at Borgo Pio and Vicolo Del Campanile

Near the Vatican is saw a small collection of pasteups:

below: Game Over on the Cash Machine by Luther Posca

paste up graffiti on a wall in Rome, a picture of a cash machine as video game, monitor says game over

paper paste up of Jesus, white robes, halo, and arms reaching up

close up of Jesus's upper body and the picture and words on his chest

below: The remains of a big nosed character by K2M with a red heart along with a black and white version of Edvard Munch’s “Scream” but with a man in a white shirt and black tie instead.  Modern man’s turn to scream.

3 paper paste ups on a yellow concrete wall, all three slightly faded and peeling at the edges, one is a K2M charaacter with a red heart, another is a black and white drawing similar to Edvard Munsch's Scream painting, and the last is a drawing of a young boy with ray gun and old fashioned idea of a space uniform

below: Similar to above but in better condition.  K2M’s iconic character now has a pink heart and a version of “American Gothic” by Grant Wood has appeared beside the screaming man. Again, the man is dressed in a white shirt and black tie.   Almost lost at the bottom are two stickers from Flat Heart.

paste ups on a metal box in the street in Rome

glitter on Dircksenstrasse, Berlin

The pictures on this page are all of paste-ups from artist SOBR‘s project, “It’s Time to Dance”.  They feature life size images of people dancing, alone, in couples, or in groups along with a lot of glitter.  There pictures were taken in August 2018 at which point the paper had been on the wall for a few months.

below: They share the wall space with a lot of other pasteups such as this chicken – dancing with the chicken?  Or maybe not because this chicken seems to have lost her head.

street art project, It's time to dance, by French street artist Sobr or Sobreon a brick arch, a paste up in black white, life size picture of people dancing,

below: Party time!

on a brick arch, a paste up in black white, life size picture of people dancing, large group both men and women, glitter too

on a brick arch, a paste up in black white, life size picture of people dancing, three women, one in a long skirt, one topless

below: The young girl in pink and purple is a paste up by TONA

on a brick arch, a paste up in black white, life size picture of people dancing, women and glitter on a brick arch, a paste up in black white, life size picture of people dancing, three women, one with back showing

below: Even the little green guy is dancing but I doubt that it’s because of happiness.  His pockets are empty and he’s precariously balanced on a Euro.

on a brick arch, a paste up in black white, life size picture of people dancing, on two arches side by side, one with just one person dancing, and the other side with a couple

blue triangles

The north wall of the Angel City Brewery has a few large blue triangles painted on it.  Those triangles have become the background for a large number of paste-ups and stencils.

 

below: A young boy with an oxygen mask uses the stump of a very old tree that has been cut down as a table.

paste up graffiti on the wall of the Angel City Brewery

 

below: The statue of liberty holds up a large blue LA glove, by sellout.  A black stencil “selfie this” gives the finger, by crisp.

paste up graffiti on the wall of the Angel City Brewery

 

below: Pheobe from New York sits quietly reading about the quiet life.

paste up graffiti on the wall of the Angel City Brewery - a seated phoebe from new york reading a book, she's wearing a large red hat

 

below: A wall of graffiti.

paste up graffiti on the wall of the Angel City Brewery

paste up graffiti on the wall of the Angel City Brewery

paste up graffiti on the wall of the Angel City Brewery

black stencil graffiti on the wall of the Angel City Brewery - one person is helping up a person who is on the ground

meating place and others

More Buffalo NY street art

below: On the side of Lorigo’s Meating Place on Grant Street, a large mural featuring many people that was installed in 2013.  This is “Grant Street Global Voices”; it was created by muralist Augustina Droze with help from students at International School 45 and Lafayette High School.   Eighty panels were put together to form the mural – and unfortunately a couple of them seem to have fallen down.

