British mural artist Phlegm has been painting a large mural on the side of 1 St. Clair West. The first time I saw it, was on the 14th of July, 2016, when it looked liked this:
below: The white background of the mural was painted first.
below: Photo from 19th July, 2016
As it turns out, there is a lot of detail in the mural! It slowly took shape.
below: 21st July
below: Fast forward to August 2016 when the mural was almost finished. … but wait! Isn’t that the CN tower on the shoulder?
below: Hey! It is the CN tower. And isn’t that the Gooderham/flatiron building? And that building with the little dome, isn’t that on Yonge street?
below: There’s the ROM and its ‘crystal’ too! This is the ‘bottom’ of the figure and in this photo two things become clearer. First, the scale of the project and just how big the mural is becomes apparent. Second, the mural is of a person coming out of the earth, being pulled out by the roots almost. But is it a person? Or is it a living city?
below: The head part – play ‘spot the building’! Is that old city hall?
below: Scalliwags is on one of the knees along with a lot of trees.
below: And last, the feet with more roots at the heels
One of the joys of exploring cities that have organizations and programs that promote good street art, is finding walls that have been a canvas for artists with global reach. In this case, the city of Chicopee (that I suspect many people outside of Massachusetts have never heard of) has a mural by Vhils, aka Alexandre Farto, a Portuguese artist whose work is now found in over 30 countries.
below: A better look at the Vhils work – He hasn’t painted this mural. Instead it has been created using a bas-relief carving technique. The colours in the mural are the colors of the different layers on the wall.
below: A garden of color. Bright red poppies with white and yellow daisies…. Blue hollyhocks and yellow delphinium (I think!) too.
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
On the left is a mural by Okuda (aka Okuda San Miguel) called “Cat Witch” (it is Salem after all!) showing a figure that is both human and feline. Her fur/skin/body is constructed using many multicoloured triangles which is Okuda’s signature style. It was painted in 2017.
below: Also from 2017, is a mural with a very long title, “Una mirada que embruja por la calles de Salem.” In English this is: “An enchanted look in the streets of Salem”. The artist was Belin (aka Miguel Ángel Belinchón) and it is painted in a style that he calls post-neocubism. A modern day Picasso so to speak.
below: The last mural is also the most recent as it dates from 2023. On the right and partially hidden behind the tree, is an El Punto Community mural, “Generations” – “Generaciones” (follow the link for the full story behind the mural).
It features events (e.g. a fire in 1914 that destroyed a church) as well as recognizable places and people in the community. It was designed by David Fichter.
The mural was painted on metal panels with the help of Xerxes Butt, Bianca Oppedisano and Joshua Winer, and then installed on the side of this building.
A shout out to Punto Urban Art Museum, the organization behind the murals in Salem.
Over the past few days I have posted pictures of some of the murals in Holyoke Massachusetts. This post will be that last one for that city for now. I know that I didn’t see everything that Holyoke has to offer but I hope to be back soon!
below: “Yagrumo” by Vero Rivera. Rainforest plant with palmate leaves – In brown and white, together forming patterns and designs.
below: Painted by David Zayas, high energy dancing, with music and movement. The rooster may not be dancing but it too moves with energy and vigor.
below: The Master of Masks, by David Zayas and Don Rimx. The mural portrays Don Raúl Ayala Carrasquillo, who was a master in the art of making vejigante masks – A vejigante is a folkloric character in Puerto Rican festival celebrations, especially during Carnival. He learned his craft from his father and he, in turn, passed the tradition on to his children.
below: “Child Flower” painted on the former Boys Club building on Race Street, by Gleo
below: Colonia – topless, draped with a Puerto Rican flag.
below: Frankie Borrero’s creation, “Transición de las antepasadas” (Transition of the Ancestors)
below: Right – The mural says EL ARCOIRIS as a tribute to an after school program created by Nueva Esperanza more than 20 years ago. They use art and murals as part of their program to engage youth. This mural is a tribute to those pioneers and was painted by Golden 305 (aka Cristhian Saravia). Previously, I posted another of his murals in Holyoke
On the left is “Chromoji” by Bikismo (aka Ismo La Joya del Caribe, or the Chrome Master)
below: An older El Arcoiris mural, faded blues with a rainbow connection between the two windows. Flowers and butterfles, and a guitar.
below: A mural on the side of a bakery. Puerto Rica and the USA, Palm trees and sunflowers. Farmers harvesting food from the fields behind the city streets.
below: There’s even a horse drawn carriage.
below: Nuestras Raices = Our Ancestors
below: On the large wall of University Products, Yo Soy I am by TakeOne and GoFive
An interesting description of this mural is on the Beyond Walls website: “Yo Soy! I am anything and everything. It is not enough to simply exist. Playing it small doesn’t serve the world, therefore it does not serve me. I embody the very essence in which life is created. I am a powerful force. I am light. I am beauty, undefined. I am capable. I am resilient. I am, You are, We are ENOUGH!”
below: As mentioned in my previous post, Holyoke has the largest number of Puerto Ricans per capita outside of that country.
