fantasy among the windows

Posted on November 3, 2023 by Mary C

On the back of an apartment building in Seville (Sevilla) Spain there is a mural that is a collection of scenes involving fantasy animals and characters.

back of an apartment building, with many small scenes painted in one mural

part of a larger mural, a monster like character leaning over

below: Long and flexible arms make it possible for her to water the flowers and reach out to others at the same time. … even if she’s got wet hair.

part of a mural, a woman in a red dress is holding a watercan over her head and watering a real flowerbox in a real window of the residential building that the mural is painted on

part of a mural, a cyclist on a blue bike

part of a mural, blue and white striped shirt

Six artists were involved: Francisco Javier, Hiquera Gonzales, Lolita Paz, Sandra Del Gado, Roberto Moreno and Joaquin Heredia.

Photos were taken February 2023

Other murals in this neighbourhood can be seen in the next blog post, “Murals, Seville apartment buildings”

Senor Schnu hangs out in Aachen

Posted on October 31, 2023 by Mary C

Meet Senor Schnu – you’ll know him by his black mustache, his brown stick body, and the bite out of his head. This half eaten popsicle is the creation of Philip Wallisfurth. He has his own Instagram page.

painting of a large senor schnu character, red popsicle on brown stick, with bite taken out of its head, large black curly mustache, smiling face

below: Spreading Schnumunism like Chinese propaganda

sticker, senor schnu

below: A large paper paste-up of a rainbow flavored Senor Schnu hovers above the owl.

below: A kiss for the big guy
yellow senor schnu being kissed by a comic character, male, in the snow

below: Snowy, Tintin’s little white wire fox terrior, is carrying this Senor Schnu in its mouth – running off to have adventures?

two small stickers on a metal pole. On the top, a black bird on purple background, on bottom, Snowy the dog has Senor schnu in its mouth

below: Senor Schnu, a wanted criminal in a Dick Tracey cartoon.

three black and white stickers on a pole.

The German word for mustache is schnurbartt
Photos taken October 2023

a weird one

Posted on October 30, 2023 by Mary C

This is a mural painted by Vidam in central Aachen. It was painted in 2018 and is titled “Weird”.

mural by vidam in aachen, large man with orange skin and white hair including mustache and beard, wearing sleeveless white top with a first prize pin on it.

part of a mural by vidam, in blues and oranges, skull wearing glases, blue mushrooms,

mural around a door, with red car parked in front, blue donkey in the mural,

part of a mural with a pink heart, blue arm and hand

Photos taken October 2023

Platanenweg ten + one

Posted on October 28, 2023 by Mary C

The “If Walls Could Speak” festival in 2019 was an Amsterdam Street Arts (ASA) project whose aim was to create 10 large murals, each on the end of a row of apartments on Platanenweg in Amsterdam Oost. These are the ten murals.

Blue metal sign affixed to brick building, street sign, Platanenweg, in Amsterdam

below: First, “In Case of Lost Childhood, Break Glass” by Leon Keer.

below: This mural is a Sjem Bakkus & IVES.one collaboration and is titled “De appel valt niet ver van de boom.” (in English: The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree).

mural by cobra on the end of a lowrise apartment building, cursive word cobra, a bright red apple, a mouth with a mustache in black and white

close up of part of cobra mural, painting of bright green apple beside a real window

below: A mural by British artist Dan Kitchener of a Japanese Geisha as well as a street scene on a rainy night.

mural by Dan Kitchener, Japanese geisha girl

mural by Dan Kitchener, street scene in Japan city on a rainy night, Japanese geisha girl

mural by Dan Kitchener, street scene in Japan city on a rainy night

below:aka Painting by Studio Giftig (aka Niels van Swaemen and Kaspar van Leek) – a bare footed woman in mid-air with a few pigeons.

