painted on the parking structures

Posted on January 7, 2024 by Mary C

Parking garages, especially large structures, can usually be described as boring and ugly, i.e. they aren’t great to look at. Downtown Tampa has a large parking structure that was decorated with street art murals back in 2015.

below: William F. Poe Parking Garage on North Ashley Drive is now home to “Stay Curious” a series of murals by artists Tes One (aka Leon Bedore) and Bask (aka Ales Hostomsky), with contributions by the Vitale Brothers.

below: The text says “Stay Curious”

below: Nearby is a Marriott Hotel (at the corner of North Franklin and East Tyler) and this is what they did to their parking garage.

mural, abstract in shades of blue on the marriott hotel in tampa

below: Another corner of another garage

below: It’s not a mural or a painting but it’s a colorful and fascinating way of covering the exterior of a parking structure. This is DOTS, by sculptor and artist Christian Moeller and it consists of 119 aluminum alloy discs. Each disc is almost 6 feet across and weighs about 40 pounds. They cover the parking part of a new University of Tampa residence building.

large metal discs, as art, cover the exterior of a parking garage, 119 discs, called dots, by artist Christian Moeller

After a quick google search on parking garage art, I have decided that this has become a “thing”. Very trendy by the looks of it.

Photos taken April 2022

Love’s the only engine of survival

Posted on January 6, 2024 by Mary C

Or at least that’s what written on a wall in Tampa Florida that was painted by a number of artists during Tampa Bay Fresh Fest in early 2020. It’s a Leonard Cohen quote.

words painted on a wall in the corner of a green mural that says love's the only engine of survival

mural, green background with water drops, black silhouette of a frog and a gecko climbing the wall

below: Greetings! Peace. A very friendly doorman, by Luisa Padró

mural around a double door, glass, of a large man bending over the top of the door, he is giving peace symbol with two fingers

below: The wall is on Franklin Street.

wall decorated with five murals by street artists on Franklin St in Tampa

below: A snake and a mama kangaroo with a joey in her pocket, the merging of two disparate animal species, by Jerry Cahill

below: She’s got quite the hairdo. Are the pirates coming for her? Or is she just on the side observing the boatload of skull-like figures? This was a collaboration between Artcapco (aka Juan Pablo & Vanessa Parra and Ashley Cantero

mural of a woman with pink hair, up do, with a pirate ship in the background where the pirates are skulls

below: A bear, an arrow, some squares and rectangles, a mixed composition by noirsone

a mural with a brown bear, a white arrow that looks like a cursor on a computer screen

Photos taken April 2022

The Leonard Cohen quote comes from the lyrics of a song, “The Future”. There are many words in the song and you can find them online if you are interested. It’s a rather dark song. This is the stanza that the quote comes from:

“You don’t know me from the wind
You never will, you never did
I’m the little Jew
Who wrote the Bible
I’ve seen the nations rise and fall
I’ve heard their stories, heard them all
But love’s the only engine
Of survival”

downtown heroes and a chicken too

Posted on January 4, 2024 by Mary C

Seen in Tampa

below: A mural by Audrey Jennifer and Matt Kress

downtown Tampa street with mural by Matt Kress and Audrey Jennifer of Ray Charles in a purple bowtie and quarterback Tom Brady in his Buccaneers uniform, number 12

below: This mural was painted in time for Super Bowl LV which was held in Tampa, and featured a Tampa team in the game. Sport and music combined with a star from each – Ray Charles on the left.

below: And on the right, Number 12 for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, quarterback Tom Brady.

below: He even wore a mask for Covid! This portrait of Tom Brady was painted by Kyle Holbrook.

below: Tampa Bay also has a hockey team!, the Tampa Bay Lightning. Number 45 for the Buccaneers is linebacker Devin White. This “Champa Bay” mural was a collaboration between Kyle Holbrook and Ania Amador.

mural with Tampa Bay shoreline, water, as well as a football player and a hockey player

below: “All for Love!” says the rooster (chicken?) on the side of Branscomb Hall at The Portico (part of Hyde Park United Methodist Church) although the title of the mural is actually “For the Love of THIS City”. It was painted by Michelle Sawyer and Tony Krol who work together under the name Illsol.

