evolving word bubbles, Hosier Lane

Posted on January 29, 2016 by Mary C

Hosier Lane in downtown Melbourne is always full of tourists. If you search online for street art in Melbourne, you will certainly find Hosier Lane. Like a lot of popular graffiti places, there is some good street art and there is some junk. I have been to Hosier Lane a few times now and what is interesting is how frequently things change in the alley. New paintings, or new little things are always popping up.

below: I took this picture, and the next one, the first time that I was in Hosier Lane.

graffiti on wall, words that say I have no idea what any of this shit on the walls say? Nice colours though

below: The thought bubble in the foreground was a much more popular place to pose.

Lots of graffiti on the wall of Hosier Lane, windows with metal bars over them, a man poses in front of words that say "Maybe if I pose for a picture in front of this wall it will help to hide the fact that my life is a lie"

Lots of graffiti on the wall of Hosier Lane, windows with metal bars over them, a woman poses in front of words that say "Maybe if I pose for a picture in front of this wall it will help to hide the fact that my life is a lie" while a man takes her picture with a smartphone camera

below: On a subsequent visit to the lane, the instructions became a bit more explicit.
I love the sneering pink face beside the sign!

below: The third time I saw this wall, a life size man had been added.
Take your picture with a stranger!

below: The other word bubble had also been added to.

An Asian woman poses in front of a wall of graffiti. On the wall in large red letters are the words 'look at me'

Bedford, Denison and Alton murals

Posted on January 28, 2016 by Mary C

Bedford St., Denison St. and Alton Lane are all close to Newton train station. Bedford runs parallel to the train tracks and some of the murals painted there can be seen from the other side of the tracks.

below: The house on the corner of Bedford and Denison is covered with this woman’s face.

A house on a corner that has been covered with a mural of a woman's face in black, white and grey. Her nose and mouth are on the first storey, her eyes are on the upper storey

below: The side of the same house as the above picture, also has a mural painted on it.

A mural on a wall, includes a black man with beard and mustache and red rimmed glasses, also includes a realistic looking crocodile

part of a larger mural, a realistic looking crocodile with lots of teeth

below: Across the street, on Denison, is another mural

mural of blobs and shapes in different colours on a wall in an alley

below: The mural above continues on Alton Lane

large two storey mural in a lane in Newtown Sydney

part of a larger mural in an alley, two faces in bright colours,

part of a larger mural, two figures, a man and a woman, are leaping together, legs parallel, their arms are outstretched and together they are holding a framed picture of a person.

below: Across the lane is another mural.

part of a larger mural, a hand and arm, as well as a purple hand with fingers crosses, also a purple man like creature.

part of a larger mural, a kookaburra bird sitting on a branch with its beak open wide., yellow background

very large street art painting of an upstretched arm and open hand, in grey
part of a larger mural with a skull, a bone in a hole and a sunflower growing out of the top of the skull

anthropomorphic KAT

Posted on January 26, 2016 by Mary C

Montreal street art by KAT features black and white posters of anthropomorphic (human like) creatures wearing animal masks.

below: rhinocerous but with antler limbs

poster of anthromorphic creature with animal mask on, rhinocerous. creature has branches, or antlers, for arms

below: Zebra

poster of anthromorphic creature with animal mask on, zebra mask, front hooves are in stocks (as in the old form of punishment) so it can't move

below: Cat

poster of anthromorphic creature with animal mask on, upright standing cat with small human creatures trying to climb up its legs

below: Meat in the window, and ready for dinner.

a poster of an creature wearing an animal mask sitting ina window sill, a knife in one hand and a fork in the other, looking like they are ready for dinner. A sign around its neck says 'meat'. A graffiti painting of a woman's face is beside the poster.

below: Giraffe, with hands screwed to the bars, and a tear on its cheek.

poster of anthromorphic creature with animal mask on, giraffe behind bars. only the head shows in the window. hands are grasping onto the bars.

below: White and black rabbits cut open and crudely stitched back together.

poster of anthromorphic creature with animal mask on - two rabbits, one black mask and one white mask, they are facing each other. A human figure is diving horizontally from a hole in the white creature (who is wearing the black mask) into a hole in the black creature

below: Owl with a bleeding heart

poster of anthromorphic creature with animal mask on, owl mask, with bleeding heart on its chest, and furry feather like coat

below: Tiger, not guilty

KAT graffiti artist poster of a person wearing a tiger mask, head and shoulders only visible, with a sign in front of it that says 'not guilty'

link to kat street art website

little pieces, Newtown

Posted on January 26, 2016 by Mary C

More graffiti seen in Newtown (Sydney)…
This time, little pieces that I saw – stencils, objects and little sculptures.

below: “Every day is invasion day” little relief sculpture graffiti

small relief sculpture graffiti of a naked man with the words 'Every day is invasion day'

below: “do you even” another little sculpture

small relief sculpture graffiti of a headless man holding up his T-shirt while holding a camera. Great abs on the guy

below: The whole pole was wrapped like this.

