When @backtobristol put out the call to brighten up Bristol's forgotten back-alleys, I was all in. Pathways for Pollinators is exactly the kind of project that gets me excited — a community coming together to turn neglected, overlooked spaces into something worth walking through. All the alleys in this round are in Easton, and I was thrilled to be one of 9 artists picked to get stuck in.
For my patch, I went straight for the pollinators themselves — specifically, three UK native orchids, each one labelled so passers-by can learn what they're looking at (and hopefully spot them in the wild afterwards).
There's something brilliant about painting for an alleyway instead of a gallery wall. No white cube, no hushed reverence — just neighbours, bikes, bins, and the occasional cat wandering past while you work. Public art like this doesn't ask permission to be inspiring. It just shows up.
Huge thanks to @backtobristol for making it happen, and to the other 8 artists for bringing so much energy to a single stretch of tarmac.