railways both underground and overhead

Posted on May 24, 2023 by Mary C

Just north of the falls, there is a railway bridge that crosses the Niagara River. On the American side of the river is the Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center. It is housed in the 1863 Customs House adjacent to the Amtrak station. Niagara Falls was the last stop of one the routes of the Underground Railway, a network of routes and safe houses used by enslaved Black Americans to escape to freedom. It was an established border crossing that was readily accessible via numerous transportation routes, including the Erie Canal. There was a well-established network of abolitionists and anti-slavery activists in western New York. It is estimated that between 30,000 and 40,000 freedom seekers settled in Canada.

below: “Enjoy this day that God has given us”, John Lewis (1940-2020) at the corner of Main and Depot in Niagara Falls NY. Lewis was a politician and civil rights activist. This mural was painted by Princessa Williams

mural with portrait of John Lewis next to a large American flag

below: “We rise by lifting others” by Ashley Kay. This mural honours Doris Jones who was the head of the Niagara Falls Housing Authority for 25 years. Painted in 2019.

mural on an underpass, portrait of a black woman

below: Harriet Tubman and “A Light of Hope” by Madonna Pannell, 2019. This image references a crossing across the Niagara Suspension Bridge that Tubman made in 1856 with four freedom seekers. The bridge no longer exists but its remains can be seen from the Heritage Center.

mural tribute to Harriet Tubman and the underground railway

close up of part of mural, Harriet Tubman holding a lantern with a few shadowy figures in the background

below: “Historic Cataract House” by Imani Williamson. the Cataract Hotel was built on the banks of the Niagara River in 1825. It had a wait staff that was entirely African American and these Black waiters often led double lives as secret Underground Railroad agents.

below: “The time is always right to do what is right” by Muhammad Zaman. This is a quote from Martin Luther King Jr’s final sermon on 31st March 1968 at the National Cathedral in Washington DC. The calligraphy is in Bengali, Arabic, and English.

below: Saxophone player with words and music a mural by Edreys Wajed; a portrait of tenor saxophonist and jazz musician John “Spider” Martin.

mural on side of underpass, yellow background, close up portrait of a man holding a saxophone

below: Black Lives Matter, a mural by Ashley Kay and Tyshaun Tyson, 2020

below: Holding signs with slogans and phrases that became synonymous with Black Lives Matter, “Say their names” and “No Justice, No Peace”.

below: “The New Spirit of Niagara Falls” by Jonathan Rogers, 2019

two murals at the end of an underpass, one has yellow people on a blue background and the other is a portrait of a boxer mostly in reds

below: Portrait of Calvin “Pop” Porter, a professional boxer, gym owner, and community leader by Jalen Law.

mural by Jalen Law of a boxer, in abstract colours, bright reds and blues

below: This long mural featuring portraits of a number of kids is the work of Sarah Zak.

mural with kids doing different things, playing, reading, standing by Niagara Falls

below: Support All Women, a mural celebrating the empowerment of women, painted by Amira Moore.

below: Uhuru Love, aka Dr. Gloria Daniels Butler, was an artist, educator, and civil rights activist. She adopted the name Uhuru Love in 1965 – Swahili and English words meaning “freedom (is) love”. The mural was painted by Lashonda Davis.

below: “A Niagara Falls Love Story” by Tyshaun Tyson, 2019. Alice Hayes was an active member of the community (her biography is online) and her husband Charles B. Hayes was Niagara Falls first black physician when the couple arrived in the city in 1935.

below: Freedom seekers map, the routes to Niagara Falls. Painted by Natalia Suska, 2019

below: Channeling the energy from the falls to be put toward the pursuit of freedom. “The Niagara Movement” mural by Thomas Asklar and Matthew Conroy. The Niagara Movement was a black civil rights group founded in 1905 by W.E.B. Du Bois (pictured here) and William Monroe Trotter. It was named for the “mighty current” of change the group wanted to effect and took Niagara Falls as its symbol.

below: Aerosol Kingdom (aka Justin Suarez), “Girl with a Snail Earring”. 2021

below: A 2022 mural about Black history and the underground railroad in Niagara Falls in three scenes, painted by Abigail Lee Penfold.

a mural about black history and the underground railroad in Niagara Falls in three scenes

a young boy stops with his bike to look at a picture on a wall, part of a mural

More information: Niagara Falls Heritage Arts
Photos taken May 2023

South Avenue scenes

Posted on May 19, 2023 by Mary C

Murals and graffiti seen along South Ave in Rochester.