Large mural by Studio Giftig,Niels van Swaemen and Kaspar van Leek, of a woman and a pigeon

part of Studio Giftig mural, pigeon beside a small real balcony

close up of woman in mural by studio giftig

below: A bird with pink, green, and turquoise feathers is keeping an eye on the balcony. It was painted by Dopie.

large mural on the side of an apartment building, a large bird, with pink head, green neck, turquoise and green body, pink legs and feet.

below: Lots of arms and hands holding boxes in a mural with the title of “Carrying Belongings” by Case Maclaim.

mural by Case Maclaim, hands holding boxes, on the side of an apartment building in Amsterdam

below: A boy under a tree with a creature (dragon?) in his hands. The text says “When it comes to settling disputes, compassion is more useful than magic”. It was painted by German artist Hera (one half of the artistic partnership, Herakut).

a young black boy kneels under a tree with a small dragon in his hands. a second dragon sits on a branch of the tree and is looking down. Text in the mural says When it comes to settling disputes, compassion is more useful than magic

below: The symbol of Amsterdam, the three white X’s on a black stripe with a red background. It is based on the city’s coat of arms which features a red shield with a black band and three silver St. Andrew’s crosses. The same design is found on the Amsterdam flag. Mural was painted by Kash (aka Friso Kasher) and Chuck (or Chuckone)

mural with symbol of Amsterdam on it, red background, black stripe with three white St. Andrews crosses

below: This girl and her little pink heart are part of a large mural by Julieta XJF, “Wherever you come from, here you are welcome.”

part of a large mural by Julieta XJF, a girl with bangs (hair fringe) is holding a little pink heart

mural with a large white bird and a girl with little pink heart in her hand

below: Three of the buildings with the murals on them.

a street scene, three lowrise apartment buildings with murals painted on the street facing side, trees,

below: “Beter een goede buur, dan een verre vriend.” (English: “Better a good neighbor than a distant friend.”) is the title of this mural by Smug One. mural by Smug One, an older man's portrait, wearing light blue baseball cap and light blue hoodie

Smug One mural of an older man, large, on the end of an apartment building

below: Although it wasn’t part of the 2019 festival, this mural by DFace is across the street from the others. “I feel so incomplete” reads the text. It is actually a few years older than the other murals that I have shown here.

D Face mural in the style of Roy Lichtenstein, a blonde woman with bright red lipstick looking back over her shoulder, with text, I feel so incomplete

A stranger in town

Posted on October 21, 2023 by Mary C

“L’Etranger” by Os Gemeos is a very large and rather strange man with skinny legs and long skinny arms. His feet are bare.

mural by Os Gemeos on a wall in Heerlen, a very tall man with big round head, brown pants, and striped shirt

He’s holding a tiny house with a crooked chimney into which a woman barely fits. Her feet stick out the open door and one arm is out the window but she seems quite content. She’s hardly bigger than the knee patch on his brown pants.

part of a mural by os gemeos, a woman is squeezed into a little box like house, she's sitting with her feet sticking out of the door, crooked chimney on the house,

On the other hand there is a balancing act going on. She’s holding a megaphone while standing on stilts AND while carrying another creature on her back. Yes, this is definitely Strange!

This guy has a little white bird one one finger. His arm is outstretched as he either disappears back into the wall, or as he comes out of the wall. He’s wearing a bright green shirt buttoned up tight to his neck that doesn’t quite match the hexagon patterned pants. One little fancy curl graces the top of his head.

Be careful where you walk!

bottom of mural, man has very large feet, pale blue toe nails, bare feet, a black motorcycle is parked beside the mural

Photos taken October 2023

under a Heerlen bridge

Posted on October 20, 2023 by Mary C

There are two murals, bright eye catching red helping to hold up a bridge in Heerlen. They were both painted by Brazillian artist Finok, aka Raphael Sagarra, in 2014. The first mural is painted in mostly white, red, and green… three masks, a fish, and a chicken-like creature.

mural by finok, bright red background, 3 faces, one fish pointing upwards

On the same bridge, across the street, is another Finok mural. It too is on a red background. Is the fish about to eat the white headed guy? Or like a genie, has he just been conjured from the fish’s mouth? Whatever the backstory is, the white headed guy looks rather frightened.

mural on bright red background, on bridge overpass

photos taken October 2023

the colourful ox

Posted on October 20, 2023 by Mary C

….or at least a blue and white ox standing on its own box. De Bonte Os is Dutch for The Colourful Ox. Appropriately, this is Bonte Ossteeg, or in English, Colourful Ox Alley in Delft.

