Swan maiden

Posted on January 20, 2024 by Mary C

The swan maiden appears in the legends and folklore of many cultures. Like most stories that have evolved from their oral story telling roots, there are many similar versions of the same tale. Also, they are rife with symbolism and are often allegorical. The swan is a symbol of purity. Swan maidens can change between their two forms, swan and woman, often by using a cloak of feathers. In folk tales men steal and hide the cloaks so that he can have the woman. Not a pretty story, but then again, most fairy tales aren’t. (Of course, this may not have been what the artist was thinking!).

below: Bue2530 painted this mural in Florence of part sleeping woman and part swan (seen on a foggy day).

foggy day, looking across a road at a long mural on a concrete wall or ramp with railing above, mural is of a woman sleeping on the ground, head of woman on right hand side but head of swan on the left

mural on the wall of an overpass, man walking on sidewalk above, mural is woman sleeping on the ground with an apple in one hand

below: It looks her arm has taken on the shape of a swan. It seems to be looking at a map

part of a Bue2530 mural in Florence, a woman's arm is bent in the shape of a swan neck as she sleeps on the ground

below: Apples have been the symbol of sin and the fall of man since Eve persuaded Adam to eat one in the Garden of Eden. But it also a symbol of knowledge as well as immortality. It was also a poisoned apple that knocked out Snow White.

part of a larger mural, hand holding a red apple, swan feathers in the background, arm of woman has many tattoos, fingers also have tattoos

head of swan in a mural, orange beak, white feathers, a wheel by its neck

below: A broken chain. Has she just broken free?

part of a mural by Bue2530, broken links of chain under a pink cloth, end of swan's beak just showing on right side

Photos taken January 2020

playing with words

Posted on January 19, 2024 by Mary C

Having fun with English on Antwerp walls.

below: Appealing peeling orange peels – the orange is a-peeling.

below: GreenPeace has a green piece of pizza… or are those green dots green peas?

mural of a pizza, round with red sauce and green dots as topping, but one slice has green sauce and is the green piece

Photos taken October 2023

Along the Riverbank

Posted on January 18, 2024 by Mary C

There is a new mural (2022) in Toronto by Nick Sweetman featuring animals and plant life commonly found along Ontario’s rivers, especially the Don River that flows nearby. It adorns a wall/fence that runs the length of a new park, Riverside Square, which is southeast of Queen and the Don Valley Parkway.

below: The east end of the mural

part of mural by Nick Sweetman, Along the Riverbank

below: A blue-fronted dancer damselfly (A very long name for a very small creature!)

below: Mink, toad, and a water insect called a water strider.

below: Catfish

below: A raccoon eyes the fish swimming past

below: A happy dog among friends, a raccoon and a cotton tail rabbit. If you look closely, there is a bridge in the background by the fox – Torontonians might recognize this bridge as one of the many that cross the Don River.

below: Red fox, coyote

below: In the middle

below: Egret diving for fish

below: White-tailed Deer

below: North American beaver

below: Painted turtle

below: Northern Leopard Frog

Tensoe2 and Moises (Luvs) also contributed to ‘Along the Riverbank’

Photos taken January 2024

on a Central corner

Posted on January 8, 2024 by Mary C

Central Ave (and the streets running parallel to it) in downtown St. Petersburg Florida has become home to numerous murals thanks to the SHINE Mural Festival held every October. 2024 will be its 10th year.

two murals on two sides of the same building, meet in the middle, part of shine festival st. petersburg murals

First, two kids in a boat on triangular sea, by Zulu (or Zulu Painter). The girl is at the helm with her paddle. Both are watching intently, eyes ahead. What do they see?

mural all in blue tones, two kids, a girl and a boy, together in a row boat out on the water, water made with triangles, by zulu painter,

And second, there is a long horizontal mural by Daniel R. Barojas with a pattern of hexagons for a background. A woman is on one side. She seems focused on something.

… peeking out in the middle (caught in the middle?, or just curious?)

part of a mural by Daniel R. Barojas, a person with bright blue eyes seems to be peeking out from under the ground i.e. eyes at very bottom of mural

… and a man with feathers in his ear at the other end

Photos taken April 2022

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

beside Straat’s door

Posted on December 23, 2023 by Mary C

Amsterdam has a large museum/gallery dedicated to street art. It is located on the grounds of an old shipyard, a short ferry ride away from the central part of the city. Some of the murals are outside, along with a lot of graffiti that has been added over time. The works that I have included in this blogpost are what I saw around the outside of the entrance to STRAAT, the indoor gallery

below: A large metal door or gate that various people have left their mark on.

below: Top of the box, two portrait pasteups by Jeremy Novy, as well as two white hands.

below: Just smile on the frame of what once was a mirror. This was contributed to the space by navarriky.

below: A black and white image that is starting to peel.

below: On the other side of the entrance, is a wall that has served as a canvas for a few artists.

below: “The Asseastant” by FALCO, A nude but athletic thrower of life rings. Saving someone? On FALCO’s instagram page there is this description of the work: “”THE ASSEASTANT“ is a message of hope, altruism and activism. It highlights the media absence of hundreds of thousands of human beings who perish braving the seas to escape war, famine or misery vs 5 rich passengers on a touristic submarine cruise.”