Emus, beads, and chopsticks

More street art in Drewery Lane. The more famous art in this lane are are the mosaics and images in the Legacy Mural (a street art project to celebrate the centenary of ANZAC) . But there is other art there, and this is some of what I saw. If you have been following this blog, or just reading some previous posts, you might recognize some of the artists and their styles.

below: A wonderfully blue emu by John Murray.

mural in Drewery Lane Melbourne, a John Murray emu, bright blue hair, studded spike choker, safety pins in his face, nose stud, and a necklace

below: Temporary bird, angular, surrounded by hearts and music.

Painting by Temporary Art, surrounded by graffiti hearts and musical notes

below: Looking down the lane at a very large mural by Jaz Mishap

Drewery Lane, two people sitting in a doorway, looking down the lane, dead end, large mural by Jaz Mishap at the end wall, two Asian (Japanese?) women entwined

below: The title of the mural is “Chopsticks” such as those stuck in their hair. If you can tell where woman ends and the other begins, you are doing better than me.

 large mural by Jaz Mishap at the end wall, two Asian (Japanese?) women entwined.  title of mural is Chopsticks

below: More people… but very different from those in the above mural. Dancers, ballet?, with Cupid and his arrow ready to strike. It was painted by Barry Drinan.

mural painted on dark brick wall, mae and female ballet dancers with small cupid watching them.  cupid has a bow and arrow

below: Luke Kasper’s version of a very abstract bird perched on a branch.

very abstract bird perched on a violet branch,  white raindrops and a yellow sun also in the picture

below: Also hanging out in Drewery Lane was a very large SQUARE head with a sad face. So sad, even though it is lying in a bed of pink, red, and purple hearts,

below: Up to U! No wait, it’s Up 2 You!

text mural, Up 2 You

below: This poor chicken (riding on the back of a turtle) has met an unlucky fate. This is the surviving portion of a much larger mural painted by Putos, Siege, and tanea many years ago (pre-2013).

part of a larger mural, snake wrapped around a chicken that is sitting on the back of a turtle,  Snake with open mouth and long red tongue

below: “Woman Life Freedom” by, presumably, Asal Nili. At the bottom of the orange poster is a hastag, Nowruz, which is the Persian New Year.

orange poster with words, woman, life freedom.  also some Arabic letters, image of a woman with long dark hair, in profile

below: There were many of these little beaded diamonds, small and intricate. Here a cow stands on two framed pictures.

Diamond shaped graffiti piece, made with beads, includes a cow

below: This photo provides a few clues as to the size of the beaded diamonds. I think that there is a ladybug in the center of this one.

graffiti in Drewery Lane Melbourne,

below: A green mantra ray is the focus of this one.

Diamond shaped graffiti piece, made with beads, includes a green manta ray in the center

below: And last, seaweed growing on the ocean floor.

Diamond shaped graffiti piece, made with beads, includes a yellow and orange seaweed

Photos taken March 2025

Eros & Psyche

‘Eros & Psyche’ is a large mural painted by Greek artist insane51 as part of Montreal’s 2019 Mural Festival.  It is designed to be viewed with 3D glasses.  Painted in blues is the ‘exterior’ of a woman while the skeleton and brain are shown in reds.

large mural, red and blue, of a woman showing skeleton and brain, as well as body pierced by two red arrows, designed to be viewed with 3 D galsses, painted in Montreal by insane51

In Greek mythology Psyche was the goddess of the soul and the wife of Eros, the god of love.  Eros, also known as Cupid (in Latin, or Roman mythology), was the son of Aphrodite and he was always throwing arrows to people in order to hit their heart and make them fall in love.  Psyche was the youngest daughter of a king; she was more beautiful than any goddess.  The story of Eros and Psyche is long and a bit convoluted.  It involves prophesies, happiness followed by betrayal and heart ache but of course it has a fairy tale ending, Psyche becomes immortal, and the couple live happily ever after.

 

Plovdiv street art

While walking around the city of Plovdiv I found a lot of great street art.

below:  A floating candle in the night sky,

mural of a man from behind, one hand behind his back , the other hand in the air just released a candle, or is reaching for the candle

below: Behind the Drama Theatre in Plovdiv, on one of its bright red walls, is a large mural by Bozko. Is this older man in a jester outfit a political statement?

a large mural of an older man in jester outfit, with arms crossed in front of him, make up on his face

below: These red walls were also painted with a large horizontal mural (next three photos).  A woman sleeps among purple flowers.  Is she dreaming of skulls and hands?  Is it a nightmare?

below: As much of the mural as I could get in one photo.

below: Another woman sleeps but with books as her pillow.   Transported into dreamland by the words she’s read.


below: Bloody Romance by Ernaste Nasimo

the story of romance, a mural by ernesto nasimo of a man giving a blue flower to a woman with shoulder length brown hair, on a red background

below: Another painting by Nasimo called “The Chain Rockers”.  It looks like he has just broken the chain with his teeth.  Behind the head is an open book with words written on the pages.  On the left is “raja-vidya raja-guhyam pavitram idam uttamam pratyaksavagamam dharmyam su-sukham kartum avyayam”.  On the right is the partial translation of this Krishna text into English: “This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct”

mural on a wall of the head ans shoulders of an older balding man with beard, moustache, and large white teeth. He has an angry look on his face. his collar is in Bulgarian colours, red, yellow and black. An open padlock is in his beard and a chain runs across the lower par tof his face but it lookslike he has just broken it with his teeth

below: Watermelon seeds make the eyes and nose of the watermelon face… but then he eats the watermelon?  Two paintings by Viktoria Georgieva and Nikolay Bozhinov, aka Mouse and Nikkawhy

two murals side by side, one by mishka the mouse, and the other by aleksi varna. on the left is a watermelon cut open, seeds form a happy face, and the mural on the right is a person in round glasses eating a slice of watermelon

below: A boy with a large black bird painted on a box.

a painting on an electrical box on the street, of a boy with round orange glasses holding a large black bird

below: Four eyes, one of which is the handle for the box.

below: Cupid in browns pointing his arrow at an unsuspecting victim.

a small graffiti piece of a small chubby partially naked cupid with an arrow ready to shoot from his bow.

below: Bare toes, blue jeans, and a striped sweater.  A comb in one pocket and a little critter in the other.

below: Some whimsical, cartoon-like characters on a blue cloud.

small mural of a group of cartoon-like characters standing on a blue cloud, signature is mora.

below: She’s wearing flowers in her hair – is that hair being held up with chopsticks?

mural of a woman with large glasses and two flowers in her hair. she is holding something blue in one hand

below: A very long tongue from a happy frog wraps itself around a dragonfly.

below: My Bulgarian is non-existent so I’m not sure what this says.  Covered in tattoos and puffing on red smoke as he takes a rest on his bike.

mural of a bald man with a mustache on bike with lake and sunset behind him, puffing on red smoke, covered in tattoos,

below: And last, a quiet cup of tea by the mail box in the shadow of little triangular flags hanging across the street.

All in white, like a silhouette, a tall lamp stand with three lamps at the top, a woman sitting beside a table with a tea pot and a vase on it.