Tag Archives: faces

Wynwood’s movie gangstas

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original gangsta mural

The gangsta wall in Wynwood is along the side of the Toe Jam Backlot, a private studio/event space that is available to rent.   The mural on the north wall has nothing to do with ‘gangsters’ but it still looks wonderful – an amazing amount of detail.  My apologies for not knowing the artist’s name.

mural on a wall

The wall on the west side of the building is where the gangsta wall is.  It’s a wall that features the images of “bad guy” actors in famous movies, starting with Jack Nicholson in “The Shining”.

entrance to building, Toe Jam Backot, on the corner, whole building is covered in street art murals

Marlon Brando in The Godfather and Al Pacino from “Scarface”

Marlon Brando as the Godfather, in a mural with other actors

… Al Pacino in “Scarface” (again), Robert DeNiro in “Cape Fear”,  and John Travolta in “Pulp Fiction” …

mural with images of famous actors in movie roles, Al Pacino in Scarfacce, a man in a tophat, a man with a machine gun

   ….Arnie in “Terminator”,   Malcolm McDowell in “Clockwork Orange”, a masked Anthony Hopkins in “Silence of the Lambs”,  and Heath Ledger as “The Joker” …

Clockwork Orange, masked Anthony Hopkins and Heath Ledger as the Joker, faces in a mural on a wall, black background, Wynwood

…. and at the very end is the only woman, Uma Thurman in Kill Bill

Uma Thurman wielding a sword, image from Kill Bill movie

As you have probably noticed, I haven’t named all the faces – still doing the research to find out who they are!  If you can help, please let me know!

a young man poses in front a mural with images of actor's faces, original gangsta is the title of the mural, gangstawall

artist’s signature, 2009

artist signature on gangsta wall mural, 2009

quick draws, pasteups, and stencils in Bucharest

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The following pictures are a few little stencils that I saw in Bucharest along with some line drawings/paintings, mostly of faces….

mostly faces…. and one pig.  At least I think it’s a pig!

graffiti painting, a pig outlined in blue, on an angle between a door and a window

on the side of a building, a blue outline of a man's face, cars parked on the street, trees,

below: The top pasteup is a little creature by creaturi dragute and the woman on the  bottom is by ortaku

two pasteups, a woman in green and yellow and a creature by creaturi dragute

black stencil of Jesus, with halo around his head, a book in one hand, the other hand is pointing the book

 

below: A man throwing and two running.  The man is throwing a bouquet of flowers and it is a small copy of a Banksy, “Flower Thrower” Jerusalem 2003.  In the original, the flowers are in colour.

three stencils in a row, on the left a man throwing something, the next two are men running away

below: Another ortaku woman’s head, this time on Strada Ing. Traian Vuia, and she has company – a fish, a book and a man’s head stenciled along with some words. .. “Transparenta tine de foame” which translates to “transparency is hungry” .  I suspect that this is political but I don’t know enough about Romania to know who the man is.

small pieces of graffiti on a wall, a paste up woman, a paste up fsh, a stencil head with words, also a poster for a Bruno Mars concert

black and white head painted on a wall, large, with a beak in place of a mouth. bird or human?

two line drawn graffiti faces on a concrete wall

stencil, black, seated person with red block capital letters above the head that say on sale

 

below: I wish I knew what the signature was.  Anyone?

cartoonish character with angular green hair, three eyes, then a red layer, a yellow layer and on the bottom a blue layer, it seems to be looking at a little paste up of a head

two red stencils of men's heads, one is a king wearing a crown and one is a man wearing a tie. the latter is dirty, looks like it has mud in his eye

black outline drawing of a person's wearing a hoodie and black hole where face should be and low rise pants with a belt. also the words I didn't do anything

below: And the last one is more like a mural… I suspect that it’s on a library wall.
large mural of a grey face reading a book. One of the eyes is actually a window

on Tallinn walls

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Tallinn is the capital city of the small Baltic country Estonia.  I was only there for a short time but I did find some street art in the old town and in Kalamaja.

below: The young person on the right is the work of @minaJaLydia.  I you look closely, there are two tiny faces to the right of the knees.

street art by MinaJaLydia on a concrete wall, two pieces, a pasteup of an elaborate abstract drawing of a face and hands as well as mushrooms and other plant life. the other is a young person sitting on a chair, with 4 legs hanging from the chair.

