Willow and Swil : Hunting, Capturing and Exploring in Brooklyn

Street art brothers Willow and Swil have just populated the streets with their wheat-pastes toward the end of summer here in Brooklyn. Urban Naturalists, that’s what we call them – studies and sketches and paintings of fauna and reptiles, bears and busts of figures and friends and music heroes.

Swil (photo © Jaime Rojo)

These are sketchbooks that come alive on the streets, their meditative compulsive renderings willing to meet you where you are, eager for your feedback and opinion. The two have overlapping themes and styles, perhaps their rural roots and regard for the hunting, trapping, and agricultural influences of back home, now seen clearer when viewed from the distance of the urban BK streets. There is an increasing level of detail, a steady respect and love for the beauty of the natural.

Willow “Smoke Signals” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

But there are differences as well, with Willow outdoors and exploring many species and metaphors of nature and Swil taking various internal trips to explore examples of our own human variations and archetypes. As their unique voices evolve and emerge with time before our eyes, it is a generous momentary gift that these mottled and pocked walls can hold for you to discover in your travels on the street – at least until the rain and winds and the blistering sun erode them all away.