successfully synonym: November 2010

...I can change, I can change. If it helps you fall in love

Another recently finished project that we completed the beginning of November. We spent a few days with Libby, Chic and the gang at J12 in Glasgow working on a wall for their youth centre drop-in.
The starting point for this was about 6 months ago with a discussion with the group about what they would like on their wall and the idea of revolution and change was settled on. Using themes of old Communist propaganda we came up with this design.

Incorporating the kids themselves into the image ( a recurring theme in community projects!) was a lot of fun - one of the kids dogs appeared and we even snuck in a chicken...

Libby said "Everyone loves the wall, lots of “Wows” when people go through for the first time. Thank-you again for all your work, especially the way way you were with the kids"

Also repeated the hand motif from Re-Imagining The Centre
The text that runs along the top is Hebrew and is a tattoo on the Chic's forearm. It means "Change is Possible" - can't argue with that.

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LCD Soundsystem - I Can Change
This Is Happening (2010)

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Hey Jonny I've got faith in ya man...

More posts to come in the next week, but thought we should specifically welcome our newest team member - Jonny Sherlock joined us a month ago and this has been our first week in our new temporary office together. A Highland lad, Jonny has been taken on as Project Manager. Hopefully this will take some of the pressure off us in terms of office management and give us more time for badger related activities
In Jonny's own words he brings "another dimension to DUFI". Actually thats not Jonny's words but rather those nice chaps from the Prodigy (see below...)

A lot seems to be happening all the time and we are going to spend some time trying desperately to get up to date with our news and then be more regular in our musings.

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The Killers - Uncle Jonny
Sam's Town (2006)

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Everybody’s got something to hide except for me and my monkey

We are a fair bit behind in terms of updates to work we have done but here is another new entry that shows the finished work at Broxburn swimming pool. (There are also more great images on the Shale People site). This job presented us with some new challenges and allowed us to look at the way we represented the work slightly differently. Instead of "fighting" with the brick pattern we decided to use that as a series of guides to work in. This is now the largest piece we have done (if the 4 bits of wall are taken together is a bit bigger than Jesus!) Our colour pallette was picked to reflect the two locations and think it is sympathetic to both the building itself and the environment that surrounds it.

This was completed over 5 days of mixed weather at the end of September with help from the pupils at Broxburn Academy. They really go stuck in and were a valuable asset as we worked hard through sun, rain and wind!

We also have to extend a huge thanks to recent art school graduate Dani-Louise Smith who really was a big help over the week and really seemed to enjoy working in a new medium - we look forward to seeing some of her new work with spraypaint!

Thanks again to Shirley-Anne Murdoch of Artichange who organised this. As usual her organisation made everything go smoothly - right down to the official photocall on the last day when we had local MP Graeme Morrice, SNP Councillor and Artichange member Janet Campbell, Academy Teacher Claire Anderson and Business Development officer Laura Machnik all joining us together with some of the pupils and the fabulous Betty Glenn (nee Curran) who really didn't look like she was old enough to be our Gala Queen from 1953! Amazing how all that came to light over the course of the week and we are obviously delighted that someone recognised her from the artwork - all we have to wait for now is someone to recognise our Quoit playing miner from early last century...

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The Beatles - Everyone's Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey

The White Album (1968)

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The Beatles - Everyone's Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey

The White Album (1968)

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It's electric, YEAH!

Q: What do you do when kids are defacing an electric substation?
A: Get big kids to come and graffiti it!

Here is one we finished in the summer but somehow did not get a blog up about it. We worked with The Calman Trust and Scottish & Southern Energy and some of the pupils of Inverness Royal Academy, to inject a bit of colour into an otherwise dull substation. Here are a few images for you...