Mission Makeover

Posted on October 22, 2025 by Mary C

In 2012 the father and daughter team Tirso Araiza and Lucia González Ippolito (aka Cia Lu Art) painted this mural in Balmy Alley. It was restored and updated in 2022. The theme of the mural is the (ongoing) gentrification of the Mission District neighbourhood with the consequent displacement of those poorer and less fortunate.

Balmy Alley mural, social commentary, social justice, theme of gentrification effects on Mission District, painted originally in 2012 by Tirso Araiza and Lucia González Ippolito, updated in 2022, shows police removing people from the area, wealthier people moving in

part of Balmy Alley mural, painted originally in 2012 by Tirso Araiza and Lucia González Ippolito, updated in 2022, mission district makeover

part of Mission makeover mural, white dog, man sleeping in the street, red convertible

The word written across the top is “Rejoice”

Photos taken February 2025

stencils on blue

Posted on October 20, 2025 by Mary C

… on a wooden fence in Balmy Alley

below: The bottom part of the fence is painted blue before stencils of faces were added.

below: On the top part of the fence, other shapes were also added, along with a lot of white dots.

below: “Cuidado hay perro” Beware of dog.

with gate handle and lock, street art mural on a wood fence in balmy alley, mission district in san francisco, bottom part painted blue, stencils of faces, shapes and white dots, vine growing over top

street art mural on a wood fence in balmy alley, mission district in san francisco, bottom part painted blue, stencils of faces, shapes and white dots, vine growing over top

Photos taken February 2025

Carlin’s Cafe – San Fran

Posted on October 19, 2025 by Mary C

Carlin’s Cafe in the Mission District was closed for about 3 1/2 years during Covid. It re-opened in 2023. The paintings on the exterior wall pre-date the closure.

below: 298 Valencia Street.

street view of Carlins Cafe an Laundromat on Valencia Street in the Mission District of San Francisco, orange and yellow awnings over two large window,

below: A closer view

carlins cafe, exterior wall with large windows, paintings on the walls,

below: A rocket powered BART train? The lights of the Golden Gate bridge shine in the night while a sailing ship lingers outside the harbor. There is also a welder hard at work.

part of mural, BART train but with rocket engines, lights of the Golden Gate bridge,a welder, a sailing ship, a man wearing hat,

below: She’s dancing in a flowing orange dress but with a partner whose hands are skeletal.

part of a mural, a woman dancing with a skeleton in a black jacket, she's wearing long orange dress, also baseball players,

below: Tucked up in the shadows under the awning are a couple of baseball players

part of a mural, baseball players, with pennant flags

below: Playing for the camera?

below: A coffee moment.

below: More coffee, this time from the source.

coffee pot and spoon, pouring coffee, street art mural

below: The 49ers of the National Football League, the home team here in San Francisco.

below: A poster in the window

below: Seen outside the restaurant – This graffiti was inspired by Danny DeVito’s character Ongo Gablogian, art collector, critic, and patron, from the movie It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. This graffiti was created by Ongosf and apparently, little Ongos can be found in many places!

Photos take February 2025

Park Here

Posted on October 17, 2025 by Mary C

A few scenes from downtown Springfield Massachusetts. Most of these were found around Stearns Square.

below: Bloom’s wall is adjacent to a parking lot on Stearns Square. Most of the images are ads for photographic supplies.

Painting that covers the whole exterior wall of Blooms store, 5 floors, including photo supplies, ads for various photo products, Nikon, Kodak, Zeiss, Ilford, Polaroid, Bestler, Nikor, Bell and Howell, Linhof, Pako, and others, Across the bottom are paintings and mosaics of old cars, motorcycles, and bikes,

below: Motorcycles and cars in paint and mosaics

part of mural on wall, part paint and part mosacis, Indian motorcycles, old fashioned car, woman on motorocycle, back of a bus, words that say A masterpiece of engineering

below: Park Here, park with the birds

parking lot kiosk building painted in bright colours with painting of 3 birds on a wire

parking lot kiosk building painted in bright colours with painting of a large gray pigeon

below: Across the street from the parking lot is, “The Artist” by Jeff Henriquez, 2021

below: Las Vidas Negras Importan! Along with Empathy, Energy, and Equality.

close up on word lives in a black lilves matter mural. pictures and patterns in the letters. Las Vidas Negras Importan!, also hearts with empathy, energy, equality written in them,also a black woman with gold crown and long white gown