below: I am calling this one, The Warrior and his Social Media Hedgehog.  They are the work of Edward von Longus

a large muscular partially clad man with a weapon over his shoulder, on a grey brick wall, a small hedgehog is working on a laptop beside him. graffiti

below: Close up of the hedgehog. It needs time in the limelight too.

graffiti, a small grey and white hedgehog is working on a laptop

below: Whatever he was writing on the wall is long gone. This is another work by Edward von Longus.

painting of a blond boy with a red T shirt and blue jeans is facing a wall and drawing on it.

below: A green and blue planet Earth between two animals (a cat and a ?), by multistab

street art by multistab. A blue and green small plaet earth in between two large black and white creatures. One looks like a grinning cat, the other might be a cat but migh be something else

below: A couple of couples by Linna Sokk but with the theme of domestic violence.

two poster pasteups by #koos Both are of a couple, in one they are kissing

below: Something’s stuck to his forehead… looks like a sheep to me.

a large sticker with a realistic picture of a skull on it, on a small electrical box beside a building

below: Not your average Easter Bunny!

painting of a large agressive stylized rabbit in grey top and white shirts, a carrot in its mouth, running on two legs, one arm upraised.

below: A multi talented, multi handed,  multi tasking elephant!

an elephant with 4 arms and two legs, bare feet, spray paint cans in its hands,

below: This wall is difficult to see because of the fence – it is part of the old fortress/prison that is no longer open to visitors.

street art on a wall that is hard to see because it is behind a fence

below: The next two are by the same artist, Lume, of LDK crew who is from Naples Italy.

stylized flowers and leaves in pastel colours, line drawings, on a pale yellow wall

stylized flowers and leaves in pastel colours, line drawings, on a salmon coloured wall

below: In case you can’t read it, the sign that Darth Vader is holding says: “Help me.  I need $$$ to build a death star.”

a few small piece of graffiti, a yellow face, a black stencil of a man's head and shoulders, a stencil of Darth Vader, and some scribbles,

on a wall beside w window, two line drawings of animal creatures, on dinosaur like and the other a small round thing

a big bee on a yellow wall, street sign that says Salme

two drawings, one is Jerry the cartoon mouse and the other is

three stencils on a wall, an orange womans face, a blue diamond and a purple man with sunglasses on

a paste up of a person's head wrapped in an old fashioned bandage that ties under the chin

doorway shaped and sized line drawing graffiti in purple with turquoise highlights, a man's head and neck

LA women, street art style

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A few more photos of street art in Los Angeles.  Photos taken February 2017.

 

On the SB Tower, corner of 6th Street and Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles, there is this large mural by Robert Vargas.

by Robert Vargas, large mural of a woman's head in monochrome grey, almost three storeys tall, surrounded by yellow, with a large hand wrapped around the corner of the building, photo taken from diagonally across the intersection. A man in yellow jacket is pushing a cart, a street cleaner, as he starts across the intersection. Other people are waiting for their green light.

below: Not just three women but also a white dove, a red rose, snakes, a soldier in black, a revolver, a pistol, rocks, leaves, and a multitude of colours, shapes and patterns.

part of a larger mural, two women's faces with a man in a black and blue outit between thwm, a white dove is strating to take flight between their foreheads, a pistol is aimed at the dove,

below: Staring from behind the wire.

realistic mural of a woman with short blond face and blue eyes, staring straight ahead, head and neck only, on a black wall, seen from the other side of a wire fence with looped barbed wire across the top.

below: Two women.  A small woman with angel wings and a larger woman in a blue hood who seems to be playing with the car.   When cars park in front of street art and you want to take a picture – well, you’ve got to find a way to make it work, especially if you can’t get back later.

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below: She sees a red book in her crystal ball

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below: I think we can include this one as a picture of a woman.  I can almost hear Lady Liberty saying “Cheers” as she raises her pint of beer.  This paste up is the work of @sellout_tcf

paste up black and white line drawing of the statue of liberty, lady liberty, holding up a yellow coloured beer mug full of beer while holding a large beer keg in the other arm.

