in a Madrid park

Posted on September 21, 2018 by Mary C

The following photos were taken in a walled park (or community garden) in Madrid in March 2018.

below: Face and fishes by Lazaro Totem

large realistic painting of a man's face on white brick wall, with some fish swimming above his head, signed as

below: El Indio

El Indio street art painting of a yellow man, skinny arms and legs, arms raised above his head and spear in his hands, red mask over eyes, loin cloth of red, yellow and green

below: Por Favor is a street artist whose work can be seen around Madrid.

poster by Por Favor of a woman's face in pink and purple

below: Ianah

painting on a wall of a girl's head and shoulders, in water, with fish covering her head, and fish swimming in the water,

below: The front of a large ROA animal

front part of a large mural of an animal by ROA

below: And the back part of the animal, and the left part of the mural

back part of a large mural by ROA, pigs,

below: Another El Indio. He’s wanted for something!

El Indio street art painting on brick wall, large Wanted sign on the top, picture of a yellow man with red mask and blue skimpy underpants

below: A long drawn mural with lots of detail.

wall separating park from high rise apartment building with balconies, on wall is a mural

below: A close up of part of the mural above

close up detail of mural on white brick, trees and plants in front

below: The Madrid coat of arms is the blue shield shape with a bear and a tree in the middle, similar to what is painted here. The man chopping down the tree is definitely not on the coat of arms!

mural of someone working on the Madrid coat of arms

below: Vegan bunnies

vegan bunnies street art

Quito Ecuador

Posted on February 20, 2018 by Mary C

There is a lot of street art in Quito. It covers a lot of concrete walls that are part of the city’s infrastructure (supports for elevated roads, walls around buildings, etc). Here is some that I saw in February 2018.

below: Two people, one inside sitting pretty in pink and one outside.

grey and white painted stencil of a man including head, upper body and one arm. on a yellow wall beside a window with a pink window frame. There is a sticker or pasteup of another face in the window looking out. Quito Ecuador

below: A bird in flight. One wing looks like flames while the other wing resembles water. Signed by yo-ho-ho.

street art in Quito Ecuador, a bird in flight, one wing looks like flames and the other wing looks like water, painted by yo_ho_ho. mural in Quito Ecuador

below: Many, many faces in pink.

on a wall with ivy growing over the top of it, many faces in shades of pink , overlapping each other. mural in Quito Ecuador

below: Part dragon and part fish?

on a yellow wall, behind a small tree, a colourful painting of a dragon

below: A painting by BEGO

on a house beyond a white fence, a painting on the upper storey of a woman with red hair and red flower

The next few paintings were on a wall surrounding an house that was falling down.

on an old stone wall, two animal heads, a dog and a cat maybe.

painted in blue, a pig with sunglasses and crossed arms, words say smoky pig

on a crumbling stone wall is a large green face with many pink eyes, and pink liquid spewing from his mouth

below: This is the last of the photos from the ruined building – note the broken bottles across the top of the wall. That’s very common in Quito… although electric fences seem to be replacing broken glass as a means of keeping trespassers out.

mural of a boy's head in profile, short hair, wearing goggles, all in blue shades

below: Crab (lobster?) hands

stylized painting of a man upper body with large crab hands, lack hair and blue writing (illegible) on both sides of his head. ‘

below: Laughing and pointing

large man's face with laughing open mouth, moustache and short hair, pink shirt collar, hand with index finger pointing , mural in Quito Ecuador , Hecho salsa

below: Someone stole an orange cone.

graffiti on a wall

below: Covering his mouth and I don’t think that it’s because he’s coughing.

mural in Quito Ecuador , large red face with a blue hand covering its mouth

below: Me

wall painted part red and part blue. on the blue part is a large ME in white with black border. Quito Ecuador graffiti

below: Pasteup over his face, a mouse and a mousetrap

part of a larger mural with soldier, wearing helmet with three gold stars on it, someone has put a red dot in the middle of his forehead, also a pasteup now covers his face, with a rat on it, mural in Quito Ecuador

below: Another gorgeous bird. Signed by Pagach? (Pagache?)

mural in Quito Ecuador , realistic painting of a bird with a black and yellow head.

below: Painted on a rusty metal gate. Reaching for the skull. I am not sure of the words but if it’s “ponte y las alas” that translates to ‘stand and the wings’ but there are more letters. Any ideas anyone? Painted by Aster in 2017.

on a rusted metal gate that is locked closed, graffiti of a person with outstretched arm, as well as a skull

below: Resiste

small paste up of a face and star with green and red parts

below: Graffiti behind the fence

graffiti on a wall beside an outdoor stairwell, behind a chainlink fence in Quito Ecuador

below: Supay Corpus in a residential area.

below: Someone likes to paint underwear, men’s brief to be more specific.

