Keeping Mary Company

Posted on by
Reply

Like many corners in Rome, this one in Trastevere has a religious picture on the wall.   Here you can see  Mary, Jesus, and a couple of angels as well as ‘Ave Maria’ above the picture in what looks to be neon lights.  This Mary is accompanied by the words  Ricordo Delle Missioni Imperali Borromeo, Marzo MCMXLIX (i.e. 1949).  Ricordo delle meaning “I remember”, or more loosely, In memory of”

Mary now has a lot of company.

wall in trastevere rome with graffiti on it as well as a picture of the virgin mary .

below: Crying but still punk Eiknarf sticker as well as a “Volti Spenti” soulless man on his phone, or no face no ego, by Luther Posca

two slaps on a wall, one is a frog standing upright with a bottle in one hand and the words crying punk, by artist eiknarf. the other is a black stencil of a man with blank face taking a selfie on his phone. Instead of facial features he has the words volti spenti which are Italian

below: A black stencil of a woman with long hair and a red Thauma at the tip of what looks like a long green tail with little suction cups on the bottom.

a long green lizard tail graffiti with a picture of a woman thauma beside

below: A Jesus face, tifa toro on his cheek, and a cat by Guaro

black and white cat poster paste up by guaro and a jesus head with the words tifa toro

below: Paste-ups and wheatpastes don’t last forever.  1. In the top right corner are two drawings by LUS57 of women doing things.  One of them is vacuuming the universe – Saturn and the stars should be quite clean.  2.  Little Qwerty pieces fun to find – this one with the yellow hoodie doesn’t seem like much but I think the bottom half is missing.  3. Last, the little red balloon is the top of a tiny Exitenter painting.

some old faded and partially torn wheatpaste paste ups on a grey wall

below: These are in better shape.  1. A papaya by Per Dispetto whose art centers around that fruit.  2. A large red and white cat mouth open wide and eating an origami cat whole by Krems.  3. The tree with its light green flowers was created by stelleconfuse.  4. Zeta’s little man in gold and black has a post-it note on this torso.. it’s bent so it’s not easy to read by the words ‘sempre’ and ‘indefinable’ are there and it was signed by someone called Jenny (I think!).  Zeta’s instagram shows many variations on this man theme. 5. The little cat is “signed” but I can’t read the writing very well; it looks like BZQueen? and Confused Cat.  6. The two animals in the top right corner are a mystery.

many slaps on a grey wall

below: 1. Mr. Minimal, superhero in his blue underpants and flowing cape.  2.  A character out of science fiction or just outer space…?, by Winston Smith. 3. And last, Lovers by K2M.

a black and white picture of a spaceman as well as a lovers paste up by K 2 M.

below: Two more ladies hard at work by LUS57.  Above them, God wants to undo his creation work in a play on Michelangelo’s famous painting on the the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

graffiti on a wall. one is a poster of Michelangelo's sistine chapel creation where god points finger at man, but this time, ctrl + z is written on top, the computer shortcut for undo. There are also two little drawings by L J S 57, women working, women in old fashioned clothing, one is sorting straw and the other is sweeping

old fashioned like poster of a woman in an orange top with words zoom and vroom

The next few are small pieces that I saw nearby but not on the corner with the above.

black and white stencil on a wall looks sort of like a face made of rounded shapes, with word namea or nanea

a red stencil on a concrete wall of a man with goatee

below: A dog stamp.  A play on the Romulus and Remus symbol/statue that you see around Rome.  Is there significance to the XXX?  This is the work of Gu Tang Clan

motorcycles parked in front of 2 poster street art pieces. one is a play on Romulus and Remus wolf statue and it is by Gu Tang clan. it is made to look like a postage stamp

looking across traffic to a curved wall on a corner with graffiti on it

The previous blog post was also about graffiti in Trastevere.  You should be able to find it by scrolling down.   If not, this is the link: Trastevere slaps

