a visit to Freeman Alley

Posted on January 14, 2023 by Mary C

Freeman Alleyis a private lane that runs parallel to the Bowery close to Sara Roosevelt Park and Bowery subway station. It has become a destination for graffiti both for those who make it and for those who want to look at it. Stencils, wheatpaste, and stickers are the most common and there is lots of it! There is probably more than one blog post’s worth so this is just the start.

below: No loitering in the alley. About to munched on – this one-eyed pink and purple banana by eye.sticker is i danger of losing part of its peel.

below: “Do you see this?” Eyes and hearts but with a tear or two.

below: Mickey Mouse crucified, and a feline love more, #nohatefamily. Something about hello mushroom in there as well.

below: “Black Lives Matter is a movement, not a moment, by Individual Activist,

below: Many faces here including a lightning struck David Bowie. In the center is an anti-war poster by Brad Heckman (aka hecksign) that features a portrait of Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky.

protest poster, anti-war, support Ukraine in its war

below: Another Individual Activist anti-war poster. Ukraine is not Putin’s blank canvas. On the left is a big colourful beetle by modomatic.

below: Another modomatic, this time a multicoloured mask. Sticking out on the right is a yellow arm with a pink donut and half smoked joint while a Half Brooklyn Crooklyn’s figure is running away (the last is by TheOhioGirl).

below: Another modomatic creation – insect like? Botanical?

below: “So much love” on newspaper by jkosart along with a back and white intricate drawing of a creature of some kind (signed moose)

below: A picture of a painter painting a picture, by font147

a poster by font147 of a yellow headed person painting on a large canvas and easel in front of a door and window

below: Two women – one on the Sony screen along with one as a BLM tribute by Voxx Romana

below: Mother and Child on blue

stencil graffiti, black on blue, of iconic mother and child

below: A yellow duck below an old faded poem. Once there was a bouquet of red roses but it looks like someone showed their displeasure with pink paint.

below: At the very top, a multiple-eyed face by sold out art show. The woman with the black and white flower hair has her own post on this blog – see Unleashing Flowers.

below: A period piece, black and white in sepia, from 33wallflower33,

below: Oversalted broccoli and a boxer

In case you are interested in such things, there is a gallery/shop in the alley that features the work of many of these artists.

Photos taken June 2022

Museum Muses – Muses du musée

Posted on October 4, 2022 by Mary C

Street art of a slightly different kind…. Seen pasted on a wall on a street in Paris – a display of black and white prints of famous paintings by women artists from over the centuries.

below: ‘Game of Chess’ by Sofonisba Anguissola (c1532-1625, Italian)

painting of three women, two are playing chess and the third is watching, painted by Sofonisba Anguissola in the 16th century. A black and white print pasted on a wall

below:Self Portrait by Judith Leyster (1609-1660, Dutch)

black and white print of Judith Leyster's self portrait

below: Portrait of Antonietta Gonzales painted by Lavinia Fontana. (1552-1614). She was possibly Italy’s first professional painter. The subject of the painting, Antonietta, suffered from a condition known as hypertrichosis (aka werewolf syndrome), a rare genetic disorder that results in excess body hair. Antonietta’s father also had the disorder as did two of her sisters.

black and white print of Lavinia Fontan's portrait of a young girl with werewolf syndrome, painted in the 1500s

below: A man’s portrait by Rosalba Carriera (1673-1757, Venetian)

black and white print of a man's portrait painted by Rosalba Carriera, a Venetian painter

below: ‘Portrait of a Lady as a Vestal Virgin’ by Angelica Kauffman (1741-1807), a Swiss Neoclassical painter. Her father was also a painter. He started teaching her at an early age and by 12 she was already known as a painter in her own right. Kauffman was one of only two women founders of the Royal Academy in London.

below: “Still Life with Flowers and Gold Trophies” by Clara Peeters (1589-1657, Flemish)

below: Another still life with flowers, this one by Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750). She was a Dutch artist whose painting career lasted more than 60 years; she was a master at painting still lifes with flowers.

