Within everything in life, I always have a special feeling for people who have the confident to stand for something and dare to take risks. The last couple of years, street art has become bigger (and maybe better) and a well-known art form. There are loads of street art artists, all with their own style and social media. Not only wandering around cities will give you a nice look on street art, scrolling through Instagram and Facebook will also give a good picture of what’s new on the streets. In an era where everything is online, I appreciate it even more if someone decides to do something a bit different. Do you remember the last time you bought a book to browse through on your free Sunday afternoon instead of scrolling through your Insta feed? Jerome Thomas, a filmmaker known for the documentary Sky’s the Limit, Painters of the Extreme, decided to follow-up the documentary with a book. Continue to read if you want to find out if this is the book you can grab during your next Sunday afternoon.
The Author
Sky’s the Limit is a book including a DVD about modern street art. Written and directed by Jerome Thomas. Thomas is co-founder of the group Graffiti STS and has been part of the hip-hop and graffiti culture for more than 20 years. He has been making documentaries about several subjects since 2004, always related to urban culture. The first impression of the book is that it might be the cherry on the cake of his great portfolio of documenting. The book definitely gives an extra dimension to the film. Thomas says he feels the responsibility to depict the work and passion of the street artists (mentioned in the book). As Thomas says: ”Painting, like music, is universal and resonates differently within each of us, depending on the mood of the day, and the color of the sky.”. I agree.
The Book
The book is a well-designed, a4 size, hard shell publication. I love the fact that through his career Thomas continues to enjoys having the obsession and passion for graffiti and street art. Apparently even so much it led to this book and film. It’s great that someone puts in the effort to design a book to give a platform for street art. At first, I was slightly disappointed to find out the book is written in French, a language I haven’t practiced in years. I was very much looking forward to reading all the information in the book and now thought I had to do it with the pictures. Luckily I was wrong! Besides some chapters and interviews written in English at the back of the book, a nice touch is the very comprehensive and informative website where an English translation of everything can be found.
The book starts with an introduction about the author and how his love for street art and urban culture occurred. An interesting read as it’s nice to discover how someone’s passion originated. The learning journey begins with a history about graffiti and street art, how people in the last years experienced street art. The book also has chapters about first generation of street artists, how street art is adapted in the commercial world and explains how murals are created and how they give an extra dimension to architecture. The beautiful color pictures in the book compliment the story and vice versa.
Thomas shows a wide variety of street art; detailed murals, murals inspired by prehistorical cave paintings, raw graffiti (inspired) walls, realism, surrealism. He also highlights quite an amount of artists, both French and international, including high quality pictures of murals and facts like location, date, size and how long it took the artist to make it. Very interesting! The collection shows murals from all over the world and together with the information and small interviews with some of the artists gives a nice view of how rich our world is filled with street art.
All the works shown in the book are stunning. A few of them especially standing out. What surprises me the most, in a good way, is the way Thomas combines his own love for street art together with information, history, facts, interviews and his own opinion together with the great a4 size pictures shown in the book. A great combination for both (street) art lovers as people who would like to learn more about the subject, and definitely a combination you won’t find on your Instagram feed. Here’s your next Sunday afternoon spending!
Thomas ships within one week. You can order the book via his own website: http://skyisthelimit.fr/
