LOOKUP Portsmouth | 09.09.23 - 10.09.23

I took part in the very first edition of LOOKUP Portsmouth, now an annual street art festival organised by local legend mydogsighs. It was a big leap for me—I applied to paint my own wall, even though I don’t exactly identify as a street artist, and I’d never painted outside or in public view before. It was nerve-wracking, but also one of the most rewarding creative experiences I’ve had.

My piece, titled “12 Rules for Life by Cat. A,” was a meticulously planned, text-heavy design. Looking back, this project marked one of my first real steps into fully committing to text-based work—and I’ve got LOOKUP to thank for that push. Painting outside on a busy street in all kinds of weather was a huge learning curve (shoutout to the neck strain I gave myself by Sunday), but I genuinely loved the challenge.

I was lucky to have my brilliant and very patient boyfriend with me on the second day—he was a total hero, grabbing tarps when the rain came, helping with the lettering, and keeping morale high. I also got to meet other artists painting nearby, and it felt like being part of something truly special. The energy was incredible, and massive kudos to the volunteers who kept us fuelled with water and sun cream throughout the weekend.

WHERE DID 12 RULES FOR LIFE COME FROM??

Have you heard of the Canadian psychologist geezer Jordan Peterson? He wrote a book "12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos" in 2018. Well I don't think they're very good (one of them is "stand up straight" or similar...Come on). Turns out he has misogynistic views and is an incel god, so an all round dickhead.

Anyway, these are my own 12 Rules For Life. 

This was a challenge as I wanted to be a lot harsher in my rules, but I didn't want to ostracise people, as feminism is still a dirty word.  I have used humour as a way to express my annoyance with harassment, diet culture, mansplaining and shit dates.

My rules address where it seems we've gone wrong in modern life. The obsession with our phones (yup, me too) and the negativity that is spread so quickly through the media, social and otherwise. Headlines, posts and YouTube videos that focus on disasters, problems, controversy are shared the most and provoke the strongest reactions. We're pummelled with so much information that we don't really need and our unevolved brains can't cope with. Is why we're all self diagnosing with adhd because we can't concentrate on anything for more than the length of a tik tok video?

However, my rules remain light hearted at their core and I hope are received with humour.

Unfortunately, my words were not always well received by the public. The council received complaints about the way I'd described Barry as a "paraplegic" -when really the correct term is to say someone who has paraplegia - which was a learning curve for me. Some also took offence to Rule 12, saying it encouraged violence.

I offered to change some of my rules, but after not hearing back from Portsmouth City Council, I moved on with my life...Until I was told that some of my wording had been scraped off my an onlooker.

Initially distraught, I vowed to jolly well paint the words back on. (With some slight editing.) Above you can see the words that had been scraped off (slapped arse being some), me scraping some of the rules back to blank, and the result of me re-working my wall.