Graffiti Alley – spring 2024

Posted on March 16, 2024 by Mary C

As you might know, every once in a while I walk down Graffiti Alley in Toronto to see if there is anything new that might be of interest. This blog post is a result of last week’s walk….

below: Orange hair with attitude – “You don’t look smart because you have a beard!” by NYC based City Kitty. In the upper right corner all the way from the UK, a D7606 old style telephone featuring David Bowie… call a friend.

below: Havana to Toronto and of course, 2 + 2 always = 5.

below: A diverse group of faces

below: Many more faces but mostly a frowny face man. Every time I look at this picture I think of Poilievre but that opinion might get me into trouble!

below: Purple with green wings and a golden halo – horus and tuffytats (aka Trevor Goodwin) be dreaming again?

below: “Tell them louder”

below: Yarn squares crocheted and attached to a pole with Urban Ninja Squadron’s T-bonez looking on.

below: No Dumping stickers

below: Playing on his knees. That’s quite the instrument. Cuba on his shoulder.

below: And a similar man with curly hair and beard, but this time in pink.

below: A blue legless and armless robot along with a conehead type creature with a big mouth, both at 733.

below: FPmonkey – a young woman with long purple hair tied up with green flowers. A single red tear drop on her cheek.

below: Uber5000’s marine life is still a colourful fixture in the alley.

below: Nearby, his Toronto/Canada themed mural has not lasted as well. A couple of yellow birdies are still visible.

below: Spiderman and the Spiderverse – some of the mural remains untouched but much of it has been tagged over

below: En masse has a number of pieces in the area including three metal boxes on the sidewalk – this is part of one of those boxes. Almost all of their work is in black and white.

below: The tears of a clown when there’s no one around….

below: She’s green.

below: Tiny finds on a blue wall. Princess Lays Chicken (Princess Laya Chicken?)

below: remnants of Black Lives Matter, and a new purple flower on the door.

below: A scrawny cat scribbled on yellow paint. In case it is difficult to see, the sticker (or paste up) on the pole is an old television set with text near the bottom that says, “HAHA”. Interpret it as you wish (as usual).

below: Rubbish in the lane (maybe just a spring clean up needed? … not that the alley is usually clean LOL)

Photos taken March 2024
This post also appears in As I Walk Toronto blog

Coney Island

Posted on December 5, 2022 by Mary C

Greetings from Coney Island! A postcard type mural by Megan Watters.

postcard style mural, greetings from Coney Island, with images in the letters

Here street art has been incorporated into the amusement park. Each year since 2015 , Coney Art Walls has added to their collection of murals and now has more than 60. Go when the park is open!

large painting of a woman's face on the side of the cyclone, a roller coaster ride at Luna, the amusement park at Coney Island

below: More of the Art Walls. The largest one in the photo is by Nina Chanel Abney. The one closest to the camera is ‘Handsome Brother and the Mermaid’ by Aiko which is based on an old Japanese tale called “Taro Urashima and Dragon Palace”.

mural of two people, woman with green face

mural in black and white and grey tones, portrait of 3 black men

below: Behind a chainlink fence, another Coney Island mural.

an old RV parked in front of a coney island mural, sign above the mural advertising cotton candy and other products for sale

below: And yet another Coney Island mural, this one with old black and white photographs of New York City views inside the letters. The Statue of Liberty makes a great exclamation mark.

mural for coney island, letters spelling coney with old black and white photos in the letters

below: Although it is disappearing behind the ivy, this is yet another Coney Island mural.

blue mural with coney island in cursive, an ince cream cone and a hot dog, but ivy is growing from above and starting to cover up the mural

below: Clown face and more faces. Live and let live – street artists against hate in the bottom right. And that blue guy? Have you seen how many teeth he has?!

stickers and slaps on a wall, a clown face in red white and blue, a light blue drawing of a man with one eye open the other eye closed, big smile with too many teeth, also a black and white sticker live and let live street artists against hate

below: Smell the flowers before they die and by the looks of it you don’t have long….

graffiti sticker on metal pole, vase of flowers some dying and some still healthy with text that says stop and smell the flowers while you can

three slaps on a wall

below: A jumble of strings and wires and a few found objects all wound up and made into a slightly human-like shape. Man is a mess?

a wheatpaste graffiti on a red pole, a photo of a mass of string, ribbon, and other items in a vaguely humanoid shape

below: The 5th, and last one here, Coney Island mural is the newest and the biggest. This is “Coney Is For Everyone” on Stilwell Avenue, painted by Danielle Mastrion. It was an Alliance for Coney Island project.

part of a large welcome to coney island mural

part of a mural, a large sea turtle swimming past an octopus as a young boy looks on, aquarium

a woman breathing fire in a mural

coney island mural, the word coney in a beach scene with 2 beachchairs and a child's silhouette

far right end of welcome to coney island mural, beside a pizza restaurant

below: A blue Subway Doodle monster sleeps in front of Nathans on the boardwalk.

