Workshop
Graffiti with Ross B-side
Facilitated by Ross B-side
Materials: Calton - 60"x24"x2"; Govanhill - 66"x34"x2"; Govan - 56"x24"x2", all 50mm deep; acrylic paint and posca markers on wooden panels
Workshop participants: Sam Lunn • Brandon Docherty • Jacques Gallagher • Khadra Sharif • Amany Barre • YOYO (Johann Mendoza) • Niall Ford • and others
Ross B-side is a multidisciplinary artist working across murals, graffiti art and tattoos. currently based at Yardworks at the SWG3 in Glasgow, Scotland, he is self-taught, and taught by his community. He has 17 years’ experience painting with spray cans and has been a freelancer for two years. Ross splits his time between facilitating workshops with people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities, and his own studio practice where he works on paper, skin and walls.
“I work with young people who are often processing difficult life experiences and trauma, and they often relax and open up whilst painting, to an extent deemed remarkable by their social workers. I believe this is because art making in a low-stakes environment, where 'mistakes' are part of the creative process, and 'making a mess' is not only allowed, but encouraged, is a unique experience in their lives, which are often highly regulated. I have an increasingly trauma-informed approach to workshops and often reflect that whilst young people might not open up 'face to face', they will often do so 'side by side' when engaged in a cooperative activity.
“Whilst the AITC workshops were not focused on young people explicitly dealing with these issues, I believe this relaxed, cooperative, side-by-side approach facilitated a great deal of mutually beneficial interactions. In a world of social interactions largely mediated by screens, these workshops were moments where diverse groups engaged in a creative activity together, in real time, in a shared physical space.” - Ross
Materials: Calton - 60"x24"x2"; Govanhill - 66"x34"x2"; Govan - 56"x24"x2", all 50mm deep; acrylic paint and posca markers on wooden panels
Workshop participants: Sam Lunn • Brandon Docherty • Jacques Gallagher • Khadra Sharif • Amany Barre • YOYO (Johann Mendoza) • Niall Ford • and others
Ross B-side is a multidisciplinary artist working across murals, graffiti art and tattoos. currently based at Yardworks at the SWG3 in Glasgow, Scotland, he is self-taught, and taught by his community. He has 17 years’ experience painting with spray cans and has been a freelancer for two years. Ross splits his time between facilitating workshops with people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities, and his own studio practice where he works on paper, skin and walls.
“I work with young people who are often processing difficult life experiences and trauma, and they often relax and open up whilst painting, to an extent deemed remarkable by their social workers. I believe this is because art making in a low-stakes environment, where 'mistakes' are part of the creative process, and 'making a mess' is not only allowed, but encouraged, is a unique experience in their lives, which are often highly regulated. I have an increasingly trauma-informed approach to workshops and often reflect that whilst young people might not open up 'face to face', they will often do so 'side by side' when engaged in a cooperative activity.
“Whilst the AITC workshops were not focused on young people explicitly dealing with these issues, I believe this relaxed, cooperative, side-by-side approach facilitated a great deal of mutually beneficial interactions. In a world of social interactions largely mediated by screens, these workshops were moments where diverse groups engaged in a creative activity together, in real time, in a shared physical space.” - Ross
About the artworks
Across all three paintings, you may notice sharp transitions between colours or patterns. This is because the paintings are made up of smaller individual panels, and were separated, spread out, and worked on by different participants. We would move participants between areas, or swap colours and tools, encouraging a mixed approach and improvisation. Motifs may be painted in unexpected colours and working together was encouraged as well. For example in the Govan workshop a mother and daughter worked on the cranes together, whilst a young person and their youth worker collaborated on other areas.
The Calton painting features a warm and vibrant colour palette and a number of motifs, and figures such as The Barras market gate and the Barrowlands Ballroom Signage. The stars from the facade of the Barrowlands have spread throughout the boards, representing the limitless reach of music and culture. A female figure in the letter 'A' represents Maggie MacIver - 'the Barras Queen' - who first started selling goods from a trader's barrow, that she was asked to watch for a morning. This led to the founding of the world famous Barras Market. Maggie MacIver would go on to open the Barrowlands Ballroom, which burned down in a fire in 1958 and was completely rebuilt by 1960. There is a small nod to this element of the building's history in the letter 'O'. A man in the foreground is a weaver, representing both the history of handweaving as a foundational industry in the area dating back centuries, as well as the Calton weavers' strike in 1787, the earliest major industrial dispute in Scottish history. The building next to the weaver is a tenement, prominent in the area and the thread like patterns in the lower background tie the rich history of the area together.
