A few scenes from downtown Springfield Massachusetts. Most of these were found around Stearns Square.
below: Bloom’s wall is adjacent to a parking lot on Stearns Square. Most of the images are ads for photographic supplies.
below: Motorcycles and cars in paint and mosaics
below: Park Here, park with the birds
below: Across the street from the parking lot is, “The Artist” by Jeff Henriquez, 2021
below: Las Vidas Negras Importan! Along with Empathy, Energy, and Equality.
below: “Geoutopia” by Kim Carlino, for Fresh Paint Springfield 2019, seen at Stearns Square.
below: These portraits of the characters from The Wizard of Oz were painted by John Simpson.
below: John Simpson also painted a series of portraits of Jazz musicians origianally for the Jazz and Roots Festival one year. Carlos Santana is on the right.
below: Three saxophone players, including Charlie Parker in the center.
Lynn is a town in Massachusetts just outside of Boston. It is also one of the towns that participate in Beyond Walls, a non-profit organization that believes that art can build better cities. There is a lot of street art here! This isn’t the first post about Lynn – it is a look at some of the painting along the railway line near the station in central Lynn.
below: As the railway passes through Lynn, it is above grade. The sections underneath along the parking lot on Mt Vernon Street have been decorated with street art murals. The large building in the background is on the other side of the tracks and is featured in another blog post, Behind a building on Union Street
below: At one end of the parking lot is a large mural that is a collaboration between Yu-Baba and Key Detail.
below: On the other side of the tracks there is more art.
below: A canine-like critter (dog? wolf?) with a black shiny nose and sharp white teeth by Ghost Beard
below: Nead2‘s rendition of Bart Simpson as a graffiti artist.
below: It seems to rise like a plume of smoke – a painting on one of the pillars supporting the railway bridge, painted by Yuknow K Lou
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below: Also by the tracks…
below: Ruben Ubiera painted this mural on Silsbee Street close to the railway tracks and station. There are words on the black band on the gorilla’s shoulder that say “Entering Lynn”.
below: Lastly, just across from the tracks Kevin Ledo has painted “Do you realize” on the side of one of the small apartment buildings.
This post highlights three murals in Lynn Massachusetts that feature a portrait of a woman. They certainly aren’t the only women portrayed in Lynn, they just happen to be located close to each other.
below: Layers of women. Two portraits on different buildings but from the same viewpoint. In front, “The Protector” by David Zays; In back, a mural by Marka27.
below: From a better angle, the woman in blue with a yellow flower in her hand in the mural by Marka27, aka Victor Quinonez.
below: Yellow petals flying away, blowing in the breeze.
below: “The Protector”, a mural by David Zayas. Like many of his murals, there is a lot of symbolism. The aloe plant is known for its healing properties and hence is a symbol of protection. The rooster on her shoulder represents the resilience and fighting spirit that we need when life get tough.
below: Looking closer at the intricate detail in the rose pattern in her blouse and the detail in the rooster’s colourful feathers.
below: The orange colour in the bird has faded a bit so it’s more difficult to tell that it is a robin.
below: “Grandma Eve” by Helen Bur is on the same building as the Davd Zayas mural, but on the other side. Bur’s grandmother is shown holding a playbill designed by her husband during WW2 when he was a prisoner of war in the Pacific. The prisoners put on a play, ‘Murder at Sea’, and the artist’s grandfather designed the playbill for the show.
A portrait project from 2014 – 10 years on and still looking great
A total of 528 portraits line the side of a walkway under the railway tracks in Lynn.
They are the product of a Raw Art Works project – Young artists took photos of various people in Lynn and then made portraits from those photos. The portraits also include ones that the artists made of themselves.
Raw Artworks – whose mission statement includes the words; “to ignite the desire to create and confidence to succeed”. It’s a program for youth that has been running in Lynn since 1994.
below: Large back and white mural by Alex Senna with feet overhanging a parking lot.
below: The large feet also sit above a line of circus themed images. These vignettes, so to speak, are also seen on the other side of the building (a theater). Some of them are shown here.
below: Two clowns.
below: Magic rings
below: Another magician with his props
below: “Welcome to the Golden Theater Beautiful” on one side and “Le Grand David and his Own Spectacular Magic Company” on the other.
below: Appropriately, it was painted on a bicycle store wall. Sadly, the bike shop closed in 2018 after being in business for 70 years. The frog on its bike endures.
below: Mural by Helen Bur and Sam Worthington, “Uprising”
below: This mural is dedicated to Howard Lomen (1959-2004). There are words written on the mural including: “Charles Olson and Vincent Ferrini fire their poetry pistols in a dual at niles beach.” It was painted by his son Erik Lomen. Both Olson and Ferrini (in the black hat) were poets from the Gloucester MA area (just up the coast from Beverly).