South Avenue in Rochester New York, older brick buildings

below: Conor Harrington Untitled (Fight Club Series)

black and white mural by Conor Harrington of two men fighting, a bit of red blood

below: Floating in a pink sky over a sea of imaginary snakes and fish

mural of a person reclining in a cloud in a pink sky hovering over a sea of snakes and fishes

below: “You’re a Shining Star no matter who you are”. A jar full of shiny positivity by local artist Shawn Dunwoody.

street art mural, on yellow brick wall, a large mason jar with words shining star on it, text on mural says you're a shining star no matter who you are

below: A group of flowers with faces as their centers.

mural on wall, flowers with many petals and each flower has a face in the center

below: Maladjusted Mike is stuck on a pole. Apparently he’s from Seriously Disgusting Comics.

below: No room for Fascism

below: A pink Neptune-like sea creature ruling over his underwater worlds, by Bile, 2013

below: Part of Nova’s shapes and colours.

below: “LIFE in abundance comes only through great LOVE”

below: Whirls and swirls of colour in an abstract painting by Mike Ming, 2013

below: A fox and bunny by Mr. PVRT aka Justin Suarez

below: Adam Francey’s fantastic detailed mural with birds and faces and a couple of words – seek, understand.

below: “Big brother is watching you and he’s bored”.

below: Avocado face, by Stefan Fella

below: Walking white teddy bear

below: The old and the new – root beer and birds.

below: A large egret? (or shorebird of one kind or another) and frog. Do egrets eat frogs?

on the side of a store, a large mural of a stork and a green frog

sculptures on te sidewalk on south ave in rochester

Photos taken May 2023

Flatbush finds

Posted on January 15, 2023 by Mary C

Murals and graffiti seen while walking around Brooklyn near Flatbush Ave (near Prospect Park).

below: A Frida Kahlo portrait by Albertus Joseph

mural of South American painter and artist Frida Kahlo, with bright red lips, and flowers in her hair, on a metal door, painted by Albertus Joseph

below: A young girl surrounded by tulips and feathers painted at Rutland Road by Danielle Mastrion to honor the annual West Indian Day parade.

below: Community mural of palm trees and flowers by the lake. Brooklyn Peace Constellation was the work of a long list of artists and contributors.

A group of Fumero portraits beside Errol’s Caribbean Bakery on Hawthorne.

At Flatbush and Fenimore is this white on black mural by Katie Merz. In it you can find hundreds of little shapes, symbols, words and images such as a guitar, cats, dogs, and even a loaf of bread,

a motorbike is parked beside a store whose wall is covered with a white on black steet art mural by Katie Merz, little images of many things

below: Cue the Charis

black and white street art painting with Charis tag plus the words cue the charis

below: Don’t shoot!

garage door with graffiti, large letters, text that says don't shoot

below: Edmonster times four.

graffiti on the side of a box on the street, edmonster, four identical pictures of a multicoloured monster

Photos taken in June 2022

Priority Mail from Stickermaul

Posted on October 17, 2022 by Mary C

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.

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!

below: Stay amazing!

Stay on the lookout for other great stickers!

Poke-wall in Bushwick

Posted on October 16, 2022 by Mary C

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

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

Posted on October 15, 2022 by Mary C

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.

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

Posted on October 15, 2022 by Mary C

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

Photos taken October 2022

Ligama and Loste

Posted on October 14, 2022 by Mary C

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.

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

Posted on October 13, 2022 by Mary C

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!

