First 2025 visit to Graffiti Alley, Toronto

Posted on January 27, 2025 by Mary C

My previous post, skateboard portraits was from a walk down Graffiti Alley in Toronto the other day. This post contains more photos that I took that snowy afternoon… so, let’s take a look!

below: Uber 5000’s yellow bird is still walking his dog and singing a song on this side of this red brick building. It’s at least 10 years old? The black and grey portrait on the right is much newer.

below: Profile portrait by TheHalfDecent

below: “Let them drink beer”, a stencil from D. Terra featuring Ontario Premier Doug Ford whose biggest “win” in the province is bringing alcohol sales to convenience stores and gas stations…. at a massive cost.

below: A 33wallflower33 pasteup in the foreground, with a corner of one of Nick Sweetman’s bird murals in the background.

below: A collaboration between Nick Sweetman and Shanehuss produced this drippy, melting jaw portrait.

below: The top portion of ” RIP King Reign & Son of Soul” remains. This tribute mural was painted by Elicser Elliott and Omen514. I am not sure who is responsible for the newer painting on the bottom, the one in yellows and blues. That’s probably a ‘signature’ in the bottom left but I don’t recognize it.

below: Graffiti Alley in the snow.

below: Sun of Aquarius (aka Andre Mandela Lopez) painted this naked figure with brown wings and bird mask

below: A pole covered with knit squares while T-bonez is shushing you.

below: A pointy nosed, long snouted dog by Mr. Myl, aka Luis Casas, who was originally from Havana Cuba.

below: Another Mr. Myl dog, this one with its blue eyes popping out. I don’t think that it’s because of the woman next to him. “Para mi Tita” is Spanish for “For my aunt”.

below: Blue haired woman by April Showers

below: And another blue haired woman…..

below: … and a third. I think that I see a trend. Methinks April Showers likes blue hair.

below: An anti-camera, anti-photographer image, “Gimmy a break, clik, clik, clik” featuring uber 5000’s yellow bird and blue cat, with the Pink Panther is a supporting role. Love the red specs!

below: Poser bunny in red

below: He (she?) seems puzzled by the snow?!

below: Is it a man or is it a chicken? A red headed cigarette smoking, spray painting character by Tuffytats

below: This one looks more like a chicken should look, so fowl.

below: An environmental message – “Got mercury?” from a non-profit group trying to raise awareness of the impact of mercury poisoning on indigenous communities.

below: Good Luck!

below: Another 33wallflower33 vintage woman.

below: Chubby purple cheeks gives a thumbs up

below: Still reaching out and trying to touch someone…..

Photos taken January 2025

South Avenue scenes

Posted on May 19, 2023 by Mary C

Murals and graffiti seen along South Ave in Rochester.

South Avenue in Rochester New York, older brick buildings

below: Conor Harrington Untitled (Fight Club Series)

black and white mural by Conor Harrington of two men fighting, a bit of red blood

below: Floating in a pink sky over a sea of imaginary snakes and fish

mural of a person reclining in a cloud in a pink sky hovering over a sea of snakes and fishes

below: “You’re a Shining Star no matter who you are”. A jar full of shiny positivity by local artist Shawn Dunwoody.

street art mural, on yellow brick wall, a large mason jar with words shining star on it, text on mural says you're a shining star no matter who you are

below: A group of flowers with faces as their centers.

mural on wall, flowers with many petals and each flower has a face in the center

below: Maladjusted Mike is stuck on a pole. Apparently he’s from Seriously Disgusting Comics.

below: No room for Fascism

below: A pink Neptune-like sea creature ruling over his underwater worlds, by Bile, 2013

below: Part of Nova’s shapes and colours.

below: “LIFE in abundance comes only through great LOVE”

below: Whirls and swirls of colour in an abstract painting by Mike Ming, 2013

below: A fox and bunny by Mr. PVRT aka Justin Suarez

below: Adam Francey’s fantastic detailed mural with birds and faces and a couple of words – seek, understand.

below: “Big brother is watching you and he’s bored”.

below: Avocado face, by Stefan Fella

below: Walking white teddy bear

below: The old and the new – root beer and birds.

