two women and a faded heart

Posted on September 14, 2022 by Mary C

below: A red headed woman wrapped in a blue shawl and holding a white rose. White roses are symbols of purity and innocence as well as love and affection. Traditionally the Virgin Mary is depicted with a blue shawl or similar clothing. The mural is ‘Oblicze Piękna’, painted in 2018 by Paulina Nawrot. The title translates to Face of Beauty, or Vision of Beauty.

below: A faded woman sits by her telephone in a 2014 mural by Russian artist, Morik as part of Galeria Urbans Forms.

mural by Morik of a woman sitting on the floor beside a telephone, with large plant leaves around her, monstera deliciosa.

close up of part of a mural, a woman's head with large leaves from a monstera deliciosa house plant.

close up of part of a mural, an old fashion telephone with the receiver off the hook and lying on the floor. A woman's hands and bare feet are by the phone.

below: Another faded mural, this one shows an anatomically correct heart with half of a butterfly on each side. Above the heart grows a large tree. The mural was painted in 2015 by Puerto Rican artist Alexis Diaz and is titled “Czuć” (or in English, “Feel”)

on the side of a building with a small tree partially blocking the view, a faded mural. An anatomically correct heart in the center bottom with a large deciduous tree growing from it. A butterfly, cut in half, sits on either side of the heart.

Bristol Bearpit

Posted on February 22, 2022 by Mary C

The Bearpit is a park in Bristol, circular in shape and with roads surrounding it; It’s like being in the middle of a large roundabout and in fact it is the St. James Barton Roundabout. All entrances are by underground passage.

It is in an area that is the historical center of the city. After being badly damaged by aerial bombing raids during WW2 , not much was done with it until the late 1960s when new roads and office blocks were built. The bearpit was designed as a pedestrian friendly area, a city park but soon became a place where no one felt safe. In 2011 it was voted the worst place in Bristol . Over the years a number of groups tried to clean up the park and make it a welcoming place for people – with mixed success.

In May of 2017 when I was there it was a place to hang out. It was also a place for political protest.

tables and planters at Bristol bearpit, park, with a mural of flowers. In the background a sign, political poster, and in he background, Debenhams store — VOTE – “It ain’t much, but it’s all we have against the Greedheads” Hunter S. Thomson

May 2017 was in the midst of campaigning for the the UK General Election of 8 June 2017. Theresa May (Conservative) was Prime Minister. May had became PM after David Cameron resigned because of the Brexit vote. Jeremy Corbyn was leader of the Labour Party. The Conservatives won the election with 317 seats although Labour was close behind. Like most elections, this one can’t be summarized in a few sentences but if you are interested in more details, there are lots of places to look on the internet.

below: A large Corbyn rat poster by political art John D’Oh with the slogan/phrase “Make June the end of May”.

large poster by John D'Oh political humour for the 2017 UK election

political poster save the NHS vote Labour, picture of a woman on the phone, by John D'oh

In paradoy of newspaper Daily Mail, text on graffiti says Daily Fail, with three stencil faces

below: Mural by SP_ZERO aka Keith Hopewell

graffiti of face of young girl with braids tied with ribbons, and wearing a red bandana mask over her nose and mouth, on a green tile wall beside stairs

government is theft graffiti

street art by a tree in the bearpit area of Bristol, a person in a grey hoodie is spray painting a black line, beside a stencil of a man with long beard and mustache that says beard envy

graffiti on a tile wall beside stairs, an electrical two pronged plug with little legs, running, with broken electrical cord as a tail

A group of young men sitting on benches in a park, with a street art wall behind them, space aliens and creatures

street art wall with imaginative and creative space aliens and creatures

below: Mural by LAIC217

Where’s the toilet paper? Is there any significance to the Adidas clothing and shoes?

