Platanenweg ten + one

Posted on October 28, 2023 by Mary C

The “If Walls Could Speak” festival in 2019 was an Amsterdam Street Arts (ASA) project whose aim was to create 10 large murals, each on the end of a row of apartments on Platanenweg in Amsterdam Oost. These are the ten murals.

Blue metal sign affixed to brick building, street sign, Platanenweg, in Amsterdam

below: First, “In Case of Lost Childhood, Break Glass” by Leon Keer.

below: This mural is a Sjem Bakkus & IVES.one collaboration and is titled “De appel valt niet ver van de boom.” (in English: The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree).

mural by cobra on the end of a lowrise apartment building, cursive word cobra, a bright red apple, a mouth with a mustache in black and white

close up of part of cobra mural, painting of bright green apple beside a real window

below: A mural by British artist Dan Kitchener of a Japanese Geisha as well as a street scene on a rainy night.

mural by Dan Kitchener, Japanese geisha girl

mural by Dan Kitchener, street scene in Japan city on a rainy night, Japanese geisha girl

mural by Dan Kitchener, street scene in Japan city on a rainy night

below:aka Painting by Studio Giftig (aka Niels van Swaemen and Kaspar van Leek) – a bare footed woman in mid-air with a few pigeons.

Large mural by Studio Giftig,Niels van Swaemen and Kaspar van Leek, of a woman and a pigeon

part of Studio Giftig mural, pigeon beside a small real balcony

close up of woman in mural by studio giftig

below: A bird with pink, green, and turquoise feathers is keeping an eye on the balcony. It was painted by Dopie.

large mural on the side of an apartment building, a large bird, with pink head, green neck, turquoise and green body, pink legs and feet.

below: Lots of arms and hands holding boxes in a mural with the title of “Carrying Belongings” by Case Maclaim.

mural by Case Maclaim, hands holding boxes, on the side of an apartment building in Amsterdam

below: A boy under a tree with a creature (dragon?) in his hands. The text says “When it comes to settling disputes, compassion is more useful than magic”. It was painted by German artist Hera (one half of the artistic partnership, Herakut).

a young black boy kneels under a tree with a small dragon in his hands. a second dragon sits on a branch of the tree and is looking down. Text in the mural says When it comes to settling disputes, compassion is more useful than magic

below: The symbol of Amsterdam, the three white X’s on a black stripe with a red background. It is based on the city’s coat of arms which features a red shield with a black band and three silver St. Andrew’s crosses. The same design is found on the Amsterdam flag. Mural was painted by Kash (aka Friso Kasher) and Chuck (or Chuckone)

mural with symbol of Amsterdam on it, red background, black stripe with three white St. Andrews crosses

below: This girl and her little pink heart are part of a large mural by Julieta XJF, “Wherever you come from, here you are welcome.”

part of a large mural by Julieta XJF, a girl with bangs (hair fringe) is holding a little pink heart

mural with a large white bird and a girl with little pink heart in her hand

below: Three of the buildings with the murals on them.

a street scene, three lowrise apartment buildings with murals painted on the street facing side, trees,

below: “Beter een goede buur, dan een verre vriend.” (English: “Better a good neighbor than a distant friend.”) is the title of this mural by Smug One. mural by Smug One, an older man's portrait, wearing light blue baseball cap and light blue hoodie

Smug One mural of an older man, large, on the end of an apartment building

below: Although it wasn’t part of the 2019 festival, this mural by DFace is across the street from the others. “I feel so incomplete” reads the text. It is actually a few years older than the other murals that I have shown here.

D Face mural in the style of Roy Lichtenstein, a blonde woman with bright red lipstick looking back over her shoulder, with text, I feel so incomplete

A stranger in town

Posted on October 21, 2023 by Mary C

“L’Etranger” by Os Gemeos is a very large and rather strange man with skinny legs and long skinny arms. His feet are bare.

mural by Os Gemeos on a wall in Heerlen, a very tall man with big round head, brown pants, and striped shirt

He’s holding a tiny house with a crooked chimney into which a woman barely fits. Her feet stick out the open door and one arm is out the window but she seems quite content. She’s hardly bigger than the knee patch on his brown pants.

part of a mural by os gemeos, a woman is squeezed into a little box like house, she's sitting with her feet sticking out of the door, crooked chimney on the house,

On the other hand there is a balancing act going on. She’s holding a megaphone while standing on stilts AND while carrying another creature on her back. Yes, this is definitely Strange!

This guy has a little white bird one one finger. His arm is outstretched as he either disappears back into the wall, or as he comes out of the wall. He’s wearing a bright green shirt buttoned up tight to his neck that doesn’t quite match the hexagon patterned pants. One little fancy curl graces the top of his head.