Colorburst type of mural yellow in center, with rays radiating from center in pink and orange, gray background

below: “Geoutopia” by Kim Carlino, for Fresh Paint Springfield 2019, seen at Stearns Square.

mural called Geoutopia by Kim Carlino in Springfield Massachusetts, abstract, yellow circles, black striaight lines, red shapes, turquoise and white curved lines,

close up of Kim Carlino mural in red and yellow, painted over windows, white black and turquoise lines run through the red and yellow parts.

below: These portraits of the characters from The Wizard of Oz were painted by John Simpson.

below: John Simpson also painted a series of portraits of Jazz musicians origianally for the Jazz and Roots Festival one year. Carlos Santana is on the right.

below: Three saxophone players, including Charlie Parker in the center.

below: And last, Louis Armstrong and John Lennon

Photos taken July 2024

Brunswick

Posted on October 7, 2025 by Mary C

Brunswick is one of the suburbs of Melbourne; it is north of the Central Business District.

below: One of the murals painted on the side of an older building on Sydney Road. This is the Retreat Hotel and the mural was painted by Buff Diss.

cyclist cycling past a street art mural on the side of an old two storey building on Sydney Road in Brunswick

below: Treaty” and “Teach Black history” JESWRI (aka Jesse Wright) on the side of another older building on Sydney Road. There is a Korean BBQ restaurant on the lower level although most of the building looks a bit decrepit.

street art mural on the side of an old two storey building on Sydney Road in Brunswick

below: A series of paintings in shades of gray with a large pointy mountain in the back.

below: “Tram Kangaroo” by Mike Maka. One very large kangaroo hops along beside an old abandoned Melbourne tram (route 19, which runs along Sydney Road) in this dystopian future scene.

below: A closer look …

below: Not such an old building this time.. on the side of the Savers store is a mural by Danielle Weber. A pair of hands is trying to pull back the gray wall to reveal a tropical scene hiding behind it.

below: Zatira (aka Katherine Gailer). has used a palette of vivid colours in this mural dedicated to Teresa Bruno, a well known local chef and owner of Zia Teresa Restaurant (Italian).

throw up type street art in Brunswock, abstract shapes and colours,

below: Protest type poster where the mayor is shielded from the people by layers of armed police. People are too mesmerized by what is on their screens to care.

below: Uprooted police cars.

below: “The colony will fail”.

Photos taken February 2025

AC/DC Lane

Posted on October 7, 2025 by Mary C

(and Duckboard Place)

AC/DC Lane was named for the Rock band of the same name. It has been a place for street art for many years, one of the first locations in central Melbourne.

below: Dominating the corner of the lane is Mike Makatron’s 3D sculpture of AC/DC band member, Bon Scott bursting through the wall.

street art in ACDC lane, central Melbourne

below: Melbourne in 3D

street art in ACDC lane, central Melbourne, The word Melbourne in gold letters, beside a drawing of a ballerina

below: In the bottom corner, RIP Malcolm Young, another member of AC/DC. The text in the word bubble is “C’mon Saint Peter, how many bloody times you gonna make me play Hell’s Bells before you let me through the gates mate?”

street art in ACDC lane, central Melbourne, portraits of musicians at the end of the alley

below: Fintan Magee’s painting of a man carrying a tree towers over the end of the alley.

below: Taking selfies with Malcolm Young.

below: Steen Jones painted this tall Melbourne mural with the red roses.

below: Andy Warhol with paint splatters

street art in ACDC lane, central Melbourne, portrait of Andy Warhol with paint splatters

below: A printed discourse on reality that starts with: “Realities can be controlled through the altered perception of real monocultrial [sic] relationships. This undeniable truth is self-evident through seeing mind’s eye. You will never be real, and in turn, that verifies your existence.” Think of it what you want.

street art in ACDC lane, central Melbourne, typed text, with scribbles in black and yellow on top

below: A boy, a girl, and a dog going for a walk, by VKM,

street art in ACDC lane, central Melbourne, stencil of two kids walking a dog,

below: Three more posters, two female and one male, all in vibrant colours. On the left is a purple haired, and very sad, woman by Vasso. Next to her is the green haired smoker by YAYA and on the right is an interesting woman with great red sunglasses but I have no idea who created that picture.

