Mission Makeover

Posted on October 22, 2025 by Mary C

In 2012 the father and daughter team Tirso Araiza and Lucia González Ippolito (aka Cia Lu Art) painted this mural in Balmy Alley. It was restored and updated in 2022. The theme of the mural is the (ongoing) gentrification of the Mission District neighbourhood with the consequent displacement of those poorer and less fortunate.

Balmy Alley mural, social commentary, social justice, theme of gentrification effects on Mission District, painted originally in 2012 by Tirso Araiza and Lucia González Ippolito, updated in 2022, shows police removing people from the area, wealthier people moving in

part of Balmy Alley mural, painted originally in 2012 by Tirso Araiza and Lucia González Ippolito, updated in 2022, mission district makeover

part of Mission makeover mural, white dog, man sleeping in the street, red convertible

The word written across the top is “Rejoice”

Photos taken February 2025

Brunswick

Posted on October 7, 2025 by Mary C

Brunswick is one of the suburbs of Melbourne; it is north of the Central Business District.

below: One of the murals painted on the side of an older building on Sydney Road. This is the Retreat Hotel and the mural was painted by Buff Diss.

cyclist cycling past a street art mural on the side of an old two storey building on Sydney Road in Brunswick

below: Treaty” and “Teach Black history” JESWRI (aka Jesse Wright) on the side of another older building on Sydney Road. There is a Korean BBQ restaurant on the lower level although most of the building looks a bit decrepit.

street art mural on the side of an old two storey building on Sydney Road in Brunswick

below: A series of paintings in shades of gray with a large pointy mountain in the back.

below: “Tram Kangaroo” by Mike Maka. One very large kangaroo hops along beside an old abandoned Melbourne tram (route 19, which runs along Sydney Road) in this dystopian future scene.

below: A closer look …

below: Not such an old building this time.. on the side of the Savers store is a mural by Danielle Weber. A pair of hands is trying to pull back the gray wall to reveal a tropical scene hiding behind it.

below: Zatira (aka Katherine Gailer). has used a palette of vivid colours in this mural dedicated to Teresa Bruno, a well known local chef and owner of Zia Teresa Restaurant (Italian).

throw up type street art in Brunswock, abstract shapes and colours,

below: Protest type poster where the mayor is shielded from the people by layers of armed police. People are too mesmerized by what is on their screens to care.

below: Uprooted police cars.

below: “The colony will fail”.

Photos taken February 2025

Edificio de Mujeres, San Fran

Posted on September 20, 2025 by Mary C

Edificio de Mujeres, or The Women’s Building, is a woman owned and operated community centre that opened in 1979. The exterior is covered with a painting titled “MaestraPeace” which depicts women of different cultures and ages throughout history, both real and fictional. Six hundred names are written into the mural. A group of seven women artists (and numerous helpers and volunteers) completed the painting in 1994 (it was restored in 2012). What follows here is a selection of images showing parts of the mural.

below: Over the front entrance

front of the womens building in san francisco, bare breasted woman at top center

part of maestrapeace, a mural on the womens building,

part of maestrapeace, a mural on the womens building, African woman with very large holes as earrings, with a baby

part of maestrapeace, a mural on the womens building around the entrance to the building

part of maestrapeace, a mural on the womens building

part of maestrapeace, a mural on the womens building, painting of symbols and patterns around a door

part of maestrapeace, a mural on the womens building, two large hands, one holding a succulent plant with people inside and the other hand is holding a woman coming out of the water with many large waves

part of maestrapeace, a mural on the womens building, a nurse, and an elderly woman

part of maestrapeace, a mural on the womens building

part of maestrapeace, a mural on the womens building, an older woman standing up

part of maestrapeace, a mural on the womens building

According to Wikipedia, the artists involved were: Juana Alicia, Miranda Bergman, Edythe Boone, Susan Kelk Cervantes, Meera Desai, Yvonne Littleton, and Irene Perez

Photos taken February 2025

seen in Harlem

Posted on September 7, 2025 by Mary C

as the Harlem in New York City.

below: Be Kind; Be Well; Be Safe; Be Love

below: There is a mural on the side of the Amsterdam News building on Frederick Douglas Blvd. The full mural shows two women and a child under a baobab tree. “A Family’s Tree” by Alexandre Keto.