below: The blur of headlights in the night, a mural by Dana Woulfe
below: A lively flower arrangement by Hailey Bonia
below: Nowhere over fast and a burning car
below: Stay Calm and Love Your Neighbourhood
below: Stickers on a stop sign including a green snail
below:Wrdsmth – “This is my palette. A mere twenty-six deep, yet the possibilities are infinite.” … Plus his typewriter that appears in all his graffiti and street art. The mural also credits PowWow Worcester which was an annual arts festival (for a few years prior to 2021) that was responsible for bringing a number of murals to the city.
below: A tower of women, by Marka27, aka Victor Quinonez, 2016, a very vertical mural on the side of the parking garage at Federal Plaza.
below: A painting by Christina Angelina, another parking garage mural at Federal Plaza
below: Another mural that was painted during a PowWow Worcester is this cartoon-like painting by Greg Mike (2016).
below:Jason Eatherly’s trucks parked beside the old brick building.
below: One of the first murals painted in Worcester is this now slightly faded creation by Caleb Neelon
below: At the YWCA, two young girls in shades of blue on a red background.
below: Keep on smiling!
Photos taken July 2024
There were also murals by Damien Mitchell (below) and Insane that I saw in downtown Worcester but they have already been featured in a prior blog post, (Insane + One)
below: Chicopee mural along the ground floor level of an apartment building in the center of town.
below: From a different angle
below: The poppy as a symbol of remembrance. I haven’t been able to learn why it appears in at least three murals in the city unless it is coincidence). There are poppies in the Chicopee mural above as well as on this smaller painting. The state flower is the mayflower so that is not an explanation for the poppy….
below: “Paint the Woods” by Christina Bryden, 2020 – A stained glass rose window makes this building look like a church but it is actually Chicopee City Hall. It was built in the early 1870s and the architect was Charles E. Parker of Boston. It was modelled on the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence Italy. Chicopee is on the Connecticut River.
below: USS Chicopee – During WW2 she served as a station tanker, or as an escort oiler, helping to refuel ships along the eastern USA coast or in the Atlantic. In the later stages of the war she saw service assisting the US Pacific Fleet (during Iwo Jima and Okinawa). In 1946 she was returned to her owners, Standard Oil; she ended her life as a container ship, under a few different names. She was scrapped in 2010.
below: A large white dog on a blue leash, a painting by Betz (half of dou, Etam Cru), aka Polish artist Mateusz Gapski. Painted March 2024 – it is on the same apartment building as the Chicopee mural at the top of this blog post. This painting was also a Beyond Walls project.
The “El Punto” Neighborhood in Salem, Massachusetts now features over 75 large scale murals, by both world renowned and local artists, within a 3 block radius. It is all part of the Punto Open Air Museum, or Punto Urbana Art Project. This blog post focuses on the murals on the sides of a group lowrise (3 storey) apartment buildings in that neighbourhood. Some of these buildings are close together making it awkward to photograph the murals while still keeping in mind the residents’ privacy.
below: Avery happy woman in shades of purple, this is “Anacoana” by Ruben Ubiera, 2017
below: “Communion with us” by GLeo – a young woman in white veil, dress and gloves.
below: “Eternal Vibrations” by Trek6 (aka Oscar Montes). A hummingbird with long flowing colourful tail feathers, like ribbons blowing in the breeze as the bird flies.
below: One of the walkways between buildings.
below: Like the text says, “Here for the Imaginable” by Meg Zany, 2018
below: The shape of leaves, white on reddish brown, in an untitled mural by Veronica Rivera.
below: Part of “Stranger Things” by Jeff Henriquez, 2017 – three men in three different colours, with a night time scene with car lights and roads, running through them. (full mural in the next photo)
below: “Three Eyed Witch” by Edward Granger, 2018
below: ” El Campesino” ( or The Farmer) by Ruben Ubiera, 2017
below: Tucked back in a corner is an untitled mural by Aquarela Sabol
As I walked around Lynn I spotted a few posters on display, all of which dealt with the Covid pandemic that started back in 2020. You might be able to make an argument that these aren’t exactly street art but I think that their roots are firmly in the art community.
below: This is a copy of a much larger mural that first appeared in Amsterdam. “Super Nurse” is the creation of FAKE (aka Manuel Seikritt).
below: On the left – Unsung Heroes by Randy Stolinas – a thankful shout out to all those in the service industries who were also essential workers. On the right, useful, and still relevant, advice from Ed Wainaina
below: A copy of Shepherd Fairey’s (aka Obey) “We the People; Protect Each Other”
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Eyes on the Streets 