ORGAN THING: Don’t stay within the lines, street artist Charlie McFarley releases a colouring book…

A not so colourful Organ Thing of the day today, not until you get your pens and pencils out that is. Charlie McFarley has often featured in Cultivate shows, (you’ve surely worked out that Cultivate and Organ are different parts of the same thing by now haven’t you?) indeed he took the place over and filled it with lights and sounds as well as paintings and extended it out and into a truck parked outside, that was back in the days of Vyner Street when artists could lead things, there’s more coffee shops that galleries down Vyner Street now, when we moved in there were 15 or so, there’s one now, Charlie was a big part of Cultivate before all the gentrification turfed both us and Charlie out. Charlie was a born a bred Hackney based artist, he’s escaped now though, driven West, driven out by the thousands of coffee shops, there aren’t many of us artists left around here now, how many soulless coffee shops does an area need? We originally got to know Charlie via his work on the streets, the streets were far more alive around here than they are now. Hang on, this wasn’t meant to evolve in ot some kind of wake for the place, this is about colouring books, Charlie has just released a colouring book… get yours here

Shall we take another look back, how good was that night in 2012? We wouldn’t get away with it now, I’ve no idea how many Cultivate shows Charlie has been part of,,,