Trastevere slaps

Posted on by
2

On Christmas morning, while walking around Rome, we discovered a wall in the Trastevere neighbourhood that was covered with paste-ups, stickers, and other small graffiti.  Some of it was made by well known street artists, others by those who remain anonymous.  If you know the name of the artist who created any of these, I’d love to hear from you.  This is what we saw:

many slaps, stickers, etc, on a wall

below: Red nose boxer with black eyes by MIMI the clowN as well as hands vainly reaching for green dollars by levodopa_046_.  A very small pair of very high heeled shoes sneak into the left side.

red nose graffiti by Mimi the clown

below: Fishes Invasion stickers and paste ups can be seen in many places around Rome. They all feature Invader Fish, a two legged walking fish with big lips. The fish actually started in New York City in 2015 and has spread around the world since then.

fishes invasion graffiti

a wall covered with stickers and pasteups

slaps on a wall including a red and white poster of two people kissing

below: ‘Volti spenti’ translates to ‘dull faces’ which is a comment on the poor guy taking a selfie with his phone. The cat is probably the work of Guaro and there is a yellow chick that wants you to know that it’s not a nugget.

volti spenti graffiti as well as a babushka doll and a dinosaur

black and white slaps and stencils

below: The woman on top is by C-ska

slaps on a wall, poster

many slaps

below: To Live and Let Live – Street art against hate.

black and white paste ups

below: Bottom right is an elaborate black and white drawing by Lus57 of a woman who  appears to be wearing a long dress but on closer look it’s actually a man’s torso and a tiger skin.   She is holding a rifle in her hand.  In contrast, there is a woman with bright copper hair and wild sunglasses – the work of stickermaidberlin.

posters and stencils on a wall

below: The bottom half of a Smilin’ Croc above a black and white portrait of a woman by Y-Tong and a big-nosed K2M man with an orange heart.

smilin croc graffiti as well as a big nose by K 2 M, also a black and white pasteup of a woman

 

below: Even Santa Claus helps spread the word about the Fishes Invasion although the pink and blue tiger seems to have an opinion about that.

fishes invasion graffiti with Santa Claus

below: The Fonz says plant a tree because it’s cool.

thauma red stencil graffiti

below: A purplish blue snake-like fish bites itself.  There is also a small C-ska sticker of a woman with a heart in the place of one eye.

long purple fish biting itself

below: My Dog Sighs, a crying eye on page 120 of an old book – with the photographer (selfie?) reflected in the eye.  Also, another C-ska piece – a woman with a bird cage for a head… meaning?

eye and red streak painted on a page of a book, now is graffiti, beside a pasteup of a woman with a birdcage for a head

All Amman

Posted on by
2

This is the last of the Amman blog posts

I have made a video of all the street art that I saw when I was in Jordan and it is on youtube WordPress didn’t like it when I tried to embed the video in this post.

Before I went to Amman I found @ammanstreetart on instagram.  Check it out!  It is the creation of Dina Toukan and Leen Al-Haddad, two young women trying to raise awareness of the wonderful street art in their city.  I would like to thank them for giving me suggestions as to where to start looking when I went hunting back in January.

All of the artwork in the video appears in this blog as well and these are all the links to the relevant pages (plus the last few photos at the bottom of this post):

  1. aptART gender equality
  2. Breaking the Silence
  3. colours and people on the stairs
  4. crushing cars & flying blue spaceships
  5. faces on Nemr Al-Edwan street
  6. folklore on a mannequin
  7. four Batmans and an old man’s bird
  8. Jadal and Al-Kalha stairs
  9. large murals in Al Hashmi Al Shamali
  10. little things
  11. Mig the robot
  12. pink flamingo
  13. potted plants and umbrellas
  14. Suhaib Attar’s women
  15. walls of Terra Sancta College, Baladk 2016
  16. What will I be?