Mural by Alexandre Keto on the side of the Amsterdam News building in Harlem, 2 black women and a child under a baobab tree

below: By any means necessary

below: The top part of this painting has been covered by the ads. The words “Show Love to Artist”, as well as the gold crown that the man is wearing, have been obscured. That side of the wall was painted by Amir Diop.

below: Too many humans and not enuf souls. The blue is a remnant from a previous paste-up while the bleeding eyes are from yet another layer.

below: A portrait and white cross, by Brendan T. McNally

below: Handcuffs, a gun, and a bottle of liquor – but turn your back on all that and head towards reading and education.

below: Under the railway tracks.

emural under the railway tracks by an old station entrance

mural in grey tones, a man, and lots of text — Life’s path is not always so clear. Many of us look, but still don’t see. We hear but still don’t listen. This doesn’t mean that slavery doe not exist. Jesus struggles through great obstacles so that we could learn how to be free; how to find our way through darkness. Many of us will continue down a path of destruction like chained slaves toward their grave. Be free my friends, be free.

below: We fit you to a T featuring Mr. T. from the 1980s TV show, “The A-Team”. His given name was Laurence Tureaud.

below: We are New Yorkers.

mural, baseball player, words that say we are new yorkers

below: That’s a lot of words! Zeitgeist is defined as “the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time” Perhaps this poster captures the zeitgeist of New York City in the 2020s.

a poster, 2 pages of plain white paper with lots of words written in black marker about Jesus and the blue pill

below: There are two large murals along the walls at Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Plaza.

two murals at Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Plaza.

below: “How Do I See Myself” by CAW Kids

mural, how i see myself, by caw kids, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Plaza., harlem, new york city

below: Womens Health Community Mural

womens health community mural in Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Plaza., harlem,

below: Good night! Sleep tight!

Photos taken July 2024

Funky Fish and fisheries

Posted on August 26, 2025 by Mary C

There is an aquatic (and fisheries) themed mural that can be seen from the Pinellas Loop Trail in St. Petersburg. It was painted by PlasticBirdie (Jeremy Nichols) and BlaineFontana during the SHINE Mural Festival in 2019 in partnership with PangeaSeed Foundation’s Sea Walls. Funding was provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA). It is over 120 feet long and took eight days to paint. It’s title is “The 8th Funky Fish Town”.

mural, by Jeremy Nichols and Blaine Fontana, about fish especially groupers, and fisheries of Florida, in St. Petersburg, title is The eighth funky fish town

below: Each of the 7 pegs describes one of Florida’s local fisheries. Number 1 is Madeira Beach and number 2 is Panama City …. followed by 3. Cortez, 4. Apalachicola (for oysters), 5.Steinhatchee (for scallops) 6. Matlacha and 7. Key West

details about the 7 fisheries in Florida including Panama City, Madeira Beach, and Key West , in a street art mural

below: A coral reef with a dark red grouper fish poking its head out. A gray manta ray is also pictured.

part of a street art mural, a gray manta ray, a coral reef, and two grouper fish

below: And last, a giant green eel with many arrows.

Photos taken March 2024

GAWD’s animals

Posted on August 24, 2025 by Mary C

This post first appeared in my Toronto blog back in 2019. I am posting here because I have learned that this mural has been painted over.

In Toronto, just south of St. Clair West, Runnymede Road runs under the CP train tracks. In the summer of 2017 the wall on the west side of the underpass a mural was painted by Christopher Ross (aka GAWD). It is a collection of animals, mostly in shades of pink and blue – dragonfly, pigs, birds, and more. Most of the animals are in pairs.

