Breaking Walls in Montreal

Posted on August 4, 2023 by Mary C

Breaking Walls was an Urban Arts and Culture event in Montreal that was held back in June of this year. It was supported by Kolors Worldwide (“Let’s kolor the world”) and MOS Canada – Meeting of Styles Canada. The event was held in a space between rue Moreau and the railway tracks, close to rue Rouen, in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighbourhood. In hindsight, I realize that I missed a couple of the murals the day that I was there. Additionally, a couple of the smaller pieces that I have included may be graffiti that pre-dates the Breaking Walls event.

below: A Nick Sweetman and Mr. Tensoe2 collaboration

large street art mural with two blue owls

close up view of blue owl painted by nick sweetman, mural in Montreal, on brick wall

below: Vuducat aka Christina Mazzulla

mural by Christina Mazzulla, in reds and pinks mostly, woman's face

below: Jijón painted red and pink figure

mural by mexican artist jijon, pink character

below: I am going to call it a blue traffic circle because it’s blue and it has traffic related items in it such as an orange cone, the front of a car, street signs, and traffic lights yellow. It was painted by Sergio MB. Unfortunately, the red and white tag has already defaced the work.

blue circle shape with traffic related items like orange cone, traffic light,

To the left of this purple dog (by Hank) was a painting of a woman’s portrait in turquoise that unfortunately has already been tagged over. It was painted by Polographe and can be seen on his Instagram page.

below: Arlick Enigma ( Arlick PaXman Team), originally from Mexico, painted this wonderful portrait of a child wearing a parka with a fur lined hood.

with leaves from small trees framing it, a street art portrait of a child's face

below: Monk.E and Luvs (Moise) collaboration

below: Emmanuel Jarus – A blue woman with long braids down her back walks away.

below: The portrait on the back of the truck is the work of Pearl

truck with graffiti on it as well as portrait of a woman on the back, parked beside jarus mural in parking lot

below: “Westbound” by Megan Oldhues.

below: Dodo_ose

below: Keep Going

below: Bryan Beyung

below: by Retro and Raquel Hernandez, both part of 𝑨𝖗𝖙 𝕯𝖊𝖆𝖑𝖊𝖗𝖘 𝕿𝖊𝖕𝖔𝖟𝖙𝖑𝖆𝖓

below: A Mos Geez face

below: That’s one nasty can of spray paint! Nemo, or n3mo1er on Instagram.

painting in black on a chunk of grey concrete, a face with a very large nose

below: A map of Montreal like a patchwork sock

painting on a double door, exterior, map of Montreal made using different colours of text, text gives name of that area of Montreal

below: Resister

graffiti, all text, largest word is resister in black, lots of words in red too

Breaking Walls was supported by NBQ Canada (makers of NBQ Pro Spray Paint).

Photos taken in July 2023.

animals on rue Ontario

Posted on July 28, 2023 by Mary C

On Montreal’s rue Ontario, close to rue Moreau and the railway tracks, there is a long brick building close to the sidewalk. At one end there is a painting of a squirrel with an object in his little front paws. This nut shaped object has a label that says Courrier Plus which turns out to be a trucking/transportation company and the owner of the building on which the mural is painted.

on rue Ontario, a painting of a squirrel with a bushy tail and holding a small package in his paws

The rest of the mural features a red fire hydrant, a pigeon and a toucan with a beak in rainbow colours.

part of a long horizontal mural on the side of a building, calligraphy and a red fire hydrant and a bluish pigeon sitting on a fence

part of a mural street art in montreal with a pigeon and a toucan

close up of the toucan in a mural with a rainbow coloured beak.

Rouen graffiti tunnel

Posted on July 23, 2023 by Mary C

below: Railway bridge over rue Rouen. One side is being repainted.

looking down rue Rouen in Montreal towards railway bridge, people painting the walls under the bridge

below: Diamond shine bright in my all consuming light. Let every goal glow. Very recently painted by Indiana Brierly.

street art painting under a railway bridge in blues and greens

below: One side of the bridge was being repainted this morning.

a man is using a roller brush to paint over graffiti on a wall

below: He’s ready to paint…. by Sino ( or Sino Duc)

below: A white happy three eyed fish swimming among the scribbles.

graffiti on a wall including a funny looking three eyed fish

below: A curly haired woman, or an old lady with a cane, and a monkey face. It looks like someone has a roller ready to paint over this section of wall…

below: Hummingbird and calla lily, by Judith Boily Valois.

below: Too cool dragon wearing blue shades and a jacket with the Montreal Expos logo on it. It’s been almost 20 years since the Expos played in Montreal.