Be careful where you walk!

bottom of mural, man has very large feet, pale blue toe nails, bare feet, a black motorcycle is parked beside the mural

Photos taken October 2023

under a Heerlen bridge

Posted on October 20, 2023 by Mary C

There are two murals, bright eye catching red helping to hold up a bridge in Heerlen. They were both painted by Brazillian artist Finok, aka Raphael Sagarra, in 2014. The first mural is painted in mostly white, red, and green… three masks, a fish, and a chicken-like creature.

mural by finok, bright red background, 3 faces, one fish pointing upwards

On the same bridge, across the street, is another Finok mural. It too is on a red background. Is the fish about to eat the white headed guy? Or like a genie, has he just been conjured from the fish’s mouth? Whatever the backstory is, the white headed guy looks rather frightened.

mural on bright red background, on bridge overpass

photos taken October 2023

the colourful ox

Posted on October 20, 2023 by Mary C

….or at least a blue and white ox standing on its own box. De Bonte Os is Dutch for The Colourful Ox. Appropriately, this is Bonte Ossteeg, or in English, Colourful Ox Alley in Delft.

The mural was painted by Hugo Klaagman in 2013. It incorporates many of the images associated with the area such as Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring from the painting of the same name. There are also windmills, cyclists, flowers, and a few famous people. There are also blue and white motifs found in the ceramic tiles made here in Delft.

people walking towards Bonte Ossteeg in Delft

some of the images in bonte ossteeg mural by Hugo Kaagman

part of mural with number 22 beside door

street sign for bonte ossteeg with mural, word delft in the mural, blue and white

couple walking past parked bikes to small alley with a blue and white mural, bonte ossteeg

In the alley after dark

Posted on October 14, 2023 by Mary C

A walk down Graffiti Alley on a rainy night.

below: Unfortunately, one of Uber5000’s large Toronto/Canada themed murals has been defaced (the one on the north side of the alley).

below: Doug Ford running away with the money, stencil graffiti by D. Terra. Our Premier seems rather happy with his haul. Accurate?

below: A dope piece that bears some resemblance to Homer Simpson.

below: A yellow one-eyed daisy standing tall.

below: This portrait has hair!

below: For some reason, a section of one of the side lanes (McDougall Lane? or Rush Lane?) was lit by a red light. Here there was a collection of pasteups and stickers including one with an abundance of flowers in her hair, a skater figure by drecks. She is joined by a bare breasted woman with even more flowers on her head as well as a Snoopy look alike and a cat on the telly.

below: On the same wall as the above – Tweetie bird, from Australia, along with some friends. Because of the red light, this photo is very low contrast and difficult to see. Best to see this wall in the daytime! Second best, would be to check out the instagram page of tweet_streetart

below: Another selection of slaps, mostly birds this time.

below: A little raccoon

below: Mortus figure – his hands are almost big enough to hold all those skulls.

below: On the pavement

below: FP Monkey (aka Julia H), Skamoney, Monster Fan Club, and PP Spray

below: Poser bunny

below: Making a rap music video

below: The east end of Graffiti Alley, the part closest to Spadina, was very dark.

below: As it turns out, the buildings at this end (north side) are now behind a metal construction fence. Darkness equals empty I suspect.

below: Yes they matter but was there no where else to paint this? There’s so much junk in the alley that no one would miss.

below: I am going to end this post with a bit of a rant. Yes, to some extent the art in this alley has come somewhat commercialized especially with the newer buildings on Richmond that back onto the alley. Uber5000 has benefited from some of this as he has painted a few large (and very good) murals here. Also, I understand that street art by its nature is prone to “disappearing” behind the work of others but I reject the notion that one person’s tag is as good as another person’s mural. Anyone can destroy. Anyone can paint their “name” but if you are proud of writing it over someone else’s more talented work then you haven’t progressed beyond the preschooler phase of life.

Photos taken October 2023

This post also appears in mcfcrandall.blog

hedd space and his kin

Posted on October 11, 2023 by Mary C

This is a mural in Bushwick with the title “Hedd Space” painted by Mr. Hydde aka Darren DeGenova – when sitting around in your underwear binge watching TV has become normal.

TV heads, or Screen heads, are a popular meme/trope/motif. Sometimes it is a comment about the role of technology in our lives… how the media takes over our brains because it can so easily shape our thoughts and beliefs if we let it. Sometimes it’s a comment on how much time we spend looking at a screen of one kind or another.

