WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE...

...between street art and graffiti?  Although I thought I knew the answer to this question, I did ask Mr. Google;  he says - and this is combination of answers:

“Street art and graffiti overlap in many ways, but the key differences between the two lie in technique and intent. In terms of technique, street art tends to be image-based, and usually painted with permission or commissioned, whereas graffiti is more commonly word-based and more than likely illegal.”

After a great service at Church this morning, again with some wonderful worship and then a fantastic sermon, we stayed for coffee - both chatting to different people, so we usually compare notes about who we spoke to as we drive home.

Whilst going through my photographs yesterday - and trying to delete duplicates etc - you can only keep so many flower photographs, can’t you - I found an explanation of this piece of street art, which was part of the Swindon PaintFest last year, so asked Mr. HCB if we could drive past on the way home so that I could get a shot.  This proved rather more difficult than I had imagined because this piece is on the side of a house that is sideways on to a very busy road, Fleming Way, but which used to be part of the Wilts and Berks Canal.  In fact, you can see part of the bridge in the foreground with plenty of graffiti on it.  Both Mr. HCB and I can remember the bridge with the towpath going under it when we were a lot younger.  I actually used to live in this street, named Graham Street and often walked into town centre along the towpath.  

The street art you see was commissioned by those responsible for Swindon PaintFest and was painted by Anali Chanquia and Vanesa Galdeano, also known professionally as Medianeras. They are currently based in Barcelona but originally come from Argentina and they have been creating murals around the world together for over 10 years.

This is a fantastic piece but posed quite a problem for me taking this shot, as we were on the other side of the bridge with the busy road in front and there was a six foot high wall in front of us.  I had to stand on tiptoe, holding my iPhone way above my head to get the main shot - as I wanted to show both the street art and graffiti.  

I have put a shot of the street art in as an extra and wonder how they managed to complete this as apparently, the weather was very bad whilst it was being done.  However, it just shows what can be achieved through skill and sheer determination.   You can also see a graffitied sign in the extra, but thankfully, the graffiti artists haven’t yet made a mess of the actual street art and let’s hope they leave all the wonderful pieces around Swindon alone.  It’s one thing to graffiti a plain brick wall, as they have done with the bridge, but quite another to deface beautifully done street art.

Have a great week and stay warm and safe.  We have already had to rescue our bag full of plastic and cans from across the road - as they weren’t collected last Thursday - goodness knows where we will find it tomorrow morning once Storm Isha has passed through!