The Govan painting features a cooler palette, and was influenced more by workshop participants' active colour choices. We avoided royal blues and emerald greens. The outline of the letters 'should' have been white, however the workshop participants' enthusiasm for the task meant these were coloured in. In the spirit of 'no mistakes', I carried this throughout the painting and this has given the Govan painting a unique feel. It features motifs such as cranes, representing the rich industrial heritage of the area, as well as the Lyceum theatre, the old Govan Kirk, and workers holding a strike banner. A ship features prominently in the foreground, representing the long heritage of ship building in Govan. A workshop participant requested football be included and so this was drawn into the 'A' during the workshop. A workshop participant also added small stars in the lower left hand side, which we extended throughout the lower half of the painting.
The Govanhill painting has the most colourful palette, much of which was mixed by workshop participants - I was able to keep these colour mixes fluid, and used many of them to complete the work - Govanhill is a rich, multicultural community and this is represented in the bright, multicoloured painting. Motifs in the painting include: a tenement building, churches and plants and trees, representing the architecture of the area as well as the proximity of Queens Park. Patterned elements in the letters are evocative of the market stalls and the fabrics of diverse cultures. Many of the textures and patterns were created by very intuitive workshop participants and I sought to keep these in the finished work. A female figure looks out from the letter 'O': Govanhill's residents may hail from all over the world, but they are not inward looking, this is a warm and friendly area of Glasgow.
They were modelled on traditional 'greetings from' signs, with this changed to 'stories from'... I produced designs based on the history of each area (Calton, Govan and Govanhill), incorporating symbols and motifs of the local area, with a strong focus on a typographic design of the area's name. I painted this in black, across several wooden boards painted white. Then in the workshop, the participants painted on top of this, using acrylic paints and posca markers, producing a colourful collaborative piece of work. This allowed me to introduce the participants to some materials and techniques they may not have used before, whilst facilitating a calm and creative environment where we could talk about their experiences of the local area and get to know each other. Areas of the design were left blank, with participants encouraged to introduce their own ideas and motifs into the finished work.
The Calton painting features a warm and vibrant colour palette and a number of motifs, and figures such as The Barras market gate and the Barrowlands Ballroom Signage. The stars from the facade of the Barrowlands have spread throughout the boards, representing the limitless reach of music and culture. A female figure in the letter 'A' represents Maggie MacIver - 'the Barras Queen' - who first started selling goods from a trader's barrow, that she was asked to watch for a morning. This led to the founding of the world famous Barras Market. Maggie MacIver would go on to open the Barrowlands Ballroom, which burned down in a fire in 1958 and was completely rebuilt by 1960. There is a small nod to this element of the building's history in the letter 'O'. A man in the foreground is a weaver, representing both the history of handweaving as a foundational industry in the area dating back centuries, as well as the Calton weavers' strike in 1787, the earliest major industrial dispute in Scottish history. The building next to the weaver is a tenement, prominent in the area and the thread like patterns in the lower background tie the rich history of the area together.
The Govan painting features a cooler palette, and was influenced more by workshop participants' active colour choices. We avoided royal blues and emerald greens. The outline of the letters 'should' have been white, however the workshop participants' enthusiasm for the task meant these were coloured in. In the spirit of 'no mistakes', I carried this throughout the painting and this has given the Govan painting a unique feel. It features motifs such as cranes, representing the rich industrial heritage of the area, as well as the Lyceum theatre, the old Govan Kirk, and workers holding a strike banner. A ship features prominently in the foreground, representing the long heritage of ship building in Govan. A workshop participant requested football be included and so this was drawn into the 'A' during the workshop. A workshop participant also added small stars in the lower left hand side, which we extended throughout the lower half of the painting.
The Govanhill painting has the most colourful palette, much of which was mixed by workshop participants - I was able to keep these colour mixes fluid, and used many of them to complete the work - Govanhill is a rich, multicultural community and this is represented in the bright, multicoloured painting. Motifs in the painting include: a tenement building, churches and plants and trees, representing the architecture of the area as well as the proximity of Queens Park. Patterned elements in the letters are evocative of the market stalls and the fabrics of diverse cultures. Many of the textures and patterns were created by very intuitive workshop participants and I sought to keep these in the finished work. A female figure looks out from the letter 'O': Govanhill's residents may hail from all over the world, but they are not inward looking, this is a warm and friendly area of Glasgow.
They were modelled on traditional 'greetings from' signs, with this changed to 'stories from'... I produced designs based on the history of each area (Calton, Govan and Govanhill), incorporating symbols and motifs of the local area, with a strong focus on a typographic design of the area's name. I painted this in black, across several wooden boards painted white. Then in the workshop, the participants painted on top of this, using acrylic paints and posca markers, producing a colourful collaborative piece of work. This allowed me to introduce the participants to some materials and techniques they may not have used before, whilst facilitating a calm and creative environment where we could talk about their experiences of the local area and get to know each other. Areas of the design were left blank, with participants encouraged to introduce their own ideas and motifs into the finished work.
Participant Artworks