By Jodie Symonds
A MELBOURNE-BASED street artist has brought funky street art to businesses in the Yarra Valley.
Wandin North’s Imperial Edge Hair owner Nadine Amy saw Mikey ‘Mikey xxi’ Newman doing street art inside the newly opened burger venue, Hello Harry, in Lilydale last month.
She said she decided automatically to get him paint the inside of her salon, which had been left blank for the past four years.
Mr Newman completed work on two walls within the salon and the wall outside, opposite the car park.
Ms Amy said she had always had an appreciation for street art.
“I wanted to bring something funky to the Yarra Valley and something just a little different from the normal.
“I love the vibe it’s brought to the salon and people keep commenting on it.
“It has created some great conversation within the salon.”
Mr Newman said Ms Amy had an idea for the design, and then let him “go wild” with the rest.
“I wanted the hair to be really expressive and colourful,” he said.
“The salon had a lot of reds and greys, so I wanted to keep those warm funky colours.”
It took Mr Newman a day to complete the inside artwork, and another for the outside work.
He believes in creating work that doesn’t involve violence or scaring children.
“It’s not my style – I don’t want to paint anything that scares children,” Mr Newman said.
“You can put a lot of attitude into your work without it being offensive.”
