Brick Lane, Shoreditch

Posted on August 16, 2016 by Mary C

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,

portraits in Shoreditch

Posted on August 3, 2016 by Mary C

As I walked around Shoreditch and other areas in east London, I saw a lot of portraits by street artist Paul ‘Don’ Smith. He’s been painting on the streets for more than 25 years, mostly portraits of famous people or characters from TV and movies. These are the ones that I saw (March 2016).

below: Two portraits side by side. On the right, from the TV series, The Avengers, Patrick Macnee as John Steed with Diana Rigg as Emma Peel. On the left is #wooshinism If I google that, I get photos of this portrait that people have posted on instagram.

two street art portraits, on the right is character from the TV shaw the Avengers

below: The title on this one has been covered over I’m afraid. Any ideas?

A couple, man and woman, portraits by Paul Don Smith, street art

below: Telly Savalas as police detective Kojak, a TV series from the 1970’s. “Who loves ya baby” was one of his catchphrases.

Kojak portrait, from the TV series, by Paul Don Smith

below: Statham, or Jason Statham, actor. Kiss kiss bang bang.

street art portrait of a man with a gun to his head, Statham,

below: “The Message” a portrait of Malala, referring to Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani advocate for education for women and the youngest ever Nobel laureate.

portrait of Malala, by Paul Don Smith, street art, on a door

below: And one I don’t know. Do you?

portrait of a woman, street art by Paul Don Smith in London, on a door

people on Fashion Street

Posted on August 3, 2016 by Mary C

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,

little things in Bologna

Posted on June 16, 2016 by Mary C

Bologna Italy, March 2016

pasteup on a salmon coloured door with a green wall on one side and a grey metal shutter on the other. The pasteup is of two women, one is upside down.

below: Sneakers by K2m

street art paste up of white high top rinning shoes with K2m written on the side in large red letters. The shoes are covered with what looks like drawings of yarn and balls of yarn

bluish grey graffiti paingint on a wall of a child (head and shoulders) wearing a leopard costume, but with the mask lifted up so child's face shows, on a door

graffiti on an old stone building with burgundy coloured window shades, blue tag, other words written on the wall include

black stencil of Robin Williams on a wall, graffiti

paste up of yellow crown on a young man's head. The graffiti has been placed above a metal feature on a concrete wall so the eyes look like they are peering over it. Someone has written the words Casa Lucio with an arrow pointing upwards above the crown.

black stencil of a woman's head in profile, long hair, wearing a hat, words coming out of her mouth, shape of words is a megaphone. Words say " Chi si loda s'imbroda"

black stencil of the pope's head and shoulders on a brown wood wall. The words "dici a me" are stenciled on too.

paste-up of a man's head and neck, with a red outline painted around his head. glasses and a beard.

stencil in black on a concrete wall that is not in good shape, a man, from the waist up wearing a black jacket and a necklace. One hand is raised to shoulder level, showing palm. Over one shoulder are two red lip marks

a grey tone graffiti on a pinkish wall, a small furry animal with a fez on its head and eyes that resemble nuclear symbols, sits atop a man's head. he has two sets of eyes and a large mouth with teeth

a paste up of a person with short black hair, a blue hat and blue eyes, holding a black cat. On the person's arm, written in blue are the words "Pieces were stolen from me"

a paste up with slightly curled edges, graffiti on a concrete wall, a black picture of a man like creature with stylized features is pointing a large knife at its chest.
black drawing on white, paper paste up street art, man's head and neck in profile, no skin, shows the muscles of the face and neck. with part of the skull removed to reveal the brain. By SNEM
A silhouette shape of a rabbit's head and ears made of paper that has fern leaves on it. Pasted on a metal piece on a wall.

below: Two pieces by kocore

a street art piece in orange by kocore of the head of a Soviet cosmonaut with his helmet on.

street art piece of a skull made up of lots of grey lines The word Kocore is beside the skull

stencil of a woman sticking out the top of a long limo, black on concrete.

below: Make peace or dead, by exitenter

Small painting of a stick figure with its hands on its hips. Its face is a flower, looks like a red daisy with 6 petals. The words " make peace or dead are written above

graffiti on a beige wall, a stick drawing of a person stands on the upper right part of a red heart. The word exit is written above the left side of the heart

below: The fox and the grapes, by exitenter, probably a reference to Aesops fable. When the fox couldn’t reach the grapes, it pretended that the grapes were sour. The “lesson” from the fable being that there are many people who pretend to despise and belittle things that are beyond their reach. graffiti on a concrete wall, an orange fox reaches for a bunch of yellow grapes that are higher on the wall

black stencil on grey concrete wall, man reaching out from inside a TV to turn the TV off, by Skene Two small stencils on a wall, a green hand grenade and a black handgun,

white stencil on black of leaf from marijuana plant with the words my lucky star23 written aroud it. On black background

boxes on the street

Posted on April 11, 2016 by Mary C

Those ugly metal boxes that sit on the sidewalks are needed to house traffic light controls or to provide access points to telephone and internet cable networks. The trend these days is to have artists paint them and Milan is no exception. There weren’t too many painted boxes but here are some that I saw. I am not sure if all of them were sanctioned by the city.

metal box on a sidewalk outside of a restaurant in Milan, painted brown with a picture of two black people, a man and boy, both with curly afro hair styles painted in rainbow colours. They are facing each other, nose to nose. 4 wine bottles are on top of the box.