painting of still life flower arrangement, black and white copy pasted onto a wall outdoors

below: ‘The Redeemer’ by St. Hildegard von Bingen (c1098-1179), with a copy of the original (in colour and unfaded) underneath. St. Hildegard, or Sybil of the Rhine, was a German Benedictine abbess with many accomplishments to her name.

below: ‘The Penis Tree’. Between about 1325 and 1353, Jeanne and Richard de Montbaston printed books and manuscripts including the “scandalous, rude and misogynistic” poem, the ‘Roman de la Rose’. The first 4,058 verses were written by Guillaume de Lorris in the early 1200s and they describe a courtier’s attempt to win over a woman. About 40 years later, Jean de Meun (aka Jean Chopinel) wrote another 19000 lines. This was before the invention of the printing press so each manuscript was hand drawn. The picture shown here of a nun picking penises from a tree is attributed to Jeanne de Montbaston.

Nô portraits

Posted on October 1, 2022 by Mary C

These six street art portraits by Nô were seen on or near Rue Dénoyez in Belleville, Paris…. an older aboriginal Australia with his decorated boomerang, two young girls looking out for each other, another child, a man in dreadlocks, a green eyed woman in a head scarf, and an indigenous American in a feather head dress.

street art portrait by No on rue Denoyer in Paris, of an indigenous Australian man with arm upraised and holding a boomerang covered with aboriginal symbols and art

street art painting of two young girls dressed in blue, older girl is protectively holding the younger one

street art painting in Paris of a black man in dreadlocks with two girls, one on his shoulders, the other in front of him

portrait of a young child by artist no, on pink background, blue t shirt, black hair,

Portrait by No, a middle aged woman with green eyes and wearing a blue head scarf with red circles on it

There are many more examples of his portrait painting on instagram, no street art

Photos were taken in June 2022

rue de Croulebarbe

Posted on September 19, 2022 by Mary C

In the 13th arrond. of Paris, on rue de Croulebarbe, there is one segment of wall covered with street art.

concrete wall on rue de Coulebarbe, about 8 feet tall, with some street art on it

below: Unfortunately Chloe’s name has been added on top of this mural by Titomulk, a pair of French artists. It hides some of the intricate black and white details, as well as some of the text, of the “Insania Cultura” mural. A singer with her microphone, a portrait of Van Gogh, a book with the title “Knowledge is Power”, a Spiderman mask, and a very naked man. “Si vous trouvez [illegible] culture, coute cher, essayez l’ignorance” translates to ‘If you find culture too expensive, try ignorance.’

below: Painted to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of “The Kid”, a silent movie starring Charlie Chaplin, by Sweb and Sonia O.

black and white street art painting, portrait of Charlie Chaplin, also a female actress, border is film with sprocket holes

below: A Mr. Myl creation – text and a toothy purple guy with a white nose ring, greenery, and barbed wire

mr myl text street art with purpe headed character, big teeth white nose ring,

below: Five black and white portraits of women with red text, “Hey Heroes, I will be your Queen”.

street art painted portraits in black and white, 5 women

rue des deux boules

Posted on June 20, 2022 by Mary C

painting on a wall on re des deux boules that looks like a pastel portrait of a woman showing her hand as well

below: 3-D blue man face with rainbow bubbles by Gregos.

3 dimensional mask, painted blue, of a man, with many red, yellow, blue, and green, bubbles or circles above the head, street art by gregos

below: More 3D heads, this time it’s Mr. Serieux with 5 green stars, Mr. Affreux, Mr. Soleil with his yellow rays of light, and Mme Lune with an orange crescent moon that looks like an orange banana or a piece of canteloupe.

