Tag Archives: people

24th Street BART

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This post is about a Mission District mural that was originally painted in 1975 and recently updated and renovated (2023). It is located at the 24th Street BART station. In it, many strong and determined (but not very happy) men hold up the tracks that keep the BART trains running. A silver train travels the line. Faceless red figures wait underneath the tracks – the ‘hoards and masses’ who depend on public transit. In the background, the multicolored towers of downtown can be seen.

part of a mural at 24th street Bart station, a train is running on elevated tracks that are held up by men, faceless red people wait under the tracks, colourful city buildings in the background

In the original, these faceless people were brown.

part of a mural at 24th street Bart station, a train is running on elevated tracks that are held up by men, faceless red people wait under the tracks, colourful city buildings in the background

The three original artists were Michael Rios, Richard Montes, and Tony Machado.

part of a mural at 24th street Bart station, a train is running on elevated tracks that are held up by men, faceless red people wait under the tracks, colourful city buildings in the background

In the background, the multicolored towers of downtown San Francisco.

part of a mural at 24th street Bart station, a train is running on elevated tracks that are held up by men, faceless red people wait under the tracks, colourful city buildings in the background, originally painted in 1975 by Michael Rios, Richard Montes and Tony Machado, and updated in 2026
part of a mural at 24th street Bart station, a train is running on elevated tracks that are held up by men, faceless red people wait under the tracks, colourful city buildings in the background, originally painted in 1975 by Michael Rios, Richard Montes and Tony Machado, and updated in 2026
part of a mural at 24th street Bart station, a train is running on elevated tracks that are held up by men, faceless red people wait under the tracks, colourful city buildings in the background, originally painted in 1975 by Michael Rios, Richard Montes and Tony Machado, and updated in 2026
part of a mural at 24th street Bart station, a train is running on elevated tracks that are held up by men, faceless red people wait under the tracks, colourful city buildings in the background, originally painted in 1975 by Michael Rios, Richard Montes and Tony Machado, and updated in 2026

Photos taken February 2025

Tacna & Emancipacion

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Street art murals seen in downtown Lima, at the corner of Av. Tacna and Av. Emancipacion

below: Selling shoes, sitting on the sidewalk under the sleeping guy with many ears.
A man and a woman are selling shoes. They have bags of stuff beside them on the sidewalk, there is a mural on the wall behind them of a man lying down. He has his eyes closed. He has at least 3 pairs of ears.

below: Ignoring the yells as she walks past

A woman is walking past a mural on a wall. An open mouth is yelling with flames and blue lines coming out of it. It looks like she is being yelled at by the mural.

below: There are hands that point and open hands to hold

Two women are walking past a mural on a wall, there is a large hand that is part of the mural.

below: “Hoy soy libre, manana tambien” – today I am free, tomorrow as well

Street art in bright colours of the words, Hoy soy libre, manana tambien

below: plug in to grow, green power, electricity for life….

part of a street art painting, a hand is hold a red extension cord. A stem with a few leaves at one end has an electrical plug at the other end. The green plug is being inserted into the red extension cord outlet.

below: He comes to life

two men are painting a mural of a man. One man is standing on two buckets so that he can reach near the top of the wall

below: Painting

a man is painting a piece of street art on a street corner in Lima.

below: All smiles, with orange peels, by Toxicomano

A large face of a man in black and white on a black and red horizontal striped background. There are some garbage bags full of orange peels in front of the mural.

below: “Toxicomano”

face in black, on yellows, oranges and reds

below: hanging out on Tacna with the street art

People on the sidewalk passing by a large mural street art piece with colourful faces, Tacna Lima Peru

below: The dog is watching. “Ya te sabe” – already you know

Street art of a large black and white dog in profile. He is looking at a group of children. Behind them is shapes in red, blue and yellow with stencils on them of the words ya tu sabe, and of cannisters of poison. The piece is signed by toxicomano

below: partially hidden behind his hand

close up of a graffiti picture of a boy's face. He has his hand in front of his mouth and chin

below: Is she carrying a sweet and/or toxic load?