Mission Linen Building, west wall, Las Vegas

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The old Mission Linen building is at the corner of South 1st Street and Coolidge Avenue in Las Vegas.   Photos taken October 2015.

below: A large mural of the famous ‘Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas’ sign dominates the west side of the building.

mural of the famous Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas sign painted on the side of a building

below: The head of a creature with Vegas eyes by New Zealand street artist duo BMD.

graffiti street art on a white wall - front end of yellow creature with big ping pong ball like eyes

below: Cats in love by #Danman

graffiti street art on a white wall - a sticker by Danman of a man and a woman in cat suits. The man has hearts in his eyes and is presenting the woman with some flowers

below:  She seems to be looking at the two faced man.
I wonder what she’s thinking.

graffiti street art on a white wall -

below: Many likes for the fisherman.

graffiti street art on a white wall - two posters, on the right an Indian in native head dress in profile and on the left, a small boat on a big wave

below: Marilyn Munroe in green and a pink haired woman by Typical Bandit

graffiti street art on a white wall -

below:  Street art in the Milk the Bunny series by Omayra Amador.
Bunny is holding a French flag in support of Charlie Hebdo.

graffiti street art on a white wall - a yellow rabbit with a pencil behind its ear, holding up a french flag with the words je suis charlie on it.

below: Another in the Milk the Bunny series

graffiti street art on a white wall - a dog on a cloud with the sun behind, he has pink bunny ears. A wheatpaste by Milk the Bunny

below: The seemingly unhappy entrance to 1001 South 1st Street

graffiti street art on a white wall -

below: El Teacher by Cova along with an Art Saved my Life stencil

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Chance Street, Shoreditch

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More street art from East London, September 2016

below: Paste ups on a door

a door with pasteups on it, between a black wall and a wall that is painted in red, pink and yellow. One of the paste ups is of a black man in a military uniform in a gilded frame. The word rai is written on top of it.

close up of the paste up - a door with pasteups on it, between a black wall and a wall that is painted in red, pink and yellow.

below: By number 57, a mask by Crisp

a 3D mask graffiti piece mounted high on a wall, painted in white, turquoise and purple patterns. The number 57 is beside it.

below: Dressed in orange robes and running shoes…
with a hope of peace, by Unify

a streeet art pice on a door, a person in a long orange robe is standing, holding a sign with a red peace symbol on it. A work by unify

below: A large hedgehog by ROA

a very large hedgehog in black, white, and grey, painted on the side of a building, by street artist roa. Some tags and throwup graffiti across the bottom.

below: All on a grey fence

  1. A large  love card, a king and queen perhaps.
  2. Two drawn portraits by Veil.  [how to be invisible: have a name that returns millions of hits when you search for it, none of them yours]
  3. A cartoon character wearing a London Bobby hat… the words at the bottom say “at a tremendous speed the rocket zips into space 1993.”
  4. A collage of many photos of a man’s neck and ear, a studded collar and a woman’s fingers with long fingernails, all in a sickly green colour.
  5. Some ace nylon stickers.

5 pasteups on a grey wood fence. On the left a playing card of two people cheek to cheek with an L and a red heart. Also two drawings, portraits of men, by veil,

below: Silently standing still, cowboy and mannequin.

a pasteup of a black and white print of a cowboy, not quite life sized, with cowboy hat and vest. The paper is starting to peel away at the edges. A sticker of a blue and white partially peeled banana has been stuck on him. Beside him is a male mannequin in a store window.

below: Reading comics together

a group of comic book heros is reading a comic book together, The Hulk, a man with laser vision, Thor, and a man with a blue costume and an S on his hood.

 

looking down Chance Street in Shoreditch, a few people walking on the narrow street, the buildings on the left are covered with murals. The first is aboriginal symbols in white, green and brown on a black background. THe second is in bright shades of blue, red and yellow.

graffiti on a black metal door, a face with big red glasses

graffiti on a brick wall including a little stick figure man with a large head by n'ice pops, and the words no stopping

meating place and others

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More Buffalo NY street art

below: On the side of Lorigo’s Meating Place on Grant Street, a large mural featuring many people that was installed in 2013.  This is “Grant Street Global Voices”; it was created by muralist Augustina Droze with help from students at International School 45 and Lafayette High School.   Eighty panels were put together to form the mural – and unfortunately a couple of them seem to have fallen down.

