The End

of endangered animals in Paris – animal portraits by a nameless stencil artist (pochoiriste) who signs his work The End

below: Orang-outan (orangutan) vs bulldozer.

coloured stencil street art portrait of an animal, orangutan, beside a yellow bulldozer

below: Colourful bird, La calliste multicolore or in English, Multicolored tanager. It lives in the the mountains of Colombia.

coloured stencil street art portrait of an animal, a bird, the multicoloured tanager from Colombia, by The End

below: Lynx

coloured stencil street art portrait of an animal, boreal lynx

below: Rhino and jockey in a piece titled “Race of Life”

coloured stencil street art portrait of an animal, a rhino or rhinocerous, with a jockey riding on its back

below: Bengal tiger

coloured stencil street art portrait of an animal, bengal tiger

below: A closer look at the tiger

coloured stencil street art portrait of an animal, close up look at the tiger's face

below: Panda

coloured stencil street art portrait of an animal, black and white panda

below: Bald eagle

coloured stencil street art portrait of an animal, bald eagle in flight, carrying a package in its beak

below: Lion

coloured stencil street art portrait of an animal, lion

Priority Mail from Stickermaul

Small collages of images or photographs along with printed messages on Priority Mail stickers from the US Postal Service are the work of Sticker Maul and they can be seen around Manhattan. Most of the ones shown here were found on the Lower East Side near The Bowery or Freeman Alley.

below: Their message is usually positive and uplifting such as this ‘Stay Hopeful’.  Is the word Go from a previous sticker that has been covered?

graffiti by sticker maul using united states postal service priority mail stickers.  Image of young girl in red jacket with fur lined hood

below: Flowers are pretty and so are you.  They look so much like packages of seeds; let’s spread some seeds of hope and acceptance. 

graffiti by sticker maul using united states postal service priority mail stickers.

below: Playful and fun. We all need a smile in our lives and yes, we need friends too.

graffiti by sticker maul using united states postal service priority mail stickers.

below: An exception here – instead of a sticker, a small miniature plastic pail finds a home in a small niche in a wall.

small miniature plastic pail tucked into a crack, small space, in an exterior wall, spray painted blue, with printed text on paper pasted beside that says buckets of love

below: Stay fierce!

graffiti by sticker maul using united states postal service priority mail stickers.

below: Stay amazing!

graffiti by sticker maul using united states postal service priority mail stickers.

Stay on the lookout for other great stickers!

Poke-wall in Bushwick

Back in 1996 the first Pokemon game was developed for the Nintendo GameBoy. Since then, the franchise has exploded in popularity and has included movies, television series, cards, and merchandise galore. If you “Gotta catch ’em all” then you’ll have to catch 923 species of fictional pokemon characters.

Obviously, only some of these species are shown in this mural including the bird-like characters in the picture below – Zapdos (the yellow spiky bird in middle) and Moltres on the left; the blue winged creature on the right is Articuno .

poke wall street art mural featuring some legendary bird species from the pokemon game including zapdos, moltres, and articuno

below: Gengar is the angry looking purple fellow guarding the door. MewToo keeps an eye on him from the other side of the door.

part of poke wall mural in bushwick showing some pokemon characters such as gengar who is purple, some yellow text tag graffiti in the mural too

below: Here we see a sleeping snorlax living up to its name.

poke wall mural with pokemon characters including a snorlax who is sleeping on top of some text

And of course there is cute little yellow Picachu

picachu pokemon flying in a mural

Five artists created this mural – Downer Jones, the duo of Menace Two and Resa Piece (aka menaceresa), Mch (aka damthatmooch), as well as demondoes.

