Montreal slaps

Posted on March 15, 2020 by Mary C

This post is a selection of stickers and paste ups (wheatpaste) that I saw in Montreal in the past few days.

below: A @dysastrophy bunny with a gas mask and a painted hand grenade.

liittle sticker on a grey metal pole, a rabbit in a gas mask holding a hand grenade, dystrastrophy stcker

below: Paste ups at number 4. That hand is reaching past the butterfly and flowers towards the door handle.

wood door with blue number 4 and 4 on a mailbox, with pasteups on the door too

below: That’s supposed to be a green and purple Frida Kahlo and she’s saying something: “Nothing is absolute. Everything changes, everything moves, everything revolves, everything flies and goes away.“

a green face with purple hair paste up beside a paper with words on it about Frida Kahlo

below: “No man camps” says the sign. This is a protest sticker, as the yellow words on his jacket, Wetsuweten strong, suggest. It references their complaints and protests against the Coastal GasLink pipeline. a yellow pasteup on a black and white door with pink spray paint over the top. pasteup says no man camps

below: A pink man by labrona

a paste up of a pink man's head and torso on a blue metal box, short hair, middle aged man

below: Another labrona head, in shades of orange this time.

an orange face pasteup on a black exterior wall

below: Two turtlecaps with a heart between them.

two turtle cap paste ups on a door with a red heart between them

below: A hand drawn sticker signed by Bonnie hand drawn sticker of a person's head and torso on a red background with black and white lines behind

below: Superman Bear in Montreal – a sticker by G. Knight (Graffiti Knight)

sticker with superman logo on undershirt

below: The Kiddist out and about with his camera

a parking street sign with a sticker on it of a boy with a camera around his neck and the words the kiddist

paper poster on a wall outside, man playing a keyboard, musician,

below: Any idea of what these men are carrying?

a street art poster on a wall, 5 men carrying something orange

below: Little white ghost pretending to be something he’s not while he collects lost claws. Actually, lost claws is the name of the artist.

paper pasteup of a ghost costume, white sheet, with black eyes, also little hands holding an orange bag. words on the ghost saying pretending to be something i'm not

below: An elephant with a few cans of beer already consumed so he says “I won’t remember you”. This is another lost claws creation.

pasteup on a brick wall, a grey elephant drinking cans of beer with words about how he's not going to remember

below: Waxhead sticker

sticker on a pole, woman with laser lights coming out of her eyes,

below: An encounter with a couple of cowboys, a poster by someone with a signature that I haven’t been able to decipher.

a street art poster on a door of cowboys and indian

below: A selection of paper wheatpaste in varying conditions. The blue ice cream in melting. The bottom left is another waxhead paste up….. And then there are some from TCF (the chosen few) including squiggles from forge fury, Tbonez (urban ninja squadron) is on his phone, and lastly a roc roc birdie by ROC(514) is starting to peel off.

six wheatpaste graffiti papers on the lower part of a door, all in different conditions, an ice cream cone, an urban ninja squadron tbonez on his phone and a waxhead piece

below: Remnants, left over from better times.

old posters and tags graffiti on a wall

left over bits and pieces of paste ups on a wall, paper, torn, weathered,

below: Play your truth
stickers on a metal gate, including one with the words play your truth

by the Chinatown gate

Posted on March 14, 2020 by Mary C

below: “May an Old Song Open an Old Door” is a bright mural that catches your attention as you approach the entrance to Montreal’s Chinatown at Rene Levesque Blvd and St. Laurent. A woman holding a yellow lily stands between two red masks, one represents optimism for the future and the other represents nostalgia for a past left behind.

large Chinatown mural of a Chinese woman in flowered costume, with red and white masks on either side of her, one side happy and one side sad. mural is beside a large gate as entrance to Chinatown. Other side of mural is a traditional Chinese paiting with calligraphy and some pink blossoms

below: A close up of the opera singer in the center of the mural that was produced by MU and painted by Gene Pendon and Bryan Beyung in 2015. MU is an organization whose “mission is to beautify the city of Montreal by creating murals that are anchored in local communities.”