large black and white painting of a pair of men's briefs, underpants in Quito

below: A very realistic portrait of an old man with one green eye open.

realistic, and large, painting of a wrinkly man's face, one eye open and one closed. The open eye is green.

faded red concrete steps leading to a black door with a metal grille covering it,also some graffiti tags. Two bottle brush trees are in front with their red flowers

circular pattern painted in black and white with a cat's face ferocious in the center circle, painted mural

And last, there were some word stencils….

below: #2mayo and “ecuador ama la vida” which is ‘ecuador, love life’ is now someone’s love note to Mina.

two black stencils, the first is a raised fist with the words #2mayo and the other says ecuador

below: “Sigue to corazon & disfruta el viaje” which means “follow your heart and enjoy the trip”.

black stencil on grey concrete, sigue tu corazon a disfruta la viaje, written twice

below: Natura Insurrecta? and “Mineria responsable cuento miserable”. The direct translation for the latter is “mining responsible, tale miserable”.

green stencil on top and black on the bottom that says mineria responsable cuentu miserable

pesimo DMJC crew and saile_one in Wynwood

Posted on July 20, 2017 by Mary C

There is a large mural in Wynwood that is a collaboration between Peruvian street artist pesimo DMJC crew and saile_one. Four very large figures cover the side of a building. The car helps to give a sense of just how big the mural is.

large mural by pesimo93, dmjc crew and saile_one

below: There are a lot of details in the mural…. the spray paint can on the left, the vehicle crashed over the shoulder, an 8 ball, and a USB stick. Is it a snake or a wreath of living plants around the neck? Is it strangling him? The mask worn by the person on the right has a zipper, a padlock and crossed chopsticks.

large mural by pesimo93, dmjc crew and saile_one - part of the mural with a red car parked in front of it.

below: More details. The dog is wearing a chain that says “trust no human”, and there are eyeballs on one of the heads. The man on the left is wearing a badge that says #NoDAPL which is the hashtag associated with the anti Dakota Access Pipeline protest including the resistance at Standing Rock.

large mural, upper part of two people, one has face painted

below: Their “signature” includes their “portraits”.

two stylized heads painted on a door, one is in blue tones and the other in olive green tones, the left is dmjc crew and the right is saile_one. both have cigarettes and baseball caps on backwards. also wearing glasses.

Tati’s mermaids – a mural in Hollywood

Posted on July 18, 2017 by Mary C

Hollywood Florida that is.

One of the murals found in downtown Hollywood Florida is one by Tati Suarez (aka tati and @tatunga) that features mermaids with long flowing hair and purple tails. Because it is very wide, I’ve taken pictures of it in sections. From left to right here it is:

below: Greenish hair and yellow hair

two mermaids with yellow hair in a mural by tati in downtown hollywood florida, tatunga, mermaids are with a large blue fish

below: Moving to pale orange hair

light orange coloured hair on a mermaid with purple tail

below: And then pink hair

part of a larger mural by Tati Suarez, @tatunga, of mermaids - long pink hair, purple scales on fin,

pink haired mermaid resting on top of a blue fish, mural

below: Almost the whole mural! A long mural in a tight spot makes for angled photos.

part of a larger mural by Tati Suarez, @tatunga, of mermaids -

below: The north end of the mural

part of a larger mural by Tati Suarez, @tatunga, of mermaids - mermaids with long pink hair and purple fins swimming in blue water

#downtownhollywoodmuralproject

quick draws, pasteups, and stencils in Bucharest

Posted on June 27, 2017 by Mary C

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.

Mission Linen Building, east wall, Las Vegas

Posted on January 18, 2017 by Mary C

The old Mission Linen building is at the corner of South 1st Street and Coolidge Avenue in Las Vegas. The following photos were taken when I was in Las Vegas in October 2015. The east wall of the building (facing South Casino Center Blvd) was a canvas for a number of street artists in a project curated by Dr. Lepper. It was covered when I saw it and it was being added to as well.

exterior wall of a two storey building that has been covered with street art by a number of different artists

below: Artist John Pacheco was putting the finishing touches on a mural about Donald Trump and his wall. It also features Gandhi, the Pope, and Mother Teresa. Pacheco told me that he planned to paint the word ‘freiheit’, German for ‘freedom’, above the wall. In hindsight, perhaps a word in Russian would have been more appropriate?

street artist John Pacheco stands in front of the ladder that he is using to paint a mural featuring Donald Trump, Ghandi, the Pope, Mother Theresa and a wall that is being built.

below: In the mural, Trump is saying “I want in. I can win”. As I write this, it’s the 18th of Jan 2017 and Trump’s inauguration as President of the USA is only 2 days away.