Photos taken 23 July 2023

fowl paintings in Montreal

Posted on March 2, 2022 by Mary C

below: A large mural by Birdo (aka Jerry Rugg), from the 2021 Mural Festival

below: Three chickens in three windows..

below: Is it a pink chicken? In a bubble bath? With pink, yellow, and blue feathers? Mural by sbuone. (Portuguese rooster actually).

more Montreal women

Posted on March 1, 2022 by Mary C

The previous blog post was about a large Montreal mural by Kevin Ledo that was a portrait of a woman called Mary Socktish. There are a number of other murals in the city that have a woman, or women, as the main feature. These are some of them – the following photos were taken on four visits to Montreal between 2015 and 2021 and some of these murals may no longer exist.

below: One of the older murals in Montreal, a graffiti granny, old woman by ASHOP Productions

mural of an older woman with hair in a bun, wearing glasses, and an apron,purple buildings in background on mural, on a Montreal corner,

below: A mural by five8art, a young woman looking skyward.

large mural of a young woman with longhair, blue background, she's looking up

below: By a Depanneur at Pins and Hotel de Ville, a large mural of two seated women and their scarf by Australian artist Fintan Magee.

At the corner, beside a depanneur, a large mural of two seated women by Fintan Magee, one has blue and white checkered scarf over her face, the other has same scarf across the top of her head.

Close up of mural by Fintan Magee in Montreal, by small window in building, hands of women plus their blue and white scarves

below: A mural by Rone, another Australian artist.

close up of a large mural by Rone of a woman's face in shades of brown, on a brick wall in Montreal, street art

below: Sorry is Not Enough, a mural by Denial (or Enjoy Denial) with a shout out to Black Lives Matter

large mural in Montreal of a woman crying, eyes closed, white tears, red lipstick, by Denial, above her face are words Sorry is not enough

below: From 2018, this mural by Drew Merritt and Sainte Famille and Milton (photo taken in 2018 as well)

mural of a woman on a MOntreal wall painted by Drew Merritt

below: Street artist Nychos working on a mural

street artist nychos up on a lift and painting a large mural in Montreal as people walk by on the street

below: A tribute to Lea Roback (1903-2000), by Carlos Oliva (aka Hsix) in 2014. Roback was a textile worker who became a trade union activist, feminist and pacifist (among other things). She fought for woman’s suffrage in Quebec (1936), she played a role in helping to organize 5,000 garment workers who had been on a three-week strike in 1937, and that is only a small fraction of what she accomplished.

below: by Sandra Chevrier, pop culture references to Superman and Batman

below: A collaboration between Cyrielle Tremblay and Poni (aka Hilda Palafox, painted in 2018. Working in an imaginary garden maybe?

muraal on a brick wall, two women working outside. One is planting a blue pine tree and the other is pouring water, ther is a cross on a red hill with other blue trees on it.

below: A whimsical black and white of women astronauts, guitar players, skate boarders, astronomers, and others. It is the work of Le Monstr, aka Benjamin Tran.

black and white mural of women doing a number of activites, also some sleeping cats, an astronaut among the planets, a shkateboarder, reading, playing guitar. Mural in Montreal, by Le Monstr, a k a Benjamin Tran

below: A mural from 2014 putting a spotlight on the call for justice for missing and murdered indigenous women.

on the side of a book store in Montreal, a mural calling for justice for missing and murderedindigenous women, a woman sitting outside, with a blanket around her shoulders

Mary Socktish

Posted on February 26, 2022 by Mary C

Another large mural in Montreal painted by Kevin Ledo is this portrait of Mary Socktish of the Hupa tribe in Northern California . This 2014 work is based on an old photograph from a series on the Hupa people, taken by Edward Curtis in 1923.

large mural by Kevin Ledo in Montreal of an older woman, Mary Socktish

close up of a large mural by Kevin Ledo in Montreal of an older woman, Mary Socktish

Hallelujah

Posted on February 26, 2022 by Mary C

The song “Hallelujah” is probably Leonard Cohen’s (1934-2016) most recognized work … or at least that’s what I think whenever I hear Leonard Cohen’s name, or see a picture of him. In Montreal, Cohen’s hometown, there is now a large mural of him that was painted by Kevin Ledo, also of Montreal.

very large mural in Montreal of Leonard Cohen, head and shoulders, wearing a fedora, in purple tones, by Kevin Ledo

Hallelujah Lyrics:

Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you dont really care for music, do you?
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor falls, the major lifts
The baffled king composing Hallelujah