5 storey brick building on Grant St in Buffalo, with green trim around the windows and a small parking lot beside, sign on the side of the building says Meating Place. There is a large mural on the side of the building featuring realistic portraits of many people, including two trumpet players, a girl in a red head scarf, and other men and women,

below: Also on Grant Street is another community mural… The PUSH mural by Max Collins and others, named for the fact that it is over the entrance to PUSH (People United for Sustainable Housing) center.

mural over the entranceway to a building. Two sets of clasped hands, all with different skin tones. Scenes of children playing in the background.

below:  A large octopus swims close by on this door.
A supersized creature for a supersized door.

blue mural on an industrial building door, blue marine scene feathuring a large close up of an octopus eye and part of its body, along with some yellow fish, some lily pads and a water lily flower

 

below: Unicorn!  But behind a fence.

mural of a unicorn with a rainbow coloured horn, jumping, behind a wood fence

 

below:  It was the interesting architectural detail over the door that first caught my eye.  Then I notice the words, “diez anos como un roble cayendo”  Ten years like an oak falling?

blog_como_un_roble_cayendo

below: A flute player plays to a parking meter.   A Buffalo parking meter of a type that is long gone from Toronto streets.

black and white photo of a man playing the flute, pasted onto a woodedn fence beside a sidewalk, next to a book store, a parking meter nearby, on a street in Buffalo

below: Sweetness cafe is the scene of at least three pieces of street art, starting with this woman who smiles at those of us who look up from the sidewalk.   I also like the white mugs hanging from the awning.
a large, life sized or larger, paste up of a drawing of the head and shoulders of a black middle aged woman, smiling, above the awning for the Sweetness cafe.   6 white mugs hang from hooks through holes along the lower edge of the awning

below: The door next door has been re-done but that involved removing the face of this paste-up.  A facelift gone awry.

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below: But this painting is still on the wall of the Sweetness Cafe.

blog_street_art_painting_sweetness

below: And we’ll end with the trash.  He’s looks happy to take care of your garbage.
Added note, Sonder is a band from Buffalo

part of the side of a green metal container for recycling bins on a Buffalo sidewalk, relief sculpture of a man on the side, to which someone has added to sticker, one is a happy face sticker on the head and another is a parody of wonder bread that says sonder.

Corbet Place, Shoreditch

Here are a few photos of the graffiti that I saw on Corbet Place, London E1.

below: Into the machine, a MCLN plague doctor paste up.
The words in the background are ‘Dreamland Emporium’

a mcln plague doctor paste up

below: With horus, and with eyes all over, another MCLN plague doctor.

a mcln plague doctor paste up with the word horus on it as well as an eye

below: A face at the end of the street.

a truck painted in yellow and red stripes is parked on the side of a narrow street, brick three storey buildings on either side, graffiti on the wall at the end of the lane

below: Hello, is it me you’re looking for?  Not where you’d expect to find Lionel Ritchie.

a bright pink rectangle paste up with a neon green milk bpttle with blue highlights, words, hello is it me you're looking for, with a picture of Lionel Ritchie

below: A Voxx face, Stay Lucky, Code, and a Mario Brothers (sort of!)

stickers and paste ups graffiti on a wall, Mario brothers parody, man by voxx,

below: On the wall at the corner of Jerome and Corbet. A very messy wall.

a wall covered with tags and other graffiti, stencils, paint, paste ups, surrounding a yard by an apartment complex, brick building in the background
below: I’m doubtful that this is actually on Corbet Place but it’s nearby and it’s colourful!

mural in yellow and blue on exterior wall of urban outfitters in Shoreditch London, abstract face with white eyes and teeth

Photos were taken in September.

Belfast street art

Belfast is home to more than 250 murals.  Most of them are political or historical in nature and concern the recent “Troubles” in Northern Ireland’s past.  But there are other murals in this city, and other street art.  This post features some of the apolitical murals that I saw late in September of 2016.

below: A large mural by Smug One on High Court Street  (One of his murals previously seen in Melbourne – Smug on Wood Street)

very marge mural of a man with moustache and small beard and wearing a chef's shirt is holding a large lobster

below: Keep Her Lit, keep the furnace in your heart burning, keep the fire alive.

a mural of an anatomical painting of a heart with the center being a furnace, steam puffs coming out of the vessels at the top, words at the top of the mural are Keep Her Lit

below:  These fingers are pointing at you in a mural by EMIC.  3D glasses are available in Sunflower, which is a store across the street.  It’s difficult to take a photo in 3D!