5 storey brick building on Grant St in Buffalo, with green trim around the windows and a small parking lot beside, sign on the side of the building says Meating Place. There is a large mural on the side of the building featuring realistic portraits of many people, including two trumpet players, a girl in a red head scarf, and other men and women,

below: Also on Grant Street is another community mural… The PUSH mural by Max Collins and others, named for the fact that it is over the entrance to PUSH (People United for Sustainable Housing) center.

mural over the entranceway to a building. Two sets of clasped hands, all with different skin tones. Scenes of children playing in the background.

below:  A large octopus swims close by on this door.
A supersized creature for a supersized door.

blue mural on an industrial building door, blue marine scene feathuring a large close up of an octopus eye and part of its body, along with some yellow fish, some lily pads and a water lily flower

 

below: Unicorn!  But behind a fence.

mural of a unicorn with a rainbow coloured horn, jumping, behind a wood fence

 

below:  It was the interesting architectural detail over the door that first caught my eye.  Then I notice the words, “diez anos como un roble cayendo”  Ten years like an oak falling?

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below: A flute player plays to a parking meter.   A Buffalo parking meter of a type that is long gone from Toronto streets.

black and white photo of a man playing the flute, pasted onto a woodedn fence beside a sidewalk, next to a book store, a parking meter nearby, on a street in Buffalo

below: Sweetness cafe is the scene of at least three pieces of street art, starting with this woman who smiles at those of us who look up from the sidewalk.   I also like the white mugs hanging from the awning.
a large, life sized or larger, paste up of a drawing of the head and shoulders of a black middle aged woman, smiling, above the awning for the Sweetness cafe. 6 white mugs hang from hooks through holes along the lower edge of the awning

below: The door next door has been re-done but that involved removing the face of this paste-up.  A facelift gone awry.

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below: But this painting is still on the wall of the Sweetness Cafe.

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below: And we’ll end with the trash.  He’s looks happy to take care of your garbage.
Added note, Sonder is a band from Buffalo

part of the side of a green metal container for recycling bins on a Buffalo sidewalk, relief sculpture of a man on the side, to which someone has added to sticker, one is a happy face sticker on the head and another is a parody of wonder bread that says sonder.

Allentown (Buffalo) street art

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The Allentown area of Buffalo is now home to some interesting murals.   If you walk around the neighbourhood of Allen Street and College Street, this is what you might see:

below: ‘Voyage’ by Chuck Tingley, 2014.  Commissioned by MyBuffaloPride and Loop Magazine and dedicated to Buffalo’s LGBT community and its allies.  “In a world of scrutiny, we have the power to embrace our differences and use our inner light to guide us through the darkest of times.”

a mural called Voyage painted by Chuck Tingley on the side of a building in Buffalo, a large multicoloured boy is sitting in a small boat and holding on to a yellow paddle. The sky is rainbow colours.

below: The corner of Allen Street and Wadsworth Street.

intersection in Buffalo with old two storey square front storefronts. wet road, rainy day, liquor store on the corner that is now empty but the sign only half works - only half the letters in the word liquor are lit.

below: Nietzsche (German composer and philosopher) with the quote “Without music life would be a mistake”.  When I googled to make sure that that was an actual quote, I found a quote from a letter that he wrote in 1888:  “Music … frees me from myself, it sobers me up from myself, as though I survey the scene from a great distance … It is very strange. It is as though I had bathed in some natural element. Life without music is simply an error, exhausting, an exile.”  The picture is on the side of a Nietzsche Bar.

street art picture of Nietzsche head and shoulders in black and white along with a quote that says Without music life would be a mistake.

below: It’s About Time, with three red fists on the upper part of the Allen Street Hardware Cafe.  One is holding a yellow paint roller and one is holding a yellow spray paint can.  The third fist is in the background and is holding either tools or paint brushes or markers?  Painted by the Allen Street Street Art Collective (ASSA).

a brick two storey store with a mural on the upper part in red, yellow and black, with the words It's about time. The picture in the mural is three red fists. One is holding a yellow paint roller and one is holding a yellow spray paint can. Another mural is in the background, a car parked on the wet street, a pedestrian on the sidewalk

below: ‘Tribute to Spain Rodriguez’ by Ian DeBeer.  Rodriguez was a comic artist who was born in Buffalo and the piece is largely about a fight that he got into in the bar across the street (once the Jamestown, now the Nietzsche).

long horizontal mural drawn like a comic book strip, dedicated to the memory of Spain Rodriguez and painted by Ian DeBeers in 2013, a large woman's face with bright red lips, the word 'she; painted in red, a motorcylce, a man wearing a hat,

a motorcycle, part of a larger mural

below: When this mural was first completed, the grey parts were black.  The large picture of the man that stands between the windows on the left and those in the middle, was quite distinct.  Now, you might have missed him when you first looked at the picture.

