Pillars of the earth

 I walk past this mural most days just inside the gates of one of our local primary schools and finally got a decent photo. I haven't been able to work out who painted this one but it depicts the sun rising over the land the some of the Maori words say: "Where is the pillar of the earth", "The pillar of acceptance is the earth", "The mountain is dark" and "Who longs for the river". 

Linking up with Mural Monday.

Wings...

I've been going through some of my old photo folders and found quite a few  from 2017 of murals when we lived in Tauranga.

This one named "Wings" on The Strand has been painted on a modern toilet block and was created by 2 artists Tara Fowler and Millie Newitt. It was meant to be a "love note" to the people of Tauranga in 2018 and the 2 girls worked throughout horrendous weather (I took that to mean rain or storms) taking 24 hours to complete it.

Many people stop and take selfies in front of it so it looks like they have wings too.

Linking up with Monday Murals and Our World Tuesday.

Robert Street Art

Thank you everyone for your commiserations on our drought situation, we have a little bit of water left that we are being very careful with that hopefully should last us until our delivery next Monday.

Moving right along...this is another mural by NZ street artist Rodrigo Rozas that I found in Whangarei recently, not sure of the name but it's on the corner of Robert and John Street. I posted a few months ago about one of his in Hikurangi.

Made from spray paint it was made in collaboration with fellow artist Mighty Duke.  Rodrigo is a visual artist from Chile, who graduated in 2016 with a bachelor's degree in applied arts from Northtec. His art has a focus in street art, airbrushing and portraiture. He has completed many commission murals for schools, gyms and local business around Whangarei and the Northland area.

A few people have asked about the man's facial expression. In Maori culture the poking out of the tongue was used in warfare to intimidate the other side, kind of like what you would see in a rugby game where the All Blacks do the haka.

Linking up with Mural Monday and Our World Tuesday.

Mokofusion Tattoo Studio

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During our last trip to Whangarei while my daughter was busy with her appointment I took my camera and went walkies. A couple of streets away I spotted this painted mural on the side of a tattoo studio, I can only work out a portion of the words which say "Barbers and Tattoos".

This particular studio, Mokofusion Tattoo and Barbers is located in Walton Street and seems to have no particular style they specialise in. I really like this one. I have 3 tattoos on my body that were very carefully thought out before I got them. The first one on the back of my neck is mostly coloured orange and is 2 koi fish swimming in the opposite direction because of my star sign, the second one I got was on my upper chest, a small one of an Irish 4 leaf clover in honour of my Irish ancestry. The third one I got was on my right arm of a mermaid, I plan to get the whole arm coloured in different types of ocean creatures as I really love the sea but this takes money that I don't have.

Linking up this week with Monday Murals and Our World Tuesday.

btw I have some more news for you...

Vexta - Miya Tsukazaki

On our recently trip to MOTAT (Museum of Transport and Technology) in Auckland we saw so much but one thing that caught my eye was the artwork painted on alot of the buildings. This one named "Vexta" was painted by Mia Tsukazaki in 2016 and was done to symbolize the world's love of plastics.

According to their website it explains the artwork as this:
"Plastic was invented in 1907 and in the short since since it's birth we have firmly embedded it into our lives, our environment and now inside our bodies. Ever single piece of plastic ever made still exists on earth and now it is breaking down into tiny particles in our seas and being consumed by us...the world is choking on it's plastic consumption. Now is our time to find ways to create a world without plastic. This artwork is a meditation on the consumption of ideas, dreams, plastic particles and the inter-connectedness of life. A woman is being fed plastics representing these themes from an outstretched hand, below a snake representing wisdom wraps around a QR code which can be scanned by the viewer device leading to a blog dedicated to sharing knowledge and discovering a world without plastic".

I don't know if you are aware but our government banned plastic bags with handles and of a certain thickness and when it first came into law some people were supportive of this others didn't handle it quite so well. It was quite sad to see how many loved plastic and hated to see them go despite them not being good for our earth but on the flip side since the ban last year it's also been positive seeing how many people take their re-usable bags with them when they go shopping. There is however still a long way to go in getting rid of plastic and bringing in biodegradable products.

Linking up with Mural Monday and Our World Tuesday.

Kaingaroa Village Unity Project

Back in 2017 the other half took me to the small forestry town of Kaingaroa Village. A very quiet small place with not alot of action, there was plenty of graffiti, vacant lots, broken down vehicles, barking dogs and unused/boarded up shops and buildings.

On the side of this Four Square building (the Kiwi equivalent of a corner shop/dairy/store) was the graffiti. I've done some digging as to who the artist was and all I could find was that it could've been done by Azah Wirangi as part of the Kaingaroa Unity Project back in 2017 so we must've visited the area just after it was completed.

This town was once a thriving forestry area and although there are still plenty of trees around, the forestry company that was once there is no longer and in it's place are abandoned empty buildings and sheds.

In the 1980s the government sought to sell the forests to private buyers but several Maori Iwi went to court to prevent the sale arguing that they were still the traditional owners of the land. After 20 years settlement was reached and the lands were returned but the forests themselves are still owned by Kaingaroa Timberlands Ltd.

Linking up with Mural Monday for this one.

Rodrigo Rozas in Hikurangi

We are finally here back home, the house is a mess with unpacked boxes but we are getting there slowly. We have my 3 teenagers and my oldest son's girlfriend - we are no longer on town supply water, we have a large water tank behind the house that we rely on from the rain so we have had to implement a 5 minute shower timing system and each cycle someone does of the washing machine has to be limited to 30 minute eco wash. 3 of us are working full-time but myself and the other 2 will be job searching this week. I have an interview on Tuesday so fingers crossed.

On the 2 hour drive yesterday we stopped in Hikurangi, my 3 children now know that anytime they get in the car with me it turns into the "Camera Express" because I frequently stop to take photos. This one on the side of the one of the retro buildings is by Northland local artist Rodrigo Rozas. Now back to the unpacking...

Linking up with Monday Murals and Our World Tuesday.

Stand by John Roy

At Tauranga's Te Puna Quarry Park Gardens there is one wooden carving I've never really thought much about. This one entitled "stand" was created by local artist John Roy overlooks the Bay of Plenty coastline from the top of one of the hills.

He has been quoted as saying "My work revolves around iconic forms, social memory and what people bring to to the piece or their knowledge of that form. I introduce my ideas and thoughts in a way the viewer can relate to or interpret comfortably. Yet maintain my social, political and aesthetic intentions for the work. In effect to provide enough information for the for the viewer to draw upon their own personal experiences to tell their own story".

To me it almost shows a person standing looking out over the overall view and landscape of the area. What do you make of it?

Linking up with Skywatch Friday

Keep Tokoroa Beautiful

In the shopping area of Tokoroa is this mural on the side of a bakery shop. In 2010 the outline was painted by urban artist Lady Diva and the colour was added by the hand prints of many South Waikato residents.

This mural was part of 5 others that were painted around the country in an effort to stamp out untidy graffiti - looks like it worked because it was still there when we visited in 2018.