below: It’s hard to read now, but the word is “Entertainment” that runs across the top of the mural.
below: Older Buffaloes in Buffalo, titled: “Buffalo Roam”
below: Semi-circular, “Shooting Stars”
below: It’s not a street art mural but it’s located on the same building as “Entertainment” and across the parking lot from “Buffalo Roam”. Buffalo is full of old ghost signs like this. Albert’s Interior Decorators and Willett & Draper Furriers are both long gone. “Storage vaults on premises” – a throwback to when fur coats were popular. Fox & Staniland Opticians apparently still exist, but at a different address.
Joe’s Deli is on the corner of Hertel and Colvin in Buffalo (north of downtown). Two sides of the building are covered with large colourful murals.
below: On the Colvin Street side the mural consists of a lot of stylized flowers mostly in blues and purples.
below: The other side of the building has a second mural. It too has a turquoise background and some of the same floral motifs as the first mural. Both murals were painted by Bunnie Reiss.
below: The old blue sign on the building says Mastmans Kosher Restaurant. Mastmans deli and restaurant closed in 2005 after 60 years in the business.
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!
For a number of years now, there has been a lot of street art and graffiti in an alley that runs behind the east side of Ossington starting at Queen Street and ending one block north at Humbert. Some of it is interesting; some is not. A few garages and walls look the same as they did 12 or 13 years ago so some of these photos may look similar to older photos used in this blog.
below: In the background, an untitled piece by Caratoes. It was one of 5 murals painted in Toronto in 2016 for the “Sea Walls: Artists for Oceans” series. In total, there were over 500 murals in 20 countries in this series.
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 the alley 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: Looking south. The closest garage on the right has a mural painted by Spud.
In Toronto, running west off of West Lodge Ave., there is an alley behind Queen Street West on the north side. The upper part of this long, low building was painted blue a number of years ago. Since then it has been tagged and used as a place to spray, stick, or paste graffiti.
below: T-bonez from Urban Ninja Squadron practises yoga positions.
below: A bright red door that has unfortunately been scrawled on. Beside it is a black figure that seems to be diving backwards while holding a bunch of colourful balloons.
below: Once it was a pink cat with green whiskers
below: Holding tight to that red rose.
Continuing west towards Lansdowne ….
below: Faces in the alley, with a bit too much gold
below: Chubby cheeks and big fat lips…. and how many eyes?
below: Faces, many faces with their eyes closed and their hair swirling around. Mural painted by Carol Ann Apilado
below: “Tell me its all going to be okay? Not sure if I can do that buddy…..
below: Patterns and shapes on fence, by Hello Kirsten
below: Enough! Although once upon a time it said more than that…..
Fairgrounds describes itself as an immersive arts and technology experience. It is located near 28th Street S and the 275 freeway in St. Petersburg. You’ll find the Pinellas Trail nearby. The area around it is home to some interesting street art.
below: Derek Donnelly’s Fairgrounds mural on the outside of their building.
below: “Girl Power”, is a mural of a girl and her horse among the sunflowers. It is a project that involved both the Girl Scouts of West Central Florida and the The Happy Mural Project.
below: Straight Edge Creative is responsible for the bright and cheerful music themed painting of the front of this building.
below: Einstein, and “Seek knowledge”
below: Gibbs Mural Club, “Local Bounty” A woman with a crown of flowers surrounded by blueberries, mangoes, lemons, watermelons, and other fruits and vegetables.
below: When two faces merge together, one canine eye and one human eye but two noses and two mouths. An interesting concept painted in blues by Marcus Debie aka GOMAD
below: Butterflies and bright words, “Go Outside” and hiding behind the palms are more words, “Look Inside”. This mural was painted by Sydney Prusso as part of the 8th SHINE Mural Festival in 2022.
below: “The Siren” by Sarah Sheppard
below: As part of the 2021 SHINE Mural Fetival, this was painted by Aurailieus
below: Abstract seaside scene in waves of blue and orange gradients.
below: More abstracts – Designs and patterns using triangles and colour variations.”
below: Blue headdress on a cute little creature.
below: “You are beautiful”, “You are amazing”, and other positive messages.
below: A 3-D cube and other shapes on the outside of the Hideaway Cafe
below: The long neck of a flamingo reaches around the corner towards a bit purple crab and an octopus
below: A pelican taking flight, part of a larger mural for the Florida Wildlife Corridor by Ernesto Maranje.
below: Words on the wall, “Haleakala, Our patron saint of perpetual street art”. I may have misspelled the first word – it’s actually the name of a volcano on Maui.
