Kobra in East Village

Posted on August 7, 2024 by Mary C

below: Michael Jackson, young and old, by Eduardo Kobra in East Village, NYC.

below: Hanging out on a corner with Run-DMC, a HipHop group originally from Queens. The group was formed in 1983 (40 years ago!!) by Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels, and Jason Mizell .There was some controversy over the choice of song for this mural as “Walk the Way” was their cover of an Aerosmith rock ‘n roll hit.

below: Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020). She served on the US Supreme Court from 1993 until 2020. She was born in Brooklyn NY.

Apparently there are many Kobra murals scattered around New York City. In 2018 he painted 18 of them. So far, I only have a few on this blog. First, Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat beside him, fighting for street art in Williamsburg

Also, in Chelsea, Warhol and Basquiat re-appear, this time accompanied by two more artists, Frida Kahlo and Keith Haring. This mural is on the same post as Ghandi and Mother Theresa, Kobra on 10th Avenue

Photos taken July 2024

under Clinton Street, and vicinity

Posted on July 30, 2024 by Mary C

In Albany New York, like in many cities, there is a group that promotes street art (especially murals) as way of enriching neighbourhoods and increasing the involvement of people in their communities. Here the group is Capital Walls. One area that they have focused on in downtown Albany is a space under the highway ramps between Interstate 787 and Clinton Street. Most of it is a large parking lot. There are a series of concrete pillars that have now been painted by various artists.

below: mmm

below: John Breiner painted this bird in flight in 2019.

mural on concrete ramp support, bird in flight, many feathers, by john breiner

below: Another John Breiner painting, ‘Float’, is on the reverse side of the one above.

mural on tall concrete support under highway off ramp for Clinton street in Albany

below: In the foreground is ‘Modern Systems’ by NDA

below: ‘Paradise Pattern’ by Vanessa Mastronardi,

below: ‘Courage’ by Rosie Sunshine

below: ‘Journey’ by Arzu Fallahi

below: Quakenbush Square, “Belonging” by Adam Fujita

mural with words, you belong here we all belong together, each word in a different colour, along with a happy face with heart shaped eyes, and a large yellow heart

below: On the lower part of the Quackenbush multi-level parking garage, there is a mural called “Upstate Albany Portrait Landscape” that was painted by George Maxwell Dunn. This is part of it. The part that spells Albany.

below: Part of a “Downtown is Pawsome” campaign are dog statues painted by different artsits. Nipper, as he is known, is about three feet high and is one of ten. This red and black one (‘Industrial Anthropology’) was painted by Stephanie Levay.

below: “Explore” by Ramiro Davaro-Comas

mural on the side of an entrance to a parking garage, with large text says explore

below: On the other side of the Quackenbush Garage is this painting, ‘Mix Tape’ by Hellbent (aka J. Mikal Davis)

on the side of a parking garage, painted shapes and patterns

below: There are more on and off ramps for the I-787 on the south side of the garage. Here too, some of the supports have been painted. “Back to Life” by D. Colin

below: A couple of scenes from ‘Geraldines Reverie’ by Elizabeth Zunon

below: At Orange and Water, ‘The River that Flows in Two Directions’ by Rachel Baxter.

mural on the side of an elevated section of freeway in albany by rachel becker, orange and blue on white

below: Nearby – “Escape to Nature” by Trash Kid Art (aka Jade Warrick)

below: At Wallenberg Park, within the dog park, is this doggie mural by Chip Fasciana and Mark Gregory.

street art mural in a dog park, images of dogs on yellow background

“The devil made me do it”

black drawing and text graffiti under highway ramp, the deveil made me do it

Grand Scale

Posted on July 19, 2024 by Mary C

below: The hoardings around a construction site at 125th and Lexington provided the canvas for a section of the ‘Grand Scale Mural Project’ in Harlem.

street art on hoardings in harlem new york

below: In total, over 100 artists participated in the project. See their website, Uptown Grand Central for more information. Some of the murals are shown below.

pink wall with text, title and description of street art project, grand scale mural project, in harlem, by uptown

below: Three happy friends; boys laughing together – by Ramarru

street art on hoardings in harlem new york, laughing boys, flowers and a butterfly

below: A painting by Minhafofa, aka Marissa Molina … with a tattoo on her shoulder that says Never stop dreaming… and she’s looking at you.

street art on hoardings in harlem new york, woman, with tattoo on shoulder that says never stop dreaming, long black hair in a braid,

below: It looks like he’s swaddled in pink fur. He is Hip Hopper Cam’ron and the portrait was painted by Zane (aka Ivan Jines) using tags of ‘Zane’, a technique that he uses frequently in his portraits.