Black and white graffiti of a woman with a basket of fruit on her head. Pineapple hand grenade graffiti on the wall behind her.

below: Pineapple hand grenade

A stencil graffiti of a hand grenade that has a pineapple top. Black on a blue and red background. It could be a hand grenade or a pineapple

Photos taken March 2014 (some files, once lost have now been found)

Graffiti Alley – first visit of 2026

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This blog post is a quick look some of the “art” that can be seen in Toronto’s Graffiti Alley at the moment. There is lot on display even though I only walked between Spadina and Portland so this post focuses on the murals and larger paintings that I saw. The smaller stickers and paste ups will be in a subsequent post (sooner rather than later I hope!).

below: Blue birds and big ugly black dogs.

two murals, street art painting, graffiti alley, blue bird with open wins, but feet on pine branch, in background is a squat heavy set black and white dog mural

below: A portrait of Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine’s blue and yellow colours.

portrait of zelensky, ukrainian leader president, in blue and yellow, street art mural

below: Daisy, in rabbit ears

word daisy written on arm of girl in street art painting, graffiti alley, she has black rabbit ears

below: On one of the corners, there is a long grey mural with bits of red….

below: “A lone samurai known as Ghost stands on watch”.   A story and a mural by Dewucme

below: Portraits painted on skateboards – there has been a collection of such portraits hanging here for at least a year.  I am not sure if these three are newer, or if I just forgot them last time.  (Link to blog post of skateboards from 2025)

graffiti alley, portraits on broken skateboard,

below:  Portrait by Bunso

black and white portrait, street art mural, graffiti alley, man in white t shirt and black cap, smiling,

below:  Other part of the above mural, but painted by a different artist (I think)

black and white portrait of a man

below: In memory of Andre Campbell

blue trash bins and black garbage bags piled in front of street art mural, black and white portrait of a man with short dark hair and glasses, with text that says in memory of Andre Campbell

below:  Behind the Queen Street stores

parking areas and back yards of stores on Queen street, graffiti alley view, three storeys, with balconies across the back street art and graffiti on fences

below: Painting on hoardings as downtown redevelopment (and subway construction) slowly encroaches on the Queen and Spadina neighbourhood.

tiger and dragon street art mural on hoardings in an alley in Toronto

below: “Find peace in your chaos” Plus, it seems to be wearing shirt and tie but it’s also drooling and looking just a little unhinged!

words on sidewalk that say find peace in your chaos, below a painting of a pink monster head with white eyes and big white teeth

squished face, monstrous, big eyes with orange pupils, big white teeth with gums bleeding above one tooth

monster faces, graffiti alley, street art, with snowman underneath

below: Monstrous television screen head with bloody gums and matching tie.

monster faces, graffiti alley, street art, big teeth, with a head shaped like a television screen

tree in front, looking across alley to side of building, completely covered in street art painting, graffiti alley

street art painting, graffiti alley, purple face, blue hands with thumbs up

street art painting, graffiti alley

below: “Who you gonna call?”  Ghostbusters green slimey thing!

street art mural in graffiti alley with green slime creature from Ghostbusters movie in center

below: He’s got one big eye and a scowl on his face.  There’s a burning cigarette in his mouth and the Ace of hearts is tucked into his hat band.  Quite the character.

two garage door murals in graffiti alley

below:  Not all cats are cute?

ugly cat, yellow, with bulging green eyes, street art mural, with two monkey faces, graffiti alley

below:  A woman with her purple hair tied up with little glowing (but ghostly) lanterns in a mural by MonkYi

street art painting by Monk Yi, woman holding a blue fan, with her hair tied up and two little lanterns in her hair, big gold ear rings.

street art painting, graffiti alley, large red and yellow daisy by catchoo, wad of money bills with arms and legs and a face too

street art painting, graffiti alley, on a door, woman with black hair, red lips, and red clothing that looks a lit like flames, red hot

street art painting, graffiti alley, pink tiger, with pink hearts

below: Climbing green onions (scallions?)?  An upside down blue goose?  … And in the middle, yellow siu mai (Chinese open-topped steamed dumplings, a dim sum favorite), all images from the imagination of Mixt Paints aka Kelcy Timmins Chan

purple naked person climbing a bunch of green onions a light blue duck with yellow beak that is diving downwards, street art painting by mixt paintz

below: There’s that snowman again, but on a different wall and surrounded by graffiti

a little white snowman with carrot nose and black buttons, street art painting on a wall covered with graffiti, graffiti alley

below: Ninos Libres, by Kalaruno

street art portrait of a child by Kalaruno, ninos libres

below:  Another Kalaruno painting

lumber and trash in front of a mural in graffiti alley, grey squarish character with human face by Kalaruno

below: At least it’s a step up from tagging…..

red, black, and white mural in graffiti alley

below: A green finger on the trigger.

