… a small lane in central Melbourne with lots of street art.
below: A very round face, a mysterious face. Is he sticking out his tongue? Where is his other eye? What happened to his neck? And then you could ask why his hand is drawn that way.
below: A very realistic drawing of a person with black hair, seated, with hands together wrapped around a glass jar. This wheatpaste piece of art has probably been strategically placed behind window bars. Unfortunately, the signature for this piece is also behind the bars.
below: Balloon and frying pan behind bars, by Tweet
below: Spread Love, not the Virus, a message brought to you by Mickey Mouse in a black Covid mask.
below: Raccoon by MyCuteCreatures on the top and a little guy with skull head and little black bat wings on his back.
below: The top one is probably a head.
below: Hairy purple creatures lurk in the lane.
below: White birds in flight behind the garbage bins.
below: Looking down Whitehart Lane
below: Paintings by Aki Yaguchi (female), floating girls and stars
below: A royal looking lion painted by Michael Che Romero. This Lion King mural was painted back in 2019 and was sponsored by Vivache Designs (note, Romero is/was their Creative Director).
below: Like most of the black and white stencils on this page, this is the work of King of the Clowder.
below: A closer look at two of the photos by monomelbourne that are seen in the vertical column in the above picture. On the bottom – Looking from Alexandra Gardens, across the river to St. Pauls Cathedral.
below: Joined together under a ring of thorns or barbed wire.
below: Many Melbournes with 3 posters with slightly twisted humour. Top – “What’s yours is mine”, Middle – “Mortgage Stress? Sell your kids (& mum), Bottom: “Last Christmas I gave you my heart, Give it back!”
below: Disease, but upside down
below: Dating from at least 2019, another King of the Clowder artwork that looks very Freddie Mercury-ish
below: The original King of the Clowder piece of the headless hoodie has been added to and now has a scowling face on a big fat head. A can of “squirt black” is still adding to his features.
below: mmm
below: “Anyone can be any gender”… whether or not you agree, the world goes on.
below: Tintin, with something red in his hand, makes an appearance here too.
below: Tweety bird and his More Magikal Alphabets including Persian Hieroglyphics from Tweet (tweet_streetart)
below: Multiples
below: A weird and wacky green creature by Lukas Kasper
below: Am I my own actions and intentions, or others perspectives? An interesting question posed by Current Remains.
below: Skateboard art – Putting an old skateboard to good use!
Visitors to Langs Lane (at Little Bourke) are greeted by a very large blue insect thanks to artist Louis Moore.
Langs Lane is a short alley that ends in a very narrow passage as it approaches Bourke Street.
At the narrowing of the alley there is a pink angel with curly black hair and red wings.
There is another blue painting here by Louis Moore – an image of a fish. Or more correctly, part of a fish as the fleshy part of its middle is missing. Just the spine and bones of the center section are still intact.
A man in a cap seems to survey the alley
This poor flower was trying to say something but someone had the audacity to rip her face.
There are a few other remnants of artwork on paper that had been on display here. From what I can tell, there was a series of photographic works titled “Phobias”. It was presented by the Stills Co-op back in 2018 and featured works depicting some of our deepest fears. Unfortunately, very little remains but of course that is what happens when art is left to the elements. It takes on a life of its own, beyond our control. Until someone comes along and paints or papers over the old – you may have noticed some of the Phobia papers behind Louis Moore’s blue fish.
Sometimes the resulting fragments that are still visible can catch our attention.
It was an interesting, and quite extensive, exhibit. Like many art exhibits, the originals live on the internet. See the video at Gavin John Photoography
Some of the other graffiti in Lang Lane is cartoonish. Some with known cartoon, or animated, characters such as Marge Simpson
… or Odie the dog from ‘Garfield’ (with more paper fragments behind).
…. Finlay Lane, a short lane with a dead end, in Melbourne’s CBD (Central Business District).
below: Graffiti on an alley wall
below: Urban Cake Lady, with the red hoodies and blue and white striped pants that she likes to use in her artwork.
below: Human? Devil? An impish blue character with a long red satanic tail.
below: This isn’t the clearest image, but what you looking at here is a character putting on a mask. Its face is black and its two eyes look like lights (and are barely in the photo)
below: With all the wrong lighting, a large painting by Ling, for Flash Forward Melbourne whose line is “40 Artists, 40 Acts, 40 Laneways”. The image is too dark, but it’s a man in blue shirt, red robe, holding out one hand. A better picture can be found at the Flash Forward Melbourne website.
below: Very stylized and abstracted but I think I see a motorcycle helmet, and perhaps a black hand reaching upwards.
below: In Melbourne’s CBD, Tattersall and Stevenson alleys are connected. They are also covered with a lot of paint and paper! As I wandered through these lanes I tried to capture some of the more interesting things, both big and small.
below: Spiderman likes taking pictures
below: The Street Art Hunters (aka SAH) are dressed in hot pink!
below: A purple Frankenstein along with his bride, also in purple, hanging out together behind bars. Artwork by Moon of Jupiter Art (aka Ryan Callisto)
below: Now in green. A small Complimentary Nuts paste-up is immediately below this version of Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein, “7 out of 10 dentists say that your teeth are awesome. The other three need your cash”.
below: A third poster by Ryan Callisto. This time Frankenstein is just a tattoo on her arm.
below: “You’ve got to love Melbourne!”
below: Fall in love, not in line
below: “Sending you love because wow! what a shithow” and Love is Hell.
below: “What if we kissed in the smouldering ruins of capitalism?”
below: Little beaded diamond shapes like these have appeared all over downtown Melbourne.
