at Milton and Saint-Famille

Posted on March 23, 2020 by Mary C

In an residential section of Montreal,

street in Montreal with stairs leading to front doors of houses, some snow, a mural on the side of building that you can see part of

a large mural of a woman on the side of a row of old stone houses

below: A boy with a slingshot by mateo

mural of a boy with a slongshot by mateo on the side of cash and grocery store on Milton St in Montreal

below: Large mural of woman by Drew Merritt
large mural of a woman from shoulders up, wearing blue jacket over olive and pink tops, long brown hair, a tree with no leaves is in front, two people walking past on the sidewalk

new slaps on Toronto streets

Posted on March 18, 2020 by Mary C

below: The garbage always leaks before you can get rid of the bag! A trashy Daught calm sticker.

below: Knome with an expression of alarm. a cute little sketchnate puppy and urban ninja squadron sprouted big ears when tbonez teamed up with srats (sketchrats). All on the side of a Canada Post mail box.

below: 1. The woman with a heart for an eye (got her eye on love?) looks like the work of Italian street artist c_ska. It also looks like she’s taking her temperature. Another c_ska sticker is a naked backside (or is it?) on top of an urban ninja squadron. Yes, you can make jokes about being on top. 2. Talking about jokes, playing on words is daught calm’s ‘be a tuber’ YouTube dig. I guess that’s better than being a potato. 3. The little orange guy, pizza guy? pizza face? is by sketch nate.

below: Red chick light bulb, lites creation.

below: Looking for a drink?

below: Brian has become an astronaut.

below: Morbid, Icey, etc. along with the bearded face of No love; Alone boy in black and white by ozokoh. And of course, don’t worry. It took a while… but see that grey face and its mysterious signature? It’s a lino print by Brian (aka bodh.io)

below: Tbonez with a new face

below: Urban Ninja Squadron as a climbing frame for a whole slew of little sketch nate characters.

below: Forge fury, feelings boi, and a sad puppy (yee hop) by sketch nate.

below: Pikachu and a pokeball…. and a pokemon character that I don’t know.

faces near Roma Termini

Posted on March 15, 2020 by Mary C

There is a cluster of murals featuring people’s faces near Roma Termini, the central train station. More specifically, at the intersection of Via Giovanni Giolitti and Via Alfredo Cappellini. Many of these are the work of Mauro Sgabri.

below: “Divine Welcome” by Sgarbi – Dante on the right and an immigrant woman on the left, face to face.

motorcycle parked in front of a wall with a mural by Mauro Sgarbi, green background, called Divine Welcome, Dante on one side, an immigrant woman on the other

below: On the left is “Gaetano” repainted in 2019 (by Sgarbi). On the right is a portrait by beet root, aka Riccardo Beetroot, of Trilussa, an Italian poet whose name was actually Carlo Alberto Saulstri (1871-1950). He is shown here surrounded by some of the words from “Felicita”, one of his more famous poems.

motorcycle parked in front of two mural of men's faces. one on the left is a just face, man with mustache called Gaetano. The other is an older man with Italian words written around him

C’è un’ape che se posa
su un bottone de rosa:
lo succhia e se ne va…
Tutto sommato, la felicità
è una piccola cosa.

below: Another portrait by Sgarbi, this time ‘Manzi the teacher”. Alberto Manzi was an Italian teacher who gave Italian lessons on TV in the 1960s and 1970s.

below: … with the body of a man but with the head of a goat

a mural of a person shoulders up except that there is a goat's head instead of a human head, arms and hands are human, wearing a red shirt,

below: The last two paintings in this area, by unknown artists

paper paste up, poster, ghosts, in black and white, on a concrete wall

Montreal slaps

Posted on March 15, 2020 by Mary C

This post is a selection of stickers and paste ups (wheatpaste) that I saw in Montreal in the past few days.

below: A @dysastrophy bunny with a gas mask and a painted hand grenade.

liittle sticker on a grey metal pole, a rabbit in a gas mask holding a hand grenade, dystrastrophy stcker

below: Paste ups at number 4. That hand is reaching past the butterfly and flowers towards the door handle.

wood door with blue number 4 and 4 on a mailbox, with pasteups on the door too

below: That’s supposed to be a green and purple Frida Kahlo and she’s saying something: “Nothing is absolute. Everything changes, everything moves, everything revolves, everything flies and goes away.“

a green face with purple hair paste up beside a paper with words on it about Frida Kahlo

below: “No man camps” says the sign. This is a protest sticker, as the yellow words on his jacket, Wetsuweten strong, suggest. It references their complaints and protests against the Coastal GasLink pipeline. a yellow pasteup on a black and white door with pink spray paint over the top. pasteup says no man camps

below: A pink man by labrona

a paste up of a pink man's head and torso on a blue metal box, short hair, middle aged man

below: Another labrona head, in shades of orange this time.

an orange face pasteup on a black exterior wall

below: Two turtlecaps with a heart between them.

two turtle cap paste ups on a door with a red heart between them

below: A hand drawn sticker signed by Bonnie hand drawn sticker of a person's head and torso on a red background with black and white lines behind

below: Superman Bear in Montreal – a sticker by G. Knight (Graffiti Knight)

sticker with superman logo on undershirt

below: The Kiddist out and about with his camera

a parking street sign with a sticker on it of a boy with a camera around his neck and the words the kiddist

paper poster on a wall outside, man playing a keyboard, musician,

below: Any idea of what these men are carrying?

