Hess Village, Hamilton

Posted on June 12, 2025 by Mary C

In a small section of Hamilton……

below: “Woman with Flowers” by Megan Oldhues from the 2022 Concrete Canvas Festival

mural of a woman with flowers by Megan Oldhues

below: Mediah‘s angular shapes and colour contrasts on a bright purple background.

mural of graphics, lines, angles and shapes on a bright purple background, by Mediah

below: Reaching for a butterfly, “Helping Hand” by Alex Bacon from the 2019 Concrete Canvas Festival

large mural of a brown hand reaching for a butterfly, by Alex Bacon

below: Raven and turtle, a collaboration between Mique Michelle & Kalkidan Assefa (aka Drippin’ Soul), 2019

man walking past a mural, mural of a raven with a red berry in its beak, also a turtle in the mural, it was painted by Mique Michelle and Kalkidan Assefa

mural of a raven with a red berry in its beak, also a turtle in the mural

below: Some curvy-limbed and very flexible people, part of a mural by Burnt Toast

part of a black and white mural on a fence, of people with curvy arms and legs, by burnt toast creative

below: A tribute to Sophia

another Hertel Alley building

Posted on May 27, 2025 by Mary C

with walls covered with street art murals

below: Bugs and balls – Ladybugs and spiders, billiard balls and eye balls, all on a bright green background, mural by Markenzy Cesar

below: A sweet mural with donuts and cupcakes, by Sakygrinu, aka Teouria Morris

below: The next three go together, a long mural by Jordan Weaver (aka Coconut Curry) with red dots, faces, a dragon, and many pink flowers

part of a large mural by coconut curry, pink flowers on grey background

below: Jumping for joy and leaping towards the sun on a bright blue sky day, in a mural by Courtney Haeick

below: These walls are bananas!

below: Keshanta Cleveland painted these colourful fish with the wonderful fins and tails.

mural in an alley, on brick building, two fish with fluffy long flowing fins and tail, a bit like angel fish, one is peach coloured and the othr is pink and maroon

Photos taken April 2025

Link to prior Hertel Alley post – the answer is love

For more information on all things Hertel Walls, check out their website!

famous people on Hertel

Posted on May 25, 2025 by Mary C

This is the second post about the murals found in the Hertel Ave area of Buffalo NY; it is a follow up to the previous post, “the answer is love“.

There are two large murals on Hertel Ave that feature well known people. The first is the Buffalo NY based rock band Goo Goo Dolls and the other shows author Mark Twain in conversation with John T. Lewis.

The Goo Goo Dolls were painted by Philip Burke whose illustrations have appeared in many magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, and Rolling Stone. John Rzeznik the band’s is the lead vocalist and guitar player while Robby Takac is the bassist as well as another vocalist (there have been other rotating members as well). Goo Goo Dolls appeared on the rock scene in the mid 1980s.

goo goo dolls, the rock band, mural by Philip Burke on Hertel Ave in Buffalo, on side of 2 storey brick building, large faces

Mark Twain (aka Samuel Clemens) and John T. Lewis were painted by Brazilian artist Eduardo Kobra in his now well-known coloured shapes such as stripes or diamonds. Both Twain and Lewis were born in 1835, Lewis as a free Black in Maryland, Twain in Missouri. Lewis eventually settled in Elmira NY which is where Twain’s wife was from and where the lives of the two men first crossed.

mural by Kobra, Mark Twain and John T. Lewis

Photos taken April 2025

I’ve just learned that I missed murals of Jerry Garcia and of the ‘Rat Pack’ (with Frank Sinatra). If you are in the area, don’t forget to keep an eye open for them!