below: A large egret? (or shorebird of one kind or another) and frog. Do egrets eat frogs?

on the side of a store, a large mural of a stork and a green frog

sculptures on te sidewalk on south ave in rochester

Photos taken May 2023

rue Mouffetard

Posted on September 19, 2022 by Mary C

This large mural, ‘Cecile’s House’, painted by SETH adorns the side of a school on rue Mouffetard (at rue Saint-Medard)

A small painting by the same artist is on the school gate, beside an upright grey and blue rabbit (un lapin gris et bleu!).

mural by seth on a gate, two kids, a boy and a girl kneeling face to face with heads joined together.

Also on rue Moufftarde are two whimsical pieces by Oji

red storefront, librairie (book store) with a small mural painted on the wall beside it, a painting by Oji of an older grey haired person with a cane spray painting something on a wall, and a younger man with a yellow bird on his head and pulling a wagon, watching.

Never underestimate the grey haired people!

Oji is amember of Lezarts de la Bievre, a collective of Paris street artists.

nous amour sens reve – four little words – we love meaning dream, mix and match to your heart’s content.

Photos taken June 2022

Lucas Antics, Bristol England

Posted on February 23, 2022 by Mary C

Alex Lucas & Paul Fearnside are the two artists that are Lucas Antics. Among their many talents is mural painting; this blog post features some of the murals that they have painted in their home town of Bristol. The photos are from the spring of 2017.

below: Pineapples and bunnies on The Little Shop, Cheltenham Road.

below: The whole mural.

large mural by Lucas Antics on The Little Shop on Cheltenham Road in Bristol. A woman is looking in the window of the store. The mural is bunny rabbits and pineapples, 6 rabbits and 7 pineapples

below: More rabbits at the Stokes Croft Vintage Market

below: A red fox, comfortably sitting on the new moon.

“We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars.” A quote from Oscar Wilde’s play “Lady Windemere’s Fan”

below: A dashing dandy lion in the doorway with his sidekick, a little white mouse. The fable of the lion and the mouse has been told in many variations over the centuries. In it, a lion spares the life of a mouse. A short time later the mouse saves the lion by chewing through the ropes of a net that has ensnared the lion.

below: Welcome to Montpelier (a neighbourhood in Bristol)

The next three images are from the same mural, Uncertain World, painted on the exterior of the Cabot Institute at Bristol University.

little stencils seen around Cuenca

Posted on November 2, 2020 by Mary C

Stencils on the walls of Cuenca, January 2018

below: Lucha Social, Siembra (social struggles or fight)

below: Adagio = something done slowly, with a lethargic tempo

below: The outline of a bull

below: Equating Mickey Mouse, and Disney, with death

below: Girl with a balloon

below: Pigs can fly!

little things on Barcelona walls

Posted on April 7, 2018 by Mary C

Barcelona Spain, April 2018,
pasteups, stickers, stencils and other little pieces of graffiti.

below: The green creature (with Ore on its tail) seems to want to eat the heart. The tiger appears on walls in many Spanish cities although sometimes he’s just a black and white head. He’s the creation of Bloo. Last, an orange crab with eye lashes on one eye.

some pasteups and other small pieces of graffiti on a concrete wall. A tiger, a heart, an orange crab.

below: RAF Urban, young boy

paste up of a boy's head and shoulders by raf urban

below: Another face, this time a woman looking up. She’s not quite obscured by the paint around her.

yellow arrow, pointing to a pasteup of a womans face on a wall

below: Pointed

a stencil on a wall, a hand with index finger pointing, points to a metal door that is covered with a mural

below: “Lo importante esta en tu cabeza” on empty cans. As it turns out, this the name of an album by the group La Gran Orquesta Republicana. Rough translation is: The important is in your head.

empty cans covered with black and each with a blue letter on them, the cans are put together on a wall so the letters make words.

