peace, love, and harmony

below: A Seileise stencil of a young girl with a small green plant in her bucket.

slaps, stickers, and other pasteups on a wall Heliosstrasse in Cologne, a young girl in a red sress, stencil by Sieleise, walks away carrying a pail with a small green plant in it

below: In the Ehrenfeld neighbourhood, Venloerstrasse intersects with railway tracks and this is the graffiti that covered one side of the arch before the street passes under the railway bridge.

slaps, stickers, and other pasteups on a wall Heliosstrasse in Cologne

A closer look at most of it –

below: Her shoes match her glass of red wine as she sits in a comfy chair. The other woman is a portrait by DISH and she sports bananas in her ears.

slaps, stickers, and other pasteups on a wall Heliosstrasse in Cologne

below: Fishes Invasion dominates this section of the wall…. but it’s not just an ordinary fish, it’s Joker Fish.

slaps, stickers, and other pasteups on a wall Heliosstrasse in Cologne

below: Lisson One yellow face among an assortment of little graffiti artworks.

slaps, stickers, and other pasteups on a wall Heliosstrasse in Cologne

below: A bird with a long white neck sits above 3 mall lids – a heart for love, a symbol of peace, and a yellow smiling face to represent happiness (or harmony?)

slaps, stickers, and other pasteups on a wall Heliosstrasse in Cologne

below: Seen here – A yellow woodpecker, a green and pink turtle, and an excitable little duckling who is looking for love.

slaps, stickers, and other pasteups on a wall Heliosstrasse in Cologne

below: The words are very small, but they say, “No place for love, peace, & harmony in this world”. But another little sign proclaims that “the heartest drug is LOVE!

slaps, stickers, and other pasteups on a wall Heliosstrasse in Cologne

slaps, stickers, and other pasteups on a wall Heliosstrasse in Cologne

below: Sheeptown 1 euro stamp, Candy by cinnirelli, End gender racism by lille-illus

slaps, stickers, and other pasteups on a wall Heliosstrasse in Cologne

below: Fight 4 ur rights. Plus a very small “Aut of Order” where a rainbow flows out of his head as it is tied up by several tiny people.

slaps, stickers, and other pasteups on a wall Heliosstrasse in Cologne

below: Feel the vibe.

slaps, stickers, and other pasteups on a wall Heliosstrasse in Cologne

below: Swordplay

slaps, stickers, and other pasteups on a wall Heliosstrasse in Cologne

below: “Be Kind to your mind” and “Das leben ist schon (life is beautiful)”. Both are by bierdeckelstreetart whose artwork is mostly text based.

slaps, stickers, and other pasteups on a wall Heliosstrasse in Cologne

slaps, stickers, and other pasteups on a wall Heliosstrasse in Cologne

below: A platter with one puppy and one kitten, and the words “immigrants food service” written above. But further down the wall, a young white boy and a young black boy walk arm in arm.

slaps, stickers, and other pasteups on a wall Heliosstrasse in Cologne

below: Love without the O

slaps, stickers, and other pasteups on a wall Heliosstrasse in Cologne

Photos taken October 2025

Higson Lane, downtown Melbourne

….Yet another lane in the Central Business District in Melbourne that has street art on its walls.

below: Two bald men, two pink robots.

street art urban art in Higson Lane, two bald men's heads with two square pink robot heads

below: Two different men. On the right, Julian Assange, of WikiLeaks fame, is painted on a roller door. On the left is a portrait of a different man, Ethan Joker, by Lushsux.

muralsin an alley, On the right, Julian Assange, of WikiLeaks fame, is painted on a roller door. On the left is a portrait of a different man, Ethan Joker, by Lushsux

below: Bob Marley

Black and white stencil graffiti of Bob  Marley, with cursive text of some of his lyrics "You say you love rain But you use an umbrella to walk under it. You say you love sun But you seek shelter when it is shining. You say you love wind But when it comes you close your windows. That's why I'm scared when you say you love me."
“You say you love rain But you use an umbrella to walk under it. You say you love sun But you seek shelter when it is shining. You say you love wind But when it comes you close your windows. That’s why I’m scared when you say you love me.”

below: A mix of different paste-ups and stencils including an astronaut’s proclamation that “We are the Chosen Few” and a UFO with an enormous brain.

