrated themselves into the piece.
We painted the other walls in the garden in-keeping with the original mural design and colours. Wrapping the whole garden with cubes, making the space feel like a totally new world. We took into consideration the windows of the property, facing out into the garden, so the view from each window felt like their own canvas, full of colour.
The end result was really dramatic and beautiful. The client couldn’t have been happier. They were especially excited about all the BBQs they will have in the space.
SNUB23 X WAHACA MURAL
SNUB23 X WAHACA SUSTAINABLE FISHING MURAL
Over 3 days we painted 2 feature walls in Wahaca Brighton’s VIP Room. Our brief was to create a mural design which helped promote their range of sustainably caught fish dishes. Thus we created a Mural which takes inspiration from edible fish which can be found around the coasts of Mexico, Yellow Fin Tuna and Mackerel. We then used our iconic isometric background to create an abstract bubble scene.
Assisted by: Sprite
Coordinated by Tristan Manco @ Think Beautiful Design
Powered as always by KOBRA Paint
Wahaca Brighton, Wahaca’s home on the South Coast is a few minutes from the Brighton seafront & Brighton Marina in one of the UK’s most sustainably run restaurants. Featuring hand-painted murals by SNUB23 & Mexican street artist Mazatl, Wahaca Brighton is the perfect place to stop in for a quick bite, a long lunch with friends, or a private space to hire for an event.
Tristan Manco is a designer and art director, bringing his unrivalled wealth of creative experience and knowledge to each strand of his work. Design clients past and present include Cheltenham Festivals, Pictures on Walls (POW), Real World, Womad, Universal, EMI Records, Habitat, Rich Mix, Soil Association, Modern Art Oxford and the Arnolfini Gallery. High profile projects include the iconic Blur Think Tank album. Tristan’s design agency, Think Beautiful, brings together a team of highly experienced creatives providing the full spectrum of lead and support on design projects for corporates and small businesses.
Wahaca: Wahaca.co.uk
Think Beautiful Design: thinkbeautifuldesign.co.uk
Tristan Manco: Tristanmanco.com/
