below: Have a beautiful day, a beautiful autumn day!
Phoebe paste-ups have been seen around New York City for a few years now. Sometimes she’s whimsical and sometimes she’s serious – she’s had a very busy life! She even has her own instagram page, Phoebe New York, where you can find all the other Phoebes!
Street art of a slightly different kind…. Seen pasted on a wall on a street in Paris – a display of black and white prints of famous paintings by women artists from over the centuries.
below: ‘Game of Chess’ by Sofonisba Anguissola (c1532-1625, Italian)
below:Self Portrait by Judith Leyster (1609-1660, Dutch)
below: Portrait of Antonietta Gonzales painted by Lavinia Fontana. (1552-1614). She was possibly Italy’s first professional painter. The subject of the painting, Antonietta, suffered from a condition known as hypertrichosis (aka werewolf syndrome), a rare genetic disorder that results in excess body hair. Antonietta’s father also had the disorder as did two of her sisters.
below: A man’s portrait by Rosalba Carriera (1673-1757, Venetian)
below: ‘Portrait of a Lady as a Vestal Virgin’ by Angelica Kauffman (1741-1807), a Swiss Neoclassical painter. Her father was also a painter. He started teaching her at an early age and by 12 she was already known as a painter in her own right. Kauffman was one of only two women founders of the Royal Academy in London.
below: “Still Life with Flowers and Gold Trophies” by Clara Peeters (1589-1657, Flemish)
below: Another still life with flowers, this one by Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750). She was a Dutch artist whose painting career lasted more than 60 years; she was a master at painting still lifes with flowers.
below: ‘The Redeemer’ by St. Hildegard von Bingen (c1098-1179), with a copy of the original (in colour and unfaded) underneath. St. Hildegard, or Sybil of the Rhine, was a German Benedictine abbess with many accomplishments to her name.
below: ‘The Penis Tree’. Between about 1325 and 1353, Jeanne and Richard de Montbaston printed books and manuscripts including the “scandalous, rude and misogynistic” poem, the ‘Roman de la Rose’. The first 4,058 verses were written by Guillaume de Lorris in the early 1200s and they describe a courtier’s attempt to win over a woman. About 40 years later, Jean de Meun (aka Jean Chopinel) wrote another 19000 lines. This was before the invention of the printing press so each manuscript was hand drawn. The picture shown here of a nun picking penises from a tree is attributed to Jeanne de Montbaston.
Three more large murals in the 13th arrond. of Paris
below: Very French – liberté, égalité, and fraternité, in red, white, and blue by Shepard Fairey
below: Large black cat overlooking rue Nationale by French artist C215, aka Christian Guémy
below: Dface is the artist who painted this bright blue haired woman.
below: Crazy P (= Crazy Partners) creation, a collaboration between a number of artists. First, a skull by Cannibal Letters. Unfortunately, the skull’s white teeth are hidden by the construction rubbish in front of it.
below: Shhhh…. says this shady fellow, by Dante
below: Mustached and bearded character by Piman50cl
below: Walking past a big slurp and a few spider webs painted by Haribow
below: Taking the idea of going incognito one step farther, and hiding behind another layer of paint
below: Evidence that there was once more here
below: More layers, in triplicate this time
below: What big claws you have! …. The better to cling to this wall my dear
These six street art portraits by Nô were seen on or near Rue Dénoyez in Belleville, Paris…. an older aboriginal Australia with his decorated boomerang, two young girls looking out for each other, another child, a man in dreadlocks, a green eyed woman in a head scarf, and an indigenous American in a feather head dress.
There are many more examples of his portrait painting on instagram, no street art
Photos were taken in June 2022
In Peterborough Ontario the Hunter Street bridge crosses the Otonabee River. The west end of the bridge is in downtown while the east ends at James Stevenson Park. It’s in the park that you’ll find the paintings.
Back in 2015 and 2016 two of the arches under the Hunter Street bridge were painted. Nogojiwanong is an Ojibwa word for “place at the end of the rapids” and it was their name for the area that is now Peterborough.
Facing the Nogojiwanong mural, and not visible in the above photo, are three animals – deer, beaver, and lion. Now the town is referred to as Electric City. Why? Because on May 24, 1884 Peterborough was the first town in Canada to have electric street lighting on downtown streets. Power was provided by the London Street hydroelectric water plant, also built in 1884.
