The Boy and The Coconut Tree

My relationship with the USA goes back a long way.  In 1976 Jimmy Carter came to my home town, planted a tree and we all waved the Stars & Stripes at the end of our school field as he drove by, we were excited, not sure why but we knew where America was, and what it meant to us, cowboys, yellow taxis, skyscrapers, Starsky & Hutch etc, the USA was a an icon that seemed friendly and creative. As I grew up and I studied history I learnt of Pearl Harbour, D Day, Hiroshima etc and the stories of how the USA saved us from the Nazis (the Soviet Union's role was whitewashed at the time due to the cold war).  I met my first American in 1982 on a school trip in Belgium (at the site of the Battle of Waterloo), they were tall, loud and friendly and curious about the fact we came from a place called Washington in England.  In 1996 I went to the USA for the first time, New York, and it was every thing I imagined, the thrill of seeing the skyline of Manhattan from JFK airport, the yellow

During my recent trip to Florence my friend Sally introduced me to street art/graffiti and this is a collection of photos taken in London, Naples, Florence and Budapest of different forms of street art I've seen in those cities. Sally was able to meet her favourite,  Clet  Abraham when we walked past his workshop in Florence by chance. He signed a postcard of his work and gave her a freebie and seemed quite the gent. His art is vibrant but cannot compete with the capital of the Renaissance . Florence Florence Budapest Naples London Florence A Clet piece in his Florence workshop London February 7, 2017