My Dog Sighs - from Free Art Friday, to Inside and international stardom - the Portsmouth street artist celebrates 20 years

While the artist known as My Dog Sighs may balk at being referred to as a superhero, he is arguably the city’s best known in the field.

He single-handedly helped catalyse the city’s street art movement, created a global free art movement and has been invited all across the globe to paint his distinctive murals and display his work.

And here, in his home city, his eye paintings, the everyman character and tin can people have become pleasingly commonplace.

But it all began 20 years ago when a mild-mannered teacher had an idea while commuting to his job at Whitely Primary School.

Speaking with The News at his studio on Albert Road, Southsea, he recalls: ‘Right back as a nipper, I'd always been artistic – I was the one with the felt tip pens that the other kids would be asking to come and draw Snoopy, or come and draw Garfield. In the ’80s I was painting leather jackets, in the ’90s I was painting rave backdrops.

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‘But my dad was a sensible chap, and he said: “You're never going to make a living from this – go and get a proper job”, so I went into teaching.’

After completing his teacher training he spent many years at Whiteley Primary. It was in the early 2000s he started hearing about street artists like Banksy and D*Face.

‘I was like, ooh, I want in – this was really exciting. My son had been born and I was in that “wearing a shirt and tie with a mortgage and pension plan” thing, and I didn't paint any more. And I missed that. I thought I definitely want in on this, but I wasn't 19 and I had a good job and I didn't want to lose that, so I wanted to be in that street art world but do it in a way that wouldn't cause me any trouble!’

He struck upon the idea for Free Art Friday, where he’d leave a piece of artwork on the street each Friday with instructions for it to be taken home and enjoyed.

‘I thought, let's create a completely different persona, something that my family don't know about, my friends don't know about – nobody knew about it. I would go off in the evenings, pretending I was going for a jog, and I would find bits of rubbish on the streets of Portsmouth, bring them back home, spend the week working on it, and then on my way to the station for my teaching job – I'd catch the train to work on the Friday, doing my bit for environment – I'd take this piece of work and leave it on a windowsill somewhere and take a photograph of it and walk away. That was the start of the Free Art Friday project.’

With social media still in its infancy he’d post on early blogs, ‘I think there's an even a My Dog Sighs Myspace page,’ he laughs.

‘That was my step into the street art world, but it was such a personal project for such a long time, I wasn't involved in "the scene", in spray painting or wall painting – that all came later.’

Changing attitudes

Over the past 20 years he has noticed a huge change in people’s attitudes to street art. No longer viewed as mere graffiti or vandalism, it is recognised by many as having artistic value and brightening up the street scene.

‘It's very different now. When I did eventually move into spray painting on walls, one in three as people walked past would be: “You're a vandal, you're ruining our area!” I would paint the front of the old French's bakery (on Albert Road), because it was the route I would take picking up my kids from school and it looked such a mess, I thought I would paint something nice on it and brighten it up.

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‘Once somebody called the police on me and various people would shout abusive things... Now I'm getting invited by councillors to come and paint. Over the years people have realised that it's not about vandalism, it's about artists wanting to enhance the place they live in.

‘Art makes a difference in people's lives – we realised that in lockdown, didn't we? We were reading books, and listening to music and watching films and looking at the blank walls in our houses and thinking: “I really should hang something up there”, and I think people understand that more now.

‘Popping out on the street, where you don't have to go into a museum or a gallery – those sort of scary white cube places, you can see it on the street, it adds value, it brings tourism in.’

Going international

He now has fans all over the planet – including places he’s never even been.

‘I looked at some statistics this week on my page and the third biggest following I've got is in Mexico. I've never been to Mexico, I've never painted in Mexico, but I know my artwork is on some of the syllabuses in central America. I have no idea how or why! But I get Mexican teachers contacting me with photos of their kids doing cans and painting eyes... It's quite incredible how international my following is.’

When we talk he’s recently returned from hosting his first Parisian exhibition.

‘It's crazy to think how 20 years ago when I was running around leaving a piece of art on the street in my suit and tie on my way to work, that I would be able to do this for a living, as my job, It's an utter dream.

‘I've never been to a city where I haven't been able to connect with a community of people who do Free Art Friday – I can go anywhere and there'll be a Free Art Friday Sacramento group or a Tel Aviv group.

‘I used to do it religiously for about 12 years – every Friday without fail, but as things have blown up and taken off for me I haven't always had the time.’

A major turning point came in February 2012 when the BBC’s flagship arts programme The Culture Show broadcast a segment on Free Art Friday, featuring the artist prominently.

‘We kind of blagged a place on there – it was a guy who was doing an internship on the show, and they offered a programme for interns saying if you can pitch an idea for something we can make a film about, the winning one will be made. He messaged me to say: “I'm going to enter Free Art Friday”, and I was like, ok, yeah, whatever, that's never going to happen. But it did, and he won!