street art in ACDC lane, central Melbourne, 3 paste ups, all of heads, two female, one male,

below: Love is love, and many others including a little Robbo-t

street art in ACDC lane, central Melbourne, stickers and paste ups includng a robbo-t, and love is love words,

below: Rock on! Elvis Emu (by John Murray) and the red dino. What you can’t tell from this picture, is that the emu is just over 6 feet tall (i.e. a little taller than the average man). There are now many wonderful emus all over Melbourne!

street art in ACDC lane, central Melbourne including an emu dressed like Elvis Presley with rhinestone covered white jacket and big sunglasses

below: Neftnik’s blue woman reading an orange book while smoking her pipe.

below: A blue girl in a flowery dress and a blue bunny rabbit, more blueness from Neftnik.

below: Christmas street art! Lots of Santa Clauses and even a reindeer or two.

street art in ACDC lane, central Melbourne, Christmas theme street art, Santa Claus, snowflakes, reindeer,

below: … and the festive season continues… with Batman delivering presents down chimneys. This is one of many places in Melbourne that were “decorated” for Christmas, see “A Christmas collection of friends” for more pictures.

street art in ACDC lane, central Melbourne, Christmas theme street art, Santa Claus, snowflakes, reindeer, batman, tweet cat with balloons,

below: Salvador Dali looking a little surreal beside another blue person by Neftnik.

below: Carmadymnd’s little diamond shaped mosaic

street art, small piece, diamond shaped made with mosaic tiles and glass beads,

below: by French artist, Vale,

below: She leap frogs over, by JAH

below: “You don’t deserve all the bad things you say to yourself” beside a blue eyed woman by Jover. Muttley snickers in the bottom corner.

You don't deserve all the bad things you say to yourself text on a sticker, also a paste up by Jover of woman's face, with blue eyes,

below: Michael Caine looks a little bored by it all.

portrait of Michael Caine, black and white photo, on poster, as a paste up in AC DC lane.

below: Lumpkin definition: A blundering fool; A clumsy and often stupid person.

urban art in AC DC lane in Melbourne, cutout letters form the word lumpkin

below: Alice falls. The Queen of Hearts along with the two of clubs and other cards fall with her.

below: “I yam what I yam,” I’m Popeye the sailor man. It looks like he’s still eating his spinach.

below: Asian woman with a fan

below: Keep calm and plant a tree.

below: “Lets laugh while we still can” by Loui Jover

below: A very strange looking slightly abstract man, also by Jover

below: More contributions to the alley from Vasso and Jover

street art in ACDC lane, central Melbourne, stickers and paste ups,

below: “Always learn” along with “We don’t need more we need to be more”.

urban art in AC DC lane in Melbourne, paste up by Jover of woman's head but instead of facial features, has text that says we don't need more, we need to be more. another sticker that says always learn

below: Rocket man, literally, on guitar

Photos taken February 2025

Napoli paper

Posted on October 1, 2025 by Mary C

Stickers, paste-ups and posters seen around Naples.

below: Love letters pasted to the wall, each decorated with a little red or pink heart. So many words and expressions such as – “Dillo con volo fiori” (Say it with flying flowers), “Non ti ho detto mai quello. Che me fai.” (I never told you that, what are you doing to me?)

below: “Yes I know My Way” by Renzo Mezzetti on the right and a blue woman smelling a blue flower on the left.

below: Someone’s not happy ….

below: On the left is an old cyop & kaf face – there are a lot of paintings by Cyop & Kaf and I blogged about them previously (Cyop & Kaf in Naples)

below: With a red heart in its mouth, by RNZ aka Zenro. Also, in the top left corner, the faceless photographer, “the photographer all over”, this is mrbt62

below: Here stands Viracocha, the supreme creator deity in pre-Incan Andean mythology.

below: Surrealism? Or just a bizarre imagination?

below: Completely covered

below: Words around a door

words pasted letter by letter on the side of a wall between two doors of residences, Naples,

Lady, [words behind air conditioner] .. veramente stassera in connanti niente appena arrivate bendalevi visivede which google translate says in English, “Actually tonight in cash nothing as soon as you arrive blindfolded you will see”.

signora siete 9 uasi e lo sarete senon portate stassa….. The bottom part is illegible so the fact that google translate says the first part means, “Madam, you are almost 9 and you will be if you don’t bring this” is also meaningless….Maybe the picture of the man with a gun to his head is part of it all!

below: Playing card graffiti by Francesco Di Martino, and a melting globe head by Lumen.