As I walked around Lynn I spotted a few posters on display, all of which dealt with the Covid pandemic that started back in 2020. You might be able to make an argument that these aren’t exactly street art but I think that their roots are firmly in the art community.
below: This is a copy of a much larger mural that first appeared in Amsterdam. “Super Nurse” is the creation of FAKE (aka Manuel Seikritt).
below: On the left – Unsung Heroes by Randy Stolinas – a thankful shout out to all those in the service industries who were also essential workers. On the right, useful, and still relevant, advice from Ed Wainaina
below: A copy of Shepherd Fairey’s (aka Obey) “We the People; Protect Each Other”
… is a mural on Main Street in Nashua that takes a look back at three of the highlights in the history of American movies – The Three Stooges, Cary Grant and Vivian Leigh in ‘Gone With the Wind’, as well as James Stewart and Donna Reed in ‘A Wonderful Life’. It was painted on the side of on the Chase Building on its 100th anniversary. Once upon a time this building was home to a movie theater with a few different names – the Tremont (1917-1927), State (1927-1973), and Star (1973-1980) Theaters.
Phelany23 painted the mural, with the support of Positive Street Art.
below: A Wonderful Life, Christmas 1946 with James Stewart and Donna Reed
below: Gone with the Wind – Cary Grant and Vivian Leigh
below: The Three Stooges in The Blob – Larry, Moe, and Curly
Similar to other cities in the United States, Nashua New Hampshire has made a bicycle/pedestrian path out of land once used by the railway. The trail itself is short, only just over a mile starting at City Hall and running parallel to Hollis Street although there may be plans to extend it. Once it was part of the Great Northern Railway that ran from Boston to Lake Erie.
Some of the buildings along the trail have been painted with murals.
The Nashua Dodgers were a Brooklyn Dodgers farm team that played out of Holman Stadium in Nashua from 1946 to 1949 (four seasons). Two African American players, catcher Roy Campanella and pitcher Don Newcombe, were on the team in those years – this was shortly after the signing of Jackie Robinson with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1945, and the beginning of the integration of major league baseball.
below: Horse drawn public transit on the streets of Nashua, the Manchester Horse Railroad, “Main Street 1908”
below: Fuzzy in pink and red with wisps of green.
One of the projects of the Positive Street Art organization is the maintenance of two Legal Graffiti Walls. They happen to be on this rail path and this is what was on one of them when I passed by in mid August 2024…. It is a tribute to Joey Tombs by Jay Mac (aka The Backstah) on the 10th anniversary of Tombs’s passing.
And last, there is one more train themed mural. A caboose and an engine with three railroad cars in between. These cars contain scenes painted by local artists. The mural was created as part of the 2005 Mayor’s Task Force on Youth along with the support of local businesses. It covers the entire block between Walnut Street and Chestnut Street.
below: “Native Americans admired and named the Nashua River – the beautiful river with pebbled bottom.”
Like many cities in Massachusetts, the organization Beyond Walls has been responsible for bringing great artists into the city to paint interesting murals that liven up public spaces and bring some colour to different neighbourhoods.
below: A David Zayas mural, “Otro Rumbo” covers the side of a building at Athenian Corner on Market Street. It contains many traditional Puerto Rican symbols and objects, including a rooster that symbolizes strength. For this mural, Project LEARN (Lowell Educational Alliance Resource Network) was also involved.
below: Evaristo Angurria (or Nestor Garcia painted this mural at the site of Mechanics Hall. I am not sure why, but he seems to like painting women with curlers in their hair.
below: Three pottery jugs representing “healing”, i.e whole – broken – fixed, a mural by Bryan Beyung that covers the side of the Elliot Church in the Back Central neighbourhood.
below: Celebrating the Irish heritage in the area and how they helped build Lowell. They were one of the first immigrants to arrive starting in the 1830s. They found labor working at the many mills in and around Lowell.
below: “Rayo Feliz” by Golden 305 at the Middlesex Community College’s Facilities building. (More of his work in Holyoke).
below: Also on the Lowell campus of Middlesex Community College, this time at the Cowan Center, is another mural called “Dream, Hunt, Make.” It was was painted by FONKi, a Cambodian street artist born in France but now living in Montreal.
“DREAM, HUNT, MAKE Within the eyes of the Dreamer, lies the keys of the future, Sweetness and bitterness you will taste, Focus in the Present, you must, Educate yourself, you will. . Obsessively, his dream, the Hunter chases, Darkness and light you will meet, Wise with knowledge, you must be, Continue flying, you will. . Under The Maker’s hands, life takes color. Creation is complex, An Art it is, to make it simple, To build, pure must be your intentions. . A Sweet Dreamer, Wise Hunter & Pure Maker you shall become.”
Springfield MA is home to many murals. This blog post looks at some of them that were seen in the Mason Square neighborhood of that city.