‘An East London street art gallery owner happened to be watching at the time, so they got in touch and said: “Have you ever thought about selling these?” I was thinking, who's going to want to buy a baked bean tin? I'd never considered that it could be something that would have value to it. But I sent a few up and they sold them, I had a show with him, we sold those, and then other galleries were like: “Ooh, you've had a sell out show with them? Are you interested...” and the ball rolled from there.

‘In the early stages of your career you have to say yes to everything, and I still quite haven't learned how to say “no” yet! But it is getting to the point where I have to be a bit more selective...’

The squashed tin can people have become one of his signature pieces.

‘I remember when I was a teacher, I did the cans in school. I had this little side hustle as a street project, then I would come into school as the art manager and go: “Right, we're all going to stamp on baked bean cans and paint them! And then we cut out faces and stuck them on.

‘There are really strong messages with these cans related to materials about recycling and how we waste so much, but equally, they were initially inspired by the homeless guys on Albert Road whose eyes were down and asking for change. The cans, for me, kind of mimicked that – the can was once useful, we all have them in our home, but once we've used them up we chuck them away. There's a real mirroring to the people we see on the street, they're all someone's brothers and sons and daughters, whatever relationship – they lived a life like all of us at some point, but something happened, maybe it was just a couple of pay cheques...

‘But with a little bit of love and effort, I can make those cans into something people covet and want and will hang in a museum or a gallery. It's still a baked bean can! But if you put a bit of love and effort in, it can become something valuable.’

When it comes to career highlights, it’s the opportunities My Dog Sighs has afforded him he likes to recall.

‘What's really nice is that I've had the opportunity to travel to so many incredible countries and cities – places you wouldn't go to as a tourist. If you're invited to go and work on a project, you immerse with the real community in that place.

The eyes have it

He recalls painting the wall of a hospital in Rome.

‘It was in this residential district and I wanted to engage with the community. This idea of flying in and painting something when you haven't got a connection with the people and then flying out again doesn't work with me. So I painted 540 eyes and in the reflection of each eye I painted someone who was either born or had died in the hospital.

‘When the community came out and we “launched” the wall as it were, everyone was scrabbling around, “That’s my grandma!” or whoever. That idea of connecting is really lovely, and you don't get to do that as a tourist. You go and you tick off all the things you're supposed to do in that place, but to spend time in a city or town and properly connect with a community is such an amazing thing. That's what I take away from these places.’

Closer to home, his murals are familiar on the city’s streets. One particularly visible piece is a huge collaboration with Snub23 on Goldsmith Avenue, close to Fratton Park. The eye’s pupil celebrates Pompey’s 2008 FA Cup win.

‘The centre of the eye is always the last thing I decide – I know I'm going to paint an eye, but it takes a while to find out what I'm going to put in the reflection. I think we only had one day left with the boom lift, and there was a blank space in there.

‘I was sat by the Tesco Express opposite it, looking at it and thinking, and a taxi driver pulled up and went: “You know what you want to do, mate..?” And I went: “That's absolutely perfect!” I went away and found this fantastic photo of them lifting the cup – it was a dream.’

Inside

​But by far his biggest single project has been the Inside exhibition which took over the derelict former Grosvenor Casino in Osborne Road, Southsea. It ran in July 2021 enticing 10,000 visitor into his ​unique vision.

‘That was a biggie – it was never meant to be quite the scale it was! It started as a five month project, you know – find a nice interesting space, hang some work on the walls, have a party, leave...

‘When I found the space, that definitely meant it had to be so much more than that. And the five months turned into years because of lockdown. So what am I going to do? Can't travel, can't do anything else – let's scale this one up.

‘It was my big project – have I got anther one in me? I'm never going to say never, but that opportunity to spend two years on something quite so big...

‘I'm beginning to discover there are some other fascinating spaces around, and now I've had a bit of a break from that installation thing and I've seen some spaces and I've been thinking: “hm, this could be good!"​

He’s also proud of how the local street art scene has come together over the years.

‘When I started, everyone was working on very personal projects – Fark was painting things here and in Brighton, Pete Codling was working on his projects, I was working on Free Art Friday, but what's happened over the years is that more and more people have connected together.

‘We do a regular creative social now down the pub every couple of months – anyone's welcome to come along. Tell us your project, what you're doing, do you need any help? I've made all the mistakes to avoid! It's about sharing that experience and sharing those skills – it can only make the city stronger.

‘We are an incredibly creative city – we build this fantastic bubble here but breaking out of that bubble can be hard.

‘We've got places now like Corner Collective that can give new artists that boost and help them move up.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​’

The 20th anniversary treasure hunt

​To mark his 20th anniversary My Dog Sighs is holding a massive Portsmouth-wide treasure hunt over the Easter Weekend on Friday, Saturday and Sunday – April 7-9. Over the three days he will be hiding:

• 3 original hand-painted cans

• 20 hand-painted pebbles

• 60 exclusive limited edition prints only available via the treasure hunt

• 600 specially minted My Dog Sighs coins

• 2,000 beer mats

Keep an eye on social media for hints to their locations.

See mydogsighs.co.uk for more links.