Chinese woman in mural, pink bow at her neck, flowers in her bonnet

below: A more traditional Chinese painting based on calligraphy

mural on a wall by a sidewalk and small tree, Chinese calligraphy in black and grey, some small pale pink flowers

below: “Salut Gilles” by Benny Wilding, a tribute to F1 driver Gilles Villeneuve. Unfortunately, a lot of it has been tagged over including the painting of the racing car.

looking across snow covered park to a mural that has been tagged over except for eyes on a green face behind a mask and a black and white figure in a cockpit as well as black and white checkered flag in upper right corner, Montreal buildings behind the mural

a mural that has been tagged over except for eyes on a green face behind a mask and a black and white figure in a cockpit

car parked in front of a on the end of a brown brick building, a mural of people walking on large noodles that are coming out of a very large ladle

below: Serving up noodles with a giant ladle.

on the end of a brown brick building, a mural of people walking on large noodles that are coming out of a very large ladle

Eros & Psyche

Posted on March 14, 2020 by Mary C

‘Eros & Psyche’ is a large mural painted by Greek artist insane51 as part of Montreal’s 2019 Mural Festival. It is designed to be viewed with 3D glasses. Painted in blues is the ‘exterior’ of a woman while the skeleton and brain are shown in reds.

large mural, red and blue, of a woman showing skeleton and brain, as well as body pierced by two red arrows, designed to be viewed with 3 D galsses, painted in Montreal by insane51

In Greek mythology Psyche was the goddess of the soul and the wife of Eros, the god of love. Eros, also known as Cupid (in Latin, or Roman mythology), was the son of Aphrodite and he was always throwing arrows to people in order to hit their heart and make them fall in love. Psyche was the youngest daughter of a king; she was more beautiful than any goddess. The story of Eros and Psyche is long and a bit convoluted. It involves prophesies, happiness followed by betrayal and heart ache but of course it has a fairy tale ending, Psyche becomes immortal, and the couple live happily ever after.

Librairie Henri-Julien

Posted on March 13, 2020 by Mary C

Librairie Henri-Julien, on the corner of Villeneuve and Henri-Julien, has three walls of colourful murals. On the east side of the building is this waxhead and cryote (aka Sebastian Millar) painting – Protector of the sacred texts in the citadel of yellow pencils.

bookstore on a corner in Montreal, white window frame with bars on window, a mural by waxhead beside the window

below: Carrying a lot of books on her head! under a window with white metal bars on it, a face in yellows and blues

below: A five-eyed cat, parrot….

a light purple cat with 5 eyes, mural on a wall, on a corner, with more cats and cats faces on the adjacent wall

below: blue cats, pink cats, and a puppy blossom by cryote.

pink and blue cats mural on a wall beside a window, with a pink and blue cat faces under the window

Keeping Mary Company

Posted on March 4, 2020 by Mary C

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 March 4, 2020 by Mary C

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 March 2, 2020 by Mary C

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):

aptART gender equality
Breaking the Silence
colours and people on the stairs
crushing cars & flying blue spaceships
faces on Nemr Al-Edwan street
folklore on a mannequin
four Batmans and an old man’s bird
Jadal and Al-Kalha stairs
large murals in Al Hashmi Al Shamali
little things
Mig the robot
pink flamingo
potted plants and umbrellas
Suhaib Attar’s women
walls of Terra Sancta College, Baladk 2016
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 February 28, 2020 by Mary C

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 February 27, 2020 by Mary C

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

below: 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.

below: Laila Hajri has painted someone reaching for a section of watermelon.

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.

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.

below: By the book seller’s table

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.

walls of Terra Sancta College, Baladk 2016

Posted on February 26, 2020 by Mary C

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

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

below: Yo! My name is Yaratun aka Yara Hindawi

below: A name tag painted by DeevGraf aka Abdelrahman Hasan

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

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

below: A small green stenciled duck

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

below: The octopus was painted by Ibrahim Tonnerieux

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

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

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