Monthly Archives: January 2017

Mission Linen Building, east wall, Las Vegas

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The old Mission Linen building is at the corner of South 1st Street and Coolidge Avenue in Las Vegas.  The following photos were taken when I was in Las Vegas in October 2015.  The east wall of the building (facing South Casino Center Blvd) was a canvas for a number of street artists in a project curated by Dr. Lepper.  It was covered when I saw it and it was being added to as well.

exterior wall of a two storey building that has been covered with street art by a number of different artists

below: Artist John Pacheco was putting the finishing touches on a mural about Donald Trump and his wall.  It also features Gandhi, the Pope, and Mother Teresa.  Pacheco told me that he planned to paint the word ‘freiheit’, German for ‘freedom’, above the wall.  In hindsight, perhaps a word in Russian would have been more appropriate?

street artist John Pacheco stands in front of the ladder that he is using to paint a mural featuring Donald Trump, Ghandi, the Pope, Mother Theresa and a wall that is being built.

below: In the mural, Trump is saying “I want in.  I can win”.   As I write this, it’s the 18th of Jan 2017 and Trump’s inauguration as President of the USA is only 2 days away.

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two street art pictures, A yellowish orange parrot with green wings and on the left a black man with orange exploding head

street art painting on a metal roll up garage door of a man in profile, in black and blue

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murals and street art on the side of a building, the old Mission Linen building in Las Vegas.

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a brightly coloured fish white with spots of orange, red, and yellow, swims in a blue patch on the pavement

 

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white question mark on a concrete block painted yellow, with a mural covered on a wall in the background

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Mission Linen Building, west wall, Las Vegas

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The old Mission Linen building is at the corner of South 1st Street and Coolidge Avenue in Las Vegas.   Photos taken October 2015.

below: A large mural of the famous ‘Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas’ sign dominates the west side of the building.

mural of the famous Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas sign painted on the side of a building

below: The head of a creature with Vegas eyes by New Zealand street artist duo BMD.

graffiti street art on a white wall - front end of yellow creature with big ping pong ball like eyes

below: Cats in love by #Danman

graffiti street art on a white wall - a sticker by Danman of a man and a woman in cat suits. The man has hearts in his eyes and is presenting the woman with some flowers

below:  She seems to be looking at the two faced man.
I wonder what she’s thinking.

graffiti street art on a white wall -

below: Many likes for the fisherman.

graffiti street art on a white wall - two posters, on the right an Indian in native head dress in profile and on the left, a small boat on a big wave

below: Marilyn Munroe in green and a pink haired woman by Typical Bandit

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below:  Street art in the Milk the Bunny series by Omayra Amador.
Bunny is holding a French flag in support of Charlie Hebdo.

graffiti street art on a white wall - a yellow rabbit with a pencil behind its ear, holding up a french flag with the words je suis charlie on it.

below: Another in the Milk the Bunny series

graffiti street art on a white wall - a dog on a cloud with the sun behind, he has pink bunny ears. A wheatpaste by Milk the Bunny

below: The seemingly unhappy entrance to 1001 South 1st Street

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below: El Teacher by Cova along with an Art Saved my Life stencil

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Chance Street, Shoreditch

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More street art from East London, September 2016

below: Paste ups on a door

a door with pasteups on it, between a black wall and a wall that is painted in red, pink and yellow. One of the paste ups is of a black man in a military uniform in a gilded frame. The word rai is written on top of it.

close up of the paste up - a door with pasteups on it, between a black wall and a wall that is painted in red, pink and yellow.

below: By number 57, a mask by Crisp

a 3D mask graffiti piece mounted high on a wall, painted in white, turquoise and purple patterns. The number 57 is beside it.

below: Dressed in orange robes and running shoes…
with a hope of peace, by Unify

a streeet art pice on a door, a person in a long orange robe is standing, holding a sign with a red peace symbol on it. A work by unify

below: A large hedgehog by ROA

a very large hedgehog in black, white, and grey, painted on the side of a building, by street artist roa. Some tags and throwup graffiti across the bottom.

below: All on a grey fence

  1. A large  love card, a king and queen perhaps.
  2. Two drawn portraits by Veil.  [how to be invisible: have a name that returns millions of hits when you search for it, none of them yours]
  3. A cartoon character wearing a London Bobby hat… the words at the bottom say “at a tremendous speed the rocket zips into space 1993.”
  4. A collage of many photos of a man’s neck and ear, a studded collar and a woman’s fingers with long fingernails, all in a sickly green colour.
  5. Some ace nylon stickers.

