Caratoes | Eyes on the Streets

Stramurales curated by the Stornara Life association. Since I visited the city in February 2024, many more murals have been painted on Stornara’s walls. Even though this is my eighth blog post showing Stornara murals, there are many that you will have to go to see for yourself! …. or of course you could check out the Stornara Life website.

below: Graffmatt painted this child with a leaf among the bags of trash, all in blues. It’s title in “Desperate World”

street art mural by Graffmatt of a child holding a large blue leaf that hides most of the face, many bags of garbage surround the child

below: “No Looking Back” by Zabou. In case you can’t see it, the title of the book is, “Unione Europea, Repubblica Italiana”

street art mural in Stornara by Zabou, of a young man with baseball cap on backwards, a backpack on his back, a book in hand, and a white bird on his shoulder. man has slight mustache and beard, painted on a building with 6 windows, some with shutters that are closed.

below: Liberami da tutto il male (= Deliver me from all evil) by Brazilian artist Alex Senna; his murals are almost always in shades of gray.

in shades of grey, a mural by Alex Senna of a young boy kneeling by a large heart shape on the ground made of lit candles

below: “Love overcomes death”, by JDL (aka Judith de Leeuw). The same woman in three different, but similar, positions.

residential street with street art murals in Stornara, side of houses, the nearest one is by JDL, also known as Judith de Leeuw, which shows a woman in three similar poses combined into one person, middle one is holding a red flower

below: Only the flower has color.

street art mural by JDL, also known as Judith de Leeuw, which shows a woman in three similar poses combined into one person, middle one is holding a red flower

below: Caratoes painted this portrait, titled “La Ragazza Meccanica”. This translates to The Mechanical Girl. A machine, or robot, with a mask to make her look human.

street art mural on side of residential building in Stornara, by Caratoes, robot women lying on back, neck and head only

below: Both of these pieces are by No Chance (or No Chance Crew), Mona Lisa with her Anonymous mask, and the elderly couple in “Eternal Love”

2 pieces of street art, one is Mona Lisa holding up an anonymous mask and the other is an elderly couple hugging.

below: Someone has left a drink for Ghost

below: Zip is the artist who created this little piece – a barefoot girl and a teddy bear.

below; A plain brick wall has been transformed – this mural by Vesod looks so real! The 3-D effect is so well done!

below: A field of red poppies and a blue head scarf in another Zabou mural, “Girl Lying Among the Poppies”

below: “Positive Light” by Alaniz – a mural with bats and a white dove that seems to glow.

a mural by Alaniz of a woman holding out her hand to a white dove that seems to glow with light

below: Your dream, dreaming as you drive, by Antonio Giuliani – but the needed context is that this was painted in August 2020 so she is dreaming of freedom after the COVID lockdowns of 2020.

mural with text, your dream, woman driving a car, moon and planets and swirly clouds outside the window, wraps around the corner of a house

below: A bit creepy, this skeleton is trying to kiss the girl (or it could be the other way around?). It was a collaboration between Diamond and Solo (Flavio) and is titled “Sommernacht” which is German for Summer Night.

below: “It’s Too Late for Revolution” by Lucione Samoa

mural by Lucione Samoa on a concrete wall, fence, beside sidewalk with parked cars

below: “One of my Friend” (with a pug looking on), by Artez

murals on fence beside street as well as on the wall of the building,

below: This mural is a collaboration between Zabou and Bifido.

street art mural on side of residential building in Stornara, zabou and bifido collaboration, girl in orange top

street art mural on side of residential building in Stornara,

below: Another piece by No Chance; this one is called “Giovanna Darkness”.

below: The first of at least two Dale Grimshaw paintings in Stornara is this one in blue.

Dale Grimshaw mural, portrait in blue, young man in hoodie, naked people on his forehead and under his chin

below: The second Dale Grimshaw portrait is also a male, but this time it is a Papuasian holy man.

two small cars parked on street in stornara, with one building covered with street art murals including one by dale grimshaw

below: “Two Ancient Faces”, one male and one female combined, in a mural by Aero.

in a residential area of stornara, side of apartment building covered by mural by aero, large mural in shades of reds and orange, a face made of two elderly halves, on side male and the other side female, with 5 birds flying around

large mural in shades of reds and orange, a face made of two elderly halves, on side male and the other side female, with 5 birds flying around

below: A little mouse with a magic wand stands beside a bright pink pair of running shoes, or sneakers, with matching pink laces. This was painted by Aurora Agrestini.

pair of pink running shoes with laces, mural painted by Aurora Agrestini, on a wall, with two windows

below: The monkey, or ape, is a mural by Smok with a great title, “OMG Humans”.

two murals on two walls of the same building, an ape on one side, a pair of pink running shoes on the other

below: “The White Tiger” by Martina Pesce.

a white tiger with black stripes, mura on the side of a building in stornara, laundry hanging from balcony in other building,

below: Pooh Bear but oh! This is not the Winnie the Pooh you thought you knew. This Winnie, painted by Kris Rizek, seems to be getting ready to be up to no good! A gas mask? cans of spray paint? and what’s in that green bottle?

graffiti on a stone wall, drawn in black marker, the words super, meh, pop, and wow, as well as a cat's head

below: Celebrating an event from 16 April 1519.

on the side of a two storey residential building, with balcones and laundry, street art mural in Stornara of two men dressed in old fashioned clothes, text written on the grass in the middle of the mural

street art mural in Stornara of two men dressed in old fashioned clothes, text written on the grass in the middle of the mural — “Noi Giovanna e Carlo … da parte del magnifico Signore Paolo Antonio Puderico nobile napoletana fedele nostro diletto… nel presente ha, tiene e possiede … il feudo della Stornara inabitato … per se suoi eredi e successori .. per legittima successione in perpetuo con tutti i suoi diretti entrate e ragioni ….confermiamo, accettiamo, omdoghiamo, lodiamo e ratifichiamo… Anno sedicesimo Navarra quinto Aragonese delle due Sicile e Gerusalemme… Dato nella citta di Barcellona il 16 aprile anna dalla nativita di nostro Signore 1519. “
*translation:* We, Giovanna and Carlo… on behalf of the magnificent Lord Paolo Antonio Puderico, a Neapolitan nobleman, our faithful beloved… currently has, holds and possesses… the uninhabited fiefdom of Stornara… for himself, his heirs and successors… by legitimate succession in perpetuity with all its direct income and rights…we confirm, accept, commend, praise and ratify… Sixteenth year Navarre, fifth Aragonese of the two Sicilies and Jerusalem… Given in the city of Barcelona on the 16th of April after the birth of our Lord 1519

below: Stornara Life. As I walked around the town, a local woman who spoke no English (and I can’t speak much Italian) made sure that I understood that it was the people at Stornara Life who brought the artists and their work to Stornara.

door of building for stornara life organization, with some small pieces of street art on it, a boy in a blue hoodie, part of a man's face in black and white, a girl with feathers and a bow and arrow

below: The last mural for this post is “The Crowd of Fools” painted by Gods in Love. It covers two sides of a building. I don’t have a photo of the whole mural – instead I will leave you with a few bits and pieces.

part of a mural in stornara italy by artists gods in love, title of crowd of fools, misshapen characters sometimes with multiple pairs of eyes, pointy fingers, strange shaped heads, etc

Photos taken February 2024

Stornara posts on this blog

A Stornara wall, one of many
Another Stornara selection
Blues over Stornara
one corner, two women
riding turtles and reading cats
Stornara murals – Stramurales [this post – see above]
the world is changing
utopia and smiling faces

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.