below: Every deck of cards needs a Joker
below: Two artworks, paper paste-ups. A woman’s portrait on top and a playing card style image of Jimmy Hendrix, the H of Hearts, below.
below: Prince, in purple, becomes the P of Hearts in this playing card style image.
below: When someone came along with a can or two of spray paint, the little girl with the “Just doubt Fascism” sign survived. The bug on the right is probably not too happy with the situation.
below: A musical bluebird by Lukas Kasper.
below: Is it smiling? or smirking?
below: Two megaphones… and a very determined look on her face
below: It’s always fascinating to see how some bits of graffiti last so much longer than others. Even if they are left untouched, they slowly weather and fade away until almost ghost-like.
below: While we are on the subject of “vintage” graffiti, there are four pieces on this wall by Junky (aka Daniel Lynch) They are looking a little rusty and forlorn. I first encountered ‘recycled’ cans like these when I was in Melbourne in 2016. See post, Junky Recyles
below: Button-eyed face
below: What is a Lost Form?
below: Door covered with posters, street art images
below: Closer view of the posters on the bottom half – SAH, Tweet
below: top half
below: Scrawny alien-like character with big yellow eyes and spikey hair. Is there a pop culture reference for this guy?
below: The sad grey man with the very long arms and bad posture is another creation of stenandoli. In the middle is an Australian White Ibis by tweet – I wonder what it is trying to say to the cat?
below: A foxy lady, by Susi Foxy Art, aka Susi Luard.
below: Carried away by a yellow balloon…..
below: left: “T Phobia is rooted in White Supremacy” with a purple flower. middle: “Don’t be dick”, with a yellow flower. right: He seems to be holding a fish. Seems fishy?
below: Look out everyone, there’s an angry looking Blastoise pokemon character coming your way!
Batman delivers. Unfortunately, the image below is cut off but the words say, “Oh Clark, the Christmas street art is amazing!”
And Christmas street art it is, a whole double door in Hosier Lane covered with Christmas themed graffiti, stickers, and paste-ups – part of the Melbourne Street Art Collective meet-up on 15th December 2024.
“Have a crackin’ good Christmas” nutcracker by Lisa D. as well as a Christmas tree full of guitars. The “pin-up women” Christmas images are the work of Srta~Dolores. In the bottom right corner is a painting of a woman done on a drinks list menu; Moscow Mules, Bellinis, Brambles, and Dark and Stormys for $9 each. It is the work of Jimzina
Minnie Mouse and a grandmotherly Mrs. Claus make an appearance along with another Lisa D. illustration, this time candy canes.
below: Rock on Santa, love the cool shades. The yellow LEGO guys have “SAH” on their jackets – Street Art Hunters!
below: “Gnome means gnome.”, Homer Simpson as Santa Claus, and Robbo-t gets dressed up like an elf.
below: Batman is still delivering gifts but now he’s wearing a special Batman Christmas sweater. A very Australian koala looks on.
below: This Santa wears big pink glasses and a rainbow hat.
below: Bart Simpson spray paints a Christmas message while Lisa Simpson stands by.
below: The bottom of the image is cut off, and a blob of blue spray paint gets in the way, I’m afraid, but there is a pink and white cowboy boot filled with Christmas goodies by Alice Mole. Also here, SAH – Street Art Hunters, ‘playing cards’ with Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer….
below: I think that it’s Marilyn Munroe surrounded by shiny Christmas baubles.
below: Santa Sleighs
below: Even pokemon characters celebrate Christmas, as do the characters from ‘The Nightmare before Christmas’.
Santa gnomes with text: “Damn we’d like a kiss from a beauty like you. Come on mistletoe, work your magic” and top right: “With looks that hot, you’re melting any chance of a White Christmas”. These were brought to you by the Complimentary Nuts
below: Santa and Mrs. Claus baking in the kitchen together – maybe they’re making gingerbread men!
below: Santa celebrates a successful night of sleigh driving and toy delivering with a well deserved day at the beach with a friendly kookaburra and a playful platypus.
below: “It’s okay to say No, No, No” by Katie Ruby
Beaney Lane is a small lane in downtown Melbourne. Once it was nondescript, now it has colour. Along one wall there is a large street art painting with a portrait of a blue lady at one end. The words “Inner Dream” are written beside her head. Her hair is covered with a net-like cap; a waterdrop shaped jewel rests between her eyes. She was painted by Mongolian born artist, Heesco.
Australian artist Matt Adnate was also involved in the making of this mural. A pair of green eyes peers out from behind a head covering.
This structure stands in a park in Port Phillip (St. Kilda) Melbourne.
below: An owl on the left and a lion’s head on the right – with a can of spray paint in the middle.
below: The interesting part of the artwork is the other wall. Here there is a large image made of ceramic tiles. You can find many familiar St. Kilda landmarks in the picture – the pier, Luna Park, and the beach for instance. The central image is surrounded by squares decorated with various symbols, pictures, and/or words.
below: “TRUST” as well as “Bad Spellers of the world untie”
below: “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” as well as “Belonging to something, to someone, that’s what health’s about”
below: “Silence never won rights. They are not handed down from above, they are forced by pressure below.”
below: “HOPE” as well as as Thoreau quote: “The world is but canvas to our imagination.” It also asks a question: “Would it be a problem if you had a peaceful mind?”.
“Welcome to our site of community reflection, respect, recovery, resistance, compassion across difference. This is a place where differences are forgotten and your heart unites with others. This mural was launched on the 4th of Dec 2009 by Frank O’Connor (mayor), Serge Thomann, Mirka Mora, Carolyn Briggs, Aunty Jacks.
Eyes on the Streets 