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two street art pictures, A yellowish orange parrot with green wings and on the left a black man with orange exploding head

street art painting on a metal roll up garage door of a man in profile, in black and blue

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murals and street art on the side of a building, the old Mission Linen building in Las Vegas.

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a brightly coloured fish white with spots of orange, red, and yellow, swims in a blue patch on the pavement

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white question mark on a concrete block painted yellow, with a mural covered on a wall in the background

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meating place and others

Posted on January 12, 2017 by Mary C

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.

street art in Havana

Posted on December 31, 2016 by Mary C

Back in June 2015 I spent a week in Havana. The street art that I saw there ranged from scribbles on walls to elaborate murals and pictures. The following photographs cover almost all the street art that I saw.

mural on a wall of a group of people, stylized slightly, obviously cuban

below: A young boy by 5 Stars

a painting by 5 stars of a young boy seated, in a sleeveless white top, black curly hair

street art, large eyes staring straight ahead

below: A variation on a slogan, “just do it”

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below: yellow faces, holding up a portrait

a small person with a yellow head holds up a large yellow square which in turn is a yellow head

below: Charlie Chaplin and the kid

black and white street art piece of Charlie Chaplin looking around the edge of a door - the door is real. A young boy is with Charlie Chaplin

below: A fish out of water, swimming down the street

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While I was in Havana, the Duodecima Bienal de La Habana was also on and some of what I saw on the streets, including the photo below, probably belonged to that. The Bienal De La Habana is an art festival that occurs every three years (yes, three years even though bienal means every two years!). The next festival will be in November 2018.

below: The little blue signs says “Gabinete del imaginario” which translates to Cabinet of the Imaginary.

a rough wooden cover covers a window, a wall used to be orange and blue but most of the paint has peeled off. On the wall a picture has been mounted. It is a beach scene, two people sitting on an orange beach with orange sky and blue water.

below: Oops I did it again, scribbles on the wall.

scribbled graffiti on a wall, a silly drawing of a boy with the words oops I did it again, some exclamation marks

below: Black and white portraits overlooking the street

a man and a woman talking on a street corner. Beside them is a wall with three black and white murals painted on it. A middle ages woman with a head band and hands on her hips, an older man's head in a white hat and looking upward and last, a man in a white uniform holding a box under his arm.

below: “…no quiero mas el queso” or, I don’t want more cheese. It is signed as Cuba Ecuador 2015 as well as Ratador. So far I haven’t been able to find any information on this artist.

two street art pieces, one is a large rat with a piece of cheese and the words No quiero mas el queso. On the right is a black and white image of a man's head with a number below him. N I 8908202623.

below: “A las almas” To the souls, on one side of the door while a woman rides her bike on top of the world on the other side of the door.

an old green wood door on a building. on one side is a red poster with a black silhouette of the upper part of a man with one arm reaching to the clouds as well as the words a las almas, on the other side of the door is a painting in pinks and bieges of a winged woman on bike riding on top of the globe

below: An eye over number 156

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below: Waves of hair, waves of water

a street art picture of a young woman's head and face, she is looking slightly back over her shoulder. Blue abstract beside her

below: Calling Seth

the word Seth in a word bubble, with the top part of a man's head as he pokes his head around a wall.

face of a man drawn in black, with dabs of yellow, green, and red added to the picture

a wooden cart in poor shape is parked next to a mural of a woman lying on her side. It looks like she is lying on the sidewalk. She is topless.

photos on the wall

There are also a number of political pieces. I suspect that some state are sponsored and some are not.

below: CDR #8 refers to Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (Spanish: Comités de Defensa de la Revolución) which is a network of neighbourhood committees across Cuba. Their purpose depends on what side of the fence you are on. They promote social welfare and report on counter-revolutionary activity or they are a secret police organization. Take your pick.

mural cdr number, portraits of three men wearing green, Che Guevera, Castro and

below: This is the symbol of the Young Communist League in Cuba. In Spanish it’s Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas or UJC. Estudio, Trabajo, Fusil = Study, Work, Rifle. The symbol shows the faces of Julio Antonio Mella, Camilo Cienfuegos and Che Guevera. Mella was a founder of the Cuban Communist Party while Cienfuegos and Guevera were major figures in the Cuban Revolution.

