Street art can often be criticized as just an act of vandalism. But to be fair, not all graffiti is the same. There are a lot of artists who love to incorporate their surroundings into their works of art in order to brighten someone’s day.
One artist who does that is Jamie Paul Scanlon or JPS. His creative and innovative street art will blow you away.
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JPS often gets inspired by simple things like cracks in the walls, weeds growing out of concrete, or other things that many people would just overlook.
He can’t seem to pass by an area without wanting to do something cool to it.
Over the years he’s become synonymous with the clever placement of his art.
He’s also done some eerie horror-themed pieces he places in abandoned spaces. And there are his awesome puns that fans have come to expect from his work.
JPS was born and raised in Weston-Super-Mare, a small seaside town in the U.K.
He started showing interest in art when he was about four-years-old. His father, who was also artistically inclined, taught him how to draw at a very tender age.
But not everything was peachy in JPS’s life.
His father while very talented at art, was also a mean alcoholic. He died when JPS was 18-years-old. It could be the reason JPS tumbled into addiction himself soon after that.
Certain events drew JPS to abuse alcohol and things just spiraled from there.
He went on to use harder drugs like cocaine until he was pretty much homeless. His life was definitely out of control at that point.
If it wasn’t for one faithful day when a friend took him to see a Banksy exhibition that he realized he’s been wasting his talents away.
He then decided to turn his life around and start getting back to his artistic roots.
This wasn’t that easy and there were many setbacks.
JPS even found himself living on the roof of an abandoned hotel. Thankfully, he decided to keep up with his sobriety and art instead.
Eventually, after a few fails, JPS was finally able to overcome his addiction and he started to brighten his hometown with his own style of street art.
He’s also been attending counseling and group meetings to stay on the right track.
Every time he falls off the wagon he finds the strength to get back on it.
Even though there is no cure for addiction, you need to learn how to live each day at a time. I say, that’s a great mantra for sure.
JPS draws inspiration from different places. His early influences were Dali, Escher, Cezanne, and Giger.
These days he puts his art in unexpected places. Music and movies are a big factor in his work as well as nature and never being predictable.
Wow, how fantastic is this street art, huh? I absolutely love it.
What I like about it the best is the fact that it uses the existing surroundings to fit its story. I think that kind of art is really refreshing.
h/t Bored Panda