Mural of two hands with fingers pointing outwards, The mural is painted to look 3D if you have the right glasses on. Words at the top of the mural say 3D glasses available at Sunflower (which is store across the street)

below: This blue woman looms over one of the smaller streets in downtown Belfast.

very large mural of a woman's upper body and head, done is shades of blue, shoulder length hair, looking at the viewer

below: Fighting with swords while a dead (or injured) dog lies on the floor.   Surreal?

Grey tones, black and white, monochrome, painting of a fencing scene, indoors, in historical clothing, chandelier on the table, black man watching the fencing, dead dog on the floor

below: The vertical painting in browns is done by KVLR

two murals on a building, one is a very realistic painting of an old man and the other is a vertical painting in brown tones by KVLR

two murals on two sides of a corner. One is a realistic painting of an old man and the other is also a man's head but it is done in red, white and black shapes.

below: A mural by Kashink  who is an artist  from Paris.  She has painted in many cities around the world and some of her work can be seen in Montreal.

mural by Kashink of person with green face, four eyes and long bushy reddish orange hair. Words say and fun--damental rights. Person is smoking (green hands)

on the side of a two storey building, a large woman in profile, head and shoulders, in a multicoloured cloud, with her hands together in prayer, eyes open and looking slightly upwards

below: A colourful dog by Verz, a local artist.

mural on black wall of a dog's head and neck in oranges, red, and pinks,

below: A mural showing streets at night, lights and reflections, by Dan Kitchener

large mural of streets and car traffic at night with lights shining on wet streets, two white cars parked in front.

below: One of the hazards of taking pictures of street art is the usual presence of parked cars.  They get in the way.  A lot.  Sometimes you just have to make them part of the composition.

two red cars are parked against a wall on which a mural of a young woman's face is painted. white skin, black hair, grey eyes,

below: And then there are the times when the cars are just in the way and there’s no way around it.  This black bird was painted by Spanish artist Sabek.   It would be nice to think that the arrow is aimed right at the car roof and that it missed the bird.

mural by sabek of a black bird caught up in a white ribbon as it tries to fly

below: Continuing the bird and arrow theme is this mural titled “The son of Protagoras” by MTO (French born, now Berlin based).  The mural is located in the yard of Northern Ireland War Memorial.  Note the markings on the arrows.   Protagoras (about 490 – 420 BC) was a Greek philosopher; he was either an agnostic or an atheist.

mural of a red headed young man squatting and holding a dead bird in his hands. The bird has two arrows through it, with red ends on the arrows. The mural looks to be on top of a fence and there are cars parked in front of the fence

below: This snake and arrow mural was painted in 2015 as part of  the ‘Hit the North’ event when 30 murals were painted in Belfast.   Some of the other murals in this blog post were painted then.  If you watch this video on youtube you might recognize them!

a rusty red fence and a green hedge is in front of a mural of a large black and yellow snake wrapped loosely around a long red arrow.

below: A fantastical dragon creature in purple and orange walks along the pavement.

horizontal mural of a long purple and orange dragon

horizontal mural of a long purple and orange dragon

below: A cockatoo by Dan Leo sits high on a wall, brightening up the side of a building.

simple mural of a grey toned cockatoo with a pink patch on its face, on a turquise background

below: On the fence beneath the cockatoo is this mural.  It seems to be a deer hunt?  The woman and her dog are chasing the deer?  Or running with the deer?

a blue dog is on a leash held by a woman, pink deer silhouettes jumping in the forest in the background

below: A Faigy mural, The owl doll Millies

owl doll millies mural

below:  A wonderful portrait of a man by DREPH.  I saw a few slices of bread with feet… The signature on the side of the bread seems to say Artista.  The himbad signature on the left goes with the cat in the picture below
a street art painting of a slice of bread with green feet is above a street art painting by deph of a black man with a beard and a brown cap

below: Himbad cat, wide open mouth and many sharp teeth!

