Explosion of local street art exciting

This last week I have come across some delights which I had not noticed previously. It could be that I need to polish my glasses or else the items concerned are off my usual travel routes.

There is a glorious mural painted on the street-side wall of the Orana motel. This is a work as good as any street art that I have seen anywhere in my travels. That bracketed with the paintings on the toilets in Awanui are exceptional.

Then I have noticed other public art. Electricity transformers, street side in Matthews Ave are great especially the one featuring the Mā ori Battalion at Remembrance Park. Then there is the transformation of what is being labelled as our Town Square but features also as a carpark and the venue for the Saturday Market.

A performance stage is wonderful even tempting me to stage a one-man show. Planter boxes in the space have been designed to a accommodate parking and the Saturday market. When their plantings grow that precinct will be strikingly different. These planters have smaller versions in the main street.

Then there is the Te Ahu trail which wanders around the river bank and then squiggles along South Road before it passes in the shadow of a magnificent pou. I see it getting

To those who have had

the vision, found the funding, engaged the artists and artisans who

have shared their inspiration and artistry please accept my thanks

and sincere admiration.

well used by a range of people obviously seeing it as an exercise opportunity or a sporting challenge.

The recently completed sculpture just west of the college on the entry to town looks to be intriguing and I will be stopping to have a closer look shortly.

This explosion of “street art” is exciting. It builds on a lot of displays and exhibits already in place. It also follows on from earlier works which include the two sculptures, namely Star Gazer and Front Row Forward.

It also follows along from other notable displays in which I include the striking “graffiti” at the skate bowl and the de´ cor on the banks of the bus bay at Kaitaia Primary School.

I believe that there is room for a guided tour of our street art. That must surely be an opportunity for an entrepreneur.

All of that high-class visual material is something that delights me. To those who have had the vision, found the funding, engaged the artists and artisans who have shared their inspiration and artistry please accept my thanks and sincere admiration. I sincerely hope it will be cherished by others too.