red bird in a birdcage, mural on a wall by a parking lot

bird in a birdcage that is the shape of a person's head, mural

below: by Zein

a painting by Zein of a woman's head, wearing blue eye mask, with curved horns

street art on a wall in Amman

skateboarder as viewed from under the board during a jump, street art

street art of a skate boarder

curvy figure of a young man, with long arms, ‘mural on a wall of two hands clenched together that look like a tree trunk, with green leaves growing out of the top

potted plants and umbrellas

Posted on by
1

The other day I blogged about street art on a set of stairs in Amman.  Today I have a few photos that I took on a different  set of stairs.  They too were popular with locals and tourists, with small shops and a restaurant.  The difference is that this one had umbrellas.

below: Standing near the top of the stairs, high above Prince Mohammad Street.  Open umbrellas in shades of blue and purple are strung overhead to provide some shade and some colour.   On the right is a tall metal structure – that is an elevator for those who don’t feel like taking the stairs.

man blue, teal, and purple umbrellas, open, up high to provide shade over a set of stairs in Amman

below: There were a lot of little flower pots attached to the walls.  Some were painted in bright colours and some were terra cotta brown.

on a black wall, a profile silhouette in white of a man with headphones on, plants in terra cotta planters line the stairs that run beside the wall

 below: A line of flower pots on a white wall where people have written numbers, dates, names, and messages, especially proclamations of love with little hearts.

a group of terra cotta planters with small green plants in them, attached to a white wall on which people have written their names and other woards

below: Listen to the sound of your heart. It seems like Dalal loves Eyad.

anatomical looking picture of a human herat, coloured red, with an old fashioned gramaphone speaker coming out of the top of it, street art

below: A row of “books” under the window – they don’t seem to have titles.

on a wall, under a window with a blue frame, a line of flat pieces of wood painted in bright colours, that look like a row of books

colourful flower pots attached to a wall with plants in them

painting of a woman in a blue top on a black wall, that people have written their names on

below: Looking back up the stairs

looking up a staircase that is lined with flower pots and covered by many open umbrellas in Amman Jordan

Jadal and Al-Kalha stairs

Posted on by
1

The city of Amman is built on a series of hills, ridges, and valleys.  Many of the streets in the central part of the city run parallel to each other with few streets connecting them because of the hills.  The result is quite a few sets of stairs, often long and steep!  One set of stairs, Al-Kalha Stairs (top part) and Jadal Stairs (bottom part), has some small shops and cafes.  They connect downtown Amman with Jabal Al Weibdeh neighbourhhod. The walls on the side of the stairs have also been decorated with street art.

At the top of the stairs

street art based on the Jordanian flagbelow: A gold coloured face looks to the sky, by Batool Edais. 2018.  It’s difficult to tell now, but on the right one boy is standing on the back of another boy.

two street art paintings on the sides of a shuttered window. on the left, a gold coloured woman with braids looking to the sky, on the right, a person reaching for a piece of watermelon up on a shelf below: Laila Hajri has painted someone reaching for a section of watermelon.
street art painting with Arabic writing, a person reaching for a piece of watermelon up on a shelf

top portion of Kalha stairs in Amman with street art on the walls of the buildings beside the stairs

below: Mural by Wafa Asmar. The eyes, nose, and mouth on the girl were added after as were the black letters in blue swirl near the bottom (I rebel therefore I exist).

van gogh inspired blue swirls painted in a mural with an orange square in the center. in that square is a heart. To the right of the swirls is a pink vertical bar with a black picture silhouette of a girl holding a bunch of balloons

For my part I know nothing with any certainty but the sight of the stars makes me dream.

.

between two shuttered windows, a street art painting surrounded by white Arabic calligraphy on red, in the middle is the back of a dancer with red hat and long white robe tied at the waist, long skirt that twirls outward as dancer moves

black and white street art painting of Omar Shariff on a black background, some of the paint has begun to peel off black and white street art painting of a woman on a black background, some of the paint has begun to peel off

wings, the universal instagramable wings

on a wall beside a book store, a copy of Van Gogh's self portrait and a copy of his sunflowers painting, by Batool Edais

street art on Al Kahla stairs in Amman black stencil of a large building over the rooftops of Amman

multi coloured face with words below that say Don't let the noise of other people's opinions drown out your own.

