The Streets of Lyon. (Applied and Accidental Art Attacks)

by Fripouille | March 3, 2009 at 09:36 am

355 views | 52 Recommendations | 17 comments

Why pay to get into an art gallery when art is everywhere? On the pavement and electrical substations, on trucks and houses, all over the place.

This is a collection of ten photos. They represent what can be seen in and on the streets of Lyon. They were taken using my cellphone, and some were played around with uniquely for the fun of doing so using simple software like Photoshop Manager.

Several of them are of what I see on the pavement, things like paint splashes etcetera. Others are of what street artists do here.

I told a friend that I often found interesting stuff to photograph on the pavement. She said that only poor people look at the pavement, hoping to find a coin or two. I said that I had never found any. She said I’d be a very inefficient poor man. I said she was nuts, and that I was already poor.

Anyway, enjoy! And you are cordially invited to add your own.....

(There are explanatory notes with each photo for anyone interested..)

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jazzyzazzy

at 09:58 on March 3rd, 2009

This is interesting stuff for many reasons. The photoe,s are easy on the eye, and you got to see them for free. Just shows how many raw talented artist you have around lyon.Some friend, huh,only poor people look on the pavement for cash or a good find. Yeah your right she is not only nuts, she is also a snob who looks down on the poor. If I was you Fripoulle

I would dump her as a pal. Looking at the pics was a pleasant surprise.great work.

Rachel Nixon

at 10:13 on March 3rd, 2009

Great idea, nicely executed.

Fripouille

at 10:23 on March 3rd, 2009

But Rachel, I didn't execute anyone! :)

(Sorry, couldn't resist. Am feeling playful).

Thanks very much for your kind and generous comment.

Fripouille

at 10:14 on March 3rd, 2009

Oh, my friend was only using the kind of viciously ironic humour that us Brits like, believe me. She is not PC, which I appreciate. It's just that you can't "hear" her imitation of snobs in the words on the screen. (Moreover, communicating without voice and gestures, and with just written words, often leads to misunderstandings on the internet.....)

The pics? Oh, I tried photography once, SLR and the whole bit. My efforts were pathetic though, and I had to admit after a month or two that I was not the new David Bailey. I sold the camera for peanuts......:)

For photo dummies like me, a cellphone is just fine. Simple to use. Any real photographer could take my photos to pieces of course, but that's not important. He would have liked my "real" photos even less lol!!

Roy C

at 10:29 on March 3rd, 2009

Great photos.

Fripouille

at 10:41 on March 3rd, 2009

Hi Roy!

You know, if ever you try that yourself (highly recommended moreover), you'll see that it's difficult to louse up with such interesting stuff to photograph. I mean, I have photos of people on my cellphone, but you wouldn't say the same about them lol!

Glad you enjoyed them.

Amy Judd

at 14:49 on March 3rd, 2009

Amazing! I love street art.

I made the photos bigger so that they are easier to see, hope you don't mind..

Fripouille

at 15:11 on March 3rd, 2009

That is so kind of you to do that!

I really do appreciate it. I must get a little more savvy on how to put up photos and, (tempted by it but didn't know how), the slideshow option...

Glad you liked them....isn't street art great?!

I mean, who cares who takes the photos, or their quality, it's the art that counts.......

I am just a happy witness and admirer. That's what an art gallery is all about......

Paschen

at 16:19 on March 3rd, 2009

Great pictures. Nice post Fripouille.

Fripouille

at 16:41 on March 3rd, 2009

I appreciate that coming from you Paschen, thanks.

After all, I know that you know what kind of unexpected images can shape our lives....

Some are bad, sure,

But these are just images of peaceful people doing what they want to do.

Heartwarming......

QueensHart

at 17:18 on March 3rd, 2009

Wonderful!

You are so correct here. When I was in art school I was educated and not in the way they

had hoped . I realized when I was a kindergarten teacher what paintiing spontaneously does

for the child/adult. I had a little boy that had the physical Add. He was like a cricket ..hard

to get him to focus. I had interest centers and the group seldom had to sit still for a long time

unfortunately they do this no more. We had a painting center set up always ready to step into

with easels and ready materials . I was shocked one day to see him painting for a very long

time. This was the beginniing of my real art education. I read everything about creativity.

Fripouille

at 05:51 on March 4th, 2009

That's very touching....

