Tag Archives: graffiti

potted plants and umbrellas

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The other day I blogged about street art on a set of stairs in Amman.  Today I have a few photos that I took on a different  set of stairs.  They too were popular with locals and tourists, with small shops and a restaurant.  The difference is that this one had umbrellas.

below: Standing near the top of the stairs, high above Prince Mohammad Street.  Open umbrellas in shades of blue and purple are strung overhead to provide some shade and some colour.   On the right is a tall metal structure – that is an elevator for those who don’t feel like taking the stairs.

man blue, teal, and purple umbrellas, open, up high to provide shade over a set of stairs in Amman

below: There were a lot of little flower pots attached to the walls.  Some were painted in bright colours and some were terra cotta brown.

on a black wall, a profile silhouette in white of a man with headphones on, plants in terra cotta planters line the stairs that run beside the wall

 below: A line of flower pots on a white wall where people have written numbers, dates, names, and messages, especially proclamations of love with little hearts.

a group of terra cotta planters with small green plants in them, attached to a white wall on which people have written their names and other woards

below: Listen to the sound of your heart. It seems like Dalal loves Eyad.

anatomical looking picture of a human herat, coloured red, with an old fashioned gramaphone speaker coming out of the top of it, street art

below: A row of “books” under the window – they don’t seem to have titles.

on a wall, under a window with a blue frame, a line of flat pieces of wood painted in bright colours, that look like a row of books

colourful flower pots attached to a wall with plants in them

painting of a woman in a blue top on a black wall, that people have written their names on

below: Looking back up the stairs

looking up a staircase that is lined with flower pots and covered by many open umbrellas in Amman Jordan

Jadal and Al-Kalha stairs

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The city of Amman is built on a series of hills, ridges, and valleys.  Many of the streets in the central part of the city run parallel to each other with few streets connecting them because of the hills.  The result is quite a few sets of stairs, often long and steep!  One set of stairs, Al-Kalha Stairs (top part) and Jadal Stairs (bottom part), has some small shops and cafes.  They connect downtown Amman with Jabal Al Weibdeh neighbourhhod. The walls on the side of the stairs have also been decorated with street art.

At the top of the stairs

street art based on the Jordanian flagbelow: A gold coloured face looks to the sky, by Batool Edais. 2018.  It’s difficult to tell now, but on the right one boy is standing on the back of another boy.

two street art paintings on the sides of a shuttered window. on the left, a gold coloured woman with braids looking to the sky, on the right, a person reaching for a piece of watermelon up on a shelf below: Laila Hajri has painted someone reaching for a section of watermelon.
street art painting with Arabic writing, a person reaching for a piece of watermelon up on a shelf

top portion of Kalha stairs in Amman with street art on the walls of the buildings beside the stairs

below: Mural by Wafa Asmar. The eyes, nose, and mouth on the girl were added after as were the black letters in blue swirl near the bottom (I rebel therefore I exist).

van gogh inspired blue swirls painted in a mural with an orange square in the center. in that square is a heart. To the right of the swirls is a pink vertical bar with a black picture silhouette of a girl holding a bunch of balloons

For my part I know nothing with any certainty but the sight of the stars makes me dream.

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between two shuttered windows, a street art painting surrounded by white Arabic calligraphy on red, in the middle is the back of a dancer with red hat and long white robe tied at the waist, long skirt that twirls outward as dancer moves

black and white street art painting of Omar Shariff on a black background, some of the paint has begun to peel off black and white street art painting of a woman on a black background, some of the paint has begun to peel off

wings, the universal instagramable wings

on a wall beside a book store, a copy of Van Gogh's self portrait and a copy of his sunflowers painting, by Batool Edais

street art on Al Kahla stairs in Amman black stencil of a large building over the rooftops of Amman

multi coloured face with words below that say Don't let the noise of other people's opinions drown out your own.

“Don’t let the noise of others opinions drown out your own”

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below: Lots of people have added their names along with a note or two. black and white painting of a woman, 2 colours only, profile portrait

below: By the book seller’s table

shades of grey, stylized man's face on a wall behind a table with books on it

old and peeling street art painting of a green eye with lashes and eyelid on a wall with some books

at a bend in an outdoor set of stairs, art cafe signs, street art on the wall, Jadal stairs, Amman

below: Portraits by Miramar Mohammad (Miramar Al Nayyar) 2016.  Marcel Khalife, a Lebanese singer, composer, and oud player, is depicted on the left.  The other portrait is of Mahmoud Darwish, a Palestinian author and poet.

portraits of two men in grey tones, street art on a wall

on a blue background, street art painting of pink elephant's head, frontal view, with Indian symbols on it painting of a bald child with green shirt, yellow petals coming out of its head looking like a flower

Revolution Wall 2

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The other day I posted some pictures of the art on the boards around the United Nations ESCWA building in Beirut (Feb 20, Let Lebanon Live).  The pictures in this blog post are from another Revolution Wall, by Art of Change, in the same neighbourhood.

on a grey wall in red letters, Revolution Wall Art of Change, peace written as a tag,

below: A rotten orange by dew (Ali Kadado) & renoz (renozoner).