Kobra on 10th Avenue

in Manhattan NY

There are two large colourful murals on 10th Avenue that were painted by Eduardo Kobra. Both are visible from the High Line, Manhattan’s elevated park.

below: Mother Teresa and Gandhi as seen from the High Line

view of 10th Avenue in Manhattan from the High Line park, including a Kobra mural of Mother Teresa and Gandhi

and then closer up, face to face, respectful, hopeful

a digger is parked on the street in front of a building with a mural on the upper level, a painting of Mother Teresa and Gandhi face to face, in many colours, by Kobra

below: A hint of a second mural – Andy Warhol can be spotted between two buildings.

glimpse of a mural with portrait of Andy Warhol in the background, seen in a gap between two taller brick buildings

below: Above the Empire Diner in West Chelsea is this mural inspired by the carvings on Mount Rushmore, a re-imagining of it if you will. Instead of four American presidents there are four famous artists – Andy Warhol, Frida Kahlo, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Mt Rushmore theme mural by Kobra with multi coloured portraits of four famous people, Andy Warhol, Frida Kahlo, Keith Haring and another famous artist, Jean Michel Basquiat

Photos taken October 2022

Hip Hop Homage

In a vacant lot on 14th Street in Manhattan are two large murals by the street art team, OSGEMEOS (or Os Gemeos), a Portuguese word meaning twins. An apt word in this case because the two Brazilian artists, Gustavo Pandolfo and Otavio Pandolfo, are twin brothers. The murals were painted in 2017 after a building was demolished – the lot is still vacant and the murals are still looking good (even if they are behind a fence).

They face each other across the wasteland. Music fans might be able to find the references to various musicians that have been included in the paintings.

Osgemeos mural hip hop homage on 14th street in New York city, young people with ghetto blasters playing music and dancing
two men walk past a vacant lot with a tagged fence in front of it, on the far side of the lot is a large Osgemeos mural hip hop homage on 14th street in New York city, young people with ghetto blasters playing music and dancing
Osgemeos mural hip hop homage on 14th street in New York city, young people with ghetto blasters playing music and dancing

Photos taken October 2022

Ligama and Loste

A large mural in Bushwick (Brooklyn) NY called ‘Brick Venus’ was recently painted by two Italian artists, Ligama and Mirko Loste. It features large sculpture-like faces. The face on the righthand side is so large it extends off the top of the wall so that you can’t see her eyes.

large grey eyeless face in a mural on an exterior brick wall, looks like it has been carved from stone

Some colour seems to be creeping into the middle face. Colour and life.

By the third Venus, the transition is complete; she is no longer made of stone

The Bushwick Collective – a graffiti and street art project of artists from around the world founded in 2011 and still going strong.

Phoebe on the streets of New York

below: Have a beautiful day, a beautiful autumn day!

a phoebe in new york paste up wheatpaste where she is holding an autumn coloured maple leaf or sycamore leaf, words on the image that say have a beautiful day.  on a pole beside a bike share rack

Phoebe paste-ups have been seen around New York City for a few years now. Sometimes she’s whimsical and sometimes she’s serious – she’s had a very busy life! She even has her own instagram page, Phoebe New York, where you can find all the other Phoebes!

a phoebe new york paste up on a pole, with a stick of dynamite by her ear, exploding with a large pop. she is wearing large sunglasses

a phoebe new york paste up wearing a black outfit, top, skirt, tights, and high boots, with the word rebel written in red on the top.  also carrying a red handbag

a phoebe new york wheatpaste with words All I want is everything

a phoebe of new york sticker, leaning her head onto boyfriends shoulder.  Male in image is wearing a sweatshirt that has boyfriend written on it

Museum Muses – Muses du musée

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.

black and white print of a still life with flowers in a vase and two trophies on a table

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

black and white print of a painting of a woman as vestal virgin posing, pasted on a wall outside

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.

a faded to sepia from black and white print of a painting of the redeemer, full of Christian symbolism, by St. Hildegard many centuries ago, copy is pasted onto a concrete wall with peeling paint in Paris

print of a painting of the redeemer, full of Christian symbolism, by St. Hildegard many centuries ago, original colours

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.

very small print of a medieval drawing of a person picking penises off a small tree and putting them in a basket, displayed with other images on an exterior wall with peeling paint.

women, cats, and égalité

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

large mural of a black cat's head, in profile

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

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

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

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

a woman dressed in blue walks past a wall painted in graffiti and street art

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

graffiti covering an older mural where only the head of a man in a red hoodie and sunglasses can be seen

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