Museum Muses – Muses du musée

Posted on October 4, 2022 by Mary C

Street art of a slightly different kind…. Seen pasted on a wall on a street in Paris – a display of black and white prints of famous paintings by women artists from over the centuries.

below: ‘Game of Chess’ by Sofonisba Anguissola (c1532-1625, Italian)

painting of three women, two are playing chess and the third is watching, painted by Sofonisba Anguissola in the 16th century. A black and white print pasted on a wall

below:Self Portrait by Judith Leyster (1609-1660, Dutch)

black and white print of Judith Leyster's self portrait

below: Portrait of Antonietta Gonzales painted by Lavinia Fontana. (1552-1614). She was possibly Italy’s first professional painter. The subject of the painting, Antonietta, suffered from a condition known as hypertrichosis (aka werewolf syndrome), a rare genetic disorder that results in excess body hair. Antonietta’s father also had the disorder as did two of her sisters.

black and white print of Lavinia Fontan's portrait of a young girl with werewolf syndrome, painted in the 1500s

below: A man’s portrait by Rosalba Carriera (1673-1757, Venetian)

black and white print of a man's portrait painted by Rosalba Carriera, a Venetian painter

below: ‘Portrait of a Lady as a Vestal Virgin’ by Angelica Kauffman (1741-1807), a Swiss Neoclassical painter. Her father was also a painter. He started teaching her at an early age and by 12 she was already known as a painter in her own right. Kauffman was one of only two women founders of the Royal Academy in London.

below: “Still Life with Flowers and Gold Trophies” by Clara Peeters (1589-1657, Flemish)

below: Another still life with flowers, this one by Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750). She was a Dutch artist whose painting career lasted more than 60 years; she was a master at painting still lifes with flowers.

painting of still life flower arrangement, black and white copy pasted onto a wall outdoors

below: ‘The Redeemer’ by St. Hildegard von Bingen (c1098-1179), with a copy of the original (in colour and unfaded) underneath. St. Hildegard, or Sybil of the Rhine, was a German Benedictine abbess with many accomplishments to her name.

below: ‘The Penis Tree’. Between about 1325 and 1353, Jeanne and Richard de Montbaston printed books and manuscripts including the “scandalous, rude and misogynistic” poem, the ‘Roman de la Rose’. The first 4,058 verses were written by Guillaume de Lorris in the early 1200s and they describe a courtier’s attempt to win over a woman. About 40 years later, Jean de Meun (aka Jean Chopinel) wrote another 19000 lines. This was before the invention of the printing press so each manuscript was hand drawn. The picture shown here of a nun picking penises from a tree is attributed to Jeanne de Montbaston.

women, cats, and égalité

Posted on October 3, 2022 by Mary C

Three more large murals in the 13th arrond. of Paris

two murals on the sides of highrise apartments, a black cat by c215 and a medallion shaped piece by Shepard Fairy

below: Very French – liberté, égalité, and fraternité, in red, white, and blue by Shepard Fairey

mural by Shepard Fairey in Paris, on top of a building, French motto Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite forming a large circle, with a woman's head in the middle. Woman has roses in her hair.

below: Large black cat overlooking rue Nationale by French artist C215, aka Christian Guémy

below: Dface is the artist who painted this bright blue haired woman.

close up of DFace mural of a woman's head, bright blue hair and red lips, on the side of building in Paris

rue de la Fontaine au Roi

Posted on October 2, 2022 by Mary C

below: Crazy P (= Crazy Partners) creation, a collaboration between a number of artists. First, a skull by Cannibal Letters. Unfortunately, the skull’s white teeth are hidden by the construction rubbish in front of it.

around the corner of a small store, on exterior wall, a series of murals and street art pieces, first one is by crazy p and features a person in a brown gas mask

below: Shhhh…. says this shady fellow, by Dante

below: Mustached and bearded character by Piman50cl

mural of black and white character by artist Piman 50 cl

below: Walking past a big slurp and a few spider webs painted by Haribow

below: Taking the idea of going incognito one step farther, and hiding behind another layer of paint

below: Evidence that there was once more here

two faces, a man and a woman, in black and white remain while the rest of their mural has been covered over by another

below: More layers, in triplicate this time

evidence of at least three layers of different street art

below: What big claws you have! …. The better to cling to this wall my dear

high on the side of a residential building, a black line drawing of a wolf with fangs, as well as blobs by POST painted in 2020

a wall of throw up street art, different tags in different colours and styles

Nô portraits

Posted on October 1, 2022 by Mary C

These five street art portraits by Nô were seen on or near Rue Dénoyez in Belleville, Paris…. an older aboriginal Australia with his decorated boomerang, two young girls looking out for each other, another child, a man in dreadlocks, and an indigenous American in a feather head dress.