4 faces, 3 D, made of plaster, painted, on an outside wall, street art, labelled as Mr. Serieux, Mr. Affreux, Mme Lune and Mr. Soleil.

below: Small cat skeleton graffiti by Mr. Byste

small graffiti of a cat with cat skeleton showing

below: The cafe may be missing an A but it’s got a heart, if you can work your way through the maze to reach it.

cafe and chinese restaurant on rue des deux boules, with street art painting beside it, a red heart inside a black and white maze

below: It’s all about the Journey, by studiojonesie, aka Amy Jones

two street art painting, on the right are blue and white flowers on link background with the words it's all about the journey painted underneath. on the left is a person upside down with spray paint can in hand, and word loon

below: It looks like a naked man climbing a mountain of rocks, a long uphill journey.

street art painting of a white silhouette naked man climbing a mountain of multi coloured rocks, with a star at the very top

below: Three little pink and red female forms by Wild Wonder Woman.

three little paste ups on a wall, female form in pink or red, one in middle has a flower in it

portrait of a man that looks like Stevie Wonder, in grey shades, on blue background, street art, black man with short hair and wearing sunglasses, smiling

street art of a man with a red mask over his eyes, behind the bars of a window

stencil graffiti, potrait of a man with the profane words le foutur en marche

below: Rue des Deux Boules is a short street, only one block long. At one end is rue Bertin Poiree where you can find these two little 3D objects stuck to the wall – a gymnast standing on one hand and a striped octopus.

Polaroid Guy

Posted on June 13, 2022 by Mary C

On a little dead end street near Gumpendorfgasse u-bahn station, there is a small series of murals. The most prominent one, is of a man in a black striped long sleeved T-shirt taking a picture with a polaroid camera.

blog_polaroid_guy_mural

To his right are a few images that look like they are the resulting polaroids – part of his collection perhaps.

a small dead end street with street art murals on the buildings on the left side

These images were painted by Jana and JS, a couple who have been painting murals together for many years.

mural on a wall that looks like 3 square polaroid photos. Two are of young women with blond hair standing in front of apartment blocks, and the third is a man who is also taking a polaroid picture

mural that looks like two polaroid pictures. on top is a woman taking a picture, on the bottom is a portrait of an older Asian man in a red cap and red jacket

Photos taken June 2022

on Christophgasse

Posted on June 8, 2022 by Mary C

in the Margareten district of Vienna…

below: A collaboration between Dutch artist nilsRVA (aka Nils Westergard) and local Viennese artist emilone (aka emanuel jesse) produced this peaceful looking sleeper.

below: The woman on the right with the curly hair was painted by Paola Delfin.

below: Some more emilone pieces – unfortunately with some graffiti added.

below: Down beside the man in the baseball cap, there is text, p.phobia. Is this a “signature” of the person who painted that man? The righthand side of the artwork is more emilone.

The painting are from 2014 and 2015. The photos were taken June 2022.

Black & White Power

Posted on February 4, 2020 by Mary C

In Rome there is a long line of murals by Italian artists Sten and Lex that line both sides of the same street, Via dei Magazzini Generali. On one side, on an orange wall, are portraits of famous people.

long orange wall with large portraits by sten and lex, Italian street arts, in a mural on two sides of the street, of famous people and common people,

On the opposite side of the street is a shorter blue wall with pictures of common people.

large portraits by sten and lex, Italian street arts, in a mural on two sides of the street, of famous people and common people,

below: A Pope

pope and others, large portraits by sten and lex, Italian street arts, in a mural on two sides of the street, of famous people and common people,

The portraits were made with a combination of stencils and painting.

girl, middle aged man, woman, large portraits by sten and lex, Italian street arts, in a mural on two sides of the street, of famous people and common people,

three people, large portraits by sten and lex, Italian street arts, in a mural on two sides of the street, of famous people and common people,

woman in hard hat giving peace symbol with hand, large portraits by sten and lex, Italian street arts, in a mural on two sides of the street, of famous people and common people,

below: Barak Obama

Barak Obama, large portraits by sten and lex, Italian street arts, in a mural on two sides of the street, of famous people and common people,

elderly woman with glasses and yellow sweater, large portraits by sten and lex, Italian street arts, in a mural on two sides of the street, of famous people and common people,

below: Elvis & others

Elvis Presley and a rapper, large portraits by sten and lex, Italian street arts, in a mural on two sides of the street, of famous people and common people,