the answer is love

Posted on May 24, 2025 by Mary C

… and that answer is found in an alley behind Hertel Avenue in Buffalo NY

below: An intriguing orange and black image of a lion’s face by Jay Hawkins (aka Revolutionary Strokes)

large orange and black lion face, in a mural by Jay Hawkins

below: Vibrant flowers by Chuck Tingley

below: Hertel Alley Gallery – the “gallery” encompasses three blocks of Hertel Alley (runs parallel to Hertel Ave between Traymore and Colvin). It is the scene of the Hertel Alley Street Art Festival, first started in 2019. At present there are more than 20 murals. I haven’t presented all of them here, instead I have featured the ones on this building. The others will follow in subsequent postings.

building in an alley with street art murals on it, with sign that says Hertel Alley Gallery

below: Buffalo Strong by Nick Bonvissuto

below: Another Chuck Tingley painting, this time it’s a Covid theme… a thanks to those who worked through the pandemic.

murals on the side of a black building in an alley in buffalo new yor, alley is behind hertel avenue, one of the mural is a large image of a lion's head in orange and black

below: We’re Talking Proud, by The Left-Handed bandit

we're talking proud mural in an alley buffalo, balloons on strings being pulled, by left handed bandit

below: Cheerful mural by Flour Pail Kids

mural by flour pail kids in an alley in buffalo new york, yellow background, a young person is using a camera to take pictures of brightly coloured shapes and flowers, stylized

Photos taken April 2025

Carson Place

Posted on May 18, 2025 by Mary C

Another Melbourne alley with lots of street art.

below: A royal looking lion painted by Michael Che Romero. This Lion King mural was painted back in 2019 and was sponsored by Vivache Designs (note, Romero is/was their Creative Director).

below: Like most of the black and white stencils on this page, this is the work of King of the Clowder.

below: A closer look at two of the photos by monomelbourne that are seen in the vertical column in the above picture. On the bottom – Looking from Alexandra Gardens, across the river to St. Pauls Cathedral.

below: Joined together under a ring of thorns or barbed wire.

street art in Carson Place, an alley in central Melbourne

below: Many Melbournes with 3 posters with slightly twisted humour. Top – “What’s yours is mine”, Middle – “Mortgage Stress? Sell your kids (& mum), Bottom: “Last Christmas I gave you my heart, Give it back!”

below: Disease, but upside down

below: Dating from at least 2019, another King of the Clowder artwork that looks very Freddie Mercury-ish

below: The original King of the Clowder piece of the headless hoodie has been added to and now has a scowling face on a big fat head. A can of “squirt black” is still adding to his features.

below: mmm

several graffiti pieces on an alley wall

below: “Anyone can be any gender”… whether or not you agree, the world goes on.

below: Tintin, with something red in his hand, makes an appearance here too.

graffiti paper art featuring image of Tintin, the character from the French book

below: Tweety bird and his More Magikal Alphabets including Persian Hieroglyphics from Tweet (tweet_streetart)

small paper poster graffiti, with tweety bird cartoon character holding a balloon, on the paper is a listing of 3 different alphabets

below: Multiples

below: A weird and wacky green creature by Lukas Kasper

mural in a Melbourne alley, by Lukas Kasper, of a large green insect like creature with wings

below: Am I my own actions and intentions, or others perspectives? An interesting question posed by Current Remains.

small graffiti, cartoon drawing by current remains which asks the question, Am I my own actions and intentions, or others perspectives?

below: Skateboard art – Putting an old skateboard to good use!

below: Stay weird!

Photos taken March 2025

Cobblestone Commons

Posted on May 10, 2025 by Mary C

Along a stretch of wall in the Cobblestone District, next to the Buffalo River, in Buffalo NY, there is a series of large paintings …

below: by Detour303 aka Thomas Evans

large painting outdoors, part of Albright Knox's project Cobblestone Commons

below: Cyrielle Tremblay

large painting outdoors, part of Albright Knox's project Cobblestone Commons

below: Jason Brammer, a framed view of the ocean

large painting outdoors, part of Albright Knox's project Cobblestone Commons

below: Ellen Rutt, a collage of shapes, colours, and textures

large painting outdoors, part of Albright Knox's project Cobblestone Commons

These images are presented by Albright-Knox Gallery and they date from Covid times, 2020-21. From the words on the wall: “The commons are what belong to all of us. In the nineteenth century, this area, so close to the Erie and Hamburg Canals and the Buffalo River and Harbor, was the site of a jostling mix of brick layers and dock workers, deckhands and lock tenders, machinists and millwrights. Producers of all kinds walked down cobble streets alive with the energy and pleasure of other people’s company. The commons are the exciting site of diverse perspectives and unexpected communions, shared together.

