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.

 

Athenian stencils

below: A television family.   The rabbit ears are quaint.

little black stencil of a family, parents have televisions for heads, standing in a row, all holding hands. seen in Athens Greece

below: Crying eyes

black stencil of a woman's face, just the features, she is crying and black tears are running down her face

line drawing, in black, stencil, woman's head with face partially obscured by a red bandana over her mouth and nose

below: Throwing each other away. Are any of us really disposable?

small black stencil of a person throwing a smaller person into a garbage can

below: A more positive message – butterflies and love

two metal boxes on the street with stencil graffiti, both with red background, one has many black butterflies and the other has a boy giving a flower to a girl, in silhouette

below: I suspect that it’s a protest that is political in nature but because of my lack of Greek I’m not sure.

stencil graffiti, circle with a pair of scissors diagonally across it, with words R.A.W. cuts and then some Greek words below it. seen in Athens Greece

below: I think that this is the face that is stenciled the most.  Che Guevara may have died in 1967 but his face lives on.

black stencil, che

Athens has lots of concrete pillars on its streets and many have graffiti on them.  The next few photos are some of those pillars.

stencil on a concrete pole with two people walking past it. stencil is a woman. seen in Athens Greece

two stencils of women, the top has covering over mouth and nose, the other is a line drawing of a woman's head and shoulders in profile

black stencil of a woman on a concrete pole

creatures and faces, Thessaloniki

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!