Other “TV heads” were also seen around New York City such as thus downcast and dejected one by Sinth Node (aka Spencer). An old test pattern is on the screen. Once upon a time this is what you’d see on your analogue TV if there was no programming on a given channel (such as in the middle of the night). Now with 24 hour programming these patterns are rarely seen. Also, with technological advances in television, test patterns are rarely needed. When was the last time you adjusted the picture quality of your TV? Perhaps this poor guy just needs an adjustment?

below: Still with an orange hoodie, but now with a beige box that looks more like an older version of a computer monitor. Beside him is a heartfelt not from RendaWriter who leaves positive love messages wherever he goes.

little men on paper

Posted on October 9, 2023 by Mary C

In a few places around New York City there are stickers and paste-ups featuring stikman in his various forms.

stickers and graffiti on a red metal box on a sidewalk, including a multi coloured stickman in oinkm bklue, green, and brown and a round sticker with blue square on black and a reddish stikman like shape, also a small square sticker with a face on it, also a sticker in red and white with word yerrrrr

This little piece has a combination of the more traditional flat stikman in blue and yellow, along with a more three dimensional version.

sticker with a 3 D stikman walking on a yellow and blue sphere with stikman shapes on it

A three mannequin salute using photos of posed little wood mannequins

photo of group of three little wood mannequins posed in a salute, looking down from above

And last, a little mannequin down on one knee and with feathery white angel wings.

graffiti featuring little wood mannequin on one knee, with white feathered angel wings

Williamsburg murals

Posted on October 3, 2023 by Mary C

Most of these murals can be seen on, or close to, Bedford Avenue.

below: A large snail by Australian artist Mike Makatron, but not just an ordinary snail – this one has stairs leading up to a fire hydrant on top of its spiral shell.

close up of snail mural, fire hydrant on top of shell

below: “Song to the Siren” by Naveen Shakil Khan, 2021

mual in black and white of 5 women's faces, long hair, composite of 3 portraits, by Naveen Shariz

Where Bedford Avenue meets Broadway and South 6th Street is a large mural of a young woman with her hands under her chin. The title of the painting is “Lost Time” but it has become known as the Williamsburg Mona Lisa. The mural (by Colossal Media) is from a photograph by Steven Paul (of his friend Nina Attal). Paul was a high school senior from Brooklyn in 2014 when he submitted the photo to a contest sponsored by Scholastic … and won.

large mural in greyish blue tones of a young woman in a striped long sleeved shirt, short hairr, resting with hands on chin,

below: Eduardo Kobra boxers but not really boxers, Andy Warhol is on the left and Jean-Michel Basquiat is beside him.

kobra multicoloured mural of andy warhol and jean michel basquiat in boxing shorts and boxing gloves, with arms crossed in front of themselves, mural at bedford and ninth in williamsburg new york city

Jean-Michel Basquiat and # Fight for street art

below: This anti-war Elvis Presely mural was also painted by Kobra. Unfortunately it has been defaced, almost literally as it is mostly Presley’s face that has been painted over.

below: The Moxy Hotel Williamsburg recently opened on Bedford Avenue. On the upper level, south side, of the hotel is a mural by DFace. It can be seen from the Williamsburg bridge, and is near the pedestrian entrance to the bridge. DFace’s style is reminiscent of paintings by Roy Lichtenstein.

mural by d face on upper storey of moxy hotel in williamsburg, a woman passenger in a car, man driving, woman is thinking, just get me to the moxy

On a black wall, a Chris Tuorto hand with clenched fist beside a very simple donut

mural of a clenched fist in pastel colours, with black outline, on a black wall

Williamsburg street sccene, mid rise buildings, traffic, water tower on roof,

street art on upper levels of building exterior

Photos taken August 2023

Catchoo and friends

Posted on September 24, 2023 by Mary C

A group of stickers seen on a pole on Queen Street East recently

has an image from Catchoo combined with a perplexed Sailor dude from Ty Pro in the top place – what a cute balloon! At the bottom are three heads that you might recognize from previous posts. In pink is T-bonez from urban ninja squadron and the chosen few; on the right is a luchadore mask from bruho.

Here catchoo collaborates with c_priority (a k a Christopher Piccinich ) Even within the blacks of his suit there are little catchoo symbols and characters. I was hoping that there were secret messages written on the pieces of paper on the desk but there are just squiggly lines.

Last, feelings boi joins the fun. Is it a sword? or an umbrella? Whatever it is, there are smiles all round.

Photos taken Sept 2023

This blog post also appears in As I Walk Toronto

a trail of broken pieces

Posted on September 20, 2023 by Mary C

…rearranged into mosaics.

Starting back in 1985, “Mosaic Man” Jim Power began covering street poles in East Village (New York City) with mosaics of broken pieces of ceramics, coloured glass, bits of mirror, and other little treasures. The trail follows E. 8th – St Marks Place between Broadway and Tompkins Square Park.

below: Over the years, some of the poles were removed by the city and others were damaged. Back in 2017 a Go Fund Me page was set up to help Power restore the poles.