Graffiti in Higson Lane

below: A closer look at “We are the Chosen Few”

paper paste up in alley, We are the chosen few, UFO with a very big brain in the dome of the top

below: Catwoman on the run with a blue bag from DeliveryBunny.

graffiti in Higson Lane, blue catwoman, boy jumping with arms reaching upwards, purr lust,

below: Bad Habits – Riots not diets!

sticker graffiti, with text bad habits, plus cursive writing riots not diets

below: The Breaking Bad LEGO guys are in Higson Lane too. There is also a little Robbo-T guy with crossed wrenches – a skull and crossbones motif!

graffiti, two LEGO men from Breaking Bad in yellow jumpshuits, torn paste ups, a person with very large oopen mouth is about to eat  with cup and saucer in her hand

below: More little stickers and paste-ups.

stickers and paste ups on a grey metal surface in Higson Lane, one is a girl with a black and white cow dress on a bright pink background

below: She has funny ears, perhaps elfin ears.

street art in melbourne

below: “Classic” graffiti

graffiti that looks like ancient greek or roman art, people in togas, man with laurel wreath

below: One end of Higson Lane

Higson Lane in downtown Melbourne, with urban art

below: Chimp One painted this portrait

portrait street art

below: Painting in shades of pink by Louis Moore

painting of a man, street art mural, in pink hues, by Louis Moore

below: Cute penguins and a big fuzzy penguin, by Lukas Kasper

Cute penguins and a big brown fuzzy penguin, a mural by Lukas Kasper

below: On the left, another Lukas Kasper painting – this time a lizard. On the right, a brilliantly coloured falcon’s head by Silly Sully

 2 street art murals, On the left, a Lukas Kasper painting of a lizard.  On the right, a brilliantly coloured falcon's head by Silly Sully

below: Melbourne Moments

football mural

below: Revolution on the Television Head, or something like that. A women’s revolution? It’s the work of Salvo, aka Matthew Domenic Salvo.

graffiti, woman's body, head is a television with the word revolution on it

below: “It’s okay to change your mind” written on orange beside a Tinkerstrumpf paste-up of a young woman and her guns. She has appeared in London and Cologne as well here in Melbourne.

paste-up of a young woman and her guns by Tinkerstumpf

below: On the right, a sort of portrait of a woman, or at least the skull of one.. with sunglasses.. and then overlaid with yellow, orange, and red stripes (by v-Is_4_vasso) The one in the middle is either a restaurant menu or an artwork meant to look like a menu – whichever the case, she has a red octopus on her head. Last, the very pink face on the left looks a lot like Princess Leia.

3 paper paste ups graffiti pieces, one is red, orange and yellow portrait of a long haired skull with sunglasses on by v is 4 vasso.

below: Ronald McDonald is saving a seat for you.

graffiti, ronald mcdonald sitting on a wood bench

below: Robbo-T has ripped his heart out but the two young ladies haven’t noticed.

paste up graffiti, one is Robbo-T sitting on ground with his heart in his hand, the other is two young women, one dress in black boots and black outfit, the other is wearing nothing,  Sitting with their knees bent in front of them.

below: Black and white photos of somewhere in Melbourne.

black and white photo wheatpaste on grey wall, river scene, palm trees,

below: XUF with Wednesday Addams about to spray.

graffiti by XUF, shades of grey, image of Wednesday Addams from TV show, holding spray paint can in each hand

below: Cax One created it, but what an ugly face!