street art portrait by No on rue Denoyer in Paris, of an indigenous Australian man with arm upraised and holding a boomerang covered with aboriginal symbols and art

street art painting of two young girls dressed in blue, older girl is protectively holding the younger one

street art painting in Paris of a black man in dreadlocks with two girls, one on his shoulders, the other in front of him

portrait of a young child by artist no, on pink background, blue t shirt, black hair,

There are many more examples of his portrait painting on instagram, no street art

Photos were taken in June 2022

under the Hunter Street Bridge

Posted on September 30, 2022 by Mary C

In Peterborough Ontario the Hunter Street bridge crosses the Otonabee River. The west end of the bridge is in downtown while the east ends at James Stevenson Park. It’s in the park that you’ll find the paintings.

Back in 2015 and 2016 two of the arches under the Hunter Street bridge were painted. Nogojiwanong is an Ojibwa word for “place at the end of the rapids” and it was their name for the area that is now Peterborough.

Hunter Street bridge fromJames Stevenson park, grass in front, picnic tables under the arches

Facing the Nogojiwanong mural, and not visible in the above photo, are three animals – deer, beaver, and lion. Now the town is referred to as Electric City. Why? Because on May 24, 1884 Peterborough was the first town in Canada to have electric street lighting on downtown streets. Power was provided by the London Street hydroelectric water plant, also built in 1884.

arch under a bridge, street art painting of jumping deer with magenta antlers, a beaver, a log, and some leaves,

The murals on this arch were painted by Kirsten McCrea, with the help of Vicky Jackson (at least that’s what it looks like in the bottom right of this photo).

a street art painting of a lion with a curly mane and long tail, painted by Kirsten McCrea in yellow and black

from a mural in Peterborough Ontario by Jill Stanton, a picture of bloodroot plant, leaves, flowers, and roots under the ground

Bloodroot is a plant native to the Peterborough area. It gets its name from the fact that it bleeds red when the stems are cut. According to the text in the mural (bottom right, below), bloodroot propagates through a process called myrmecochory which is seed dispersal by ants. The seeds have external “appendages” that are rich in food that ants like. Once this food is consumed, the seed is discarded and can germinate.

This mural was painted in 2016 by Jill Stanton with the help of Andrew Ihamaki.

Photos taken September 2022

rue Mouffetard

Posted on September 19, 2022 by Mary C

This large mural, ‘Cecile’s House’, painted by SETH adorns the side of a school on rue Mouffetard (at rue Saint-Medard)

A small painting by the same artist is on the school gate, beside an upright grey and blue rabbit (un lapin gris et bleu!).

mural by seth on a gate, two kids, a boy and a girl kneeling face to face with heads joined together.

Also on rue Moufftarde are two whimsical pieces by Oji

red storefront, librairie (book store) with a small mural painted on the wall beside it, a painting by Oji of an older grey haired person with a cane spray painting something on a wall, and a younger man with a yellow bird on his head and pulling a wagon, watching.

Never underestimate the grey haired people!

Oji is amember of Lezarts de la Bievre, a collective of Paris street artists.

nous amour sens reve – four little words – we love meaning dream, mix and match to your heart’s content.

Photos taken June 2022

rue de Croulebarbe

Posted on September 19, 2022 by Mary C

In the 13th arrond. of Paris, on rue de Croulebarbe, there is one segment of wall covered with street art.

concrete wall on rue de Coulebarbe, about 8 feet tall, with some street art on it

below: Unfortunately Chloe’s name has been added on top of this mural by Titomulk, a pair of French artists. It hides some of the intricate black and white details, as well as some of the text, of the “Insania Cultura” mural. A singer with her microphone, a portrait of Van Gogh, a book with the title “Knowledge is Power”, a Spiderman mask, and a very naked man. “Si vous trouvez [illegible] culture, coute cher, essayez l’ignorance” translates to ‘If you find culture too expensive, try ignorance.’

below: Painted to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of “The Kid”, a silent movie starring Charlie Chaplin, by Sweb and Sonia O.

black and white street art painting, portrait of Charlie Chaplin, also a female actress, border is film with sprocket holes

below: A Mr. Myl creation – text and a toothy purple guy with a white nose ring, greenery, and barbed wire

mr myl text street art with purpe headed character, big teeth white nose ring,

below: Five black and white portraits of women with red text, “Hey Heroes, I will be your Queen”.