5 pasteups on a grey wood fence. On the left a playing card of two people cheek to cheek with an L and a red heart. Also two drawings, portraits of men, by veil,

below: Silently standing still, cowboy and mannequin.

a pasteup of a black and white print of a cowboy, not quite life sized, with cowboy hat and vest. The paper is starting to peel away at the edges. A sticker of a blue and white partially peeled banana has been stuck on him. Beside him is a male mannequin in a store window.

below: Reading comics together

a group of comic book heros is reading a comic book together, The Hulk, a man with laser vision, Thor, and a man with a blue costume and an S on his hood.

 

looking down Chance Street in Shoreditch, a few people walking on the narrow street, the buildings on the left are covered with murals. The first is aboriginal symbols in white, green and brown on a black background. THe second is in bright shades of blue, red and yellow.

graffiti on a black metal door, a face with big red glasses

graffiti on a brick wall including a little stick figure man with a large head by n'ice pops, and the words no stopping

meating place and others

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More Buffalo NY street art

below: On the side of Lorigo’s Meating Place on Grant Street, a large mural featuring many people that was installed in 2013.  This is “Grant Street Global Voices”; it was created by muralist Augustina Droze with help from students at International School 45 and Lafayette High School.   Eighty panels were put together to form the mural – and unfortunately a couple of them seem to have fallen down.

5 storey brick building on Grant St in Buffalo, with green trim around the windows and a small parking lot beside, sign on the side of the building says Meating Place. There is a large mural on the side of the building featuring realistic portraits of many people, including two trumpet players, a girl in a red head scarf, and other men and women,

below: Also on Grant Street is another community mural… The PUSH mural by Max Collins and others, named for the fact that it is over the entrance to PUSH (People United for Sustainable Housing) center.

mural over the entranceway to a building. Two sets of clasped hands, all with different skin tones. Scenes of children playing in the background.

below:  A large octopus swims close by on this door.
A supersized creature for a supersized door.

blue mural on an industrial building door, blue marine scene feathuring a large close up of an octopus eye and part of its body, along with some yellow fish, some lily pads and a water lily flower

 

below: Unicorn!  But behind a fence.

mural of a unicorn with a rainbow coloured horn, jumping, behind a wood fence

 

below:  It was the interesting architectural detail over the door that first caught my eye.  Then I notice the words, “diez anos como un roble cayendo”  Ten years like an oak falling?

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below: A flute player plays to a parking meter.   A Buffalo parking meter of a type that is long gone from Toronto streets.

black and white photo of a man playing the flute, pasted onto a woodedn fence beside a sidewalk, next to a book store, a parking meter nearby, on a street in Buffalo

below: Sweetness cafe is the scene of at least three pieces of street art, starting with this woman who smiles at those of us who look up from the sidewalk.   I also like the white mugs hanging from the awning.
a large, life sized or larger, paste up of a drawing of the head and shoulders of a black middle aged woman, smiling, above the awning for the Sweetness cafe. 6 white mugs hang from hooks through holes along the lower edge of the awning

below: The door next door has been re-done but that involved removing the face of this paste-up.  A facelift gone awry.

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below: But this painting is still on the wall of the Sweetness Cafe.

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below: And we’ll end with the trash.  He’s looks happy to take care of your garbage.
Added note, Sonder is a band from Buffalo

part of the side of a green metal container for recycling bins on a Buffalo sidewalk, relief sculpture of a man on the side, to which someone has added to sticker, one is a happy face sticker on the head and another is a parody of wonder bread that says sonder.

