Category Archives: USA

sprayed on the sidewalks of LA

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As you walk around the Arts District in Los Angeles, watch where your feet are going.
You’ll see many stencils that have been spray painted underfoot.

This first one, women in head scarves, is obviously a political statement.
It was also the only stencil that was in two colours.

Stencils on the sidewalk, spray paint, in red and turquoise, the heads of 6 women in head scarves, shown in profile, One is in a scarf that is turquoise with red polka dots and one has red and turquoise striped pattern on her scarf.

below: Dangerous insects, with scoped rifles for wings.

black stencil on grey concrete sidewalk, a beetle with folded wings that are automatic rifles

below: … and a dragonfly too.  Weaponized terrorist bugs.
No wait, they’re Homeland Security agents in disguise.

black stencil on grey concrete sidewalk, a dragonfly with wings made of automatic rifles.

below: No money, No honey.

black stencil on grey concrete sidewalk, outline drawing of a man with long hair and a cowboy hat, with words written inside the drawing that say No money no honey.

below: Social media is selling your shit.  Apparently there is a third one that says “Seeking your applause, your digital mirage” but I didn’t see it.

black stencil on grey concrete sidewalk, outline drawing of a man with long hair and a cowboy hat, with words written inside the drawing that say Social media is selling your shit. Facebook and instagram symbol are also there

below: A red extremist.  Love extremists.

red stencil on grey concrete sidewalk, outline of a heart with the word extremist written inside it.

below: A dove with a rose in its beak, La Rosa

black stencil on grey concrete sidewalk, a dove in flight with a small rose in its mouth, words written underneath are La Rosa

below: I am fairly certain that the word says iagily but I haven’t been able to find any info online.

black stencil on grey concrete sidewalk, shoulders and head of a young woman with her hands up to her face

below: Got love?

black stencil on grey concrete sidewalk, of a small milk box with a heart on the side. Words written underneath are got love?

below: I have always seen you.   That’s the chorus/refrain from the song ‘Harriet’ by American Appetites.  There may be other references?

black stencil on grey concrete sidewalk, words I have always seen you

below: Campbells soup made of vegans? or for vegans?

green stencil on grey concrete sidewalk, campbell soup can, vegan soup

below: The last one is not actually a stencil but I couldn’t resist including it here.

words written in black that say love me anyways.

Photos taken February 7, 2017

Mission Linen Building, east wall, Las Vegas

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The old Mission Linen building is at the corner of South 1st Street and Coolidge Avenue in Las Vegas.  The following photos were taken when I was in Las Vegas in October 2015.  The east wall of the building (facing South Casino Center Blvd) was a canvas for a number of street artists in a project curated by Dr. Lepper.  It was covered when I saw it and it was being added to as well.

exterior wall of a two storey building that has been covered with street art by a number of different artists

below: Artist John Pacheco was putting the finishing touches on a mural about Donald Trump and his wall.  It also features Gandhi, the Pope, and Mother Teresa.  Pacheco told me that he planned to paint the word ‘freiheit’, German for ‘freedom’, above the wall.  In hindsight, perhaps a word in Russian would have been more appropriate?

street artist John Pacheco stands in front of the ladder that he is using to paint a mural featuring Donald Trump, Ghandi, the Pope, Mother Theresa and a wall that is being built.

below: In the mural, Trump is saying “I want in.  I can win”.   As I write this, it’s the 18th of Jan 2017 and Trump’s inauguration as President of the USA is only 2 days away.

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two street art pictures, A yellowish orange parrot with green wings and on the left a black man with orange exploding head

street art painting on a metal roll up garage door of a man in profile, in black and blue

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murals and street art on the side of a building, the old Mission Linen building in Las Vegas.

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a brightly coloured fish white with spots of orange, red, and yellow, swims in a blue patch on the pavement

 

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white question mark on a concrete block painted yellow, with a mural covered on a wall in the background

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Mission Linen Building, west wall, Las Vegas

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The old Mission Linen building is at the corner of South 1st Street and Coolidge Avenue in Las Vegas.   Photos taken October 2015.

below: A large mural of the famous ‘Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas’ sign dominates the west side of the building.

mural of the famous Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas sign painted on the side of a building

below: The head of a creature with Vegas eyes by New Zealand street artist duo BMD.

graffiti street art on a white wall - front end of yellow creature with big ping pong ball like eyes

below: Cats in love by #Danman

graffiti street art on a white wall - a sticker by Danman of a man and a woman in cat suits. The man has hearts in his eyes and is presenting the woman with some flowers

below:  She seems to be looking at the two faced man.
I wonder what she’s thinking.

graffiti street art on a white wall -

below: Many likes for the fisherman.

