Absence of Bullets. Spray Paint

Absence of bullets.

In one of the most famous World War II-era photos, a sailor holds a nurse, bends her over, and kisses her in Times Square. The image was featured in Life magazine in 1945 and soon earned a permanent spot in the nation's consciousness, having been re-created at Fleet Week in NYC for decades. Glenn McDuffie, the man believed to be the sailor, died on March 9 in a nursing home in Dallas. He was 86.
Glenn's legacy is once again grabbing headlines as the nation remembers the moment that defined an era. According to Glenn, he met the nurse after he heard that Japan had surrendered. He was just 18 years old at the time. "I was so happy. I ran out in the street," he once told the Associated Press. Although Glenn had plans to see his girlfriend in Brooklyn on that fateful August day, his enthusiasm took over when he locked eyes with the nurse. "She saw me hollering and with a big smile on my face," he said. "I just went right to her and kissed her." It turns out, Glenn never said a word to the woman with whom he shared one of the most memorable kisses in history. "Afterward, I just went on the subway across the street and went to Brooklyn."
Here it is re-worked as a sculpture and presented as a stencil to generally celebrate people not shooting each other.

These are not prints as each is individually done and signed to order and consequently will vary slightly from the illustrated picture. These paintings are sprayed onto canvas 610x760x20 mm and are ready to hang.

(Also available on The Daily Telegraph, an Urbox, watercolour paper or plain paper at various prices if you search elsewhere.)

Juan Sly is likely the biggest seller of original artwork in the UK. An artist exhibiting in spray stencils, newspaper and oils, he has exhibited at the Saatchi (a proper gallery with pillars and everything!) alongside the likes of Banksy, Terry O'Neil, Tracy Emin and Vic Reeves, and has permanent collections in Ireland, Detroit and England, alongside Damien Hirst and some other artists you might have heard of, plus private collections around the globe. His works rock from humour to anti-war, sex to surreal. He is particularly fond of the stencil medium as it allows him to respond quickly to events and ideas and gives his works a gritty, illegal look. The stencils naturally allow the works to be resprayed, and consequently become affordable and disposable. He likes the fact that people can buy art which they like, and not to show off how much they can afford. You can find them in bedsits, legal offices in the Temple or stuck to a fence in Bristol.

Spiel by Steeve.