The one different picture is the panther, a symbol of power, with a woman’s face superimposed on it.

a large panther head in profile, with mouth wide open and teeth showing, a woman superimposed onto the side of the face of the panther, mural by sten and lex called black and white power

Berber man in Marrakech

Posted on December 9, 2019 by Mary C

Across the street from the train station in Marrakech is this large mural of Aziz the mason, a Berber man in a wool hat. It was painted by German artist Hendrik Beikirch in 2015. Beikirch first worked with spray paint 30 years ago.

traffic passing by including a horse drawn carriage, a gas station on the corner across the street and a large mural of a berber man on a wall. Mural by Heinrich

In 2014 Beirkirch spent some time as an artist in resident at Jardin Rouge, a program sponsored by the Montresso Art Foundation in Marrakech. The work that he did here became the Tracing Morocco project. For this project, Beikirch painted 22 portraits of Moroccans he had met; it is meant as a tribute to those whose traditional ways are disappearing. Not only were portraits printed in a book of the same name, but also they were painted as large murals in different places around the world including the Netherlands and New York City.

face of berber man in mural in Marrakech, part smile, wearing hat, mustache, wrinkled face

Chance Street, Shoreditch

Posted on January 17, 2017 by Mary C

More street art from East London, September 2016

below: Paste ups on a door

a door with pasteups on it, between a black wall and a wall that is painted in red, pink and yellow. One of the paste ups is of a black man in a military uniform in a gilded frame. The word rai is written on top of it.

close up of the paste up - a door with pasteups on it, between a black wall and a wall that is painted in red, pink and yellow.

below: By number 57, a mask by Crisp

a 3D mask graffiti piece mounted high on a wall, painted in white, turquoise and purple patterns. The number 57 is beside it.

below: Dressed in orange robes and running shoes…
with a hope of peace, by Unify

a streeet art pice on a door, a person in a long orange robe is standing, holding a sign with a red peace symbol on it. A work by unify

below: A large hedgehog by ROA

a very large hedgehog in black, white, and grey, painted on the side of a building, by street artist roa. Some tags and throwup graffiti across the bottom.

below: All on a grey fence

A large love card, a king and queen perhaps.
Two drawn portraits by Veil. [how to be invisible: have a name that returns millions of hits when you search for it, none of them yours]
A cartoon character wearing a London Bobby hat… the words at the bottom say “at a tremendous speed the rocket zips into space 1993.”
A collage of many photos of a man’s neck and ear, a studded collar and a woman’s fingers with long fingernails, all in a sickly green colour.
Some ace nylon stickers.

5 pasteups on a grey wood fence. On the left a playing card of two people cheek to cheek with an L and a red heart. Also two drawings, portraits of men, by veil,

below: Silently standing still, cowboy and mannequin.

a pasteup of a black and white print of a cowboy, not quite life sized, with cowboy hat and vest. The paper is starting to peel away at the edges. A sticker of a blue and white partially peeled banana has been stuck on him. Beside him is a male mannequin in a store window.

below: Reading comics together

a group of comic book heros is reading a comic book together, The Hulk, a man with laser vision, Thor, and a man with a blue costume and an S on his hood.

looking down Chance Street in Shoreditch, a few people walking on the narrow street, the buildings on the left are covered with murals. The first is aboriginal symbols in white, green and brown on a black background. THe second is in bright shades of blue, red and yellow.

graffiti on a black metal door, a face with big red glasses

graffiti on a brick wall including a little stick figure man with a large head by n'ice pops, and the words no stopping

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: portraits