pole wrapped in colourful yarn crocheted in square pattern, laid on point, with green crochet yarn around the diamonds.

below: A balaclava mounted on a wall, similar to those seen in Melbourne
balaclava mounted on a brown brick wall, spray painted gray

below: “drink to get drunk” is inscribed on the smashed can.

crumpled piece of metal with a small spout, looks like a metal gas container. Words written on it are "drink to get drunk"

intricate and detailed drawing of a topless woman surrounded by apples and leaves. She is heavily tattooed

black on white stencil paste-up of a man's head

Goddard gallery

Posted on January 25, 2016 by Mary C

In Newtown (Sydney), Goddard Street is only one small block long. It runs west from King Street. The north side of Goddard is the wall of one building and that wall is home to a number of paintings. Gigi’s Pizza occupies the front part of the building, facing King street, but I’m not sure what else is there. Most of the paintings are unsigned and I have only been able to find information about some of them online.

below: four eyed cat, signed honeybunny

pictures painted on a wall on Goddard street in Newton, Sydney, Australia

below: The painting on the right is probably by Ears

pictures painted on a the wall on Goddard street in Newtown, Sydney, Australia

below: MW, left painting, is Mike Watt

pictures painted on a wall on Goddard street in Newtown, Sydney, Australia

below: The red face is by Ears

pictures painted on a wall on Goddard street in Newtown, Sydney, Australia

below: The woman’s head is the top of a painting by Lucy Lucy.

pictures painted on a wall on Goddard street in Newtown, Sydney, Australia

below: The rest of the painting by Lucy Lucy along with a portrait on a door by Crisp.
Narrow sidewalks, parked cars and rubbish bins – the bane of photographers taking pictures of street art!

Three street art paintings - two on a wall and one in the middle on a door. On the left is a woman by artist Lucy Lucy, in the middle a person in black, white and blue, and on the right a rabbit like faced creatures, wearing a top hat

below: A hunched over blue man by Skulk

pictures painted on a wall on Goddard street in Newtown, Sydney, Australia

street art | painting | murals | Newtown

words on Sydney walls

Posted on January 25, 2016 by Mary C

These words were all found in Newtown, Sydney.

below: “Oh Ian I’ll bring the old box where the quiet lies and the time died.
Oh Ian I’ll bring it all for you to see – Ian”
em>and “How could he

Two sets of words, one on white paste-up on a brown wall, and one written directly on the wall in black marker. On the white: How could he only ve been thinking for 4 two days/isn't thinking an ongoing process. and on the brown: Oh Ian I'll bring the old box where the quiet lies and time died. Oh Ian I'll bring it all for you to see - Ian.

below: “Oh Benita please don’t stick a knife into Linda.”

poster on wall that says Oh Benita please don't stick a knife into Linda. A picture of a toaster is below the words.

below: Kind? and P–? 2015

old, ripped past-up that had words on it, a hole it in reveals a drawing of a person underneath

below: “He was a tag |a used kleenex | a big wreck – Latham”

A white poster shaped paste up of a man sprawled on a chair wearing just underpants. Lots of empty beer bottles on the floor around him. Words above him say "He was a tag. a used kleenex. a big wreck" signed by Latham.

below: “When people tell me to look on the bright side I take that as a tacit permission to murder them – Vivi”

words written in block letters, black marker on brick wall "When people tell me to look on the bright side I take that as a tacit permission to murder them. Vivi"

below: “All is motion. Stillness is an imaginary state, future and past, the indoors and outdoors. We ‘the now’ merely a window through the pictures pass”

sticker on a one way sign, black words on white. All is motion. Stillness is an imaginary state, future and past, the indoors and outdoors. We 'the now' merely a window through the pictures pass

below: poetry in yellow

A poem written in yellow on an old wood fence

graffiti | paste-ups | words | street art

artist paper paste-ups

Posted on January 17, 2016 by Mary C

Paste-ups seen on Artist Lane, Windsor (Melbourne) this past weekend.

Artist Lane runs parallel to Chapel St. between Green and Union streets, just north of Windsor station. It has the highest concentration of good street art that I have seen yet in Melbourne. I have too many pictures for one blog post. As a result, have divided it up into sections, paste-ups (paper), stencils, and paintings. Here are the paste-ups.

below: It’s twenty seconds into 11:50 somewhere in the world.
I wonder what time the alarm is set for?

below: A perfect afternoon to sit and watch the world go by.

below: Cans inside of cans inside of cans. Tin Babushka dolls.

below: Beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing

below: Spraying on a happy face.

below: Flying away. Spraying only where eagles dare.

below: In case of emergency, smile. Put on a happy face.

below: Many words. Many bent and leaning columns at the tipping point.

below: Hammer and sickly cover the globe.

below: This one is signed, by barek

below: Every T-shirt tells a story, of sailing ships and volcanoes about to blow.

below: Watching paint dry, or maybe just thinking about it.

below: The snail is printed on scrap paper? or is there significance to the fact that the original purpose of the paper was information about Julius Baer, a Swiss private financial company, and EMA Partners, a company that matches executives with international companies, also based in Switzerland.

below: with a sigh and a shrug.

below: Stop on red signal. If you look closely, you’ll see that there is more to it than that.

