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
According to Wikipedia, the artists involved were: Juana Alicia, Miranda Bergman, Edythe Boone, Susan Kelk Cervantes, Meera Desai, Yvonne Littleton, and Irene Perez
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.
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: 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.
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.
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.
below: There are two large murals along the walls at Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Plaza.
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”.
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
below: A coral reef with a dark red grouper fish poking its head out. A gray manta ray is also pictured.
below: And last, a giant green eel with many arrows.
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.
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.
below: At one end, a woman holds a fan.
below:… And a fan of another type in the real shadows of the wall.
below: A turtle wearing a helmet with satellite dishes attached to it. He doesn’t seem too pleased.
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.
Christina Angelina, painted this very large mural on the side of an Office Depot store in the Kaka’ako neighborhood in Honolulu.
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.
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
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.
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
below: Silhouettes in the window – Willy, Edgar, Dorothy, Toto, and Edna
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?
below: Action! Charlie Chaplin and
below: More moments in cinema including Rosebud from Orson Welles’ ‘Citizen Kane’
There are 2 older murals in Chatham Ontario that depict some scenes from yesteryear. The first is at least 25 years old and shows a line of stores and businesses. Even the upper windows are part of the artwork. Just this week (mid June 2025) it was announced that a new mural would be painted here this summer. I have just discovered that there is a video on Facebook of this old mural being dismantled and removed. I must have been in Chatham the day before it was removed!
So…. for a limited time only, here it is (in two images)
below: People enjoying meal at the Savoy cafe while others are tempted by the desserts on display in the window.
below: Also in the row of businesses is Heintzman & Co Pianos, Lyons Tailoring, and Thomas Stone & Son (clothing?). People mingle on the street and a car drives past.
below: Ladies checking out what’s on display at the tailors, window shopping.
below: A girl plays a tune on a Heintzman piano while a family out for a drive, passes by.
The Historic Downtown Chatham Business Improvement Area (BIA) have chosen a design for a new mural that was created by local artist Ruth Ann Pearce. Apparently history will still be part of the theme but beyond that, a surprise awaits!
The second mural is newer but was painted by the same artist as the one above, C. Penelope Duchesne. Help was provided by Nancy Foulis, Bonnie Cernenac, Shannon Lindsay, Amy Maynard, Terry Nelmes, and John Reimer.
The mural is in three parts – on both the right and left side is a market scene.
“The old town hall at north end of the market, 1905” The central panel of the mural features the old Town Hall which was built in the 1850s. The market stretched out behind it. The city sold it in the 1950s; it was demolished some thirty years later.
…. Finlay Lane, a short lane with a dead end, in Melbourne’s CBD (Central Business District).
below: Graffiti on an alley wall
below: Urban Cake Lady, with the red hoodies and blue and white striped pants that she likes to use in her artwork.
below: Human? Devil? An impish blue character with a long red satanic tail.
below: This isn’t the clearest image, but what you looking at here is a character putting on a mask. Its face is black and its two eyes look like lights (and are barely in the photo)
below: With all the wrong lighting, a large painting by Ling, for Flash Forward Melbourne whose line is “40 Artists, 40 Acts, 40 Laneways”. The image is too dark, but it’s a man in blue shirt, red robe, holding out one hand. A better picture can be found at the Flash Forward Melbourne website.
below: Very stylized and abstracted but I think I see a motorcycle helmet, and perhaps a black hand reaching upwards.
Eyes on the Streets 