street art on hoardings in harlem new york, portrait of Cam'ron, a hip hop artist, by Harlem artist Zane, face surrounded by furry hat, holding a pink phone

below: More of the hoardings…. mother and daughter at a table, many faces, a sailboat sailing through a mysterious scene (rough seas? atomic bomb? or just playful clouds?)

street art on hoardings in harlem new york, grand scale mural project

below: FM Ramos (aka Fausto Manuel Ramos)

below: Geometrics in bright colours mark a corner.

street art on hoardings in harlem new york, red, blue, and yellow geometrics with some green

below: Big red lips and musical black hair, by Olga Correa

street art on hoardings in harlem new york, by olga correa, women's faces, big red lips, long black hair in braids, musical notes on the hair and in the background

below: A section of the hoardings painted by LFP NYC (aka Luis F. Perez)

below: Nomsa, Evan Bishop

street art on hoardings in harlem new york, 125th and Lexington, grand scale mural project

Planet Harlem

Posted on July 16, 2024 by Mary C

From across the street it looks rather chaotic, colourful but a bit of a mess.

a red car is parked in front of a street art mural beside corner social store, planet harlem mural by paul deo

On closer inspection, it is an amazing collection of figures (mostly famous ones) and stories. This is Planet Harlem. It was started in 2012 by artist Paul Deo. At that time he won a competition to paint a mural by Corner Social (still there!) at 126th St and Malcolm X Blvd. Rucker on the basketball player’s shirt is a nod to Rucker Park, a Harlem park with a basketball court where a number of “stars” honed their skills.

I wish that I could name all the people that this mural celebrates. There is Barak Obama as well as Micheal Jackson, the Jackson Five, and Aretha Franklin but there are other politicians and entertainers too.

A Harlem landmark, the Apollo Theatre features prominently in the mural.

A black panther lurks here too.

Planet Harlem Story is a website to visit if you are interested in more of the story behind the mural.

Another source for more information about the mural and Harlem’s history can be found at ‘City Lore’ (a site about NYC) where this quote is from: “As the growth in the Black Harlem population continued in the 1920s from places like lower Manhattan, the southern US states, and parts of the Caribbean, an artistic and cultural movement grew to highlight the connections between self-expression, creativity, and Black heritage. Harlem specifically became a place for educators, scholars, writers, jazz musicians, singers, dancers, poets, and activists like Alain Locke, W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Marcus Garvey, Duke Ellington, Alberta Hunter, and so many more….”

part of planet harlem mural by Paul Deo, Dapper Dan

The word ‘Infinity’ is written on the man’s gold sleeve. His other sleeve says ‘Faith’.

Erie Canal, Syracuse NY

Posted on July 11, 2024 by Mary C

Syracuse filled in the Erie Canal and built a museum to it instead. As part of this museum, a large two storey mural of a canal side warehouse interior was painted on the remains of a 4 storey brick warehouse (1989).

mural on the side of a brick building at the erie canal museum in syracuse new york, scenes from the interior of a warehouse along the canal back in history

part of erie canal museum mural, interior, a shop inside a warehouse, goods on shelves, a woman behind the counter, male customer

part of a mural, boy sitting on floor, open door and window with views of boat on canal outside, a black pot bellied stove in the room too

upper level of warehouse scene, workmen moving around bags of goods.

on a Bushwick corner

Posted on December 18, 2023 by Mary C

On St. Nicholas Ave where it meets Scott Avenue….

A number of artists created this tribute to David Jude Jolicoeur, who rapped as Trugoy the Dove in the trio De La Soul. He passed away in February 2023 at the age of 54. It was painted during the 2023 Bushwick Block Party this past summer and involved a number of artists (Enjoy Hads, Six Million Dollar Steve, Mr. Makro, Brandy, and Sure78 and more? )

below: On one of the walls there is a portrait of Biggie Smalls (1972-1997) also known as The Notorious B.I.G., a rapper and hip hop artist who was born and raised in Brooklyn. It was painted by Danielle Mastrion

below: Up high on the roof, figures by stik, holding hands and looking down at passers by.

below: “La Bodega” was a collaborative effort by Zack Curtis and Danny Cortes

Photos taken August 2023

child of the East Village

Posted on December 12, 2023 by Mary C

A mural by Joel Artista, aka Joel Bergner in the East Village neighbourhood of New York City. Painted in 2019. Joel is a co-founder of Artolution, a non-profit organization supporting local artists and arts programs with vulnerable children around the world.

close up of child's eyes in a large mural, painted by Joel Artista in 2019, in oranges and purples

part of a larger mural, child with curly black hair holding a crayon and pointing to a bird

full Joel Artista and Artolution mural in East village of Manhattan, New York City, child ith short curly black hair and four arms to represent 4 activities, hand held open, holding crayon, pointing at a bird, with pedestrians walking in front of it

For this mural, Artolution partnered with KIND (Kids in Need of Defense), We Are Royale, Key Food Supermarket, and Education Alliance.