Mural with orange headed devil with horns, yellow eyes, and skull like face, with bony hnads on shoulder of graffiti artist, caption says For using stencils you will go to hell — For using stencils U will go to Hell.

below: While we’re on the subject of Hell, a poster playing on the word exposure by Georgie aka georgieartist. I love the fact that someone has written “Story of my fucking life” on it.

below: A broom with heart by qwert art

whimsical graffiti by qwert art of a broom with a white skirt and long skinny arms holding up a red heart where a face would be

below: Mural by Kid Crayon of Eat Crew. Just above the mural you can see part of the black and white bear sculpture/statue that used to stand in the park.

In 2019 the Bearpit was “cleaned up” i.e. all the graffiti and street art was removed as were the squatters. A quick check of the area on Google Street View shows that as of March 2021 the park was still graffiti free.

potted plants and umbrellas

Posted on February 28, 2020 by Mary C

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

Revolution Wall 2

Posted on February 26, 2020 by Mary C

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.

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

below: Wings of Freedom

below: Close to a real heart

below: The count down is upside down

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

below: Stencil by markghsoub aka Markus

below: Throwing dice in a painting by Zein.

below: Two pink mice

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

below: A Lebanese flag with the red stripe made of hearts, Our love for this country will overcome your greed for the green.

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

below: Close up of the middle panel

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

exitenter in Florence

Posted on January 26, 2020 by Mary C

exitenter is a prolific graffiti artist whose art is usually centered around red hearts, love, and equality. The pieces with their stick figures are simple and direct.

below: Reaching for love

simple graffiti of a black stick figure with white filled in, reaching up to a red heart, with the word exit written above it

below: Black equals white. Equality

two stick figues, one with black body and the other with white body, holding hands, with a red equals sign above their hands

below: Swinging on a heart, in love.

on a blue one way street sign, a sticker with a stick figure swinging on a red heart

below: Apart and fighting, but come together in love. Another way of saying “All you need is love”.

below: Together, hand in hand looking for love.

two stick figure people holding hands and reaching for a red heart

below: Juxtaposition of the Nativity scene with the idea of refugees.

street art paste up of a nativity scene, Mary and Joseph standing together with Mary holding the baby Jesus, under night sky with moon and stars. The word refugees is written below the picture. All contained in a grey arch shape

For more pictures and information, ExitEnter instagram page and website

Stern in Plovdiv

Posted on August 12, 2019 by Mary C

There are numerous paintings by Bulgarian street artist Dimitar Mekhandziiski (aka Stern) in Plovdiv Bulgaria. Here are some of the ones that I saw in April 2017. a woman is taking a photo of a large mural by Dimitar Mehandjiiski a k a stern in Plovdiv, external wall, puppets people

below: A dragon hand puppet on the end of a blue arm and another man in a red hoodie, looking down on the stage as a man walks past.

a man with a blue face and blue arm holds a dragon hand puppet while another man in a red hoodie holds a fox puppet

below: The making of a wooden puppet?

an older man with reading glasses and balding hair holds a wood puppet with a round head and a stick-like neck

below: The crocodile (alligator?) has a blue glass heart between its jaws. Be careful! Is that a grenade inside the crystal?

looking at the corner of a building, with murals on two sides. One side is of a man riding a purple and pink alligator or crocdile. The other side is not seen as easily and are more creatures

below: Empty chairs and a table in front of a mural… a pink creature beside another ugly creature with green skin, beady eyes, and a very long tongue. Inside the window next door is the face of a strangely beautiful character with long hair, pink eyes, and blue skin. In its hand (with watch on its wrist) is a flaming torch.

murals by stern on the side of an old building in Plovdiv

below: Riding the dragon (crocodile?) and wearing a mask.

a person in a mask with an orange beak is sitting on what looks like an inflatable green dragon

below: In contrast to his other work, this frog and these mushrooms look much more realistic.