El Spirit Republic of Puerto Rico – Defending our roots and our communities.
below: mmm
below: Tim Purington was a City Councilor and public health advocate who died in 2019.
below: Needle exchange programs were one of the public health initiatives that he advocated for.
below: “Iguana-boina ” by Rafique aka Rafael Enrique Vega. Here we see the union of the iguana, the symbol of the sun, and “boina”, a dark-colored snake that represents dark rain clouds. From these, life is formed. These elements are found in the Taino creation story where the cave of Iguanaboina was the primordial den from which the Sun emerges to illuminate the earth and to which it returns to hide as the moon emerges. The Taíno people were the predominant indigenous people of the Caribbean.
below: Alvin is missing the rest of his chipmunks.
A few days ago I posted pictures of the father and baby moose that Bordalo 2 made on Clemente Street and yesterday I shared images of the mural ‘La cultura es poder’…. But there are many more Holyoke murals thanks to organizations such as Beyond Walls and Nueva Esperanza. I think that I have barely scratched the surface. Photos taken July 2024
La Cultura es Poder was painted by the Colectivo Morivivi in connection with the “Race and Visual Cultures” project of UMASS Amherst. In this mural, swirls of coloured music unite the elements of the story. From the website for Colectivo Moriviví – “the different musical genres can be seen in the mural coming out of the windows and merging in a trail of colors that leads us to a Bomba circle. With this image, we wanted to evoke the connection of the most contemporary rhythms with ancestral traditions. Bomba is very present in the activism of the diaspora and its community practices. As such, culture is resilient and it is power.”
Colectivo Morivivi is an all-women artistic collective, democratizing art and bringing the narratives of Puerto Rican communities to the public sphere. Holyoke Massachusetts has the highest population of Puerto Ricans, per capita, in the continental United States.
The brick and window facade of the old American Thread Company provides a backdrop for the playful and colourful mural by Golden305.
The artist, Venezuelan artist, Cristhian Saravia (aka Golden305), is an illustrator and muralist originally from Venezuela but now based in Miami, Florida.
On a fence in Salem Massachusetts is a series of paintings by a group of artists who used the book “A Dream Called Home” as inspiration. The book is a memoir by Mexican-American author Reyna Grande and in it tells of her dreams of a stable home and how she makes it happen. Last year several artists participated in the project, including six local artists from the neighborhood. These are the murals on that fence.
Punto Urban Art Museum is the organization behind this project. It was founded by North Shore Community Development Coalition (North Shore CDC) in Salem’s historic El Punto neighbourhood. This fence is but one of their many projects.
below: “Teenage Mutant Ninja Tortugas” by Kearin Alexander Frias is on the left.
below: Anatomically correct heart in blue hands, a painting by Llemonmoss.
below: Left – “Home Cooked Meals Feed the Soul” by Nick Pinciaro and on the right – “Vessel” by Amanda Beard Garcia.
below: Left – “My Father’s Keeper” by Emily Kwong and on the right – “Nou La” by Rachel Domond
below: There is text in the background that is difficult to see in this photo but it is a blend of two quotes from the book: “You are now bilingual, bicultural, and binational. You are not less. You are more, twice the girl you used to be.” Painted by Yixuan Zeng
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.
below: Another John Breiner painting, ‘Float’, is on the reverse side of the one above.
below: In the foreground is ‘Modern Systems’ by NDA
below: Quakenbush Square, “Belonging” by Adam Fujita
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: On the other side of the Quackenbush Garage is this painting, ‘Mix Tape’ by Hellbent (aka J. Mikal Davis)
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.
The morning after I posted the photos of the Bordalo2 mouse and bear in Lynn, I saw this on Clemente Street in Holyoke (also Massachusetts)…
It is “Father and Baby Moose”, also by Bordalo II
This is another Beyond Walls project; this time in partnership with the City of Holyoke, El Corazon de Holyoke, and Nueva Esperanza. Clemente Street is in a section of the city with a large Hispanic population.
below: A close up look at baby’s hind leg and all the metal pieces that went into creating it.
Eyes on the Streets 