If you've travelled around my city, you will at once see that Birmingham England, with it's massive industrial landmarks from World War times, has not been gifted a beautiful image! If you ask people what they thought of Brum (short slang for "Birmingham"), they will tell you that Brummies are stupid, they have a crappy accent, that Brum is an out of date undeveloped shit hole. I don't disagree with the last part.
Yet beauty is in the eye of the beholder and not all beauty is apparent.
This city and i...we have a love hate relationship. I have so many stories i can tell here. I often spend a lot of time on the streets in my many "sweet-hangs". There are lots of places if you know where to look...and if you look properly, you may find yourself befriended by misfits and restless souls.
Canals permeate this entire city. You can get to just about anywhere through the canal network. Along these networks one will see an abundance of "street-marks", otherwise known as graffiti, dotted all around this joint. Lemme show you a few:
This city has a grungy charm and in Winter when its drab and misty, i often like to hang by the canals and smoke my pipe. When it rains here i too enjoy hanging somewhere along the canal network, traversing from one end of the city to the next. The reflection of rain puddles, the sound of rain fall along the canal stream, coupled with the solitude and inherent danger these canal networks appear to ooze off, makes these spots a favourite of mine.
We need danger in our lives, otherwise we'll just become mush...
I hope everyone can find their own "sweet-hangs" outside of their 4-walled comforts. Get to know the streets a little. Get to know the misfits there...
...maybe we'll even bump into each other one of these days...who knows?
PS - all images belong to me.
This passage deserves even more StreetArt. Every city has hidden treasures, so all you have to do is open your eyes and go in search of them as you do. Thanks for sharing these pics on The StreetArt Community.
Have a great Weekend