“Don’t let the noise of others opinions drown out your own”

.

below: Lots of people have added their names along with a note or two. black and white painting of a woman, 2 colours only, profile portrait

below: By the book seller’s table

shades of grey, stylized man's face on a wall behind a table with books on it

old and peeling street art painting of a green eye with lashes and eyelid on a wall with some books

at a bend in an outdoor set of stairs, art cafe signs, street art on the wall, Jadal stairs, Amman

below: Portraits by Miramar Mohammad (Miramar Al Nayyar) 2016.  Marcel Khalife, a Lebanese singer, composer, and oud player, is depicted on the left.  The other portrait is of Mahmoud Darwish, a Palestinian author and poet.

portraits of two men in grey tones, street art on a wall

on a blue background, street art painting of pink elephant's head, frontal view, with Indian symbols on it painting of a bald child with green shirt, yellow petals coming out of its head looking like a flower

walls of Terra Sancta College, Baladk 2016

Posted on by
1

Two of the walls that enclose the grounds of Terra Sancta College in Amman are covered with street art.  Most of it was painted as part of Baladk 2016 (art festival).  One of the walls features the red and white “name tags”, you know the ones that say “Hello, my name is….”.   The first one though has “city” instead of “name” because the general theme of Baladk 2016 was ‘Our City – The influence of the City upon yourself as an artist’.

below: Hello my city is Aman by aster.93

hello my city is - part of a series of hello my name is name tag based street art

end of wall as it turns corner, rounded corner

below: Black letters on the left by Kels aka Ali Amir and the red text (and DHAP Fam) are the mark of Deyaa Rambo

part of a series of hello my name is name tag based street art

part of a series of hello my name is name tag based street art

below: Yo! My name is Yaratun aka Yara Hindawi

yo my name is yaratun,

below: A name tag painted by DeevGraf aka Abdelrahman Hasan

part of a series of hello my name is name tag based street art

school grounds wall with street art on it, Amman Jordan,

Our friendship is magic – Wedad and Eslam

below: Bully Bully Bully  (more of theirs below)  Mike V. Derderian

on a brown wall, three comical white characters, male, with exaggerated features drawn in black, each has an orange stripe through their face with the word Bully written on it

below: A long necked bird (duck? goose?)

mural with a yellow duck with its white beak open and white paper boats all around

below: A small green stenciled duck

small green stencil of a duck on a blue metal gate

blue gate on the left, cars parked in front of, wall with street art, houses and other buildings in the background

below: The City is so Empty is the work of Hamza Al Salhi

street art painting of a young woman with long black hair with a head band tied around her head, black face, no facial features, instead a red heart on her forehead and the words The city is so empty

below: The octopus was painted by Ibrahim Tonnerieux

street art white octopus with black dots, blue eyes, on a blue and green background

below: A portrait of a young woman by Suhaib Attar, 2019

portrait of a young woman on a blue circle background, long brown hair, brown eyes, by Suhaib Attar

below: “Our City” graffiti by Ammar Sinan (siner) and Wize One aka Wesam Shadid

black car parked in front of a brown wall with street art on it, Amman

street art of a blue hair woman sitting on white paper boats below: On the left, the pink design is by Yazan Hija, aka arthudz.  On the right, piano keys over her head, Metallica Load in her ear, and leaves for hair, by Suha Sultan

two white cars parked in front of a wall of Terra Sancta college with two murals on it, one by Suha Sultan with a woman with a Metallica Load vinyl record on the side of her head, and the other a pink shape

below: …With an addition by Joanna Anwar Madanat

mural by Suha Sultan of a woman with a vinyl record on the side of her head, piano keys covering the top of the mural, a young boy sitting beside a cityscape behind the woman,

street art on a wall including a large grey circle made of Arabic calligraphy, a purple mass partially hidden by a car, and a yellow star with an eye