a street art poster on a wall, 5 men carrying something orange

below: Little white ghost pretending to be something he’s not while he collects lost claws. Actually, lost claws is the name of the artist.

paper pasteup of a ghost costume, white sheet, with black eyes, also little hands holding an orange bag. words on the ghost saying pretending to be something i'm not

below: An elephant with a few cans of beer already consumed so he says “I won’t remember you”. This is another lost claws creation.

pasteup on a brick wall, a grey elephant drinking cans of beer with words about how he's not going to remember

below: Waxhead sticker

sticker on a pole, woman with laser lights coming out of her eyes,

below: An encounter with a couple of cowboys, a poster by someone with a signature that I haven’t been able to decipher.

a street art poster on a door of cowboys and indian

below: A selection of paper wheatpaste in varying conditions. The blue ice cream in melting. The bottom left is another waxhead paste up….. And then there are some from TCF (the chosen few) including squiggles from forge fury, Tbonez (urban ninja squadron) is on his phone, and lastly a roc roc birdie by ROC(514) is starting to peel off.

six wheatpaste graffiti papers on the lower part of a door, all in different conditions, an ice cream cone, an urban ninja squadron tbonez on his phone and a waxhead piece

below: Remnants, left over from better times.

old posters and tags graffiti on a wall

left over bits and pieces of paste ups on a wall, paper, torn, weathered,

below: Play your truth
stickers on a metal gate, including one with the words play your truth

by the Chinatown gate

Posted on March 14, 2020 by Mary C

below: “May an Old Song Open an Old Door” is a bright mural that catches your attention as you approach the entrance to Montreal’s Chinatown at Rene Levesque Blvd and St. Laurent. A woman holding a yellow lily stands between two red masks, one represents optimism for the future and the other represents nostalgia for a past left behind.

large Chinatown mural of a Chinese woman in flowered costume, with red and white masks on either side of her, one side happy and one side sad. mural is beside a large gate as entrance to Chinatown. Other side of mural is a traditional Chinese paiting with calligraphy and some pink blossoms

below: A close up of the opera singer in the center of the mural that was produced by MU and painted by Gene Pendon and Bryan Beyung in 2015. MU is an organization whose “mission is to beautify the city of Montreal by creating murals that are anchored in local communities.”

Chinese woman in mural, pink bow at her neck, flowers in her bonnet

below: A more traditional Chinese painting based on calligraphy

mural on a wall by a sidewalk and small tree, Chinese calligraphy in black and grey, some small pale pink flowers

below: “Salut Gilles” by Benny Wilding, a tribute to F1 driver Gilles Villeneuve. Unfortunately, a lot of it has been tagged over including the painting of the racing car.

looking across snow covered park to a mural that has been tagged over except for eyes on a green face behind a mask and a black and white figure in a cockpit as well as black and white checkered flag in upper right corner, Montreal buildings behind the mural

a mural that has been tagged over except for eyes on a green face behind a mask and a black and white figure in a cockpit

car parked in front of a on the end of a brown brick building, a mural of people walking on large noodles that are coming out of a very large ladle

below: Serving up noodles with a giant ladle.

on the end of a brown brick building, a mural of people walking on large noodles that are coming out of a very large ladle

Eros & Psyche

Posted on March 14, 2020 by Mary C

‘Eros & Psyche’ is a large mural painted by Greek artist insane51 as part of Montreal’s 2019 Mural Festival. It is designed to be viewed with 3D glasses. Painted in blues is the ‘exterior’ of a woman while the skeleton and brain are shown in reds.

large mural, red and blue, of a woman showing skeleton and brain, as well as body pierced by two red arrows, designed to be viewed with 3 D galsses, painted in Montreal by insane51

In Greek mythology Psyche was the goddess of the soul and the wife of Eros, the god of love. Eros, also known as Cupid (in Latin, or Roman mythology), was the son of Aphrodite and he was always throwing arrows to people in order to hit their heart and make them fall in love. Psyche was the youngest daughter of a king; she was more beautiful than any goddess. The story of Eros and Psyche is long and a bit convoluted. It involves prophesies, happiness followed by betrayal and heart ache but of course it has a fairy tale ending, Psyche becomes immortal, and the couple live happily ever after.

Librairie Henri-Julien

Posted on March 13, 2020 by Mary C

Librairie Henri-Julien, on the corner of Villeneuve and Henri-Julien, has three walls of colourful murals. On the east side of the building is this waxhead and cryote (aka Sebastian Millar) painting – Protector of the sacred texts in the citadel of yellow pencils.

bookstore on a corner in Montreal, white window frame with bars on window, a mural by waxhead beside the window

below: Carrying a lot of books on her head! under a window with white metal bars on it, a face in yellows and blues

below: A five-eyed cat, parrot….

a light purple cat with 5 eyes, mural on a wall, on a corner, with more cats and cats faces on the adjacent wall

below: blue cats, pink cats, and a puppy blossom by cryote.

pink and blue cats mural on a wall beside a window, with a pink and blue cat faces under the window

Eyes on the Streets

and feets on the ground. Graffiti, street art and murals seen while wandering the streets and alleys of our colourful world.