copy of the words on the wall for the Albright Knox Gallery series Cobblestone Commons, a grouping of 12 large outdoor artworks

below: A patchwork couple standing together, by Lauren Mckenzie-Pearce aka Lady Noel

a coupe with white hair, dressed in patchwork clothes, white woman, black man, man has a beard and mustache.

below: Obsidian Bellis, human? floral?

large painting outdoors, part of Albright Knox's project Cobblestone Commons

below: Karle Norman

large painting outdoors, part of Albright Knox's project Cobblestone Commons, by Karle Norman,

below: by Monet Alyssa Kifner

large painting outdoors, part of Albright Knox's project Cobblestone Commons

below: A jumble of houses and other buildings, by Miriam Singer

large painting outdoors, part of Albright Knox's project Cobblestone Commons

below: “Be happy” by James Moffitt

large painting outdoors, part of Albright Knox's project Cobblestone Commons

below: Colourful cyclists by Morgan Blair

large painting outdoors, part of Albright Knox's project Cobblestone Commons

below: Rough and tumbling pastel people by Bradd Young

large painting outdoors, part of Albright Knox's project Cobblestone Commons, in pastel colours,

The Albright Knox Gallery sponsored another set of artworks during Covid that still hand the wall in a downtown Buffalo lane. You can see them at “Locked Down but Still at Work”

Photos taken April 2025

Langs Lane

Posted on May 9, 2025 by Mary C

Visitors to Langs Lane (at Little Bourke) are greeted by a very large blue insect thanks to artist Louis Moore.

street art painting of a very large blue insect or beetle in Langs Lane, Melbourne

Langs Lane is a short alley that ends in a very narrow passage as it approaches Bourke Street.

people walking through a narrow alley from Langs Lane, red brick buildings beside, with graffiti on the walls

At the narrowing of the alley there is a pink angel with curly black hair and red wings.

street art painting on a brick wall in an alley, a pink angel with black curly hair and red wings

There is another blue painting here by Louis Moore – an image of a fish. Or more correctly, part of a fish as the fleshy part of its middle is missing. Just the spine and bones of the center section are still intact.

street art by Louis Moore, a blue and white fish, or at least a fish head, on spine and vertebrae, with intact tail.

A man in a cap seems to survey the alley

mural of a man in a cap, in profile, in black and grey on a white background, street art mural of a brown dog, side view, he seems to be barking

This poor flower was trying to say something but someone had the audacity to rip her face.

flower painted on paper, then pasted on brick wall in an alley, Petals of the flower are alternating purple and white, center is yellow with a green face

There are a few other remnants of artwork on paper that had been on display here. From what I can tell, there was a series of photographic works titled “Phobias”. It was presented by the Stills Co-op back in 2018 and featured works depicting some of our deepest fears. Unfortunately, very little remains but of course that is what happens when art is left to the elements. It takes on a life of its own, beyond our control. Until someone comes along and paints or papers over the old – you may have noticed some of the Phobia papers behind Louis Moore’s blue fish.