street art painted portraits in black and white, 5 women

smaller things in Lodz

Posted on September 16, 2022 by Mary C

Lodz Poland is home to many large murals that have been funded and promoted by organizations such as Urban Forms Gallery (Fundacja Urban Forms). Although not as common as in some cities, there are smaller works to be found – paste ups, stickers, and stencils by a number of artists. These are ones that I saw the day that I was in Lodz back in May 2022.

below: Putin as the devil, a Nazi devil surrounded by skulls and death.

paper pasteup graffiti with image of Putin with Nazi swastika on his forehead, fangs for teeth, and phallic devil's horns on his head. He is surrounded by a ring of small skulls

below: blue hand grenade

paper paste up on a metal sidewalk box, a large hand grenade made of repeating blue and white geometric pattern

below: Gu-tang Clan dog headed hand grenades plus a 2020 view of Earth.

below: A pasteup on a sidewalk box in Centrum that shares many similarities with the 2020 Earth above.

people walking past on the sidewalk, beside a metal box with a 2020 paper pasteup of a man in black hat, suit and tie, holding a red beating heart in his hands, picture has an elaborate border. Under it are 2 identical posters. Also a Lodz Poland street sign, Ulica Stanislawa Moniuszki, in Centrum.

below: This balck and white dog head features on many gu-tang works…

below: …. such as this one.

black and white paper paste up slap of a dog's head with upright pointy ears, a symbol of gu-tang clan graffiti artist or artists

below: A 3fala portrait of Katarzyna Kobro (1898-1951), a Polish sculptor.

a 3fala paper pasteup portrait of Polish sculptor who died in 1951, Katarzyna Kobro,

below: Man with a beard. More on 3fala (if your Polish is good): TrzyFala

a 3fala portrait of a man with beard and mustache, laughing

below: 3-D mask with a square nose and eyes closed

three dimensional graffiti, a mask attached to a concrete wall. top part is painted blue with word LAD in white, bottom part painted to look metallic, brassy, eyes closed, square nose

below: A masked swordsman painted on a fence

below: An abstract painting that was pasted to a wall.

abstract painting on paper that was pasted to wall and is not peeling and fraying at the corners, in blues, yellows and reds

below: A pink balloon dog crosses the street at the crosswalk. The sticker on the left says “Moje ciato, moj wybor”, or: my body, my choice.

below: A grumpy, angry bald man growling at the world.

small graffiti pieces on the exterior wall of an abandoned building, on plywood covering a door is an eye with legs, three small heads on exposed brick, and a larger painted, line drawing face of a scowling man with no hair

below: A house for a body? Or a house with legs? Whatever it is, it seems to be wearing adidas shoes. It too is angry and letting the world know it. Random words, win, and sugar.

below: Flower

black marker on white, drawing of a flower, on a metal sidewalk box

below: square happy faces

below: Lodz, No Surrender

below: Small pink happy cat with twinkling yellow heart.

below: A bird? and its shadow

two women and a faded heart

Posted on September 14, 2022 by Mary C

below: A red headed woman wrapped in a blue shawl and holding a white rose. White roses are symbols of purity and innocence as well as love and affection. Traditionally the Virgin Mary is depicted with a blue shawl or similar clothing. The mural is ‘Oblicze Piękna’, painted in 2018 by Paulina Nawrot. The title translates to Face of Beauty, or Vision of Beauty.

below: A faded woman sits by her telephone in a 2014 mural by Russian artist, Morik as part of Galeria Urbans Forms.

mural by Morik of a woman sitting on the floor beside a telephone, with large plant leaves around her, monstera deliciosa.

close up of part of a mural, a woman's head with large leaves from a monstera deliciosa house plant.

close up of part of a mural, an old fashion telephone with the receiver off the hook and lying on the floor. A woman's hands and bare feet are by the phone.

below: Another faded mural, this one shows an anatomically correct heart with half of a butterfly on each side. Above the heart grows a large tree. The mural was painted in 2015 by Puerto Rican artist Alexis Diaz and is titled “Czuć” (or in English, “Feel”)

on the side of a building with a small tree partially blocking the view, a faded mural. An anatomically correct heart in the center bottom with a large deciduous tree growing from it. A butterfly, cut in half, sits on either side of the heart.

Bird Watching

Posted on September 13, 2022 by Mary C

“The Vision of St. Dominic”, 2017, by Paulina Nawrot and Ola Adamczuk, one of three murals sponsored by the Dominican order of Łódź in honor of its 800th birthday.