Allentown (Buffalo) street art

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The Allentown area of Buffalo is now home to some interesting murals.   If you walk around the neighbourhood of Allen Street and College Street, this is what you might see:

below: ‘Voyage’ by Chuck Tingley, 2014.  Commissioned by MyBuffaloPride and Loop Magazine and dedicated to Buffalo’s LGBT community and its allies.  “In a world of scrutiny, we have the power to embrace our differences and use our inner light to guide us through the darkest of times.”

a mural called Voyage painted by Chuck Tingley on the side of a building in Buffalo, a large multicoloured boy is sitting in a small boat and holding on to a yellow paddle. The sky is rainbow colours.

below: The corner of Allen Street and Wadsworth Street.

intersection in Buffalo with old two storey square front storefronts. wet road, rainy day, liquor store on the corner that is now empty but the sign only half works - only half the letters in the word liquor are lit.

below: Nietzsche (German composer and philosopher) with the quote “Without music life would be a mistake”.  When I googled to make sure that that was an actual quote, I found a quote from a letter that he wrote in 1888:  “Music … frees me from myself, it sobers me up from myself, as though I survey the scene from a great distance … It is very strange. It is as though I had bathed in some natural element. Life without music is simply an error, exhausting, an exile.”  The picture is on the side of a Nietzsche Bar.

street art picture of Nietzsche head and shoulders in black and white along with a quote that says Without music life would be a mistake.

below: It’s About Time, with three red fists on the upper part of the Allen Street Hardware Cafe.  One is holding a yellow paint roller and one is holding a yellow spray paint can.  The third fist is in the background and is holding either tools or paint brushes or markers?  Painted by the Allen Street Street Art Collective (ASSA).

a brick two storey store with a mural on the upper part in red, yellow and black, with the words It's about time. The picture in the mural is three red fists. One is holding a yellow paint roller and one is holding a yellow spray paint can. Another mural is in the background, a car parked on the wet street, a pedestrian on the sidewalk

below: ‘Tribute to Spain Rodriguez’ by Ian DeBeer.  Rodriguez was a comic artist who was born in Buffalo and the piece is largely about a fight that he got into in the bar across the street (once the Jamestown, now the Nietzsche).

long horizontal mural drawn like a comic book strip, dedicated to the memory of Spain Rodriguez and painted by Ian DeBeers in 2013, a large woman's face with bright red lips, the word 'she; painted in red, a motorcylce, a man wearing a hat,

a motorcycle, part of a larger mural

below: When this mural was first completed, the grey parts were black.  The large picture of the man that stands between the windows on the left and those in the middle, was quite distinct.  Now, you might have missed him when you first looked at the picture.

the front of a building is covered with black and white poster sized pictures of people.

below: The pink stripes in the background of the finger-like portions of this mural have also faded considerably since the mural was painted in 2013.   “The work we do is not for the faint of heart”.

a mural on the side of a building. On the left is a purple and black drawing of what looks like fingers. on the right are yellow and turquoise stripes with the words, the work we do is not for the faint of heart

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below: The last ASSA mural features an iron fireman. It’s a long horizontal mural with the words Iron and Fireman written in large letters over shapes that resemble flames.

word Iron written in large letters, part of a mural

below: Between the two words is a painting of a black ‘iron fireman’, a robot-like creature shovelling coal to feed the fire.   This was the logo for the Iron Fireman, a coal stoker first developed in the 1920’s by Thomas Harry Banfield and Cyrus Jury Parker.  A coal stoker mechanically feeds coal into a furnace or boiler – the Iron Fireman was a commercial success in the days when coal was a commonly used fuel.

picture of a black robot figure shovelling coal

word fireman written on large letters in a mural, brick buildings (apartments) behind, cars parked in front.

below: One of the other interesting things about Buffalo is how the architecture is different here, or at least different from what I am used to in Toronto.  The building with the green details on the front is the Puritan Building, built in 1893.  It has recently been renovated with the Billy Club restaurant on the ground level and three storeys of apartments above.   And yes, that is a purple house on the right.  Many of the houses in the area are painted in bright and cheerful colours.

 

mural in the middle gound, two low rise buildings in the background, one is the Puritan building with green details around the windows in the front of the building.

below: She’s almost disappeared.

very faded street art piece of crouched young girl with a pony tail - although it is faded enough that I might be wrong.

below: But he’s as vibrant as ever.

a painting of a man has been mounted in an arched window, covers the window.

a red brick building, side of a store, bottom part has been painted orange, probably to paint over graffiti, but has since been tagged twice, once in black and once in red, a parking lot is in front of the wall, with a small snowbank at the edge.

a door is covered with graffiti stickers.