side by side, two smaller street art painting, graffiti alley, on left is green hand and pink spray paint can while on right is a stupid round face with big oval teeth

behind store, graffiti alley view, pile of empty boxes and trash at bottom of stairs, with doors with street art in orange and blue

graffiti and street art under stairs, green turtle, mushrooms

below: Blue.  And strange looking.  He’s hanging out in the doorway.

street art painting, graffiti alley, in doorway, blue faced weird looking man

below: An introspective dragon

a street art painting of a greenish grey dragon with the word introspection in orange across its body

street art in graffiti alley

people walking down a wet alley, puddles and reflections on the pavement, of the street art and graffiti on the surrounding walls

Photos taken January 2026

Brunswick

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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.

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

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.

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

below: A closer look …

part of a street art mural on the side of an old two storey building on Sydney Road in Brunswick, showing Melbourne tram 19 on an overgrown street

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.

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

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.

anti police corruption poster showing mayor, and government, shielded from the public by many layers of police and armed police

below: Uprooted police cars.

police cars in a stack, one upside down, with a tree growing through them, one is policia, another police, and the third is in russian.

below: “The colony will fail”.

poster with text, the colony will fail

Photos taken February 2025

Aloha e komo mai

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below: Seen at the corner of Cooke and Auahi streets in the Kaka’ako neighborhood of Honolulu – One building with at least three sides covered with street art murals.

below: On the east side is a large painting by Matt Eaton. Not shown in this photo is the tribute written in one corner that says, “In memory of our beloved uncle, Rabindra”

below: “Aloha, e komo mai” or Hello! Welcome, come in… a friendly Hawaiian greeting.

large mural on the side of a building in honolulu

below: Creativity is my freedom. The freedom to express not impress. To impress is to become a slave to others opinions.

creativity is smy freedom, words on a mural, more words say the freedom to express not impress. To impress is to become a slave to others opinions.

below: Among the leaves and flowers you can see the words, “Don’t let anyone steal your joy”.

't let anyone steal your joy, words on mural, among flowers and a flowering plant with big green leaves

below: Finding peace under the old gnarly tree.

woman with eyes closed leaning against a big gnarly tree, part of a mural

below: Sitting together at the table while the dog waits underneath.

part of a mural, house number 733, two men sitting at a table, under table is white dog with black patch around one eye, outside, mountain range in the background

below: Trumpet players and dragons with horns and spiky tails.

part of a street art mural, a young man with eyes closed, an older man playing the trumpet, a dragon with open mouth, horns on head, and a long spiky tail.

below: Circles and triangles form patterns on the wall around the entrance to Aupuni Space, an artist-run art gallery.

mural, with door in middle, circles made of triangles in black, on orange background

below: A giant turtle swimming in the clear blue waters of Hawaii in a mural by Artworkbykai aka Kaiili Kaulukukui

below: A painting by Tatunga aka Tatiana Suarez – yellow worm-like animals eating a piece of juicy guava.

below: The last mural shown here springs from the imagination of Alex Pardee

mural by Alex Pardee, on bright yellow background, many weird and ugly monsters and partial faces, a big mouth full of teeth, eyeballs,

a long scrawny arm catches a smiling eyeball

small part ofmural by Alex Pardee, on bright yellow background, many weird and ugly monsters, close up of one with out stretched green skinny arm

Photos taken July 2025

near Balaclava train station

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below: On the corner of Nelson and Carlisle streets, near Balaclava station in St. Kilda East.

stores, on a corner,

below: Black panther roaring with mouth open wide, fangs and teeth ready….

street art painting of a black panther with mouth open showing large white fangs

below: The railway crosses over Carlisle street at the north end of Balaclava station

railway tracks, bridge over carlisle street,

below: Praying. Painted by Pawtl

mural of a man with hands closed in prayer

below: Two women hanging out with a white rabbit and a white cat, by Deb.

street art painting of two woman, stylize, with short tops, exposed middles, and long skirts with hearts on them. Saturn and a white cat in the background

below: Come Alive Melbourne

cars parked in front of a mural

below:  A rainbow lorikeet

street art painting of a rainbow lorikeet bird, on a tree branch

below: Owls by the door

a door in the middle of a street art painting of owls including two small baby owls

below: More owls

street art painting of three owl faces,

below: Continuing the bird theme – a very old and weathered stencil of a pigeon

weathered black and white stencil of a pigeon, on a red brick wall

below: Another oldie, a paste-up of many people.  One person in a red and white striped shirt, holding a toddler.  A girl with long hair wearing a checkered red and white dress; she’s holding something like a brown box in her hands.  Beside her is a girl who is wearing a white top and a blue skirt. Who else can you see?