Ugly face, graffiti, big eyes, big teeth, green and blue face, by Cax One,

below: It’s a beautiful day to respect other people’s pronouns. It also seems to be a good day for dancing.

paper pasteups on a grey surface in Higson Lane, one is  a black and white photo of a young woman with long curly hair, she is smiling.  The other is gold disc with text that says It's a beautiful day to respect other people's pronouns.

below: Little fish swimming on the concrete – like a fish out of water

small three D fish graffiti on a wall, beside a painted yellow heart with happy face on it

below: Born in the spotlight, under surveillance from the beginning. POW! Or Prisoners of War?

stencil street art of a surveillance camera by a bird's nest, also 3 D red letters spelling POW

poster paste up street art, portrait of a young woman  with short black hair and a very orange hat. brown eyes, blue background with some flowers,

Photos taken February 2025

Dusseldorf, big and small

… a few things seen as I walked around Dusseldorf on a rainy day.

below: At the train station – not really street art? But it’s a colourful addition to a grey platform.

below: One of the original pieces of street art in Dusseldorf is this large yellow Monkey that appears to be painted by a group of smaller monkeys. It was painted in 1969 by the Majo Brothers. The title is, appropriately “Affe” which is German for monkey. You could probably call it Der Gelbe Affe, or the Yellow Monkey.

below: Joseph Beuys is memorialized in this large portrait – he was a native of Dusseldorf who was influential in the development of the city from the 1960s until his death in 1986. One of his famous phrases is, “Everyone is an artist”.

street art mural in Dusseldorf Germany

below: Complex and largely symmetrical in shades of pink and purple is one way to describe this mural by HowNosm (or How & Nosm), a partnership between brothers Raoul and Davide Perre.

street art mural in Dusseldorf Germany
street art mural in Dusseldorf Germany

below: This is a large-scale, monochrome mural realistically depicting a person’s feet as they stand. They are wearing old boots (or shoes) and you can also see the bottom of their pant legs in the image. The artist was Hendrik Beikirch (aka ECB).

street art mural in Dusseldorf Germany, by Hendrik Beikirch, monochrome, boots and bottom of pants leg, on the side of a building

below: “Meat is Murder” he says as he holds out a sausage.

rough street art painting in Dusseldorf Germany, green male figure holding a sausage in one hand, text on painting says meat is murder
throw up wild style urban art

below: “No more wore” written on the Ukrainian flag.

graffiti of blue and yellow ukrainian flag

below: Floral dog on a black and white slap, image by Christin Wenga.

black and white graffiti slap on pole, image of a dog, by Christin Wenga

below: Sad face with a blotch of yellow on his forehead.

graffiti portrait, sad face

below: “Nix Gelernt?” Nothing Learned?

graffiti sticker with words, Hans, nix gelernt?

below: In the center, raising the flag but it has been altered from the original photograph of the American the flag being raised at Iwo Jima on 23 Feb 1945 to an Anarchist flag. In the bottom corner is a small League of Legends sticker

graffiti slaps on a pole in Dusseldorf

below: His burning inside produces enough hot air to keep him afloat. There is a word written on his T-shirt which might give some clue as to the artist who created this large paste-up but I haven’t been able to find any answers online.

black line drawing graffiti of a large balloon headed character, hot air in balloon is making him float through the air

below: The thirteen of hearts and a pinwheel of robotic arms.

Three graffiti slaps, one is a line drawing of a mobile phone, another is a playing card thirteen of hearts, and the other is a pinwheel or gear cog made of robot arms or gloves in a circle

below: mmm

graffiti face on a brick wall, very pink face, yellow eyes, and open small mouth

below: A bright green potted barrel cactus “growing” on a concrete wall.

paper paste up wheatpaste on concrete wall, a bright green barrel cactus in a pot,

below: Another dusseldorf monkey, not so big this time.

a monkey sticker on a grey metal pole

below: A lot of advice packed into a small space. “Don’t Panic”, “Be Big”, as well as “Never ever on a first date”.