A lot of the above art was done by Phoenix, a Melbourne street artist.
More information about him can be found on his website

day trip to Bendigo

Posted on January 16, 2016 by Mary C

There isn’t much street art in the town of Bendigo – or I was wasn’t in the right part of town. The five pictures below is all that I saw.

below: You’ve just been given the bird. Peace.

a white stencil on a blue wall, a dove in flight with an olive branch in its mouth. A hand and arm is made of the words "You have just been given the bird"

below: A supercalifragilistic stencil

black stencil on a light brown wall, Mary Poppins floating upwards with her open umbrella. Her trail is the word supercalifragiliciousexpialidocius.

below: Three women on walls.

black stencil on a stone wall of a woman's head, very large Afro hair style, smiling,

small paper wheatpaste of a blond woman on the door of a small metal box, with a padlock. The paper is peeling a bit and the rust from the box is also on the graffiti

Paper wheatpaste of a woman that is badly faded and peeled off. She is beside some purple spray paint.

bmd mural, Brunswick

Posted on January 14, 2016 by Mary C

BMD is a pair of guys, Andrew and Damin, from the town of New Plymouth in New Zealand. Recently (April 2015), they painted this large mural on McDougall street in Brunswick, close to Barkly square shopping center.
mural on a wall in alley, top part is a long pink animal and the bottom part is a text graffiti tag

mural on a wall in alley, top part is a long pink animal and the bottom part is a text graffiti tag

mural by bmd on an alley in Brunswick Melbourne, a pink animal on the top and a picture of a girl on the bottom

blog_bmd_mural_girl_barkly

part of a larger mural, two circular girls' heads that intersect like a venn diagram

two birds on a mural, drawn with interlocking triangles in green and black, blue sky and palm trees in the background

bird head on a mural, drawn with interlocking triangles in green and black, blue sky and palm trees in the background

More information about BMD on their website bmdisyourfriend

around Jewell station

Posted on January 14, 2016 by Mary C

Jewell train station is on the Upfield line in Brunswick. The Upfield Bikeway path runs alongside the tracks at this point. Most of the walls along the bike path have street art on them. This is a selection of the graffiti that I saw around Jewell station and south from there to Park street.

streetart paper wheatpaste black and white life sized photo of person standing on their hands with a cane beside them. Wearing fuzzy slippers and plaid pants and a hoodie that is covering their face (because it's upside down)

On the side of a small brown house is a large painting of a woman's head and neck. Short black hair, pink cheeks and her eyes are closed. The lower part of the picture is behind a fence. The picture takes up the whole side of the house.

a red bicycle is parked outside a bike shop that has a painting of a person on bicycle by the door. It is beside a bike path and the train tracks.

street art painting of two fat men's faces, white line drawing on black background, on a wall beside a sign that says Bike Shop

long abstract looking headless man lying horizontal, street art painting across the bottom of a building with wood siding. Written above in large black letters is Eve Novs

three small pink and white monkey wheatpastes under a large geometric (square) lettering tags. The monkeys are right by the ground. One is wearing sunglasses, one is wearing headphones and one is wearing a respirator. An interpretation of see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil

row of old brick buildings with diagonal rooflines covered with graffiti beside a bike path near Jewell train station

row of old brick buildings with diagonal rooflines covered with graffiti beside a bike path near Jewell train station - large text graffiti that says Eve MVH and the words "sit and wait" written underneath. Jamsr Klustr written in large letters above it.

geometric tag in white letters with black and orange accents on a red brick wall. Small letters of the words fwo, feeby and idem

tag graffiti, two pieces, on a wall beside a side walk

two trees in front a low small building with the side covered with one street art painting

an interesting piece of street art, horizontal across a building, letters, but some animals incorporated into it. K E and S and H for sure but not sure what the other letters are.

Outdoor graffiti on a corner wall by train tracks and a parking lot at Jewell train station

graffiti tag where the top half of the letters are yellow and the bottom half is orange. On green capital T is in the middle

looking across the train tracks to a side of a building that has been covered with street art

a row of terrace houses in Brunswick Melbourne with a parking lot at the left side. The side of the house closest to the car park has a mural painted on it.

a street art painting of the Hulk (green man) smashing through a wall with just his hands.

tag in pinks and blues with the letter a i c (or eric) in the corner

looking across the train tracks to a side of a building that has been covered with street art

mural with symbols of industry, gears, power line, smoke stacks,

Horizontal blue tag, letters, graffiti across the bottom of a building. Across the upper two floors is a large peeling paper wheatpaste of a person flying with two children holding onto the legs.