below: More cans on walls. This time they say “mensajes de amor en tiemps de guerra, mensajes de paz con la mente guerrera”. [messages of love in times of war, messages of peace with the warrior mind]. This can art is the work of an anonymous couple. Many examples of their work can be seen on instagram with the hashtag #llaunesbcn

empty cans covered with white, with black letters, one per can, on them. The cans are mounted on a wall in with letters forming words that say mensajes de amor en tiemps de guerra, mensajes de paz con la mente guerrera

below: Funny Bone and a little hairy chested, hat wearing, tattooed fellow with love on his tummy (or lower).

stickers on a door that has a red tag on it.

below: Güelcom was an Argentinian movie, a romcom from 2011. Because of my poor Spanish as well as the rip in the paper, I can’t tell what the second word is.

pasteup of a woman with blue hands reaching out for her face, also the words, guelcom

below: A black and white paste up.

pasteup of a man's face, wearing black sunglasses, also his face is covered with black lines

below: Mowcka “uniendo tus partes” and others

stickers and paste ups on a wall

below: Very, very with symmetry, as a red rose lies on the sidewalk.

stencil, in purple, words mucho mucho with the second one being uder the first, and upside down, also a stenciled red rose lying under the words, arranged such that the flower looks like its lying on the sidewalk,

below: Smile! Anthropomorphic rabbit photographer in blue

blue rabbit with a camera

… and red

red rabbit with a camera

below: somiatruites, Catalan for daydreamer

small painting on a gold coloured wall, exterioe, six green arms with fingers stretching out from a central reddish face
below: Utility box. JERC = Joventuts d’Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (Young Republican Left of Catalonia). They support independence for Catalonia which is the part of Spain that includes Barcelona.

utility box with painted political statements graffiti

below: The Hulk. Even he is locked out.

The Hulk

below: Watering can and plant pot faces.

2 small pictures on white board on outside wall

below: Another collection of small paste ups on a wall. There’s that tiger again. A blue unicorn and a very large insect share the upper left corner. That little black and white figure in the bottom left is a flying peanut, a character by Hadsawit that really gets around.

graffiti pasteups on a wooden door

many pasteups on a wall

below: The Raven, or at least a large black bird

stencil, black bird eating something

metal utility box on a sidewalk beside a stone wall, drawing of the upper part of a man, in black line drawing.

old wood door covered with blue tag and a sticker with a red flower

more Denver street art

Posted on March 1, 2018 by Mary C

More Denver street art from this past summer.

below: A blue astronaut

an astronaut dressed in blue sitting on a kids swing, mural, two storeys high, helmet,

mural of a chicken standing in a window. sitting on the ground beside the window is a young man in brown pants and blue t-shirt with a chicken mask covering his face

a large mural of a grey rabbit sitting on a green turtle

gate, painted with mural, large blue face, eyes, nose and cheeks, light green highlights,

mural of peace symbol with the angle lines (2) in red paint, a large blue featherin the center, the words #nobannowall

mural on grey wood fence of a very large insect from the side, pincer claws, six little light blue legs and a tail that curves upward, pink body, yellow tail,

mural on a garage door of a large octopus with its legs all tied up in knots.

large painting by @blvdart of a yellow bird with black and white head

mural in bright colours and abstract shapes, one wringly face, an eye and a nose, some squares,

picture of a man in black and white, mount on a wall, weathered, some writing around the edges

we the people poster featuring a young black woman with long dreadlocks and a red t-shirt

faded poster on an exterior wall, picture of young woman with flower in her hair and the words we the people

a metal enclosed trailer is in a parking lot, the back has a portrait of Prince painted on it.

a small mural on an upper storey wall of a small person, naked, sitting with knees up, wearing a large white animal mask

a mural on an upper level of a building, two characters, one white and one green,

large woman's face covering the front of a two storey house, rectangle front, flat, cubist like style

light green mural, black line drawing of an airplane? or a gun?

two metal boxes outside and a meter box, all covered with stickers

genfit store or gym, characters on outside wall in gym or exercise clothes, cartoonish characters

on Tallinn walls

Posted on June 7, 2017 by Mary C

Tallinn is the capital city of the small Baltic country Estonia. I was only there for a short time but I did find some street art in the old town and in Kalamaja.

below: The young person on the right is the work of @minaJaLydia. I you look closely, there are two tiny faces to the right of the knees.