Old First Ward murals, Buffalo

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The First Ward in Buffalo NY includes the docks along the Buffalo River and was once a thriving industrial area.  Old grain elevators still dominate the area.   The first residents were Irish who came to help dig the Erie Canal (completed in 1825) and who stayed.   A second wave of Irish immigrants arrived in the 1840’s as refugees from the famine.  They settled here and found work in the port.

Two large murals have been painted on Republic Street, both facing the railway tracks.   The first is ‘The Worker’ on the old Brock’s building/warehouse between Tennessee and Kentucky streets.   It was completed just over a year ago.

a long horizontal mural called The Worker, with the words Thw WOrker written in large capital letters and filled in with pictures of working people. Along the side of a wall beside a train track - view of whole mural with tracks in the foreground

The project was headed by ELAB (Emerging Leaders in the Arts Buffalo).

below: Molten metal and flying sparks by Nicole Cherry

a tub of molten metal and sparks flying, as part of a large mural that pays tribute the workers and labourers who lived and worked in Buffalo's First Ward back when it was an industrial powerhouse

below: Nick Miller’s painting, “Brakemen” a tribute to those who worked on the railways fills the word THE.

part of a larger mural called The Worker, with the words Thw WOrker written in large capital letters and filled in with pictures of working people. Along the side of a wall beside a train track

below: W O R K E R with its images

the word worker is written in large capital letters and each letter contains an image of people working, a large mural in Buffalo New York

below: A harbour scene.

part of a larger mural, a dock scene, harbour, ship in the water, lift bridge open in the background, kegs and barrels on the dock, a man working on the dock

below: Honouring the police and firemen.  The boat is  the “Edward M. Cotter”.  This fireboat was built in 1900 as the “William S. Grattan” – named after the first paid fire commissioner in Buffalo.   After a 1953 rebuild she was given her present name in honour of a recently deceased Buffalo firefighter and leader of the local firefighters union.  She is the oldest active fireboat in the world and is a National Historic landmark.  She also acts as an ice breaker during the winter months.

part of a large mural celebrating the workers of Buffalo, this panel is for the police and firemen and includes a red fire boat.

below: Scoopers with grain in the hold of a lake freighter.

part of a larger mural, men hauling a rope and filling a shovel with wheat

The second mural was painted by Vinnie Alejandro and a team of artists.  It is a 5000 square foot painting contrasting the past and present of the Old First Ward.

railway tracks run past the community steel corp building on Republic St., Buffalo. There is a mural on the side of the building.

It is just up the street from ‘The Workers’ mural – on the side of the Community Steel building at Alabama and Republic.

mural about the Old FIrst Ward, Buffalo. involves two large panels, one is an image from the past with grain and grain elevators and the other is a scene from the present with the area as a residential parkland with old grain elevators in the background. Railway tracks run in front of the mural.

The area has many railway lines. The ones that run parallel to Republic Street were in 1903 the City of Buffalo granted private railroad rights to the Quaker City Cooperage Company (they made barrels). These tracks connected to the Erie Railroad.

mural about the Old FIrst Ward, Buffalo. involves two large panels, one is an image from the past with grain and grain elevators and the other is a scene from the present with the area as a residential parkland with old grain elevators in the background. Railway tracks run in front of the mural.

From what I could find, other artists include Tom O’Brien, Amanda Gala Roney, Suzie Molnar Goad, Ed ‘Sparky’ Lawton, Jake Wiles, and Chris Kameck.   Like all community mural projects, many people and organizations were involved. For a short history of the mural, and a list of groups who gave supplies and/or time, see an article in ‘Buffalo Rising‘ (an excellent resource if you’re interested in the city of Buffalo).

mural about the Old FIrst Ward, Buffalo. involves two large panels, one is an image from the past with grain and grain elevators and the other is a scene from the present with the area as a residential parkland with old grain elevators in the background. Railway tracks run in front of the mural.

Photos were taken January 3, 2017