On blue background, a young man holding up a large rotten orange, holding by the stem, street art by Dew and renoz

graffiti and street art on a Beirut wall

below: Wings of Freedom

wings of freedom graffiti

below: Close to a real heart

graffiti on a wall including a large heart that is anatomically close to real

metal and concrete barricades beside a wall covered with tags and graffiti

on a city street, low rise goldish brown stone buildings with graffiti and street art around the bottom layer

below: The count down is upside down

street art and protest graffiti on a wall, exterior

below: An archer fires red hearts in a painting by Lea Bou Habib

graffiti, an archer in blue top and shorts shoots a red heart from a bow

below: Stencil by markghsoub aka Markus

blue circle, red vertical stripe, black stencil of doves and other things in black

blue circle, red vertical stripe, black stencil of doves and other things in black along with a woman with a teal coloured bandana over the lower part of her face, a woman with long hair trying to hold onto a dove, all stencils

below: Throwing dice in a painting by Zein. street art of a hand throwing a pair of dice

grey wall in front of office building, with street art on the wall, Beirut

a woman's face with hair half blue and half pink, a large blue mouse that is screaming

below: Two pink mice

two pink mice painted on a wall in Beirut

below: Protesters throwing red hearts, not just any hearts, but hearts with the Lebanese cedar tree.

graffiti of a yellow circle with black silhouette of a person with a gas mask on, throwing a red heart
metal and concrete barricades, three white metal panels with graffit on them, a D, R and S on the panels

below: A Lebanese flag with the red stripe made of hearts, Our love for this country will overcome your greed for the green. street art of a Lebanese flag with the red stripes made of hearts, also the words Our Love for the country will overcome your green for the green

below: Three panels of bulls, cows, and words by Selim Mawad

three panels of drawings of cartoon bulls and cows by Selim Mawad

below: Close up of the middle panel

close up of a middle panel, work by Selim Mawad, black and white cows and bulls with Arabic writing

Scroll down to the previous blog post for more of Selim Mawad’s work.

little things in Amman

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As I walked around Amman, I saw a few small pieces of graffiti and street art.

below: A metal box with half a face on the left and Arabic writing on the right side.

metal box on street painted, dark blue background, left half is half a face while right side is Arabic letters in yellow

below: We claim the sea

stencil on a wall, black letters that say we claim the sea

below: Keeping an eye on the stairs.

realistic painting of an eye on a wall between two windows on a set of stairs

below: A very small fellow walking with his hat

a little black stick figure person painted on a stone wall

below: A beetle climbing a wall

a black beetle graffiti on a yellow wall graffiti on a wall on a wall beside a driveway, a blue and white graffiti

below: She flies by her own wings. she flies by her own wings, written words painted on a wall, graffiti

below: My wishness marshamello (marshmallow?)

my wishness love marshmallow, words wirtten on a wall, graffiti

below: Blue beard and long hair.

a blue graffiti painting on a wall, down low near the ground, of a man with beard and long hair.

in an alley with my umbrella

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in Montreal.

below: This large mural by M.C. Baldassari is at one end of the lane, at Prince Arthur.

large mural on the side of the building, in greens on red background, three women with dark gren hair and bright green eyes

below: The very bottom part of the mural

small part of a large mural on a brick wall in an alley, red and green,

As you walk down the lane, there are a number of older murals along with a lot of graffiti.

blue umbrella in a lane with street art and autumn trees on both sides

below: A Waxhead creation

street art by wax head by two exterior metal staircases in a montreal alley, green and blue figures

below: Three mermaids by three different artists including lulukathulu and Amanda Valdes

a mural with three different mermaids by three different artists

a blue umbrella beside a fence with large grey and red text graffiti, wet day, autumn, leaves on the ground,

below: A blue eye on the door. With a smaller eye drawn inside it.

a bit blue eye painted on a brown door, with lots of graffiti around it.