large cat face with sharp teeth, street art by himbad

a happy face stick figure person made with paint that has dripped from a piece of street art, on a sidewalk (pavement)

below: Now it’s Puinsai Hawaii at any time.

altered sign, now says puinsai Hawaii anytime. yellow sign on a post with barbed sire on either side. Also An 'I love you" sticker on the pole beneath the sign.

below: On the Restore Charity Shop, a woman by Emic.

mural by emic, head and face of a young woman looking to the right, in grey tones (black and white) on a bright red background.

storefronts on a streeet in Belfast, brick building, but metal awnings/screens covering the shops because they are closed. Young Savage vintage clothing and Arts Lab, both have street art paintings on the screens. One is a young woman with long blue hair that forms a circle around her.

below: ‘LOST’, a man with harp antlers and a pink nose, two lonely whiskers and a grille over his mouth.  My apologies for the fact that the quality of the photo is such that the smaller words are illegible.  I think that what is lost is dip-py but could be dup-py.

three posters on a black wall. One is a skull with a spring for a neck and two antenae coming out of the top, one is labeled 1 and the other is 2 . The other posters are the two the same, withthe word lost written above a man's head, with harps for ears and a small muzzle over the mouth, words in the bottom corner,

below: More pasteups.  A Citizen Nobody poster is surrounded by other pasteups in various states. “The will to consume terrorises you.”

a few paste ups in black and white. In the middle is a poster by citizen nobdy that is only words that read The will to consume terrorises you.

below: Ireland is not full of leprechauns.  There is one on this wall but I didn’t see too many others, real or otherwise!  There were no pots of gold either.   I saw a few nuns though including this one by David Creative.

two murals on a corner of a building. One one sideis a head and shoulders of a nun in a yellow habit with black head wear. On the other corner is a leprechaun and some sunflowers.

The front of a house, upper storeys, covered with a painting that looks a bit like an imaginative version of the stars at night. The universe and beyond.

a collection of street art pieces on the side of a greybuilding, painted in purple, yellow and turquoise mostly. Abstract shapes

below: Pull up a mattress and make yourself comfortable.

a mattress is rolled up and lying against a wall that has a mural on it.

below: A mural or an ad?

blog_cqhq_moving_city_center

Brick Lane, Shoreditch

There is a lot of street art and graffiti in Shoreditch and one of the streets where it is plentiful is Brick Lane.   There is much more than be covered in one blog post.  What follows is a selection of the street art that I saw in that area back in March.  I’ve tried to find the artist as often as possible…  but it’s not always possible!

below: Four people, quadruplets, standing at attention with eyes forward, on a wall.

paste up of four men standing in a line, shoulder to shoulder, on a background of graffiti tags.

below: Letters pasted on a wall, “Expand your comfort zone” but with D, U and Z missing.
A couple of faces looking on.

words on a graffiti covered wall that once said Expand your comfort zone, but some of the letters are missing and others are starting to peel.
below: Posters by agheras73 aka Arturo Garcia de las Heras

a row of posters showing a man in various jumping poses, each with a different coloured background, green, orange, red and blue.

street art of a man with skull face, helmet and googles on his forehead, ammo belt across his chest.

paste up of a woman's head, black sunglasses, with some red details and highlights on her face

below: On the left is a woman in profile by Irish artist Iljin.

three graffiti faces on a wall, one woman in profile painted in blues and two identical black and white paste ups of a young man

street art and graffiti on a wall, a woman in a green skirt suit and some creature's heads

below: Blue head, red head, @ne_illustration aka Nathan Evans.

two large heads by ne illustrations, a blue head and a red head.

below: Love, love bunny-ish paste up and love on polka dots.

a square paste up of a rabbit's head and a circular paste up below it, white polka dots on blue with the word love written in cursive in the center.

