SYDNEY MORNING HERALD : Landlubbers swept up on mysterious voyage. Author: Alexa Moses. Date: May 2003. Publication: Sydney Morning Herald. Section: News And Features, Page 2. Who is the mystery street artist painting little boats on the gutters of Darlinghurst? At ankle height, delicate gondolas and jaunty ships stencilled in black and white have sprung up, sailing down-gutter along Darlinghurst Road near St John's Church, around laneways branching off the strip and along Liverpool Street. Passersby are stopping to look at the nautical street art. Two women walking through the area told the Herald the artist was a local woman who would rather not be named because she hadn't sought permission to paint the artworks in the public space. Co-owner of Gallery Wren, Vicki Papageorgopoulos, agreed that street artists would rather remain anonymous than be caught by councils, who are quick to strip the streets of any unapproved artwork. Because of this, she said, street art was dying out in the centre of Sydney. "South Sydney Council is deterring artists from doing it. They paint over things straight away," she said. "If you pay for the space it's OK; outside clubs there are really ugly banners, but street artists trying to get their representation out there, they can't do it because it just gets taken away the day after."

Darlinghurst / Surry Hills, NSW Sydney, AUS

Paste-up stencil print at The Kitchen, my first studio.

September 28, 2003