O Positive Plus

Posted on July 11, 2022 by Mary C

O+ Festival is the name of an annual art, music, and wellness festival in Kingston New York that began in 2010. Most of the murals in this post were painted as part of that festival. But not all of the murals in Kingston are included – my apologies to those left out – but I will be back!

a bright and colorful mural in an alley, large cursive word Kingston with smaller pictures around the letters, two faces in the mural as well

Bright and bold Kingston, but down an alley where it’s hard to see all at once.

the lefthand end of a bright and colorful mural in an alley, large cursive word Kingston with smaller pictures around the letters, only the first 3 letters are visible in this photo, K I and N

large pink female face at the end of a mural in an alley, face ends at the sidewalk of Broadway Ave in Kingston New York, shops and other buildings in the background

street art paintings around the entrance to a business, southwestern theme, cactii

below: This mural was painted by Jess Snow and Jia Sung and is titled “Oh Wind, Take Me to my Country”. It is a portrait of Sudanese poet Safia Elhillo and was inspired by one of her poems.

mural by Jess Snow and Jia Sung in Kingston New York, portrait of a woman with long flowing black hair, a small sailboat in her hair, all on background of watery blues

below: “Late Summer Kill Swim” by Samantha French and Aaron Hauck. Apparently the word ‘kill’ is a reference to the local Hudson Valley swimming holes.

below: “LIfted” by Lindsey Wolkowicz and Dillon Paul, 2018. Women and girls girls working together to lift each other up.

mural on the end of a building showing girls and women of different coloured races helping each other

below: Thorneater Comics painted this sturgeon in 2015.

large mural of a fish, outdoors, in shades of grey

below: “Pretty Nose and Dakota Unity Riders” by LMNOPI (aka Lopi LaRoe). Pretty Nose was an Arapaho woman war chief who participated in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876. It is said that she lived to be 101 years old.

mural, center is first nations portrait surrounded by circles of triangles looking like the rays of the sun, silhouettes of people on horseback on either side

below: “Native Americans Discover Columbus” by Lady Pink

day of the dead themed mural, girl with painted white face and decorations, a baltimore oriole beside her, she has long flowing hair

below: “Shadow Guide/Shadow Self” by Dina Kravtsov and Matthew Schulze, 2018

mural of two people on a bicycle built for two, a tandem bike

below: On one of the exterior walls of Keegan Ales is a mural painted by John Breiner in 2016. “From the Ground Up” has faded a bit over the past few years but there is a photo of it in its former glory on the artist’s website.

mural on an exterior of Keegan Ales, with window and reflections in the middle of the picture, mural painted by

below: Another mural on Keegan Ale buildings – this one was painted by Jack Dishel and Vor138 in 2014.

mural on Keegan Ale exterior, cartoon like characters and items, skull, skunk, dart board,

below: Letting the imagination run wild as boys and girls read books in “Fishbone” by Eugene Stetz Jr., 2016

mural of two children, a boy and a girl, reading, with a cloud of objects from their imaginations joining them together. A mural on St. James Street in Kingston New York by Eugene Stetz Junior.

part of a mural, visualizing the imagination of a boy as he reads, planets, a baseball, an apple, a bone, and other items

below: “Sun/Moon” by Enz.

A two storey exterior wall, Keegan Ales, in Kingston NY with street art on it, a large mural across the top, a text piece on the lower level.

below: “Shadows of our Ancestors” by La Morena (aka Lucinda Yrene Hinojos) , with help from Cesar Castaneda, 2018. The mural depicts the artist’s grandmother, daughter, and niece participating in a healing ceremony while the hummingbirds represent her spirit animal.

a mural on Downs Street in Kingston New York

below: “Flight Sequence”, an owl in flight, by Justin Suarez, 2017

a horizontal mural showing three stages of an owl in flight

below: A tribute mural by Jalani Lion and Donny Mapes; In memory of Adam (Jeff) McQueen, Kaireem Meeks Jr, Dante Crump, Jonte Clark, and Jeffrey D’Aguilar, painted in 2015.

A tribute mural, showing portraits of young black men, by Jalani Lion and Donny Mapes; In memory of Adam (Jeff) McQueen, Kaireem Meeks Jr, Dante Crump, Jonte Clark, and Jeffrey D'Aguilar, painted in 2015.

More Kingston NY murals
Photos taken July 2022

Eyes on the Streets

and feets on the ground. Graffiti, street art and murals seen while wandering the streets and alleys of our colourful world.

Category Archives: New York