2 metal boxes on the sidewalks in Milan, both with street art. One is brown, a man's face with a scared look and he's wearing a red tie. The other is a stylized woman in blue overalls

below: Sugo o vino (sauce or wine) by La Pupazza

Street art on a metal box on a sidewalk. The words say 'sugo o vino' which is Italian for 'sauce or wine'. The illustration is a picture of a bowl of pasta with red liquid being poured over it from a wine glass.

A pink elephant like animal painted on a grey metal box on a sidewalk. There are tags on it as well. The walls in the background also have tags on them, tomcat is one of them.

Chambers Street Footscray

Posted on February 4, 2016 by Mary C

Chambers street is a short street near Footscray train station. It dead ends at the section of Nicholson street that is a pedestrian mall. It is like a lane in that no buildings front on to it. There is a small park part way along the street.

below: This picture appears in a previous post ‘Guerilla territory’ because the large paste-up is a work by baby guerilla. This building fronts on to Paisley street.

wall of an old red brick industrial building, 3 storeys high, covered with street art. Lower level is series of murals and above them is a large paste up by baby guerilla of a couple flying. A man is behind a woman and he is reaching for her foot as she is reaching for the roof of the building.

below: The murals and street art across the bottom of the building shown above.

a mural featuring a pink person in head carf and a blue person
below: the best Australian I know, signed by gee

mural of a person holding a messy sandwich in his hands, with some words that say: Born in Vietnam came by boat in 1981 (18 months old) lives in Footscray the best Australian I know
below: Stop violence against women

Stop Violence against women mural on a blue door
below: Stay calm and keep sarcastic

On a wood door that has been painted bright blue is a stencil in pink that says ' Stay calm, she "asked" for it
below: first piece, Medev

turquoise woman wearing a head scarf and holding on oil lamp. Signed in the corner as first piece Medev. pink border around the woman
below: junkies vs. yuppies

Green letters painted on a black door that say "We prefer our junkies to yuppies"

below: Shaibu’s story

A lot of words written on a wall. Brown letters, white brick wall.
below: It’s not very often I have to dodge a Maserati while taking pictures of street art!

a black maserati drives past of building with street art on it including a picture of a running person with an arm outstretched and it looks like she is reaching for the car
below: The more I look at this one, the creepier I think it is.

A horizontal mural on a wall with a door in the middle. A brown face on the door with two hands branching from it, each hand it holding a face.
below: maniacally letting loose the green paint

a green montrous face painted on a wall, with green paint flowing onto the pavement in front of it.

colourful mural

below: One Love – Footscray Love, mural to say welcome, painted by Tim Rollin

mural on a wall in Footscray Melbourne by Tim Rollin with the theme of One Love, Australians say welcome, featuring pictures of various kinds of people

evolving word bubbles, Hosier Lane

Posted on January 29, 2016 by Mary C

Hosier Lane in downtown Melbourne is always full of tourists. If you search online for street art in Melbourne, you will certainly find Hosier Lane. Like a lot of popular graffiti places, there is some good street art and there is some junk. I have been to Hosier Lane a few times now and what is interesting is how frequently things change in the alley. New paintings, or new little things are always popping up.

below: I took this picture, and the next one, the first time that I was in Hosier Lane.

graffiti on wall, words that say I have no idea what any of this shit on the walls say? Nice colours though

below: The thought bubble in the foreground was a much more popular place to pose.

Lots of graffiti on the wall of Hosier Lane, windows with metal bars over them, a man poses in front of words that say "Maybe if I pose for a picture in front of this wall it will help to hide the fact that my life is a lie"

Lots of graffiti on the wall of Hosier Lane, windows with metal bars over them, a woman poses in front of words that say "Maybe if I pose for a picture in front of this wall it will help to hide the fact that my life is a lie" while a man takes her picture with a smartphone camera

below: On a subsequent visit to the lane, the instructions became a bit more explicit.
I love the sneering pink face beside the sign!

below: The third time I saw this wall, a life size man had been added.
Take your picture with a stranger!

below: The other word bubble had also been added to.

An Asian woman poses in front of a wall of graffiti. On the wall in large red letters are the words 'look at me'

Bedford, Denison and Alton murals

Posted on January 28, 2016 by Mary C

Bedford St., Denison St. and Alton Lane are all close to Newton train station. Bedford runs parallel to the train tracks and some of the murals painted there can be seen from the other side of the tracks.

below: The house on the corner of Bedford and Denison is covered with this woman’s face.