Nathans hot dog restaurant on the boardwalk at Coney Island, closed, painting of a blue monster lying on its side, asleep on the metal shutters covering the windows

below: Another result of the Alliance for Coney Island efforts is this multicolour mural on the shutters that was painted by Ledania.

blog_multicolor_amusement_park

sticker on a metal pole outdoors, I (red heart) my hood

below: Lock him up! Donald Trump behind bars. Doesn’t he look cute in black and white stripes?

graffiti sticker on a metal pole. Head shot of former American president Donald Trump (aka the former guy) in jailhouse black and white and behind blue bars

subway is above ground, and above the stores along a coney island street, near Steamania Seafood restaurant and its shrimp mural along the sidewalk

Murals on Hoardings, Cuenca Ecuador

Posted on March 27, 2022 by Mary C

In Jaunary 2018 a large section of the old historic part of Cuenca was a construction site. The plywood hoardings around the site were painted with street art murals. I have credited the artist whenever possible but unfortunately most of the work was unsigned.

below: A Chicho rat

street art of a rat holding a yellow object, by Chicho

street art on hoardings around a construction site

below: Hambre translates to hunger.

mural on hoardings with historic church in the background, word hambre with 4 objects, a clown head, armchair, watermelon piece, and a red balloon on a string

below: Fourteen candles

mural with 14 lit candles in a row, with their reflection across the bottom. Candles are purple on the bottom, yellow in the middle and white on top.

below: White clothes; red heads

below: Wide eyed face with many teeth and an angular nose

mural on hoardings, a large rectangular horizontal black face with white features,

below: Cuenca street scene

a man walking down a street in Cuenca Ecuador with hoardings surrounding a construction site on one side of the street, the hoardings have murals painted on them

below: San Pancho re-arranged

blue background mural with crowd of white faces

hoardings, a mural that has been re-arranged incorrectly, hoarding panels are in wrong order

below: passing the peacock feather from top to bottom

mural on hoardings, peacock feather being passed from top half of person to bottom half of person
a young man in a hoodie is walking past murals on hoardings, picture on mural is of a person wearing purple shoes, Cuenca Ecuador

below: Shopping with diegumberrto aka Diego Molina,

detailed mural in mostly yellow of objects on shelves, a man appears to be shopping, has word extra on front of his baseball cap

below: She’s kneeling in the garden wearing mis-matched earrings and a pink sun hat; she is surrounded by a book, dolls, watermelon, lots of flowers and even a skull.

mural of a young girl in a pink hat and with mis matched ear rings, kneeling outside with dolls, plants, and other small objects like a piece of watermelon, a small white skull with an arrow through it,

below: Pieces of clothing flying everywhere

below: Honeybee and gummi bears

below:Flores en el camino, signed Anuska?

below: ideas, thoughts, and dreams

below: At the corner

below: More hoardings

below: Rearranged where workmen are busy.

Nicholai Khan – Think Vegas

Posted on November 14, 2019 by Mary C

Back in 2015 I saw these three murals by Nicholai Khan in Las Vegas. Khan was born in Trinidad but moved to Manhattan (New York City) in the 1980’s.

three murals in a row by Nicholai Khan, with #thinkvegas written by them, a woman's face, Charlie Chaplin, and Mickey Mouse

a small tree grows in front of a murl of a large woman's face, the leaves of the tree match the position of woman' hair, by Nicholai Khan, think vegas

below: Charlie Chaplin & his dog, surrounded by laughter.

very colourful painting of man done with dots, sitting down, bowler hat on, sort of like Charlie Chaplin, with hundreds of ha ha ha written around him

below: Mickey Mouse doesn’t look very happy.

a sad and forlorn MickeyMouse sits with his head resting on his arms, mural

Cafe Cinema Courtyard, Berlin

Posted on October 14, 2018 by Mary C

The Cafe Cinema Courtyard starts as a small alley beside the Cafe Cinema off Rosenthaler Strasse close to the Hackescher Market. It is almost completely covered with street art of all kinds – painted murals, stickers, paste ups and more.

painted sign for cafe cinema, bear with a gold hat holding a red flag with a white star on it