graffiti street art on a white wall - two posters, on the right an Indian in native head dress in profile and on the left, a small boat on a big wave

below: Marilyn Munroe in green and a pink haired woman by Typical Bandit

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below:  Street art in the Milk the Bunny series by Omayra Amador.
Bunny is holding a French flag in support of Charlie Hebdo.

graffiti street art on a white wall - a yellow rabbit with a pencil behind its ear, holding up a french flag with the words je suis charlie on it.

below: Another in the Milk the Bunny series

graffiti street art on a white wall - a dog on a cloud with the sun behind, he has pink bunny ears. A wheatpaste by Milk the Bunny

below: The seemingly unhappy entrance to 1001 South 1st Street

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below: El Teacher by Cova along with an Art Saved my Life stencil

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meating place and others

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More Buffalo NY street art

below: On the side of Lorigo’s Meating Place on Grant Street, a large mural featuring many people that was installed in 2013.  This is “Grant Street Global Voices”; it was created by muralist Augustina Droze with help from students at International School 45 and Lafayette High School.   Eighty panels were put together to form the mural – and unfortunately a couple of them seem to have fallen down.

5 storey brick building on Grant St in Buffalo, with green trim around the windows and a small parking lot beside, sign on the side of the building says Meating Place. There is a large mural on the side of the building featuring realistic portraits of many people, including two trumpet players, a girl in a red head scarf, and other men and women,

below: Also on Grant Street is another community mural… The PUSH mural by Max Collins and others, named for the fact that it is over the entrance to PUSH (People United for Sustainable Housing) center.

mural over the entranceway to a building. Two sets of clasped hands, all with different skin tones. Scenes of children playing in the background.

below:  A large octopus swims close by on this door.
A supersized creature for a supersized door.

blue mural on an industrial building door, blue marine scene feathuring a large close up of an octopus eye and part of its body, along with some yellow fish, some lily pads and a water lily flower

 

below: Unicorn!  But behind a fence.

mural of a unicorn with a rainbow coloured horn, jumping, behind a wood fence

 

below:  It was the interesting architectural detail over the door that first caught my eye.  Then I notice the words, “diez anos como un roble cayendo”  Ten years like an oak falling?

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below: A flute player plays to a parking meter.   A Buffalo parking meter of a type that is long gone from Toronto streets.

black and white photo of a man playing the flute, pasted onto a woodedn fence beside a sidewalk, next to a book store, a parking meter nearby, on a street in Buffalo

below: Sweetness cafe is the scene of at least three pieces of street art, starting with this woman who smiles at those of us who look up from the sidewalk.   I also like the white mugs hanging from the awning.
a large, life sized or larger, paste up of a drawing of the head and shoulders of a black middle aged woman, smiling, above the awning for the Sweetness cafe. 6 white mugs hang from hooks through holes along the lower edge of the awning

below: The door next door has been re-done but that involved removing the face of this paste-up.  A facelift gone awry.

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below: But this painting is still on the wall of the Sweetness Cafe.

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below: And we’ll end with the trash.  He’s looks happy to take care of your garbage.
Added note, Sonder is a band from Buffalo

part of the side of a green metal container for recycling bins on a Buffalo sidewalk, relief sculpture of a man on the side, to which someone has added to sticker, one is a happy face sticker on the head and another is a parody of wonder bread that says sonder.

Allentown (Buffalo) street art

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The Allentown area of Buffalo is now home to some interesting murals.   If you walk around the neighbourhood of Allen Street and College Street, this is what you might see:

below: ‘Voyage’ by Chuck Tingley, 2014.  Commissioned by MyBuffaloPride and Loop Magazine and dedicated to Buffalo’s LGBT community and its allies.  “In a world of scrutiny, we have the power to embrace our differences and use our inner light to guide us through the darkest of times.”

a mural called Voyage painted by Chuck Tingley on the side of a building in Buffalo, a large multicoloured boy is sitting in a small boat and holding on to a yellow paddle. The sky is rainbow colours.

below: The corner of Allen Street and Wadsworth Street.

intersection in Buffalo with old two storey square front storefronts. wet road, rainy day, liquor store on the corner that is now empty but the sign only half works - only half the letters in the word liquor are lit.

below: Nietzsche (German composer and philosopher) with the quote “Without music life would be a mistake”.  When I googled to make sure that that was an actual quote, I found a quote from a letter that he wrote in 1888:  “Music … frees me from myself, it sobers me up from myself, as though I survey the scene from a great distance … It is very strange. It is as though I had bathed in some natural element. Life without music is simply an error, exhausting, an exile.”  The picture is on the side of a Nietzsche Bar.

street art picture of Nietzsche head and shoulders in black and white along with a quote that says Without music life would be a mistake.

below: It’s About Time, with three red fists on the upper part of the Allen Street Hardware Cafe.  One is holding a yellow paint roller and one is holding a yellow spray paint can.  The third fist is in the background and is holding either tools or paint brushes or markers?  Painted by the Allen Street Street Art Collective (ASSA).