Sometimes the resulting fragments that are still visible can catch our attention.

bits of paper, remnants of a photograph on disply in an alley, outdoors, weathered and old

It was an interesting, and quite extensive, exhibit. Like many art exhibits, the originals live on the internet. See the video at Gavin John Photoography

torn paper, remnants of a photograph mounted on a wall in an alley

Some of the other graffiti in Lang Lane is cartoonish. Some with known cartoon, or animated, characters such as Marge Simpson

Marge Simpson in an mural on a wall in Langs Lane, with red hearts

… or Odie the dog from ‘Garfield’ (with more paper fragments behind).

a mural of Odie, the dog from the Garfield cartoon series, bright yellow with blue floppy ears and a big red tongue that sticks out a long way

2 cartoon characters on an alley wall, one yellow and the other green

Langs Lane with highroses above it, Melbourne CBD

around and behind Ossington

Posted on May 8, 2025 by Mary C

Ossington Avenue is an interesting street to walk with it’s numerous stores, restaurants and coffee shops. But there is another fascinating world hiding behind the main street in the numerous lanes and alleys in the area.

For this blog post, I have assembled more of the photographs that I have taken around Ossington since January of this year. It gets a bit long because I decided not to chop it into smaller pieces, so grab a seat and let’s get started!

below: A whimsical Uber5000 painting on a garage door.

below: Hearts on fire, burning love, and the fireman that is trying to extinguish the flames – in a mural created by D. Terra Stencils.

below: One of the cutest raccoons that I have ever seen, also painted by D.Terra Stencils.

below: Some more cute raccoons of a different sort go camping in a mural by Emily May Rose

below: … and some more raccoons!

below: …. and even more!

below: Smaller black stencil graffiti on a white garage door – an iconic image of Marilyn Monroe as well as a Kung fu Panda. The other woman gets a splash of bright red.

below: A trumpet player and a gun fight.

below: Bikes on the stairs with a colourful bird keeping a watchful eye.

Moooo…. Hey there good looking!… Here’s looking at you! This was painted by Poser. Usually he does bunny rabbits but I think that he’s pretty good at painting cows too!

below: An old square brick building, garages and fences with graffiti, old trees, and a row of houses at the end of the lane – this captures the look of a typical Toronto lane.

below: Home patio, outdoor living urban style.

below: “Stop and enjoy”. I like how the poster below the stop sign says “mediocrity” which makes the overall message, “Stop and enjoy mediocrity”. A bit snarky.

below: The tail end of a fishy mural.

below: This aquatic themed mural dates from 2016 when a group of artists painted many murals in the area, all with the Great Lakes as their theme. They were part of Pangeaseed Foundation’s Seawalls for Oceans project. Some artworks have survived better than others. Love letters in paint is a post (off site, in my Toronto blog) from 2016 that show most of them in their original form.

below: The Swiss army knife was also a Pangeaseed mural

below: Where possible, Jimmy’s Coffee shops have exterior walls painted with images of famous Jimmys including the one on Ossington. Jimmy Carter, James Dean, the guitar of Jimmy Hendrix and two muppets representing Jim Henson Gonzo and Elmo

below: A Jimmy of a different kind, a fantastic cacaphony of colours and shapes in a mural by Jimmy Chiale

below: Close up of part of a mural, a young man wearing a black mask over his eyes.

below: Rowell Soller

below: Two paintings on two different garages that look like they were done by the same artist. The signature appears to be Soul R. and the top painting is from 2017.

below: 2022 Christina Mazzulla, for the Golden Turtle Restaurant.

below: “You are stroger than you think”

below: Nick Sweetman has used shades of blue and purple to create this wonderful northern scene with a bear and moose combo.

below: Totally blue. The other colours have faded? Or were never there in the first place?

below: More garage doors painted by D.Terra Stencils

below: On a bright yellow background, an image of Jean Michel Basquiat, one of the original creators present-day street art.

below: .. and beside Basquiat, a levitating woman

below: Written in Portuguese is “Nem às paredes confesso” which translates to “I don’t even confess to the walls”.