The mural was painted by Hugo Klaagman in 2013. It incorporates many of the images associated with the area such as Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring from the painting of the same name. There are also windmills, cyclists, flowers, and a few famous people. There are also blue and white motifs found in the ceramic tiles made here in Delft.

people walking towards Bonte Ossteeg in Delft

some of the images in bonte ossteeg mural by Hugo Kaagman

part of mural with number 22 beside door

street sign for bonte ossteeg with mural, word delft in the mural, blue and white

couple walking past parked bikes to small alley with a blue and white mural, bonte ossteeg

In the alley after dark

Posted on October 14, 2023 by Mary C

A walk down Graffiti Alley on a rainy night.

below: Unfortunately, one of Uber5000’s large Toronto/Canada themed murals has been defaced (the one on the north side of the alley).

below: Doug Ford running away with the money, stencil graffiti by D. Terra. Our Premier seems rather happy with his haul. Accurate?

below: A dope piece that bears some resemblance to Homer Simpson.

below: A yellow one-eyed daisy standing tall.

below: This portrait has hair!

below: For some reason, a section of one of the side lanes (McDougall Lane? or Rush Lane?) was lit by a red light. Here there was a collection of pasteups and stickers including one with an abundance of flowers in her hair, a skater figure by drecks. She is joined by a bare breasted woman with even more flowers on her head as well as a Snoopy look alike and a cat on the telly.

below: On the same wall as the above – Tweetie bird, from Australia, along with some friends. Because of the red light, this photo is very low contrast and difficult to see. Best to see this wall in the daytime! Second best, would be to check out the instagram page of tweet_streetart

below: Another selection of slaps, mostly birds this time.

below: A little raccoon

below: Mortus figure – his hands are almost big enough to hold all those skulls.

below: On the pavement

below: FP Monkey (aka Julia H), Skamoney, Monster Fan Club, and PP Spray

below: Poser bunny

below: Making a rap music video

below: The east end of Graffiti Alley, the part closest to Spadina, was very dark.

below: As it turns out, the buildings at this end (north side) are now behind a metal construction fence. Darkness equals empty I suspect.

below: Yes they matter but was there no where else to paint this? There’s so much junk in the alley that no one would miss.

below: I am going to end this post with a bit of a rant. Yes, to some extent the art in this alley has come somewhat commercialized especially with the newer buildings on Richmond that back onto the alley. Uber5000 has benefited from some of this as he has painted a few large (and very good) murals here. Also, I understand that street art by its nature is prone to “disappearing” behind the work of others but I reject the notion that one person’s tag is as good as another person’s mural. Anyone can destroy. Anyone can paint their “name” but if you are proud of writing it over someone else’s more talented work then you haven’t progressed beyond the preschooler phase of life.

Photos taken October 2023

This post also appears in mcfcrandall.blog

hedd space and his kin

Posted on October 11, 2023 by Mary C

This is a mural in Bushwick with the title “Hedd Space” painted by Mr. Hydde aka Darren DeGenova – when sitting around in your underwear binge watching TV has become normal.

TV heads, or Screen heads, are a popular meme/trope/motif. Sometimes it is a comment about the role of technology in our lives… how the media takes over our brains because it can so easily shape our thoughts and beliefs if we let it. Sometimes it’s a comment on how much time we spend looking at a screen of one kind or another.

Other “TV heads” were also seen around New York City such as thus downcast and dejected one by Sinth Node (aka Spencer). An old test pattern is on the screen. Once upon a time this is what you’d see on your analogue TV if there was no programming on a given channel (such as in the middle of the night). Now with 24 hour programming these patterns are rarely seen. Also, with technological advances in television, test patterns are rarely needed. When was the last time you adjusted the picture quality of your TV? Perhaps this poor guy just needs an adjustment?

below: Still with an orange hoodie, but now with a beige box that looks more like an older version of a computer monitor. Beside him is a heartfelt not from RendaWriter who leaves positive love messages wherever he goes.