a brick two storey store with a mural on the upper part in red, yellow and black, with the words It's about time. The picture in the mural is three red fists. One is holding a yellow paint roller and one is holding a yellow spray paint can. Another mural is in the background, a car parked on the wet street, a pedestrian on the sidewalk

below: ‘Tribute to Spain Rodriguez’ by Ian DeBeer.  Rodriguez was a comic artist who was born in Buffalo and the piece is largely about a fight that he got into in the bar across the street (once the Jamestown, now the Nietzsche).

long horizontal mural drawn like a comic book strip, dedicated to the memory of Spain Rodriguez and painted by Ian DeBeers in 2013, a large woman's face with bright red lips, the word 'she; painted in red, a motorcylce, a man wearing a hat,

a motorcycle, part of a larger mural

below: When this mural was first completed, the grey parts were black.  The large picture of the man that stands between the windows on the left and those in the middle, was quite distinct.  Now, you might have missed him when you first looked at the picture.

the front of a building is covered with black and white poster sized pictures of people.

below: The pink stripes in the background of the finger-like portions of this mural have also faded considerably since the mural was painted in 2013.   “The work we do is not for the faint of heart”.

a mural on the side of a building. On the left is a purple and black drawing of what looks like fingers. on the right are yellow and turquoise stripes with the words, the work we do is not for the faint of heart

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below: The last ASSA mural features an iron fireman. It’s a long horizontal mural with the words Iron and Fireman written in large letters over shapes that resemble flames.

word Iron written in large letters, part of a mural

below: Between the two words is a painting of a black ‘iron fireman’, a robot-like creature shovelling coal to feed the fire.   This was the logo for the Iron Fireman, a coal stoker first developed in the 1920’s by Thomas Harry Banfield and Cyrus Jury Parker.  A coal stoker mechanically feeds coal into a furnace or boiler – the Iron Fireman was a commercial success in the days when coal was a commonly used fuel.

picture of a black robot figure shovelling coal

word fireman written on large letters in a mural, brick buildings (apartments) behind, cars parked in front.

below: One of the other interesting things about Buffalo is how the architecture is different here, or at least different from what I am used to in Toronto.  The building with the green details on the front is the Puritan Building, built in 1893.  It has recently been renovated with the Billy Club restaurant on the ground level and three storeys of apartments above.   And yes, that is a purple house on the right.  Many of the houses in the area are painted in bright and cheerful colours.

 

mural in the middle gound, two low rise buildings in the background, one is the Puritan building with green details around the windows in the front of the building.

below: She’s almost disappeared.

very faded street art piece of crouched young girl with a pony tail - although it is faded enough that I might be wrong.

below: But he’s as vibrant as ever.

a painting of a man has been mounted in an arched window, covers the window.

a red brick building, side of a store, bottom part has been painted orange, probably to paint over graffiti, but has since been tagged twice, once in black and once in red, a parking lot is in front of the wall, with a small snowbank at the edge.

a door is covered with graffiti stickers.

Old First Ward murals, Buffalo

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The First Ward in Buffalo NY includes the docks along the Buffalo River and was once a thriving industrial area.  Old grain elevators still dominate the area.   The first residents were Irish who came to help dig the Erie Canal (completed in 1825) and who stayed.   A second wave of Irish immigrants arrived in the 1840’s as refugees from the famine.  They settled here and found work in the port.

Two large murals have been painted on Republic Street, both facing the railway tracks.   The first is ‘The Worker’ on the old Brock’s building/warehouse between Tennessee and Kentucky streets.   It was completed just over a year ago.

a long horizontal mural called The Worker, with the words Thw WOrker written in large capital letters and filled in with pictures of working people. Along the side of a wall beside a train track - view of whole mural with tracks in the foreground

The project was headed by ELAB (Emerging Leaders in the Arts Buffalo).

below: Molten metal and flying sparks by Nicole Cherry

a tub of molten metal and sparks flying, as part of a large mural that pays tribute the workers and labourers who lived and worked in Buffalo's First Ward back when it was an industrial powerhouse

below: Nick Miller’s painting, “Brakemen” a tribute to those who worked on the railways fills the word THE.

part of a larger mural called The Worker, with the words Thw WOrker written in large capital letters and filled in with pictures of working people. Along the side of a wall beside a train track

below: W O R K E R with its images

the word worker is written in large capital letters and each letter contains an image of people working, a large mural in Buffalo New York

below: A harbour scene.