6 graffiti posters hung together on a concrete wall, most have text - don't panic, you the people have the power, be big, never ever on a first date,

below: Red head.

red stencil of a woman with long hair, seen in profile, also a small red heart beneath the portrait

below: Framed twice.

old brick building with boarded up windows, windows used as frames for 2 paper paste up wheatpaste graffiti pieces, on left is cartoon character in blue, on the right is bald headed person with garland of flowers around head,  head only, no body

below: For aspiring photographers – here is one way to display your work. Do you think that is effective? Worth the effort?

many coloured photos mounted on large white sheets of paper or bristol board, and then mounted on plywood, displayed outside

close up of part of one panel, many coloured photos mounted on large white sheets of paper or bristol board, and then mounted on plywood, displayed outside

below: I’m not sure who it is, but they have very big black and blue lace-up shoes.

Dusseldorf slaps - bright sticker of characted with big blue and black lace up running shoes

below: “Love will tear us apart”

Dusseldorf slaps - some graffiti slaps on a wall including a yellow square with words, love will tear us apart, also diamond shape face with big red mouth, turquise top, black and white striped bottom, blue eyes,

Photos taken November 2025

animals on the walls of Montreal

below: “Siamoises” – What looks like twin cats in red dresses is actually a row of identical kitties, but the spotlight is on those two. A mural by Mono Sourcil, aka Maxlie Martel.

mural on a red brick wall in Montreal, circle, night with moon in the sky, two identical cats standing, wearing identical red dresses

below: SBU One’s red rooster, or red chicken.

street art painting of a red rooster

below: Designed by ANYO – squirrels with different coloured hats. I have only shown two, red and turquoise, but there are many more out there….. how many have you seen?!

graffiti sticker on metal, a squirrel wearing a red hat

graffiti sticker on metal, a squirrel wearing a turquoise hat

below: Giraffes

part of a mural of animals, 2 giraffes, on a wall with windows with circular tops

below: A wish for peace and love, amor et paix, for Ukraine.

yellow and blue background, a white dove with word paix which is french for peace
yellow and blue background, three white dovess with word amor and paix which is french for love and peace

below: A small portion of a large mural by Pantonio showing two of the many birds in the mural – a large bluish black bird and a cute little purple and white bird.

part of a larger mural by Pantonio,two birds, one is small purple, and white, the other is larger a blackbird

below: “Mechanic Bird” by Dede Bandaid & Nitzan Mintz, with text: “Of my dozens of keys, the smallest one opens home”

black and white mural on side of brick building, a bird with large wings

below: This rendition of Daffy Duck is the work of Simon Beaulieu – throwup “text” says Simple.

Daffy Duck in a street art throw up

below: Dog (wolf?) with laser eyes.

street art

below: It’s an animal, right? The blue creature on the left. It was painted by Cryote and the whole panel was a collaboration with Labrona and Waxhead.

Montreal street art

below: Buzzzzzz……

little yellow bee with open wings, graffiti

Photos taken September 2024

history on the streets

While walking around the Byward Market in Ottawa, I saw a lot of traffic control boxes at intersections that were wrapped with old black and white photos. This is the result of The Capital History Project, a collaborative effort between Carleton University, the Workers History Museum, and the city of Ottawa. These boxes first appeared 2017 and they are/were all over the city. I am not sure how many there still are …. but here are a few of them….

below: Petigorsky’s shoe repair. Mr. Oscar Petigorsky in front of the store that he and his wife Nina ran, 1930s. The store was at 289 Dalhousie Street.

below: The sign on the side of the horse drawn wagon says “”Tea and Coffee Warehouse, W. Cunningham, Grocer, Wine Merchant”

below: “Ottawa band Modern Rock Quartet at Cafe Le Hibou”, photo by Dave Sproul circa 1970. MRQ was formed in 1967 and over the next few years they played with many top rock groups of the era. According to Wikipedia, their first live performance was at the Prime Minister’s official residence – that would be Pierre Trudeau.

black and white photo by The Photographic Stores, Dave Sproul, of a band, 3 members, one on drums, one man on guitar and third man singing with mike on a stand

below: Sam’s? Buy & Sell

For a complete story of these boxes, see the Capital History website. There you will find an interactive map showing the location of all the boxes.