2016 was the first year that the Vancouver Mural Festival was held. This event that ran nine years but apparently will not be held this year, 2025. In the first year there were about 40 murals painted in 20 different locations. A concentration of them can still be seen near Main and Industrial.
below: Wall of murals on Industrial Street in Vancouver
below: “Van City Scape” by Ola Volo
below: A frog and a flying insect beside a pond or lake, a mural by Cody Lecoy,
below: This mural is a representation of Buddhist figures Yama and Mara, where the 3 heads rep Mara’s daughters, Craving, Aversion, and Desire. It was painted by Paige Bowman
below: Everything Matters; Nothing’s Important, by Katie Maasik
below: This dragon is a collaboration between Katie So and Ben Knight, “Knot Yourself”. The title comes from the fact that the mural spells out those words; the portion shown here is the O and T at the end of KNOT and the Y at the beginning of YOURSELF.
below: Nevercrew painted this large red mural – it’s a polar bear stuck inside a plastic bottle and it has the title, “Exhausting Machine”
There was also a wall of murals painted along Southern Street. Most of them are now at least partially obscured by changes in the building, or by items stored in front of the walls.
below: Mural by Julia Iredale,
below: Shannon Elliott’s mural of large birds with little naked men in their beaks.
below: Conductor with baton and lightning bolts?, the blare of a trumpet and a determined cello player. by Tim Mack
below: Only a very small portion of the mural was visible the day that I passed by, kids and little pink fingers or worms, by Peter Ricq,
below: Words – the whole mural originally said, “We’re looking for people who like to look for people”. by Bobo
below: In Melbourne’s CBD, Tattersall and Stevenson alleys are connected. They are also covered with a lot of paint and paper! As I wandered through these lanes I tried to capture some of the more interesting things, both big and small.
below: Spiderman likes taking pictures
below: The Street Art Hunters (aka SAH) are dressed in hot pink!
below: A purple Frankenstein along with his bride, also in purple, hanging out together behind bars. Artwork by Moon of Jupiter Art (aka Ryan Callisto)
below: Now in green. A small Complimentary Nuts paste-up is immediately below this version of Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein, “7 out of 10 dentists say that your teeth are awesome. The other three need your cash”.
below: A third poster by Ryan Callisto. This time Frankenstein is just a tattoo on her arm.
below: “You’ve got to love Melbourne!”
below: Fall in love, not in line
below: “Sending you love because wow! what a shithow” and Love is Hell.
below: “What if we kissed in the smouldering ruins of capitalism?”
below: Little beaded diamond shapes like these have appeared all over downtown Melbourne.
below: Every deck of cards needs a Joker
below: Two artworks, paper paste-ups. A woman’s portrait on top and a playing card style image of Jimmy Hendrix, the H of Hearts, below.
below: Prince, in purple, becomes the P of Hearts in this playing card style image.
below: When someone came along with a can or two of spray paint, the little girl with the “Just doubt Fascism” sign survived. The bug on the right is probably not too happy with the situation.
below: A musical bluebird by Lukas Kasper.
below: Is it smiling? or smirking?
below: Two megaphones… and a very determined look on her face
below: It’s always fascinating to see how some bits of graffiti last so much longer than others. Even if they are left untouched, they slowly weather and fade away until almost ghost-like.
below: While we are on the subject of “vintage” graffiti, there are four pieces on this wall by Junky (aka Daniel Lynch) They are looking a little rusty and forlorn. I first encountered ‘recycled’ cans like these when I was in Melbourne in 2016. See post, Junky Recyles
below: Button-eyed face
below: What is a Lost Form?
below: Door covered with posters, street art images
below: Closer view of the posters on the bottom half – SAH, Tweet
below: top half
below: Scrawny alien-like character with big yellow eyes and spikey hair. Is there a pop culture reference for this guy?
below: Flowers growing beside the entrance to an office building in a painting by Anais Lera
below: “Dreamweaver”, 2020, by Lauren Brevner and James Nexw’Kalus-Xwalacktun Harry (aka James Harry) in part as a response to the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement. Commissioned by the Vancouver Mural Festival and Hudson Pacific Properties.
below: On the side of a parking structure at Seymour and West Pender, Carolyn Wong has painted a large mural featuring aquatic life in a pond. Ducks and fish swim among the water lilies.
below: In the fading light of late afternoon, “Earth Justice” by Shepard Fairey takes on a yellowish glow. Financial help for this mural was provided from the Burrard Arts Foundation and their ‘Surface Series’
below: Another Lauren Brevner and James Harry mural; this one, also from 2020, is the story of how salmon came to the Squamish people.
below:Ola Volo’s “Wall for Women” at Burrard station.
below: A collage of musical elements adorns a wall behind the Lennox Pub in a lane off of Granville Street. It was painted by Nada Hayek.
Eyes on the Streets 