A celebration of Black music that was originally painted in 1974 by Nelson Stevens. Stevens painted many murals in the Springfield area during his lifetime. He died last year at the age of 86. This mural was rededicated earlier in 2022.
below: Martin Luther King in “The Beloved Community” by Nero and Souls.
below: Say Their Names – A tribute mural to the more than 60 black and brown people killed in the USA in the year up to 1 June 2020 by the police – a project that was came about in response to the murder of George Floyd. Also included are the names of Springfield MA residents who have been killed in interactions with the police. This project was organized by Common Wealth Murals and Art for the Soul Gallery, and hosted by the Martin Luther King Jr. Family Services of Springfield. The mural was designed and painted by artist Wane One from New York City, with assistance from two other artists, Nero and Souls.
below: A healing mural – “You heal the soil, You heal yourself, You heal our neighborhood”. Another Community Mural Institute mural. The actual title is “Gardening the Community” and was painted by Ryan Murray, 2021.
below: RIP “Preacher Man”, Randolph Lester (1940-2017) The mural was designed by GoodSpace Murals for the Community Mural Institute. Three Springfield artists were involved: Frankie Borrero, Emma Mesa-Melendez, and Martin Johnson
below: On the walls of Rebecca M. Johnson School there is a series of paintings featuring Ruth E. Carter, costume designer, author and Springfield native. The images also show some of the many costumes she designed for films including Black Panther, Coming to America, Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, and Selma.
below: “Tribute to Black Women”, painted in 1974 by Nelson Stevens and repainted in 2022 by the Community Mural Institute.
I am a black woman, tall as a cypress, strong beyond all definition, defying time and circumstance, assailed, impervious, indestructable. Look on me and be renewed.
This is the back of 270 and 280 Union Street in Lynn MA as seen from the (large) parking lot. All of these murals were painted as part of the Beyond Walls program.
A closer look at the four of them…..
below: Two large murals, male and female, by Erin Holly
below: A large, vibrant mural titled “KLK Mi Gente” painted by a group of artists: Angurria (aka Nestor Garcia), Dovente (aka Johann M. Baez) Silvia López Chavez, and Willgom (aka Willy Gomez). The artists are either from the Dominican Republic or have Dominican roots.
“KLK” is an acronym for “Que lo que!,” which loosely translates to the English, in meaning and usage, as “What’s up?” The mural is a celebration of Dominican culture.
below: Hanimal, an artist from Colombia, two little guys like two peas in a pod , meticulously detailed,
below: Portuguese artist, Diogo Machado aka Add Fuel painted the top corner of the building. His ‘layers’ wrap around the corner, each layer revealing a different tile pattern.
I saw mosaics in two places, both close to the same corner – Lexington and East 104th.
The first set can be seen under the windows of what is now Exotic Fragrances Inc. – radiating Be Barrio Love and yo chicken.
below: “This our home land here now” with a cheerful and accepting rainbow “everyone welcome”.
below: Shelves of fancy decorated perfume bottles looking lovely in the window, an interesting accompaniment to the “I got you” mosaic below it.
Around the corner, a whole mural made of little tiles. A picture of an elephant, a snail, and a lot of white doves circling the Earth. A row of brightly coloured tenement buildings anchors the picture. It was commissioned by Hope Community Inc. and was constructed by artist Manny Vega., The mural is titled ‘Al Ritmo de La Paz’ (To the Rhythm of Peace) and it is on East 104th Street, just east of Lexington Avenue,
below: Mary and Jesus on the corner, with murals to the right and murals to the left.
below: Along Via Ragusa there is a wall covered by a series of murals. On the other side of the wall are football fields. You can see the nets above the wall to prevent balls from flying onto the street.
below: Three dimensional cubes stacked on top of each other.
below: Flying cubes
below: A Checkos, tribute to Juan Alberto Barbas, an Argentinian football player, b. 1959, who played for a number of clubs in Argentina, Spain, Italy, and Switzerland before retiring in 2009.
below: Linked fingers
I “found” these murals in a northeast section of Lecce when I went looking for the 167/B Street Murals. They are in the same neighbourhood.
below: Two sides of the Hanover Theatre in central Worcester Massachusetts have large murals on them. On the left, a woman’s portrait by Damien Mitchell; on the right, a couple touch foreheads, by Insane 51.
below: A closer look at the woman.
below: Like much of Insane 51’s work, this mural has been painted in shades of blue and red. One colour, blue, is used for the visible outer part of the body while the skeleton underneath is painted in red.
below: Two filters have been installed at approximately eye level across the parking lot from the mural. When the mural is viewed with a blue filter, this is what you see…. (with a few reflections of another building I’m afraid). The red elements disappear.
below: The red filter makes the blue parts invisible and now the skeleton and teeth are predominant.
Eyes on the Streets 