rue de Savies

Posted on June 29, 2022 by Mary C

is a small street in the 20th arr., in the Belleville neighbourhood of Paris.

small stencil on a concrete wall, young girl in red dress with long hair tied back, holding a potted plant in a bucket, walking away with her back to viewer

below: Henry the bear on his scooter. One of the many bears released around the city by #bear_in_mind aka Gil Dassillien. You can see many more on his instagram page (check the link!).

black and white drawing on paper, pasted to wall, a bear on a scooter, wearing a shirt with the name Henry on it, street scene,

below: Amazing! large mural.

large mural with the word amazing written in cursive in yellow, orange and red, tribute mural to brens ody basketball player

below: A kiss in primary colours, a painting by SWeb aka Sebastien

below: Bare minimum white person rejoicing with the birds (or chasing pigeons…), jumping over rocks by the waterfall.

blog_white_man_birds

below: Top right, a street art piece by LOUYZ. A fish out of water bursting through the wall, a Paris fish at that. Above the door – three lost little ones from Pac Man.

exterior wall with graffiti on it, large purple head of a bird with yellow beak and blue hat

Harrington and the Mechanical Wolf

Posted on June 24, 2022 by Mary C

These two murals are at Srodkowa 17 and Srodkowa 21 in the Praga neighbourhood of Warsaw. The one in the back is “Mechaniczny Wilk”, which translates to “Mechanical Wolf”.

The other is “Warsaw Fight Club” by Conor Harrington

faded Blu

Posted on June 24, 2022 by Mary C

below: Looking across al. Jana Pawlla II in central Warsaw.

It was twelve years ago, 2010, that Italian artist Blu painted this large mural.

There are lots of soldiers going through the motions of war and combat but they are all being controlled by strings. Their green helmets have holes in the top to make room for the string.

The picture below clearly shows the puppet strings controlling the actions of the larger than life sized men. Strings on the tops of their heads as well as around the hands and feet.

Another piece of the puzzle fits into place – the symbol on the helmet is that of the euro. Money. What wars are fought over. Capitalism. What pits one group of people against another. Agree? or disagree?

Artur Rubenstein and a butterfly

Posted on June 23, 2022 by Mary C

These two murals are close to the train station in Lodz. In the foreground is a large portrait of pianist Artur Rubenstein. Just in the picture on the right hand side, is a wall with a faded butterfly mural.

The colourful portrait was painted in 2014 by Brazilian artist Kobra (aka Eduardo Kobra). Like many of the murals in the city, it was painted as part of an Urban Forms Foundation project/festival and now is part of the Urban Forms Gallery.

small green space in front of large colourful mural by Kobra featuring a portrait of pianist Artur Rubenstein

Rubenstein was born in Lodz in January 1887. He was a child prodigy – giving his first piano performance when he was 7 years old. At 13 he played with the Berlin Philharmonic and at 19 he played Carnegie Hall in New York City. He career spanned eight decades. He died in 1982 at age 95.

close up of face of Artur Rubenstein in a mural by Kobra in Lodz Poland

a wall in Lodz Poland with some faded text as well as a large painting of a butterfly.

people in the abstract

Posted on June 23, 2022 by Mary C

Lodz Poland is full of murals. It’s the kind of city where Tourist Information gives out maps showing the location of more than 130 murals, most of which are in walking distance (but there are trams too if you prefer). Three of those 130 are here in this blog post.

First, an upside down wiggly line couple by Klone Yourself (aka Igor Revelis) titled “Midnight Lovers”. Painted in 2017.

mural by Klone of two people upside down on the side of building, one figure is missing a face because there is a window there, figures drawn with contour lines in black and white

street scene in Lodz Poland with parked cars, sidewalk, stores, and other buildings, a mural is partially visible

Another large mural in Lodz featuring abstracted human forms is this sort of art deco style painting.

The third is this mural called “Gentrification” by Tone aka Robert Proch (d. 2019). It was painted in 2013.

close up of a mural by tone in Lodz Poland

mural by Robert Proch, tone, of abstract people swirling

Photos taken May 2022

along Rruga Myslym Syri

Posted on June 22, 2022 by Mary C

Rruga Myslym Syri is a fairly busy street in central Tirana, lined with shops and small businesses. Either on this street or in nearby alleys and small streets there is some street art. First, two small pieces by Franko (aka Franko Dinaj), a local artist.

mural painted by franco on a wall in Tirana, of two young boys, backs to painter, one wearing a red jacket with Albanian symbol, the other wearing a blue jacket with yellow Ukranian map on it

mural of a young person with mask partially covering the face mask is made using Ukranian flag, shooting a sling shot

below: Man carrying bike, a mural by Artez with the title: “Mos Paragjyko – Do not Prejudice”

large mural of a man carrying a bike over his shoulder

below: Calligraphy and circles, an artwork by Davide DPA

a Davide mural, calligraphy as element, concentric circles, red background

back part of Davide calligraphy based mural

“Personii ge kam perballe eshte fija e humbur qe me ndihmon ta gjej veten”

below: A big green dog by MOTS

mural of a green dog, sitting

below: Unsinkable stencil with a few famous people like Einstein and Laurel & Hardy, and many not so famous people.