A house on a corner that has been covered with a mural of a woman's face in black, white and grey. Her nose and mouth are on the first storey, her eyes are on the upper storey

below: The side of the same house as the above picture, also has a mural painted on it.

A mural on a wall, includes a black man with beard and mustache and red rimmed glasses, also includes a realistic looking crocodile

part of a larger mural, a realistic looking crocodile with lots of teeth

below: Across the street, on Denison, is another mural

mural of blobs and shapes in different colours on a wall in an alley

below: The mural above continues on Alton Lane

large two storey mural in a lane in Newtown Sydney

part of a larger mural in an alley, two faces in bright colours,

part of a larger mural, two figures, a man and a woman, are leaping together, legs parallel, their arms are outstretched and together they are holding a framed picture of a person.

below: Across the lane is another mural.

part of a larger mural, a hand and arm, as well as a purple hand with fingers crosses, also a purple man like creature.

part of a larger mural, a kookaburra bird sitting on a branch with its beak open wide., yellow background

very large street art painting of an upstretched arm and open hand, in grey
part of a larger mural with a skull, a bone in a hole and a sunflower growing out of the top of the skull

Goddard gallery

Posted on January 25, 2016 by Mary C

In Newtown (Sydney), Goddard Street is only one small block long. It runs west from King Street. The north side of Goddard is the wall of one building and that wall is home to a number of paintings. Gigi’s Pizza occupies the front part of the building, facing King street, but I’m not sure what else is there. Most of the paintings are unsigned and I have only been able to find information about some of them online.

below: four eyed cat, signed honeybunny

pictures painted on a wall on Goddard street in Newton, Sydney, Australia

below: The painting on the right is probably by Ears

pictures painted on a the wall on Goddard street in Newtown, Sydney, Australia

below: MW, left painting, is Mike Watt

pictures painted on a wall on Goddard street in Newtown, Sydney, Australia

below: The red face is by Ears

pictures painted on a wall on Goddard street in Newtown, Sydney, Australia

below: The woman’s head is the top of a painting by Lucy Lucy.

pictures painted on a wall on Goddard street in Newtown, Sydney, Australia

below: The rest of the painting by Lucy Lucy along with a portrait on a door by Crisp.
Narrow sidewalks, parked cars and rubbish bins – the bane of photographers taking pictures of street art!

Three street art paintings - two on a wall and one in the middle on a door. On the left is a woman by artist Lucy Lucy, in the middle a person in black, white and blue, and on the right a rabbit like faced creatures, wearing a top hat

below: A hunched over blue man by Skulk

pictures painted on a wall on Goddard street in Newtown, Sydney, Australia

street art | painting | murals | Newtown

words on Sydney walls

Posted on January 25, 2016 by Mary C

These words were all found in Newtown, Sydney.

below: “Oh Ian I’ll bring the old box where the quiet lies and the time died.
Oh Ian I’ll bring it all for you to see – Ian”
em>and “How could he

Two sets of words, one on white paste-up on a brown wall, and one written directly on the wall in black marker. On the white: How could he only ve been thinking for 4 two days/isn't thinking an ongoing process. and on the brown: Oh Ian I'll bring the old box where the quiet lies and time died. Oh Ian I'll bring it all for you to see - Ian.

below: “Oh Benita please don’t stick a knife into Linda.”

poster on wall that says Oh Benita please don't stick a knife into Linda. A picture of a toaster is below the words.

below: Kind? and P–? 2015

old, ripped past-up that had words on it, a hole it in reveals a drawing of a person underneath

below: “He was a tag |a used kleenex | a big wreck – Latham”

A white poster shaped paste up of a man sprawled on a chair wearing just underpants. Lots of empty beer bottles on the floor around him. Words above him say "He was a tag. a used kleenex. a big wreck" signed by Latham.

below: “When people tell me to look on the bright side I take that as a tacit permission to murder them – Vivi”

words written in block letters, black marker on brick wall "When people tell me to look on the bright side I take that as a tacit permission to murder them. Vivi"

below: “All is motion. Stillness is an imaginary state, future and past, the indoors and outdoors. We ‘the now’ merely a window through the pictures pass”

sticker on a one way sign, black words on white. All is motion. Stillness is an imaginary state, future and past, the indoors and outdoors. We 'the now' merely a window through the pictures pass

below: poetry in yellow

A poem written in yellow on an old wood fence

graffiti | paste-ups | words | street art

Eyes on the Streets

and feets on the ground. Graffiti, street art and murals seen while wandering the streets and alleys of our colourful world.

Tag Archives: people

Brick Lane, Shoreditch

portraits in Shoreditch

people on Fashion Street

little things in Bologna

boxes on the street

Chambers Street Footscray

evolving word bubbles, Hosier Lane

Bedford, Denison and Alton murals

Goddard gallery

words on Sydney walls