A light green frog sits on a dark green leaf, mushrooms on both sides of him, some of the mushrooms have beige and white striped caps and some have red tops with white dots

Calle de San Cayetano, Madrid

Posted on October 7, 2018 by Mary C

below: The intersection of San Cayetano and Calle de Embajadores. A wall encloses a playing field of some kind.

a woman pushes a stroller past a wall with street art murals painted on them, she's head down the hill at Calle San Cayetano

below: Looking down San Cayetano

looking down a street that goes downhill, a brick fence with murals on it on the right, also street art on the building at the end of the street, 3 and 4 storey buildings on either side.

below:

mural of a large flower on a brick wall

mural of a spaceman's head in a helmet

below: Street art on the wall signed by @elreydelaruina (Ruina R64)

low wall with murals in front of a larger mural on the side of a 3 storey building

a man walks down a street in Madrid, beside a low brick wall that has been covered with street art murals

below: Parts of letters on the wall. Tuuulibreria is a bookstore where you (the buyer) decide how much the book is worth.

below: And above the bookstore, a table ready for dinner. The words above the wine bottle are an ode to Embajadores, “mi barrio” i.e. my neighbourhood.

little things on Barcelona walls

Posted on April 7, 2018 by Mary C

Barcelona Spain, April 2018,
pasteups, stickers, stencils and other little pieces of graffiti.

below: The green creature (with Ore on its tail) seems to want to eat the heart. The tiger appears on walls in many Spanish cities although sometimes he’s just a black and white head. He’s the creation of Bloo. Last, an orange crab with eye lashes on one eye.

some pasteups and other small pieces of graffiti on a concrete wall. A tiger, a heart, an orange crab.

below: RAF Urban, young boy

paste up of a boy's head and shoulders by raf urban

below: Another face, this time a woman looking up. She’s not quite obscured by the paint around her.

yellow arrow, pointing to a pasteup of a womans face on a wall

below: Pointed

a stencil on a wall, a hand with index finger pointing, points to a metal door that is covered with a mural

below: “Lo importante esta en tu cabeza” on empty cans. As it turns out, this the name of an album by the group La Gran Orquesta Republicana. Rough translation is: The important is in your head.

empty cans covered with black and each with a blue letter on them, the cans are put together on a wall so the letters make words.

below: More cans on walls. This time they say “mensajes de amor en tiemps de guerra, mensajes de paz con la mente guerrera”. [messages of love in times of war, messages of peace with the warrior mind]. This can art is the work of an anonymous couple. Many examples of their work can be seen on instagram with the hashtag #llaunesbcn

empty cans covered with white, with black letters, one per can, on them. The cans are mounted on a wall in with letters forming words that say mensajes de amor en tiemps de guerra, mensajes de paz con la mente guerrera

below: Funny Bone and a little hairy chested, hat wearing, tattooed fellow with love on his tummy (or lower).

stickers on a door that has a red tag on it.

below: Güelcom was an Argentinian movie, a romcom from 2011. Because of my poor Spanish as well as the rip in the paper, I can’t tell what the second word is.

pasteup of a woman with blue hands reaching out for her face, also the words, guelcom

below: A black and white paste up.

pasteup of a man's face, wearing black sunglasses, also his face is covered with black lines

below: Mowcka “uniendo tus partes” and others

stickers and paste ups on a wall

below: Very, very with symmetry, as a red rose lies on the sidewalk.

stencil, in purple, words mucho mucho with the second one being uder the first, and upside down, also a stenciled red rose lying under the words, arranged such that the flower looks like its lying on the sidewalk,

below: Smile! Anthropomorphic rabbit photographer in blue

blue rabbit with a camera

… and red

red rabbit with a camera

below: somiatruites, Catalan for daydreamer

small painting on a gold coloured wall, exterioe, six green arms with fingers stretching out from a central reddish face
below: Utility box. JERC = Joventuts d’Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (Young Republican Left of Catalonia). They support independence for Catalonia which is the part of Spain that includes Barcelona.

utility box with painted political statements graffiti

below: The Hulk. Even he is locked out.

The Hulk

below: Watering can and plant pot faces.