the front of a building is covered with black and white poster sized pictures of people.

below: The pink stripes in the background of the finger-like portions of this mural have also faded considerably since the mural was painted in 2013.   “The work we do is not for the faint of heart”.

a mural on the side of a building. On the left is a purple and black drawing of what looks like fingers. on the right are yellow and turquoise stripes with the words, the work we do is not for the faint of heart

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below: The last ASSA mural features an iron fireman. It’s a long horizontal mural with the words Iron and Fireman written in large letters over shapes that resemble flames.

word Iron written in large letters, part of a mural

below: Between the two words is a painting of a black ‘iron fireman’, a robot-like creature shovelling coal to feed the fire.   This was the logo for the Iron Fireman, a coal stoker first developed in the 1920’s by Thomas Harry Banfield and Cyrus Jury Parker.  A coal stoker mechanically feeds coal into a furnace or boiler – the Iron Fireman was a commercial success in the days when coal was a commonly used fuel.

picture of a black robot figure shovelling coal

word fireman written on large letters in a mural, brick buildings (apartments) behind, cars parked in front.

below: One of the other interesting things about Buffalo is how the architecture is different here, or at least different from what I am used to in Toronto.  The building with the green details on the front is the Puritan Building, built in 1893.  It has recently been renovated with the Billy Club restaurant on the ground level and three storeys of apartments above.   And yes, that is a purple house on the right.  Many of the houses in the area are painted in bright and cheerful colours.

 

mural in the middle gound, two low rise buildings in the background, one is the Puritan building with green details around the windows in the front of the building.

below: She’s almost disappeared.

very faded street art piece of crouched young girl with a pony tail - although it is faded enough that I might be wrong.

below: But he’s as vibrant as ever.

a painting of a man has been mounted in an arched window, covers the window.

a red brick building, side of a store, bottom part has been painted orange, probably to paint over graffiti, but has since been tagged twice, once in black and once in red, a parking lot is in front of the wall, with a small snowbank at the edge.

a door is covered with graffiti stickers.

Princelet Street, Shoreditch

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Graffiti and street art seen on Princelet Street, another small street in Shoreditch.

A wall covered by street art and graffiti of all kinds – paint, stencils and pasteups – by many different artists.   The children pointing their guns at the jester (pied piper?) is a painting by Otto Schade.  The Muslim woman and white man at Stik people by street artist Stik.   Three black and white posters, top middle, have slogans and pictures of people…. “Greed for oil causes war” features George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden.  “Consumerism causes child labour” features an Asian child and a Barbie like doll.  The third poster talks about debt dependence being addictive and shows a picture of the man from the Monopoly game.

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below: Three portraits.  Two women by voxx flank a gilded framed picture of Karl Lagerfeld by endless.  Mr. Lagerfeld is holding a white cat as well as some Chanel perfume bottles.  For some reason there is a small naked man in the picture too.

three pasteups on a wall, poster size, two by voxx and one in the middle by endless. Karl Lagerfeld is the subject in the endless paste up - with dark sunglasses and a wild patterned jacket, a fancy gold frame is around him,

below: Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil paste-up by buenocaos aka Luis Bueno.

a paste up of a boy reading a book, Neitzsche's Beyond Good and Evil

below: A red head by C3 sits on the ground beside a woman by iljin.

3 paste ups of women on a wall. One is a woman's head and shoulders in blue with short black hair by iljin . One is a multicoloured face. One is a young woman sitting on the ground with her knees up. She has red hair and a heart on her leg, by c3b

below: A ballerina by neoh
a wispy partially abstract painting of a ballerina by neoh

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two street art faces painted on a metal covering over a shop window. One is man's face in beige with brown hair and the other is a stylized face in green with black hair
below: Coming apart on the wall.

two large black and white eyes and a white nose with black outlines, painted on a wall.

below: Savant says to Collapse the Certainties

stencil on a wall. poster sized, words by savant that say Collapse the Certainties.
below: Some very sharp claws… chasing the worm?

Two pieces of street art on a grey metal covering over a shop window. One is an intricately drawn realistic looking yellow bird's foot with long curved talons.
below: And last, a small red figure high on a wall.
It seems to be trying to get something off of its head

a 3 D figure in red attached high up on a wall