black stencil on white wall with heads of many famous people, Laurel and Hardy, plus word unsinkable

below: Playing basketball on the wall.

black stencil of two people on a white wall

mural of a child riding on the back of a character that is half fish and half submarine

below: A woman in blue

small blue portrait of a woman painted on the side of a metal sidewalk box

below: This woman is probably advertising a women’s hair salon but I liked the look of it just the same.

black and white drawing or painting of a woman with a lot of curlers pins in her hair

honey bears

Posted on June 20, 2022 by Mary C

I don’t think that these characters are actually called Honey Bear but that’s what I started calling them as I found more of them on the streets of Paris. I’m not sure if they even have a name.

I can remember my parents buying honey in bear shaped bottles. After a quick google search, I now know that this bear shaped bottle was first used in 1957 for Dutch Gold Honey, and was design by Ralph and Luella Gamber. They never patented the idea and it was copied by many other honey producers and vendors.

The street art bears are the work of fnnch, an artist based in San Francisco USA. If you take a look at his instagram page, you will discover that this bear comes in hundreds of variations! There is even bear merchandise. I only saw 6 variations…. These are the ones that I saw.

Bowie Bear

street art bear in the shape of a bear shaped honey bottle with David Bowie lightning flash over one eye

Red Wine Bear

two graffiti pieces on a wall, a honey bear with a glass of red wine and a tile portrait

Martini Shaker Bear

Cool Heart Shaped Sunglasses Bear (tapping his foot!?)

Spray Paint Can Bear

Avocado Bear

rue des deux boules

Posted on June 20, 2022 by Mary C

painting on a wall on re des deux boules that looks like a pastel portrait of a woman showing her hand as well

below: 3-D blue man face with rainbow bubbles by Gregos.

3 dimensional mask, painted blue, of a man, with many red, yellow, blue, and green, bubbles or circles above the head, street art by gregos

below: More 3D heads, this time it’s Mr. Serieux with 5 green stars, Mr. Affreux, Mr. Soleil with his yellow rays of light, and Mme Lune with an orange crescent moon that looks like an orange banana or a piece of canteloupe.

4 faces, 3 D, made of plaster, painted, on an outside wall, street art, labelled as Mr. Serieux, Mr. Affreux, Mme Lune and Mr. Soleil.

below: Small cat skeleton graffiti by Mr. Byste

small graffiti of a cat with cat skeleton showing

below: The cafe may be missing an A but it’s got a heart, if you can work your way through the maze to reach it.

cafe and chinese restaurant on rue des deux boules, with street art painting beside it, a red heart inside a black and white maze

below: It’s all about the Journey, by studiojonesie, aka Amy Jones

two street art painting, on the right are blue and white flowers on link background with the words it's all about the journey painted underneath. on the left is a person upside down with spray paint can in hand, and word loon

below: It looks like a naked man climbing a mountain of rocks, a long uphill journey.

street art painting of a white silhouette naked man climbing a mountain of multi coloured rocks, with a star at the very top

below: Three little pink and red female forms by Wild Wonder Woman.

three little paste ups on a wall, female form in pink or red, one in middle has a flower in it

portrait of a man that looks like Stevie Wonder, in grey shades, on blue background, street art, black man with short hair and wearing sunglasses, smiling

street art of a man with a red mask over his eyes, behind the bars of a window

stencil graffiti, potrait of a man with the profane words le foutur en marche

below: Rue des Deux Boules is a short street, only one block long. At one end is rue Bertin Poiree where you can find these two little 3D objects stuck to the wall – a gymnast standing on one hand and a striped octopus.

bom.k on blvd Vincent Auriol

Posted on June 18, 2022 by Mary C

Trying to hide some trees on blvd Vincent Auriol is a large mural by Bom-K. A girl, wearing bright pink gloves seems to be trying to spray something orange – an aspiring graffiti artist?, or is she picking up garbage?

large vertical mural painted by bom k also known as da mental vaporz, of a young girl wearing pink gloves, with a green robot beside her

Are her eyes closed? Is she in distress? Or crying?

bottom part of bom k mural with blvd vincent auriol street sign

photos taken June 2022

portraits on Rue Lambert

Posted on June 18, 2022 by Mary C

First, there was this small portrait by Morèje, aka Jérôme Gulon. His street art pieces have mosaic frames made from tiny multicoloured tiles. Back in 2015, he made a series of portraits to honour the people who died in the Charlie Hebdo shooting. These can be seen in a blog post from 2016.

small hand drawn portrait of a young man surrounded by a frame made of many small tiles in different colours

The rest of the portraits on Rue Lambert are part of Rue Meurt D’Art, projects by Jean-Marc Paumier including these; the one on the left strongly resembles the man in the above portrait.