street art by MinaJaLydia on a concrete wall, two pieces, a pasteup of an elaborate abstract drawing of a face and hands as well as mushrooms and other plant life. the other is a young person sitting on a chair, with 4 legs hanging from the chair.

below: I am calling this one, The Warrior and his Social Media Hedgehog. They are the work of Edward von Longus

a large muscular partially clad man with a weapon over his shoulder, on a grey brick wall, a small hedgehog is working on a laptop beside him. graffiti

below: Close up of the hedgehog. It needs time in the limelight too.

graffiti, a small grey and white hedgehog is working on a laptop

below: Whatever he was writing on the wall is long gone. This is another work by Edward von Longus.

painting of a blond boy with a red T shirt and blue jeans is facing a wall and drawing on it.

below: A green and blue planet Earth between two animals (a cat and a ?), by multistab

street art by multistab. A blue and green small plaet earth in between two large black and white creatures. One looks like a grinning cat, the other might be a cat but migh be something else

below: A couple of couples by Linna Sokk but with the theme of domestic violence.

two poster pasteups by #koos Both are of a couple, in one they are kissing

below: Something’s stuck to his forehead… looks like a sheep to me.

a large sticker with a realistic picture of a skull on it, on a small electrical box beside a building

below: Not your average Easter Bunny!

painting of a large agressive stylized rabbit in grey top and white shirts, a carrot in its mouth, running on two legs, one arm upraised.

below: A multi talented, multi handed, multi tasking elephant!

an elephant with 4 arms and two legs, bare feet, spray paint cans in its hands,

below: This wall is difficult to see because of the fence – it is part of the old fortress/prison that is no longer open to visitors.

street art on a wall that is hard to see because it is behind a fence

below: The next two are by the same artist, Lume, of LDK crew who is from Naples Italy.

stylized flowers and leaves in pastel colours, line drawings, on a pale yellow wall

stylized flowers and leaves in pastel colours, line drawings, on a salmon coloured wall

below: In case you can’t read it, the sign that Darth Vader is holding says: “Help me. I need $$$ to build a death star.”

a few small piece of graffiti, a yellow face, a black stencil of a man's head and shoulders, a stencil of Darth Vader, and some scribbles,

on a wall beside w window, two line drawings of animal creatures, on dinosaur like and the other a small round thing

a big bee on a yellow wall, street sign that says Salme

two drawings, one is Jerry the cartoon mouse and the other is

three stencils on a wall, an orange womans face, a blue diamond and a purple man with sunglasses on

a paste up of a person's head wrapped in an old fashioned bandage that ties under the chin

doorway shaped and sized line drawing graffiti in purple with turquoise highlights, a man's head and neck

Mission Linen Building, west wall, Las Vegas

Posted on January 18, 2017 by Mary C

The old Mission Linen building is at the corner of South 1st Street and Coolidge Avenue in Las Vegas. Photos taken October 2015.

below: A large mural of the famous ‘Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas’ sign dominates the west side of the building.

mural of the famous Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas sign painted on the side of a building

below: The head of a creature with Vegas eyes by New Zealand street artist duo BMD.

graffiti street art on a white wall - front end of yellow creature with big ping pong ball like eyes

below: Cats in love by #Danman

graffiti street art on a white wall - a sticker by Danman of a man and a woman in cat suits. The man has hearts in his eyes and is presenting the woman with some flowers

below: She seems to be looking at the two faced man.
I wonder what she’s thinking.

graffiti street art on a white wall -

below: Many likes for the fisherman.

graffiti street art on a white wall - two posters, on the right an Indian in native head dress in profile and on the left, a small boat on a big wave

below: Marilyn Munroe in green and a pink haired woman by Typical Bandit

graffiti street art on a white wall -

below: Street art in the Milk the Bunny series by Omayra Amador.
Bunny is holding a French flag in support of Charlie Hebdo.

graffiti street art on a white wall - a yellow rabbit with a pencil behind its ear, holding up a french flag with the words je suis charlie on it.