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below: A UJC mural, “fieles a nuestra historia ” or Faithful to our History.
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below: Che Guevera on his own.

a black stencil of Che Guevera's head

many poster of Che Guevera

The next three pictures are of a mural on Callejon de Hamel (callejon is a lane)

colouful mural on a blue building in havana cuba

below: A woman looks out the window above the mural. The words on the beige part say “Puedo esperar mas que tu, porque soy el tiempo.” This translates to, “I can wait more than you because I am time. ” On the red section the words are “Salvador 26 to 95”.

colouful mural on a blue building in havana cuba - a woman looks out from a window above the mural

below: And last, a picture that was definitely a part of the Bienal. ‘Identidad ‘ by Julio Cesar Garcia It is part of a series of photos called Resistencia. The words that accompany it are given below along with a translation – not the best but with my beginner Spanish and the limitations of google translate, you get what you get!

a black and white photo of a man's head and shoulders, wearing a white hat, older man, large picture, on a wall outside

Identidad da inicio a una serie titulada Resistencia. Apelando al uso del lenguaje y el concepto de arte callejero, la serie esta compuesta por retratos de gran formato ubicados, a largo plazo, en varias ciudades del pais. La intention es intervenir muros, edificos, aceras y calles de la ciudad con gigantografias concebidas en forma de mosaico sobre cartulina cromada. Las obras, en relaction directa con todo tipo de publico desede el proceso mismo de su instalacion, tendran un caracter efimero. Resistencia sera una consigna, una actitud, un modo de vida y de hacer el arte.

Identidad is the first in a series titled Resistencia. Appealing to the use of language and the concept of street art, the series is composed of large format portraits located, in the long term, in several cities of the country. The intention is to intervene on walls, buildings, sidewalks and streets of the city with large photos made in the form of mosaics on chrome paperboard. The works [In direct relation with all types of public from the process itself of its installation] will have an ephemeral character. Resistance will be a slogan, an attitude, a way of life and making art.

animals that lurk on walls, Montreal

Posted on December 28, 2016 by Mary C

Mural, street art and graffiti animals seen in Montreal

colourful birds

street art, graffiti, animals painted on a wall - A brightly coloured bird head with fine feathers and a large yellowish orange beak

dogs

street art, graffiti, animals painted on a wall - an ugly awkward looking dog paces in a mural. The dog looks like it's walking on the sidewalk. A bike is parked in front of it

street art, graffiti, animals painted on a wall - a large dog face on a garage door that has been partially tagged over

flying elephants

street art, graffiti, animals painted on a wall - elephants flying over blue and purple clouds and sky

flying fish

street art, graffiti, animals painted on a wall - yellow and orange fish swimming in a purple sky with puffy clouds

a giraffe or two

street art, graffiti, animals painted on a wall - a tall adult giraffe and a smaller young giraffe eating leaves with necks outstretched. A branch of a real tree is also in the picture and it looks like the girafffes are eating the real leaves

a swimming turtle

street art, graffiti, animals painted on a wall - a turtle flying in the clouds past a real window, with small buildings on its back

as well as other swimmers

street art, graffiti, animals painted on a wall - a dolphin is swimming under exterior metal staircases

street art, graffiti, animals painted on a wall - a blue circle with concentric patterns of fish in reds, blues and blacks

ladybugs

street art, graffiti, animals painted on a wall - two large ladybugs on green leaves

and Egyptian lions

street art, graffiti, animals painted on a wall - a lion head in an Egyptian themed mural, a pharaoh head, and pyramids are also in the picture

a rooster

mural painting of a very large yellow and brown rooster on the side of two storey building in downtown Montreal

other birds

line drawing of an owl on a grey wall, red lines and white lines

street art, graffiti, animals painted on a wall - a large stylized pale blue bird in a window of a red brick building.

and a few cats

mural of a large tabby cat lying on rooftops with its paw hanging over the side of the buildings

street art, graffiti, animals painted on a wall - blue cat with a very long pink tongue that encircles its body a couple of times, sitting in a doorway

street art, graffiti, animals painted on a wall - a pink cat and blue dog, both giving a peace sign

street art, graffiti, animals painted on a wall - a large black and white cat head

street art, graffiti, animals painted on a wall - a blue dog (or cat?) in a doorway, also an owl has been painted on the wall beside that door

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These photos were taken in June 2015, and were originally posted on As I Walk Toronto blog.

Legacy mosaics

Posted on January 29, 2016 by Mary C

ANZAC Centenary, Legacy Street Art Project

Legacy is a charity that supports widows, children, and disable dependents of Australia’s injured or deceased military veterans. Drewery Lane in downtown Melbourne runs behind Legacy House. Over the four year Centenary of ANZAC period (2014 – 2018), Legacy plans to hold workshops that will allow the local community to interact and engage with the personal and shared histories of the Legacy Family. Workshop participants will create clay tiles and plaques with some connection to WW1. The plan is to attach 1000 of these mosaic pieces to the back of Legacy House. In November 2015, the first tiles were installed.

white square tile with the word legacy and a picture of three people, attached to an exterior wall with numerous small clay pieces around it.

many clay pieces, a sword,an anchor, some with words, attached to a wall, part of a Legacy project for ANZAC commemoration

many clay pieces, a hand, some with words, attached to a wall, part of a Legacy project for ANZAC commemoration

clay pieces on a red brick wall in an alley all clustered together to form a mosaic

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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