At one end of the mural, this little engine sits on a tree stump.

katch1 goes Japanese, with some others

Posted on August 1, 2025 by Mary C

I spotted a mural on Ala Moana, close to the ocean that was painted by Katch1

below: From the east, a long series of images predominantly in shades of blue all with a Japanese theme.

part of a mural by katch 1, a woman with chopsticks holding up her hair, holding a fan, wearing a kimono, stands outside a building built in traditional Japanese style, other japanese theme images as well,

below: At one end, a woman holds a fan.

below:… And a fan of another type in the real shadows of the wall.

mural by katch 1, tree trunk with lots of exposed roots

below: A turtle wearing a helmet with satellite dishes attached to it. He doesn’t seem too pleased.

mural, turtle with a helmet with satelite dishes on it

three real windows surrounded by a mural by katch 1 that has drk arched spaces

below: There is more artwork on the adjacent building where a Mickey Mouse hand is pulling back a curtain to reveal the faces and text that have been painted there.

part of a street art mural, a very long mickey mouse arm (skinny, black, and with a white glove on the fat hand) reaches out of a hole in the wall and pushes aside the start of a painting

looking down an alley between two buildings, street art on both sides. on the left is an orange face, on the right is a blue mural by katch 1 that has a japanese theme

looking down an alley between two buildings, street art on both sides.

katch1 mural in the background, a painting with two comical cartoonish character in the foreground,

Photos taken July 2025

love birds

Posted on July 31, 2025 by Mary C

Christina Angelina, painted this very large mural on the side of an Office Depot store in the Kaka’ako neighborhood in Honolulu.

large mural on grey walls of Office Depot, by Christena Angelina, two women warriors facing each other, with helmets on, long hair, each is holding a bird in her hand and they are holding the birds so that the beaks and bodies form a heart

It shows two women warriors (? or Roman goddesses?) each wearing helmets and holding a gray and pink bird. The long curved beaks of the birds almost touch and their bodies come close to forming a heart shape.

two birds in a mural, gray with pinkish heads

Enjoy (more) Denial

Posted on July 22, 2025 by Mary C

A previous blog post showed some of the murals that can be seen in Maiden Lane in Windsor. At the south end of that lane is a parking lot where one more large mural by Enjoy Denial has been painted.

below: The woman’s portrait painted by Denial was shown previously; a small portion of the other Denial mural can be seen here on the right

portrait of a woman, mural by daniel bombardier, also known as denial

below: A few images of different angles and views of the mural. In the first photo, a large replica of a highway 401 sign. Windsor is at the east end of the 401. There is also a sign in the mural pointing “To Canada, Bridge”; Windsor is home to the Ambassador Bridge that crosses the Detroit River.

part of a Windsor themed mural by denial beside a parking lot in downtown windsor

below: “Welcome to Windsor” turned upside down.

below: “Everthing must change” and the Detroit Pistons basketball team.

below: And last, someone has added their own two cents to the mural

in pink marker, someone has written words on a large mural, text says It only takes time for someone to become something

Photos taken June 2025

WIFF Alley

Posted on July 20, 2025 by Mary C

WIFF = Windsor International Film Festival

sign that says create made to look like a reel of film on old style film projector

below: Silhouettes in the window – Willy, Edgar, Dorothy, Toto, and Edna

on a brick wall, onld windows have been bricked over and in each of the 4 windows is a black silhouette that looks like a famous film character, Edgar Allan Poe, Dorothy and Toto from the Wizard of Oz, Willy Wonka, and the little spymaster woman Edna in the "The Incredibles' movies

below: In autumn 2019, Daniel Bombardier a.k.a Denial or Enjoy Denial, painted this movie themed mural

below: Jessica Rabbit from ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ is portrayed on the far left side of the mural. She stands under a “Danger 10,000 volts” sign. Popcorn anyone?