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.
Willow. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Willow and Swil collaboration. “Looming Overhead” (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Willow. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Swil (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Willow. “Head-On” (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Check out the ears on the fox from North Africa. Willow (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Swil (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Swil (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Swil (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Swil (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Willow (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Other Articles You May Like from BSA:
Happy Mother's Day in the US and in Mexico too. We praise the work and the love that mothers around the world are giving today and every day, with gratitude and recognition for their shaping ...
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities. Now screening:1. HEREDITAS - Gonzalo Borondo2. HOTTEA "Aaron." Wooden Walls Project. Asbury Park, NJ.3. DRAGON7...
“Disposing machine n°2” Because there is still an ongoing environmental crisis in our oceans and because sea mammals do not have Instagram accounts (flippers are too clumsy for those little tex...
Here's our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Adnate, Amanda Wong, Clet, Dasic, David Walker, Droid 907, Eurotrash, Hunt, Jim Vision, Mr. Oneteas, Specter, and WUFC Crew. Top...
A quarter of a century since falling in love with New York, WK looks at his route. WK Interact was 8 years old, spending hours drawing on old floor plans. On the job with his father, even then he...