I may be wrong here, but I think that every child, if you show them enough ways they can express themselves, will end up with a passion.

There are so many options! Music, art, writing, sport.......... The list is long, and there are almost unlimited options within each.

It just takes that one time and place and activity....and it never stops for the rest of your life if mine is anything to go by!! :)

gerrypopplestone

at 03:43 on March 4th, 2009

Yes, they are fantastic. I dont know how you do it and photoshop is a bit too advanced for me. But it is impressive. You be designated Artist - en residence de Lyon!

Fripouille

at 06:01 on March 4th, 2009

Hello Gerry!

Actually, it's disarmingly simple to do the effects. I know absolutely nothing about all this.

My phone, a Samsung, came with extremely simple and dummy-proof photo storage and modification software.

I upload photos to it and go to "edit". There are only three options (apart from crop/size). Brightness, Constrast, Colour saturation. I just play around with more/less brightness/contrast until I get an effect I like. Simple. Thirty seconds, maximum, and it's done. I rarely use colour, but did on the Tricycle one.

That said, not all these photos were changed. Maybe two thirds.....

Simple I tell thee!

(And yes, I don't understand photoshop at all. I suppose pros need it though. I'm just happy with those basic effects).

Babel-Fish

at 04:32 on March 4th, 2009

Having the art bug in my genes and dabble with art plus with a son of whom has some fame at building and displaying robots made from lego bricks. I of course have to recommend the great black photo box as art. lol

Software problem with the new firefox upgrade. lol cant see pictures on now public. lol

I have in my younger days had fun by drawing chalk pictures on the pavements of Chelsea London and made enough money to buy a few beers. lol it was more fun when the pretty girls came and offered compliments such as "learn to draw straight lines" "hey grass is green" etc. lol

However I do like a lot of the Grafic art seen in the big cities in fact I am thinking of attacking a wall in my house here in nego's
With a bold babble fish and some chips to add artistic flavor. lol

The black photo box has great depth and I can almost see the soul of the artist. lol

My youngest son the professional artist James Johnson-Perkins stated to me once a long time back "Every body can produce art, many do and see it as art" "We are all artists". He then gave me acrylic paint and a small canvas and ask me to paint some thing. So I painted a small blue dot in the middle of the canvas.

So I can see the street art, however I see the art in the words.

Fripouille

at 06:25 on March 4th, 2009

Oh so you were a pavement artist in Chelsea?! Super! You must have met some very interesting people doing that. Also, it sounds to me like those girls had some pretty original pick-up lines..... :)

I did some busking in Barcelona once as a student because I had spent all my money and needed some to get home. Great, and I met some cool people. There was this girl from Copenh...(I'll PM you).

Your son is quite right. Anyone (in fact, everyone) can create. It just needs the right means. That one day when you go WOW! I LOVE this!! Then it's like being a heroin addict. Impossible to kick it.... :)

Anyway, what are you doing reading this! Shut down the computer and get cracking not just on the wall but on the whole room! Floor and ceiling too. As many BF's and chips as it takes. Then take some pictures with your mobile (much simpler than those complicated camera thingies) and put them on your page!!!!

Incidentally, I googled your son's work. An explosion of colour. If anyone's reading this (Amyjudd?) someone put a post up here on NP a while back with some super photos of lego football stadium if you're interested. Astounding! Maybe you could ask Jarret Matineau on the Culture page...

Babel-Fish

at 07:30 on March 4th, 2009

James is fantastic at fine art, but feels that I should do the painting and he plays with the lego, lol

But his happy and that's important, James has done the busking in Canterbury Kent town center when taking his fine arts degree. It's not because he was short of money but the free beer thing of course and the pretty girls. father like son.

I have already publish some of my work but its got moldy in the nonpublic achieves. It not that good however cats and dogs are frighted to go in my art studio, what happens to be my study and computer room and a place to swing the cat after its traumatized by my art. lol

Actually I am not into lego bricks my self, got fed up treading Lego into the carpet when my son was only 26, lol I wrote a story here prior to Christmas about be careful what you buy your kids at christmas as it may end up a a career. It was about the first box of lego I bought James when he was about 8 or 9 and he has not stopped playing with lego and still playing lego now it must be a record, for 30 years. lol

He takes his bricks all other the world, so he is now a world traveller as well. the kids love the robots and at least he has built a good colorful life for himself. lol