 

below: “This being human is a guest house.”

scribbled drawn line drawing of a face with a wide open mouth, amongst other written graffiti on the wall

below: He stands guard by the door while she watches the passersby.

a very small black stencil of a man with a target as a head, standing on a wall, with feet at sidewalk level . Near him is a woman's face painted on the wall of a doorway

below: A likeness of Frida Kahlo sitting cross legged with her hands in her lap, a few scribbles by Elsie and a paste up of Lt. Vincent and his cat  – his red, white and blue character is seen  running all over Shoreditch.

a paste up of Frida sitting crossed legged on the floor, hands in lap,

below: What do a plastic toy helicopter and airplane, a scrunched up foil wrapper, part of a German cigarette package (rauchen mindert ihre fruchtbarkeit = smoking reduces fertility), a pink pencil and a picture of what looks like Richard Nixon (who is it?) have to do with each other?  Not sure, you’ll have to ask artist Mr. Fahrenheit.  He’s the maker of the art with U R so Porno Baby.

street art picture of Richard Nixon's head, with red paint splattered below.

below: Queen Elizabeth over and over again (also the work of Mr. Fahrenheit), along with Pinch Rio whoever he may be.  Do the numbers on the poster have any significance?  The bottom line is a date but the others are a mystery.

many identical paste ups of Queen Elizabeth's head, outlined in different colours, pasted on a wall,

endless street art

Or rather, the street art of endless.  Whenever I see, or think about, his street art, the song ‘Endless Love’ as sung by Lionel Ritchie and Diana Ross comes into my head.  Not quite the vision that should be inspired by his work especially since a lot of his images involve weapons, big weapons.

below: No sign of guns in this one though… Queen Elizabeth with hard hat on, ready to work.

street art piece of head of Queen Elizabeth, wearing a hard hat with endless written on it, as well as a yellow scarf with Yves Saint Laurent logo on it.

street art piece of a person squatting beside a building, shooting an automatic weapon towards the edge of the building. A trash can and car are beside the building

on wood construction hoardings, a paste up by endless of a newspaper boy holding up a newspaper

street art piece of a person squatting beside a building, shooting an automatic weapon towards the edge of the building. A young man is taking a picture with his phone on the other side of the building.

a person standing with a white bandana on his face and a large gun in his hand

black stencil on wood of mickey mouse holding a revolver

Another image that endless uses a lot is a coke can.

a coca cola can painted as an endless classic where the words end less are written in the same style as coca cola on the iconic red can

A coke zero black can is turned into a can of spray paint in this street art paste up. Instead of coca cola it says end less

below: I don’t think the wonderful picture of the soldier on horseback is by endless.

two vertical street art pieces on a black building, with windows on either side of them. one is a soldier on a horse and the other is a white drawing by endless

below: This paste-up was on a wall on Blackall Street.

large black and white paste up of a woman in high heels and long flouncy dress

people on Fashion Street

The Fairy Goth Mother store stands at the corner of Commercial St and Fashion St in London E1.  First the bright blue caught my eye and then the name of the store made me smile.  When I walked this area back in March 2016 I saw a lot of graffiti and and street art on Fashion St and I took the following pictures.

A storefront in a line of brick buildings, at an intersection, with blue wood window frames and door frame, a woman is walking past. the store is called, L and L, Fairy Goth Mother

below: Why so serious?  Joker’s face by Syd, one of a number of pieces (and people) together on a brick wall.

street art painting of the joker's face up close, bright red mouth, other features in black on white, with the words, Why so serious? bySyd

a wall in Fashion street, London E1, with a painting of the jokers face and some paste ups

below: Is this Liza Minelli?  Or someone else?

large paste up of woman standing, looks like Liza Minelli in red and white striped long top and black leggings, red shoes, on a brick wall

below: Wrapped up in Yves Saint Laurent.

detail of a paste up of a woman in a head scarf made of fabric with the Yves Saint Laurent logo all over it and a child, in grey tones

below: Another wall in Fashion Street.  Close ups of some of the graffiti are in the following 2 photos.