Photos taken May 2023

Kiemo Galerija – Yard Gallery

Back in 2014, Vytenis Jakas decided to turn a residential courtyard into an art gallery.

below: Charlie Chaplin oversees the entrance to the yard.  The black plaque above Chaplin’s head is in memory of Juda Zupavicius (1914-1944) who was a lieutenant in the Lithuanian military and a chief on the Kaunas ghetto police force. In 1941 the Jewish residents of this area were forced out and had to relocate to the Kaunas ghetto. Zupavicius was also one of the leaders of the underground resistance during WW2.

street art on a concrete wall, three older women sitting on a bright red bench.  Women are wearing grey winter coats, head scarves, and sun glasses.  the woman in the middle is knitting

below: The words under the photo of the couple: „Čia 1939 m. – 1941 m. gyveno Dita ir Juda Zupavičiai. Juda buvo vienas iš Kauno geto pogrindžio vadovų, žiauriai nacistų kankintas neišdavė geto vaikų slėptuvių. Dita buvo kovos bendražygė“ (English translation: “Here in 1939 – 1941 lived Dita and Juda Zupavičiai. Juda was one of the underground leaders of the Kaunas ghetto, he was brutally tortured by the Nazis and did not reveal the hiding places of the ghetto children. Dita was a comrade in the struggle”)

street art, three black and white photos of people who used to live in the courtyard.  A large artwork of Marcel Marceau in white clown mime clothes, a red tear painted on his face, standing beside a vintage box camera on a tripod
bright yellow shutters on a window, pot of geraniums, red geraniums, beside, an empty flower box below, a painting of a fat brown cat half out the window and half inside

below: Venus probably never had to do the grocery shopping

street art stencil or pasteup of the statue of venus, woth arms broken off.  behind her is a woman in modern clothes carrying bags of shopping

on exterior wall, black and white photo of man, below part of a larger colour photo

a picture of the plaque describing the yard gallery that is seen in the gallery itself, Kiemo Gallery

Yard Gallery

Upon noticing that the neighbours living in the yard had become alienated and had forgotten the common past of the yard, the artist Vytenis Jakas started creating a “Yard Gallery” – a courtyard surrounded by apartment buildings built in the inter-war period. In the past, the yard inhabitants knew each other well, communicated warmly, celebrated holidays together, and supported each other in troublesome times. The yard had a large table, a fountain and a sculpture, the Dapkevicius sisters grew flowers, and lilacs grew near the windows of the neighbour Regina. Over time, the population and the social environment changes, the number of cars increased, and the yard space became too small.

Seeing this situation, Vytenis Jakas, with the help of other artists and neighbours, turned the derelict yard into a centre of attraction, the open air “Yard Gallery”. Various artistic projects are implemented here: Portraits of the Jews who lived in this house before the Holocaust, along with the current residents, characters of various works are painted on the facades of the apartment buildings; mirror mosaics and stained glass windows are created, and community events are organised, with community festivals celebrated together. “

mosaic on a wall, outdoors, made of broken pieces of mirror.  reflective
painting of a stork, street art

Sweet Paradise seen

I saw these three posters on street art covered walls in Athens.
They are both part of an award winning series by Brazilian photographer Fabricio Brambatti.

below: “My Sweet Paradise” by Fabricio Brambatti a.k.a. Urso Morto

poster on an outdoor wall, a person wrapped in a red blanket and lying on the sidewalk

The small print on the bottom right of these two posters says:
” This is a poster part of the Guerilla Exhibition –  https://void.photo

below:  “My Sweet Paradise” by Fabricio Brambatti a.k.a. Urso Morto

poster on a wall outdoors, of a man sleeping in a shopping cart outside.

below:  Near the top right corner is another poster from the “My Sweet Paradise” series – the photo of the man  lying on a black and white tiled floor.  He is bleeding.   There are many posters by #ironik on this wall as well.

a motorcycle is parked in front of a wall covered with posters. Some are advertisements and some are graffiti

Link to more information about Brambatti.