The murals on this arch were painted by Kirsten McCrea, with the help of Vicky Jackson (at least that’s what it looks like in the bottom right of this photo).
Bloodroot is a plant native to the Peterborough area. It gets its name from the fact that it bleeds red when the stems are cut. According to the text in the mural (bottom right, below), bloodroot propagates through a process called myrmecochory which is seed dispersal by ants. The seeds have external “appendages” that are rich in food that ants like. Once this food is consumed, the seed is discarded and can germinate.
This mural was painted in 2016 by Jill Stanton with the help of Andrew Ihamaki.
Photos taken September 2022
This large mural, ‘Cecile’s House’, painted by SETH adorns the side of a school on rue Mouffetard (at rue Saint-Medard)
A small painting by the same artist is on the school gate, beside an upright grey and blue rabbit (un lapin gris et bleu!).
Also on rue Moufftarde are two whimsical pieces by Oji
Never underestimate the grey haired people!
Oji is amember of Lezarts de la Bievre, a collective of Paris street artists.
nous amour sens reve – four little words – we love meaning dream, mix and match to your heart’s content.
Photos taken June 2022
In the 13th arrond. of Paris, on rue de Croulebarbe, there is one segment of wall covered with street art.
below: Unfortunately Chloe’s name has been added on top of this mural by Titomulk, a pair of French artists. It hides some of the intricate black and white details, as well as some of the text, of the “Insania Cultura” mural. A singer with her microphone, a portrait of Van Gogh, a book with the title “Knowledge is Power”, a Spiderman mask, and a very naked man. “Si vous trouvez [illegible] culture, coute cher, essayez l’ignorance” translates to ‘If you find culture too expensive, try ignorance.’
below: Painted to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of “The Kid”, a silent movie starring Charlie Chaplin, by Sweb and Sonia O.
below: A Mr. Myl creation – text and a toothy purple guy with a white nose ring, greenery, and barbed wire
below: Five black and white portraits of women with red text, “Hey Heroes, I will be your Queen”.
Lodz Poland is home to many large murals that have been funded and promoted by organizations such as Urban Forms Gallery (Fundacja Urban Forms). Although not as common as in some cities, there are smaller works to be found – paste ups, stickers, and stencils by a number of artists. These are ones that I saw the day that I was in Lodz back in May 2022.
below: Putin as the devil, a Nazi devil surrounded by skulls and death.
below: blue hand grenade
below: Gu-tang Clan dog headed hand grenades plus a 2020 view of Earth.
below: A pasteup on a sidewalk box in Centrum that shares many similarities with the 2020 Earth above.
below: This balck and white dog head features on many gu-tang works…
below: …. such as this one.
below: A 3fala portrait of Katarzyna Kobro (1898-1951), a Polish sculptor.
below: Man with a beard. More on 3fala (if your Polish is good): TrzyFala
below: 3-D mask with a square nose and eyes closed
below: A masked swordsman painted on a fence
below: An abstract painting that was pasted to a wall.
below: A pink balloon dog crosses the street at the crosswalk. The sticker on the left says “Moje ciato, moj wybor”, or: my body, my choice.
below: A grumpy, angry bald man growling at the world.
below: A house for a body? Or a house with legs? Whatever it is, it seems to be wearing adidas shoes. It too is angry and letting the world know it. Random words, win, and sugar.
below: Flower
below: square happy faces
below: Lodz, No Surrender
below: Small pink happy cat with twinkling yellow heart.
below: A bird? and its shadow
below: A red headed woman wrapped in a blue shawl and holding a white rose. White roses are symbols of purity and innocence as well as love and affection. Traditionally the Virgin Mary is depicted with a blue shawl or similar clothing. The mural is ‘Oblicze Piękna’, painted in 2018 by Paulina Nawrot. The title translates to Face of Beauty, or Vision of Beauty.
below: A faded woman sits by her telephone in a 2014 mural by Russian artist, Morik as part of Galeria Urbans Forms.
below: Another faded mural, this one shows an anatomically correct heart with half of a butterfly on each side. Above the heart grows a large tree. The mural was painted in 2015 by Puerto Rican artist Alexis Diaz and is titled “Czuć” (or in English, “Feel”)
Eyes on the Streets 