below: Another in the Milk the Bunny series

graffiti street art on a white wall - a dog on a cloud with the sun behind, he has pink bunny ears. A wheatpaste by Milk the Bunny

below: The seemingly unhappy entrance to 1001 South 1st Street

graffiti street art on a white wall -

below: El Teacher by Cova along with an Art Saved my Life stencil

blog_el_teacher

Grimsby Street, Shoreditch

Posted on September 20, 2016 by Mary C

Graffiti and street art seen on Grimsby Street in Shoreditch, East London, September 2016. Grimsby Street runs off Brick Lane, immediately north of the overground tracks. It is a short street that ends at Chilton Street. In this blog post I have included the little bit of street art that was on Chilton Street between Grimsby and the next street north (Cheshire).

below: Yo! It’s a red stencil signed by Malot.

below: A stencil of a man’s head on page 272 of an old dictionary, entries between Carinthia and Carlos. Signed by Oddo.

below: A wrdsmith stencil with the now iconic paper in an old typewriter. “Smile. It’s an old school status update.” A paste-up of woman and child, decorated with pink and blue yarn is on the same wall.

below: A 3D bunny rabbit carrying a hand grenade. The piece is signed along the edge of the grenade. Chima–? Tile. Sorry but I haven’t been able to find any more information than that.

below: Amazingly detailed pictures of grasshoppers and one colour bubble tree… that’s the name I gave to these trees as I saw them around Shoreditch this afternoon. I’m not sure what the artist calls them.

below: An MCLN plague doctor character in black coat and top hat.
More examples of his street art pieces on his website.

below: Le Touquet Paris Plage, or Le Touquet for short, is a coastal town in France. It has a reputation as the most elegant holiday resort of northern France, the playground of rich Parisians. The same plague doctor character by MCLN appears on two of them.

below: Little 3D animals are stuck to many walls in East London. I think this one is a cat but I’m not sure. He was quite high up on the wall.

below: Two of many of these biplanes that I saw today. These ‘thieve the world’ stencils are by L.A. street artist Megzany who must have visited London lately.

below: On the left is beach scene that only ‘face the strange’ could have created. Men in suits out of context and with their heads replaced with strange things – a striped candy stick, a horse’s head and a yellow bucket, and something red and flattish. In the middle, a woman with a red rose in her hair by artist KIN MX, aka Kathrina Rupit.

below: Red headed woman by C3, an artist whose drawings are often women, and usually red heads.

below: Some potty humour, by matlakas

below: And another…. Just press the button

below: A wise man turns change into good fortune.

below: Or, a wise man once said nothing

below: Stormtrooper buddha by minty beside a small green buddha amongst other things.

below: Three realistic looking bird heads. Birds with feathers in an awesome shade of blue.

below: A pasteup by Voxx beside an abstract sort of drawing with an eye in the middle. The latter pasteup was a fairly common sight in Shoreditch. Voxx is short for Voxx Romana, an artist currently based out of Portland Oregon.

below: Five more paste-ups, all people in one form or another. The woman in the center with the large flower on her hat is by Mr. Fahrenheit. He is responsible for the street art with the slogan “U R so porno baby”; if you’ve read some of the other London blog posts here you’ll have seen his work. If not, the next image includes one of his pieces.

below: U R So Porno Baby with Star Trek characters in funny shades of green and brown. Boom! Spock and Captain Kirk look a little off colour. The RX Skulls beside it are the work of Arrex, another Portland Oregon based artist.

below: This hand is looking at you. Bright blue eye.

below: A little lightning bug? Jake.

below: High on a wall, an upside down elephant with its trunk entwined with a pink elephant, a mural painted by Cerresto.

below: King Elvis.

below: Crouching beside the front door for a smoke and a chat.

below: Street art on the brick fence between Grimsby street and the train tracks.

below: “Protect children: don’t make them breathe your crystal meth.”

below: Two stencils, a little surdude who says that only little people pay taxes and a stencil by SSOSVA. The latter is an acronym for Secret Society of Super Villain Artists.

below: An electrical plug comes alive, signed by Ted Flip.

below: A paste-up by TeneT, a serious looking woman, Emma Goldman, with “If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.” TeneT is a Melbourne Australia based street artist. Emma Goldman (1869-1940) was an anarchist and a feminist amongst other things.