Photos taken August 2023

More Manhattan murals were featured previously in this blog – Kobra on 10th Ave (from 2022)

Kent Ave container wall

Posted on December 11, 2023 by Mary C

below: Sometime between 2018 and 2022, a large wall was built using old shipping containers. If you use street view on google maps there is a section that still shows images captured in 2018 where there is no wall at Kent & Clymer. There is now graffiti on the containers.

intersection of kent and clymer in brooklyn, wall constructed of shipping containers

below: Small sticker on an already spray painted area with a sparkly, positive message, “It will all be okay”.

small sticker in pink and glittery gold that says it will all be okay

below: Just a little black bear.

a small round sticker with head of black bear

below: Slightly misshapen but also intriguing.

below: There are a lot of containers!

a pedestrian walks along a sidewalk beside a wall of shipping containers, 3 high, that seems to go on forever.

below: Either it was the word on, or a word that ended with on. Your choice.

below: “Do not remove” and “Jesus saves”

below: Another angle.

containers, 3 high, make a wall at Kent and clymer in Brooklyn, a group of people is jogging past it

below: If you don’t have a sticker, a band-aid will do?

close up of drips of paint and other spray paint graffiti, an old band-aid with pen written words in it is stuck to the wall

below: Sarkarbeats image of the Taj Mahal along with the purple character with the funny head whose name is DPac. He has his own instagram page – DPac explores

Dpac, in yoga position in front of drawing of the taj mahal

below: Simple yet menacing.

below: Face pareidolia is the illusion of seeing faces in objects, or in this case, in the rips and tears of old paper. Quite the fancy red dress that she’s wearing!

graffiti, red 5 point star spray painted on container, with ripped old paper labels under the paint that look a bit like a face

wall made of shipping containers on kent ave in brooklyn

below: Dollar signs on green

below: A lot of the graffiti was colourful but wasn’t more that scrawls or tags. My apologies to the men and women who made them, but I wasn’t very interested in them. If I took photos of every tag, I’d be swamped. Instead, I played with the lines, colours, and textures.

small section of graffiti, curved lines in white, yellow, and red, on blue background, with some rust from the metal container showing through

below: Sold Out Art Show sticker, face with multiple sets of eyes

below: Hydration Guy

below: There is a break in the wall for the exit from Steiner Studios and this is where you realize that there is a studio lot behind the wall.

exit from steiner studios in brooklyn, road with container wall on either side, three containers high

Photos taken August 2023.

You can find more graffiti by Sold Out Art Show on a previous blog past from late August

Bushwick bears, bees, and other animals

Posted on September 4, 2023 by Mary C

below: Bees with pink and blue translucent wings on a brick wall with a bear keeping a watchful eye on them.

part of a mural, two bees around a real light on a brick wall

mural on a wall beside a closed door, a bear is sitting on the ground, leaning on door, with a bee buzzing above his body

below: Honeybee

below: A mural by Hiraku with cats

…. or perhaps humans in cat costumes. Love and peace and a frilly tutu.

mural by hiraku of human-like cats, or people in cat costumes,

below: More cats, cats climbing up the wall, signed by eunice.music (aka Eunice Brito) and kosuke_james

narrow vertical mural on exterior wall, white cats climbing up a cat climbing frame

below: A concerned looking cat – maybe the ball and chain around his leg is going to be a problem?

below: The yellow and red background pattern was painted by 7 Line Art Studio (aka Duel Ris) and I suspect that the dog was added later by someone else.

below: A second dog, this one in bold shapes and bright primary colours.

large mural of a stylized dog with red body and blue head, and big white floppy ears with yellow and blue diamond shapes, yellow and white spots all over body, red tongue sticking out, yellow button nose

Photos taken August 2023

Chasing Dreams

Posted on September 3, 2023 by Mary C

“Don’t come to New York City to chase your DREAMS If you can’t walk fast. “

Seen on a New York City sidewalk, August 2023

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

Kobra in East Village

under Clinton Street, and vicinity

Grand Scale

Planet Harlem

Erie Canal, Syracuse NY

on a Bushwick corner

child of the East Village

Kent Ave container wall

Bushwick bears, bees, and other animals

Chasing Dreams