When the silence gets old, make your own noise.

street art on a wall in Amman, a yellow star with an open mouth with big teeth and one eye, looking to the left, Arabic writing and a phone number tag, remnants of a drawing street art

street art on a wall in Amman,- two blue stylized characters with arms curved towards each other and holding hands

below: another Wize One contribution

street art on a wall in Amman, a woman with big afro hair by many white paper boats and a character in pink and white, curved arms stylized face

red monster face painted on a wall

below: He’s thinking… or just resting his head? Street art by Miramar Al Nayyar

large mural in shades of grey, a man's head, chin on fist and trhe other hand resting on the other side of his head, on a wall, covering some older street art

below: His hand and wrist obscure older street art.

part of a large mural of a grey man covers an older street art painting of a blue robot on background made with red Arabic calligraphy

below:  On the left, an Arabic verse by Dina Fawakhiri

two graffiti pieces, on the left an Arabic verse written vertically and on the right, a red monter head and shoulders,

below: by Hind Al Far

mural on pink background of a young woman with long purple hair, flower crown on her head, and blue butterflies flying nearby, head and shoulders

More information on Baladk 2016

***

As an aside, I saw one other Bully mural elsewhere in the city.  This knight in armor seemed to be on its own.

street art painting of a knight in armour holding a crown in his hand, bully written on shoulder of man and on crown

street art drawing of a caricature of a man, long pointy chin with beard, long hair in back, flat hat with large brim

Revolution Wall 2

Posted on by
Reply

The other day I posted some pictures of the art on the boards around the United Nations ESCWA building in Beirut (Feb 20, Let Lebanon Live).  The pictures in this blog post are from another Revolution Wall, by Art of Change, in the same neighbourhood.

on a grey wall in red letters, Revolution Wall Art of Change, peace written as a tag,

below: A rotten orange by dew (Ali Kadado) & renoz (renozoner).

On blue background, a young man holding up a large rotten orange, holding by the stem, street art by Dew and renoz

graffiti and street art on a Beirut wall

below: Wings of Freedom

wings of freedom graffiti

below: Close to a real heart

graffiti on a wall including a large heart that is anatomically close to real

metal and concrete barricades beside a wall covered with tags and graffiti

on a city street, low rise goldish brown stone buildings with graffiti and street art around the bottom layer

below: The count down is upside down

street art and protest graffiti on a wall, exterior

below: An archer fires red hearts in a painting by Lea Bou Habib

graffiti, an archer in blue top and shorts shoots a red heart from a bow

below: Stencil by markghsoub aka Markus

blue circle, red vertical stripe, black stencil of doves and other things in black

blue circle, red vertical stripe, black stencil of doves and other things in black along with a woman with a teal coloured bandana over the lower part of her face, a woman with long hair trying to hold onto a dove, all stencils

below: Throwing dice in a painting by Zein. street art of a hand throwing a pair of dice

grey wall in front of office building, with street art on the wall, Beirut

a woman's face with hair half blue and half pink, a large blue mouse that is screaming

below: Two pink mice

two pink mice painted on a wall in Beirut

below: Protesters throwing red hearts, not just any hearts, but hearts with the Lebanese cedar tree.

graffiti of a yellow circle with black silhouette of a person with a gas mask on, throwing a red heart
metal and concrete barricades, three white metal panels with graffit on them, a D, R and S on the panels

below: A Lebanese flag with the red stripe made of hearts, Our love for this country will overcome your greed for the green. street art of a Lebanese flag with the red stripes made of hearts, also the words Our Love for the country will overcome your green for the green

below: Three panels of bulls, cows, and words by Selim Mawad

three panels of drawings of cartoon bulls and cows by Selim Mawad

below: Close up of the middle panel

close up of a middle panel, work by Selim Mawad, black and white cows and bulls with Arabic writing

Scroll down to the previous blog post for more of Selim Mawad’s work.