“For the Love of THIS City”. It was painted by Michelle Sawyer and Tony Krol who work as Illsol. A chicken, two alligators, a heron, some local flowers, and some other Tampa symbols,

below: It features local wildlife living in harmony… like alligators and herons and … chickens? Apparently Ybor City chickens are famous?! This one looks a little grouchy.

close up of chicken and alligator and heron and other wildlife in Illsol mural at The Portico, Hyde Park Methodist church

Photos taken April 2022

riding together in a ’55 convertible

Posted on January 3, 2024 by Mary C

This large mural titled “Oceanic Market Merge Cultures”, was a collaboration between three artists, Lillipore, Sentrock and Birdcap in 2019.

vertical mural along the side of a one storey building, grey background, a group of characters riding in a gold coloured car, painted by lillipore, sentrock and birdcap in Tampa Florida

Closer views, from left to right

below: A very pink lady by Lillipore.

below: The center character is wearing a bird mask, a sign that this portion of the mural was painted by Sentrock aka Joseph Anthony Perez. The mask may have been redder when it was first painted.

below: This fellow with the big round eyes and long banana nose was Birdcap’s (aka Michael Roy) contribution to the mural

Photos taken April 2022

Tampa in words and pictures

Posted on December 31, 2023 by Mary C

below: 2012, commissioned by Tampa Public Art Program, painted by Carl Cowden III. In the letters that spell “Tampa” you can see the Sulphur Springs water tower, the Gasparilla ship and accompanying flotilla, the old Tampa Bay Hotel now the University of Tampa, a streetcar in Ybor City, and a nature scene on the Hillsborough River.

below: Small Tampa Heights mural by artcapco (aka Juan Pablo & Vanessa Parra)

below: Another Tampa Heights mural, this one by illsol (Illuminated Soul)

below: An image of the city

below: Paintings of Old City Hall and the Floridan

Photos taken April 2022

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

hedd space and his kin

Posted on October 11, 2023 by Mary C

This is a mural in Bushwick with the title “Hedd Space” painted by Mr. Hydde aka Darren DeGenova – when sitting around in your underwear binge watching TV has become normal.

TV heads, or Screen heads, are a popular meme/trope/motif. Sometimes it is a comment about the role of technology in our lives… how the media takes over our brains because it can so easily shape our thoughts and beliefs if we let it. Sometimes it’s a comment on how much time we spend looking at a screen of one kind or another.

Other “TV heads” were also seen around New York City such as thus downcast and dejected one by Sinth Node (aka Spencer). An old test pattern is on the screen. Once upon a time this is what you’d see on your analogue TV if there was no programming on a given channel (such as in the middle of the night). Now with 24 hour programming these patterns are rarely seen. Also, with technological advances in television, test patterns are rarely needed. When was the last time you adjusted the picture quality of your TV? Perhaps this poor guy just needs an adjustment?

below: Still with an orange hoodie, but now with a beige box that looks more like an older version of a computer monitor. Beside him is a heartfelt not from RendaWriter who leaves positive love messages wherever he goes.

little men on paper

Posted on October 9, 2023 by Mary C

In a few places around New York City there are stickers and paste-ups featuring stikman in his various forms.

stickers and graffiti on a red metal box on a sidewalk, including a multi coloured stickman in oinkm bklue, green, and brown and a round sticker with blue square on black and a reddish stikman like shape, also a small square sticker with a face on it, also a sticker in red and white with word yerrrrr

This little piece has a combination of the more traditional flat stikman in blue and yellow, along with a more three dimensional version.

sticker with a 3 D stikman walking on a yellow and blue sphere with stikman shapes on it

A three mannequin salute using photos of posed little wood mannequins

photo of group of three little wood mannequins posed in a salute, looking down from above

And last, a little mannequin down on one knee and with feathery white angel wings.

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: USA

painted on the parking structures

Love’s the only engine of survival

downtown heroes and a chicken too

riding together in a ’55 convertible

Tampa in words and pictures

on a Bushwick corner

child of the East Village

Kent Ave container wall

hedd space and his kin

little men on paper