2 small pictures on white board on outside wall

below: Another collection of small paste ups on a wall. There’s that tiger again. A blue unicorn and a very large insect share the upper left corner. That little black and white figure in the bottom left is a flying peanut, a character by Hadsawit that really gets around.

graffiti pasteups on a wooden door

many pasteups on a wall

below: The Raven, or at least a large black bird

stencil, black bird eating something

metal utility box on a sidewalk beside a stone wall, drawing of the upper part of a man, in black line drawing.

old wood door covered with blue tag and a sticker with a red flower

Bristol paste-ups

Posted on December 21, 2017 by Mary C

below: Be brave paste-up by donk (instagram)

be brave pasteup by donk, ofLondon, in Bristol a young person with eys closed, Indian feather head dress on hed, in monotone black and white

below: Hero of the Beach (Ben Rider), Be Brave (donk), Play Nice (donk), and Adventures into the Future

section of wall covered with pasteups, be brave, play nice, adventures into the future, hero of the beach dog, ghetto blaster

below: This characters are the work of qWeRT (on instagram)

two little green andwhite characters on a blue wall, a red heart is above the head of a tall skinny standing creature while the other is sitting crossed legged beside him

two little purple and white characters on a beige wall, a red heart is above the head of a tall skinny standing creature while the other is sitting crossed legged beside him

vertical paste up, man in suit and good shoe, but with head and hands as machinery

below: A pouting child beside the steps.

black and white photo of a cjild with curly hair and topless

below: Ribcage and a pink ‘Grab This’ pussy with a gun. The latter is by Ben Rider (instagram)

two pink paste ups on a door - the top is a drawing of a ribcage, bones only and the other is a cat with a gn and the words grabthis (grab this pussy?)

below: Paint me a rainbow

a black girlwith long curly hair is painting a small house, the house is black and white but there is a rainbow of colours coming out of it

below: A torn version of the picture above along with some other pasteups. Men in glasses, profanity pony wishes, and a more complicated poster with a hand, a skull, and other things. The words on this last one say ‘Office of the Medical Examiner, County of Cook’. Eyes dominate two of the posters – same artist?

below: She carries an awkward load on the left while the girl on the right is well armed and well prepared.

below: Mais Amor, por favor…. more love please. Another pasteup by donk.

pasteup of a smiling woman's head, large puffy hairdo, words say mais amor por favor.

below: Another donk piece – a pirate lying in a liquor bottle with another bottle in his hand.

donk pasteup in a doorway, on brown paper, a drawing of a man lying on his back inside a liquor bottle, he's holding another bottle in his hand

graffiti text pasteup in black writng on white paper

below: I was in Bristol just before the British elections in the spring of 2017. There was quite a few anti-May/Tories and pro -Corbyn/Labour graffiti including this dinosaur themed one.

black and white poster on a graffiti spray painted wall, words n poster say TMay Rex with a picture in the middle of May's (British Prime Minister) head on a dinosaur

below: The Humble Magnificent with masked boy, a donk piece.

donk pasteup of a boy in hat, wearing mask and standing with his hands at his side, background is covered with large red polka dots - the border is the words The Humble Magnificent repeated 8 times

below: A creature waits outside number 42

on a blue door with the number 2 on it, a small black and white paste of a head of a creature, signed creature [illegible name - maybe arequte?]

below: mcln’s plague doctor character is in Bristol too. He’s drawn on a printed page and the words in that rectangle are ‘resist the temptation’.

mcln pasteup of plague doctor character in black top hat

sprayed on the sidewalks of LA

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Mary C

As you walk around the Arts District in Los Angeles, watch where your feet are going.
You’ll see many stencils that have been spray painted underfoot.

This first one, women in head scarves, is obviously a political statement.
It was also the only stencil that was in two colours.

below: Dangerous insects, with scoped rifles for wings.

below: … and a dragonfly too. Weaponized terrorist bugs.
No wait, they’re Homeland Security agents in disguise.

below: No money, No honey.

below: Social media is selling your shit. Apparently there is a third one that says “Seeking your applause, your digital mirage” but I didn’t see it.