paste up of a group of people, very small

 The next few pictures are a  selection of paintings on the upper level of some of the stores on Carlisle.

below: Dana’s Patisserie

upper level, exterior, of Danas Patisserie on Carlisle street, with painting of a woman with a potted cactus and a black and white flower in a pot.

below: Many hands

paintings of three hands on upper level of a storefront, carlisle street, melbourne

below: Flowers and faces

paintings on the upper level of two adjacent stores, one with flowers on a green background and one with four portraits

below: “TAKE” or perhaps “TAK E” above a painting beside the walkway to Balaclava station, southbound trains.

store on Carlisle street beside ramp up to balaclava station, with large orange mural on one side of the building. the word take is above the mural large orange mural

below: On the platform, Balaclava station, “Shake was here”

platform at Balaclava station, with building behind, has text graffiti that says shake was here

below: Gradients in blue and orange cover the ground floor level of a new development beside the station – seen from the station platform.

stripes forming gradients in blues and oranges along the side of a building including the door to a garage

below: Also seen from the platform, street art on the back of a building by the tracks.

throw up calligraphy type street art,

below: Raise a steaming cup to the coffee culture that is strong here in Melbourne! Cheers!

little blue and white graffiti sticker, man walking while holding a cup with steam coming off of it

Photos taken March 2025

Ignite, Create, Connect

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A portrait project from 2014 – 10 years on and still looking great

9 close ups of people, raw art works portrait project in lynn massachusetts, many portraits hanging under an overpass,

A total of 528 portraits line the side of a walkway under the railway tracks in Lynn.

raw art works portrait project in lynn massachusetts, many portraits hanging under an overpass

They are the product of a Raw Art Works project – Young artists took photos of various people in Lynn and then made portraits from those photos.  The portraits also include ones that the artists made of themselves. raw art works portrait project in lynn massachusetts, many portraits hanging under an overpass

15 of the portraits, raw art works portrait project in lynn massachusetts, many portraits hanging under an overpass

raw art works portrait project in lynn massachusetts, many portraits hanging under an overpass

Raw Artworks – whose mission statement includes the words; “to ignite the desire to create and confidence to succeed”.  It’s a program for youth that has been running in Lynn since 1994.
raw art works portrait project in lynn massachusetts, many portraits hanging under an overpass, panel explaining the project, all text

Photos were taken in July 2024

Beverly murals and stickers

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… The Beverly in Massachusetts that is

below: Large back and white mural by Alex Senna with feet overhanging a parking lot.

large black, white, and grey mural by Alex Senna, a male, reclining, feet in sandals

below: The large feet also sit above a line of circus themed images. These vignettes, so to speak, are also seen on the other side of the building (a theater). Some of them are shown here.

feet from mural by Alex Senna, on red brick wall, with a line of circus images below, an elephant,

below: Two clowns.

mural of two clowns

below: Magic rings

circus magician with two steel rings

below: Another magician with his props

circus performer with large square scarf, magic act

below: “Welcome to the Golden Theater Beautiful” on one side and “Le Grand David and his Own Spectacular Magic Company” on the other.

circus and magic themed images making a collage in three columns, clowns, magic show,

below: Appropriately, it was painted on a bicycle store wall. Sadly, the bike shop closed in 2018 after being in business for 70 years. The frog on its bike endures.

on upper part of red brick building, a green frog on the seat of an old fashioned bicycle with a very large front wheel

below: Mural by Helen Bur and Sam Worthington, “Uprising”

mural by helen bur and sam worthington

below: This mural is dedicated to Howard Lomen (1959-2004). There are words written on the mural including: “Charles Olson and Vincent Ferrini fire their poetry pistols in a dual at niles beach.”  It was painted by his son Erik Lomen. Both Olson and Ferrini (in the black hat) were poets from the Gloucester MA area (just up the coast from Beverly).

below: The blur of headlights in the night, a mural by Dana Woulfe

below: A lively flower arrangement by Hailey Bonia

flower mural by Hailey Bonia in Beverly Massachusetts

landscape_scenery_mural-2

robot_food_drink-2

below: Nowhere over fast and a burning car

sticker graffiti

below: Stay Calm and Love Your Neighbourhood

stickers on a pole

below: Stickers on a stop sign including a green snail

Photos taken July 2024

mountain villages, mural village

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Ihwa-dong is a neighbourhood, built on a hill (Mount Naksan) in Seoul. Some of the houses are literally built into the city walls. Because of its hilly nature, it is often referred to as a mountain village. In 2006 as a cultural project there was an effort to transform this relatively poor section of the city into an artistic landmark by adding public art – especially murals. Seventy artists were involved. The area became a tourist destination. It was also saved from demolition and redevelopment.