below: Portuguese words, and nearby a Portuguese flag

below: Boxers – Muhammad Ali and an opponent

below: The last D. Terra Stencils is this rendition of Ren and Stimpy

below: The next four images are of the same mural in a snowy laneway parking lot… starting with DAM DOG ketchup bottle

below: Parking for Animals

below: These little ceramic animals have been walking in this alley for at least ten years.

below: T-bonez stands alone, maybe waiting for the light to turn green?

below: And what’s this? Even more raccoons?! Toronto’s “beloved” trash pandas are everywhere!

below: Six lit matches ready to go. This crazy cat is up to something no good…

below: An early Birdo piece, although the scroll names or street artists too. The first street art in this alley directly behind Ossington (on the east side) dates from 2012 when a group of artists painted some of the garages here.

below: A pink rose between two women.

below: Another oldie – this purple guy has been blowing a gust of wind for many years.

below: Vintage Spud bombs, some cheerful and some menacing.

below: A funny looking green creature with big white eyes and lots of skinny legs.

below: A couple, together in the stream, in a mural by Elicser Elliott with the title “Swim”

below: Geometric shapes with a touch of rainbow colour, by Peru

below: Large pink and white swirls and curls cover a wall. Any time that you see swirls like these, think Flips because that’s sure to be the artist that painted them.

below: Only a small portion of this moose painting by Aaron Li-Hill remains. I don’t usually show the original works but I am going to make an exception here. See next image.

below: This is what it looked like back in 2012 or 2013.

below: A newer Catchoo sticker.

below: A couple of faces taken from many faces around a garage.

below: Part of a Troy Lovegates mural (as are the next three images)

below: The closest garage on the right has a mural painted by Spud.

below: Durothethird paints peanut butter & (probably) chocolate

below: Horus, “Well and good”

below: A tribute mural celebrating Canadian Black designers.

below: Writing on black and purple

below: Portrait of George Sully, Canadian designer

below: Love yourself, over and over again, and in many different colours!

below: An old stikman in a frame, weathered but still there.

below: And lastly… Too extraterrestrial, which someone seems to love

Locked Down but Still at Work

Posted on May 2, 2025 by Mary C

Sixteen paintings lined up on a wall in a downtown Buffalo alley…. a series presented by the Albright Knox Gallery. It is titled “Works, from Home” and it represents the thoughts and feelings of sixteen artists on their experiences with lockdowns during the Covid pandemic of 2020. Presented here in no particular order (with the artist’s name underneath) –

a row of paintings, part of a series called Works from Home, Covid themed images by local artists, presented by Albright Knox gallery

Ashley Johnson

Chris Piontkowski

Adam Weekley

Obsidian Bellis

Rachel Shelton

Jon Mirro

Julia Bottoms

part of a series called Works from Home, Covid themed images by local artists, presented by Albright Knox gallery, painting by J.P. Hawkins Sr

left: Karle Norman
right: Jay P. Hawkins Sr.

Tricia Butski

M.J. Myers

Jason Seeley

part of a series called Works from Home, Covid themed images by local artists, presented by Albright Knox gallery

Jennifer Ryan

Fotini Galanes

Photos taken April 2025

down a dark alley

Posted on April 18, 2025 by Mary C

…. Finlay Lane, a short lane with a dead end, in Melbourne’s CBD (Central Business District).

below: Graffiti on an alley wall

below: Urban Cake Lady, with the red hoodies and blue and white striped pants that she likes to use in her artwork.

below: Human? Devil? An impish blue character with a long red satanic tail.

blue skinned character with long red tail

below: This isn’t the clearest image, but what you looking at here is a character putting on a mask. Its face is black and its two eyes look like lights (and are barely in the photo)

putting on a mask, part of a street art painting

mural in a Melbourne alley, throw up style, red tag on blue background

below: With all the wrong lighting, a large painting by Ling, for Flash Forward Melbourne whose line is “40 Artists, 40 Acts, 40 Laneways”. The image is too dark, but it’s a man in blue shirt, red robe, holding out one hand. A better picture can be found at the Flash Forward Melbourne website.