a man walks past a wall that is covered with stickers and paste ups graffiti and street art in Shoreditch London

below: Stikki peaches James Dean paste up man, Rebel with a cause.  A purple beaver, pistachio shell art, and can you spot David Bowie?  Hint, check the telephone.

stylized animal paste up by Costah, small blue beaver head, man paste up by stikki peaches, and other graffiti stickers and paste ups on a wall

below: The background of the collage is a page from the ‘Financial Times’ of 27 June 2012.  The white strips of paper have words printed on them, the same words over and over again, “UR SO PORNO BABY if you want it”.  The small white poster on the right says, “Danger, Community Support in the area: screwing the community and attacking the vulnerable”.

collage on newspaper, face, the word Baby many times, in a black outline

below: A mural on the side of Joe’s Kid Cafe, painted by Jimmy C.   It features the owner, Danni as a three year old child with her grandfather Joe.  Joe also ran a cafe in East London back in the 1930’s.

A man hugging a young girl, Joe's Kid is the title,

below: A person (Michael Jackson?) constructed of other people’s faces.   An interesting concept.  I don’t recognize all the constituent faces and perhaps they aren’t all famous people, but I can see Mohammad Ali, John Travolta, the Bee Gees and possibly Grace Jones.  The printed text on his T-shirt is more “UR SO PORNO BABY if you want it”.  The rant in grey on black is as follows:  Now you can’t stop me even thought (sic) U think that if U block me you’ve done UR thing and when you bury me underneath all UR pain I’m steady laughing while surfacing baby I’ve got what it takes and there’s no way u’ll ever get me.”

a street art peice in the shape of a person walking, made up of a collage of pictures of people's heads

 

Two paste ups on a wall, a running wolf with hind legs outstretched to the back, and a woman in an orange and black outfit

street art, collage woman's face with an eyeball in her mouth, scrawled letters of Howl Owl and a white rectangle with two black ovals,

below: Beside #31, Eastco Industrial Wear Ltd.  She has been since painted over with a mural by the same artist – another woman’s face but in purple tones.

a mural of a woman's face in profile on a wall, many colours, long hair, maroon background,

foots-crazy people and faces

Heaps of neat street art that I saw one day while walking around Footscray.

street art painting of a minion, a green turtle like creature

street art painting on a metal garage door of a couple standing behind a barbed wire fence

large clown like face painted on a wall between windows with metal bars. big laughing mouth and white face

below: Wanna play?  by Mika

stencils on a black wall

 

very large two storey mural of a girl on the side of a building. Her head and shoulders profile

below: Larissa McFarlane is responsible for the paste-ups of people doing handstands that are around Melbourne. I saw two instances of them in Footscray.

paste up by Larissa McFarlane of a life sized person doing a handstand while wearing striped socks

street art paste ups of three people standing on their hands, with a cane to the right of them.

street art painting of un ugly wrinkly dog face with bulging eyes and lots of drool

street art of a person with two heads wearing a long blue dress with no arms or legs visible but with one hand holding a very small person, also a large bumblebee street art painting. also a dog wearing a red and white striped top and a white dog face mask

mural of people in black and white with a red heart in the middle

white skull wearing a brown cowboy hat amongst graffiti tags on a brick wall. words "scary oner" written to the left of the skull

street art painting of a woman in a yellow head scarf and blue top waving

street art painting of a large white man's face with two windows as eyes, his hand is over his mouth

paste up of a drawing of a homeless man sitting on the sidewalk holding a sign that says hungry. printed on a book of postcodes

paste up of woman doing a hand stand in front of a brick wall, done in black and white
street art mural wearing purple masked space helmets, holding a white flag
street art painting in Melbourne of a woman with light blue skin, an orange top and a two patterned head scarf, orange and gold stripes and black with blue and pink circular patterns on it.

street art painting of a child with her amrs crossed, a smile on her face, and a red heart on her chest. Words "I am a refugee this is my dream. Peace"