In 2016 the residents petitioned to have the art removed as they did not like the increase in tourist traffic. The local government didn’t do anything so some of the residents painted over a few of the more popular murals. There are also reports of murals being painted over in 2023 … or residents adding their own art

painting on a wall, I love seoul where the love is a red heart

below: A woman walks down (very down!) a street in Ihwa-dong

a woman walks downhill down a street in a village, house at end of street has small mural painted on the front

below: A small neighbourhood behind a fence. Bright red shutters.

a small street art mural on the front of a house, image is a collection of houses, streets, and fences

below: Girl with a red balloon at number 69.

street art painting, a girl in black stencil, holds the string of a red balloon

below: Little puppy dogs and a friendly kitten by the hedge

street art mural, green background like grass or a leafy hedge, 3 little dogs and a cat. one of the dogs has a long stem rose between its teeth

below: Toucan and monkeys. The black car is blocking the shiny green car but he doesn’t seem to mind.

mural on a wall, three black and white monkeys, and a large toucan with a bright beak. a car is parked in front of the mural and is blocking part of it. Also in mural, a man is getting out of a car

below: Watching time, but it’s always ten past two; watching each other but seeing nothing.

two street art paintings in black and white, on the right is an analogue clock with hands pointing to time that is 2:10. on the left are two men with binoculars, looking at each other up closely so that the ends of the binoculars touch

below: Motorcycle parcel delivery (although on closer inspection, it might be a trailer load of cardboard for recycling)

street art mural, a man in a low back motorcycle that is pulling a trailer loaded with parcels

below: A great place to see views of Seoul…. but there are a lot of stairs!

view from ilha village, overlooking seoul, bridge, road with big curve, coffee shop, houses, roofs,

stairs to bottom of hill beside road and bridge, murals under bridge including white leafless tree on green background

below: Up a narrow street (no not street, just stairs), more paintings on the walls

on walls, narrow street, murals, one with a man in a red jacket

below: Doorway conversation

street art on a door, two people talking to each other, one on left is taller and darker

below: Square head sitting with a woman with very, very long red hair

street art, two people, man is sitting with back to woman, man has a square head and head is twisted around to look at woman. Woman has long red hair that points straight up

below: Fish by the door of the shop

fish painted on bright blue background, around door of a store

… fish on the wall

orange and white carp painted on blue wall

… and fish kissing teapots.

a real teapot hangs beside a painting of a fish that looks like the fish is going to kiss the teapot

below: A tired old faded bear sits by the road

a very large stuffed teddy bear is sitting in a rocking chair on the sidewalk beside a house. bear is weathered and faded.

below: Looking down to the layer below where people are sitting outside Espresso Bar Odeoksae Coffee. They are joined by a few silent people on the walls. To the left, two camels have wandered into the scene.

people sitting outside coffee shop, street art on walls of odeoksae coffee shop

below: Rainbow stripes and some silhouette figures that look they belong in Alice in Wonderland – a trumpet blowing rabbit and the queen of hearts.

wall is painted in rainbow stripes in the front, and in pale blue in the back. on the back are three figures in black silhouette with red hearts

below: Slouching past with his mind on other things far away….

mural of a young man walking past a brick building

below: Yellow shirts and flowers

mural on a wall of a man in yellow shirt and black pants, and sandals, standing there

below: This is Son Heung-min who is the captain of the Tottenham Hotspurs as well the South Korea national team.

street art painting of a soccer, football, player, with words super son number 7, white jersey,

below: Off to the shops with her bright red purse and blue shopping bag

street art painting on a wall, woman in blue skirt, carrying red purse, and pulling blue shopping cart

street with houses on both side, narrow, one has mural on side, street art painting on a wall, woman in blue skirt, carrying red purse, and pulling blue shopping cart

below: People on the boat, fish swimming under it.

under a window and behind a planter, a rough painting of a boat with people on it, and large fish in the water below

steep street in mountain village in seoul, with houses above

Photos taken September 2024