part of a larger mural, a dock scene, harbour, ship in the water, lift bridge open in the background, kegs and barrels on the dock, a man working on the dock

below: Honouring the police and firemen.  The boat is  the “Edward M. Cotter”.  This fireboat was built in 1900 as the “William S. Grattan” – named after the first paid fire commissioner in Buffalo.   After a 1953 rebuild she was given her present name in honour of a recently deceased Buffalo firefighter and leader of the local firefighters union.  She is the oldest active fireboat in the world and is a National Historic landmark.  She also acts as an ice breaker during the winter months.

part of a large mural celebrating the workers of Buffalo, this panel is for the police and firemen and includes a red fire boat.

below: Scoopers with grain in the hold of a lake freighter.

part of a larger mural, men hauling a rope and filling a shovel with wheat

The second mural was painted by Vinnie Alejandro and a team of artists.  It is a 5000 square foot painting contrasting the past and present of the Old First Ward.

railway tracks run past the community steel corp building on Republic St., Buffalo. There is a mural on the side of the building.

It is just up the street from ‘The Workers’ mural – on the side of the Community Steel building at Alabama and Republic.

mural about the Old FIrst Ward, Buffalo. involves two large panels, one is an image from the past with grain and grain elevators and the other is a scene from the present with the area as a residential parkland with old grain elevators in the background. Railway tracks run in front of the mural.

The area has many railway lines. The ones that run parallel to Republic Street were in 1903 the City of Buffalo granted private railroad rights to the Quaker City Cooperage Company (they made barrels). These tracks connected to the Erie Railroad.

mural about the Old FIrst Ward, Buffalo. involves two large panels, one is an image from the past with grain and grain elevators and the other is a scene from the present with the area as a residential parkland with old grain elevators in the background. Railway tracks run in front of the mural.

From what I could find, other artists include Tom O’Brien, Amanda Gala Roney, Suzie Molnar Goad, Ed ‘Sparky’ Lawton, Jake Wiles, and Chris Kameck.   Like all community mural projects, many people and organizations were involved. For a short history of the mural, and a list of groups who gave supplies and/or time, see an article in ‘Buffalo Rising‘ (an excellent resource if you’re interested in the city of Buffalo).

mural about the Old FIrst Ward, Buffalo. involves two large panels, one is an image from the past with grain and grain elevators and the other is a scene from the present with the area as a residential parkland with old grain elevators in the background. Railway tracks run in front of the mural.

Photos were taken January 3, 2017

East LA street art

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As I was driving north on the I-5 in Los Angeles, I spotted some street art on a side street. I made a detour to take a closer look. There was more graffiti, street art, and interesting things in general in this area of East LA (around Whittier Blvd and East Olympic Blvd) that maybe one day I will get back to.

the side of a building is covered with graffiti, mostly tags, but one little yellow creature with a two little orange legs. Also the word Radiadores in large red letters

The following photos were all taken at the same location, a building on Telegraph Road between LaVerne and Ferris in East LA.

street art painting of two whales on the left side of the picture and a man with large screws on the sides of his head on the right side of the picture.

street art of two yellow animal masks, one is feline and the other may be monkey. South American looking in the design and markings on the masks.

street art portrait of a man with a large derby hat and surrounded by large pink roses

ZAL industrial building on Telegraph Rd in East LA, with wall covered with street art. Boom boxes and ghetto blasters in this photo

greedy red tomato guy, a large red tomato with a face, dollar signs in one eye, large blue sneakers on skinny legs, and he's holding a bag of money

giants and bunnies on the corner

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Las Vegas, Nevada

Two large murals dominate the corner of East Ogden Ave and an alley that runs between North 7th and North 8th streets. Covering the corner of large parking garage on the north side of that corner is a very large man painted in 2014 by Spanish artist Borondo. It was painted as part of Las Vegas’s Life is Beautiful art and music festival.

a large mural on the corner of a 4 storey parking garage, a man from the waist up who is looking down on the sidewalk

Across the alley is a mural by Finton Magee also painted as part of the 2014 Life is Beautiful festival.

Two large murals on two different buildings that are across the alley from each other. On the left is a large man by Borondo and on the right is a woman reclining on a beach by Finton Magee. She is holding a purple umbrella. There are also cabbages and white rabbits in the scene.

At first glance, Magee’s mural seems to be a beach theme but then you notice the cabbages and the rabbits. She’s not lying on sand either. More cabbages and rabbits are on the other corner of the same building. And what might have been sand looks a lot like fabric. A rifle leans against the building.

looking at a corner of a two storey white building with a mural painted on the two sides. On the side closest to the camera ia man sitting and holding an umbrella. He is wearing shorts and is topless. A rifle is behind him, white rabbits are also in the picture.

mural of a man holding an umbrella as he sits on the ground. A rifle is behind him. He is holding a small black case in one hand.

close up detail picture of two white rabbits beside a woman's legs.

a large mural on the corner of a 4 storey parking garage, a man from the waist up who is looking down on the sidewalk - viewed from straight on so only one half of the mural, and one half of the man, is visible