below: Some of the murals have been tagged over.  Parts of the pink animals (and blue dog) are still peeking out above the mess.

a mural of large pink animals has been tagged over on the bottom part

a large mural with a bright yellow and pink tag on the bottom of it,

a red umbrella sits on the ground beside a mural

street art art mural in a laneway, back of building,

creatures and faces, Thessaloniki

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below: A large mural in Thessaloniki by DAL and Faith47.

large mural on the side of a building, a woman in profile with her hair tied up, a feathery black bird above her

below: The unspeakable truth

graffiti on a grey wall, a tree growing in front of it, a man in armour and old fashioned aviation goggles on his forehead, holding a creature with human like face and arms trying to break out from behind bars

below: Large owl in purple and white with pink eyes staring at you.

below: A mad dog (wolf?) with teeth showing, chasing a man in green.

mural of a very large wolf, or dog, head with open mouth and large sharp teeth showing, chasing a man dressed in green, looks like the man is almost in the dogs mouth, small enough to fit whole man in the mouth

below: All you see are the blue eyes… veil by vales?

motorbike parked in front of a mural of a person with head covering and veil

below: It reminded me of the story of the Trojan horse.   Or you can think of it as two modes of transportation, then and now.

drawing of a horse with its back covered with a blanket, on a wall covered with small green horizontal lines, a motorbike is parked in front of it.

below: Encircled in purple

small street art painting, purple, circle shape with woman's profile in it, in light blues and oranges

below: How is your Greek? I haven’t a clue but I hope it’s not too profane. When I tried a google image search, it came up with maps of Thessaloniki – is that a clue? I thought the image was more like a bird.

Green wall. Topless woman street art. Grey feathery object beside her. Also words written in Greek.

below: Making music. Once again the words are written in Greek so I don’t understand them.

street art painting in black and white on a red wall of a musician, signature is buz 2012

below: White tigers on a wall. Mama and her two little ones along with some paste-up faces.

three white tigers on a red wall, a parent tiger with two cubs (kitts?), some other pasteups on the wall too

below: Death sneaks up from behind. Colourful.

graffiti and street art on a low wall in Thessaloniki, with leaves of trees above the wall

below: Oh no! Another picture with a motorbike!

two large white ovals with faces drawn in black lines, one continuous line for each face. A motorbike is also in the picture

below: A skeleton between the windows.

below: A fence to keep the cows in, even if it’s a wind up cow. You probably can’t see it, but someone has written “go vegan” by the cow’s tail. The signature seems to be shogun1.de

below: This octopus seems quite happy with his ride!

below: #ironik in English,

Street art and graffiti on a wall including a blue skull. Two white posters have been pasted on top, both by ironik. Words in English. One says

below: oink, oink, grunt, grunt. A wonderfully real looking pig albeit a purple one.

Mural on a wall that includes a realistic looking purple pig. Also words (signature?) Bepia Me Xdona

below: Be yourself even if you’re blue.

below: Skull and head.

below: Not even skin and bones, just bones but bones with wonderful detail.

small street art piece, black background, white skeleton of small animal such as a cat or dog, very realistic skeleton

below: His sunglasses match his tongue.

a large face painted on a garage door, yellow skin, purple sunglasses and purple tongue

below: Skane, sorc and zombie with a tongue

three ugly creatures drawn and painted on a metal door

below: Little blue man and a signature that I’m not sure about.

street art, short little purple man with oversized head, fabric mask over his nose and mouth, one arm up raised. on the other side of the mural is a creature with large eye and three monstrous teeth

below: Two faces in white and orange.

two street art faces, one white and one orange, both with lines drawn in black

black line drawing of a man on a graffiti covered door, top painted orange and bottom of man painted green

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

Are You Dead? and others

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Are You Dead? refers to a large number of graffiti pieces around Valencia Spain with those words on it. Some are shown here (photos from March 2018) along with other street art that was in close proximity.

large street art painting in black and white, on the side of a building, as seen from across a vacant lot. Words say Decay Ruin Are you dead? Real Estate

below: Are you dead on the door, with DEIH in blue.

several pieces of street art on a wall including red words on a metal door that say are you dead

below: Are you dead on the left and a piece titled Anemia by escif.

below: As well as “are you dead?”, “It’s never too late” and some skulls, all watched over by a purple bull.

are you dead stencils on a wall in front of a vacant lot, words, skulls, black ink, also a purple bull

are you dead stencils on a wall in front of a vacant lot, words, skulls, black ink, through a chainlink fence, also a purple bull

More of his work can be seen on his instagram page.

Quito Ecuador

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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