Cafe cinema courtyard in Berlin, one wall is covered with stencils, pasteups, stickers, and small street art, people walking past looking at it and taking picture of it

two windows on a wall, cafe tables in front of the wall, graffiti on the walls around the windows

red bird graffiti, green with man's face, brick wall

below: “It’s time to dance”, one of many large paste-ups by SOBR

large black and white paper paste up of a woman

grey paper paste up of a bald man in seated position, drinking from a red and white coke can, lots of other graffiti around him including a large hand holding a cigarette

below: The same hedgehog that I saw in Tallinn…. the work of Edward von Longus

small stencil of a hedgehog with an open laptop

below: Flower Power, straight from the 1960’s, by Joiny

magenta VW microbus with flowers on it as well as words love and peace

below: Lisanne, Dagmar and Donna were here as were Berlyn and Yasmyn. Russian matryoshka dolls and Fabrege eggs watch the boxing match between facebooks and instagram. The Russian themed stencil is the work of ost.up.berlin

stencil of Russian babushka doll with two fabrege eggs beside it.

street art, octopus smoking a cigarette

street art, yellow leopard with black spots and blue eyes, mouth open and teeth showing, paw, clown pasteup with red nose

mural of man, large, in grey suit and shirt and tie, from chest up, short dark hair, blue eyes

below: Ann Franke by Jimmy C (aka James Cochrane)

large mural of ann frank, head

large mural of a monkey holding a camera and grinning

below: by Garavato, a Colombian street artist, painted in 2016

yellow, orange and blue mural of a bird and very large claw reaching for that bird

below: A yellow creature by Peng. In the background is a circle with a silhouette of Charlie Brown and Snoopy sitting on the roof of the dog house, by Osch aka Otto Schade.

bike parked in front of a mural of a yellow human like creature with knees tucked up, people in the background looking at the street art

street art with a large bright bluish green man's face, with yellow sunglasses and dark green lips, also a stencil of a red umbrella

pasteup, 3 dancing women from black and white vintage photos, but with red heads and big blue lips, T.B.O.N.S written on each head

below: Pasteup of boy in blue by @tona_one

paste-up of boy in nlue jacket by @tona_one

below: A couple of yarn bombs too.

pasteup of black and white skull, yellow jaguar with black spots

below: Soon, Azione!, and Joiny (the girl in the British telephone booth)

below: by MIMI the clowN

below: Love Revolution

below: Sold out.

large paste up of black and white hand, large realistic looking eye, orange, in the middle of the palm

To find out where we’ve taken street art photos, check our “Locations” page!

foots-crazy people and faces

Posted on February 4, 2016 by Mary C

Heaps of neat street art that I saw one day while walking around Footscray.

street art painting of a minion, a green turtle like creature

street art painting on a metal garage door of a couple standing behind a barbed wire fence

large clown like face painted on a wall between windows with metal bars. big laughing mouth and white face

below: Wanna play? by Mika

stencils on a black wall

very large two storey mural of a girl on the side of a building. Her head and shoulders profile

below: Larissa McFarlane is responsible for the paste-ups of people doing handstands that are around Melbourne. I saw two instances of them in Footscray.

paste up by Larissa McFarlane of a life sized person doing a handstand while wearing striped socks

street art paste ups of three people standing on their hands, with a cane to the right of them.

street art painting of un ugly wrinkly dog face with bulging eyes and lots of drool

street art of a person with two heads wearing a long blue dress with no arms or legs visible but with one hand holding a very small person, also a large bumblebee street art painting. also a dog wearing a red and white striped top and a white dog face mask

mural of people in black and white with a red heart in the middle

white skull wearing a brown cowboy hat amongst graffiti tags on a brick wall. words "scary oner" written to the left of the skull

street art painting of a woman in a yellow head scarf and blue top waving

street art painting of a large white man's face with two windows as eyes, his hand is over his mouth

paste up of a drawing of a homeless man sitting on the sidewalk holding a sign that says hungry. printed on a book of postcodes

paste up of woman doing a hand stand in front of a brick wall, done in black and white
street art mural wearing purple masked space helmets, holding a white flag
street art painting in Melbourne of a woman with light blue skin, an orange top and a two patterned head scarf, orange and gold stripes and black with blue and pink circular patterns on it.

street art painting of a child with her amrs crossed, a smile on her face, and a red heart on her chest. Words "I am a refugee this is my dream. Peace"

Eyes on the Streets

and feets on the ground. Graffiti, street art and murals seen while wandering the streets and alleys of our colourful world.

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