“people” I encountered in Montreal….

Posted on October 19, 2026 by Mary C

Random sightings around Montreal

below: A portrait on pink accompanied by a gorgeous bird and a few flowers in a mural by Melissa Falconer

A portrait of a black woman on pink painted brick accompanied by a gorgeous bird and a few flowers in a mural by Melissa Falconer, on side of Baguette & Brochette shop

below: The remains of a mural by Phlegm

part of a mural by phlegm, black and white

below: Framed and topless Fractal Juice

graffiti, fractal juice, framed picture of person with colours shifted so that it looks like it is in multiple copies. Person has black hair and many red and yellow flowers in hair, topless, with white fabric draped over one shoulder

below: No faces here, instead two bodies merged into one, “Liberté” by Franco Fasoli (aka Jaz), 2015.

two bodies merged into one at the shoulders, no heads or necks, two silhouettes of bulls behind them, called Liberte, mural painted by Jaz, a k a Franco Fasoli. Arms and legs have tattoos, both wearing blue shorts

below: A face in purple and blue, by Philippe Mastrocola and Melsa Montagne

mural, large face in shades of pink, blue, and purple, by Melsa Montagne and Philippe Mastrocola

below: Part of a larger mural originally painted by Scaner in 2014. It was fixed up in 2018 by Zek One and Axe Lalime.

Part of a larger mural originally painted by Scaner in 2014, skull showing, a skeleton with clothes, upright and walking. Wearing blue jacket, white shirt, and red tie, also wearing a hat

below: Call me Daniel

very red background, street art is black line drawing of a person with no hair on top of head but long hair doen the back, open mouth screaming, with text call me Daniel

below: The top part of “Ne m’oublie pas” (“Don’t Forget Me”), created by artist Kezna Dalz during the 2024 Mural Festival

very white man with red lips and eyes closed looking upward, a halo over his head, wings on his back, in a mural by Kezna Dalz

below: Bottom of the same mural

bottom part of n'oublie pas mural by Kezna Dalz, two people

below: Incomplete and unfinished, Damaged, one-eyed man who doesn’t look too pleased – perhaps it’s the squiggles that have taken over his forehead.

black and white and grey shades, realistic image of an older man with a mustache but one eye and top of head is missing

below: Osheen Siva painted this large portrait with its radiating long blue hair and blue lips.

portrait by Osheen Siva, mural in Montreal, brown person with long blue hair, green lines on neck and shoulder, blue lips,

below: SNIKR’s paint roller girls

building with two murals, on upper floor is a woman with a paint roller, by SNIKR, lower floor has portrait of the young woman with a paint roller as well

below: Mural on the lower level seen closer.

building with two murals bySNIKR, mural on the lower level seen closer. young woman with large collar on her jacket, paint roller over her shoulder

below: I think that the signature says Lea but I am not sure. What I am sure of is that he/she has a strange imagination!

two halves, divided horizontally, upper half is painting by Lea, purple sky, man with small hat, smiley face on front of his shirt, smile on his face, but with hands that look like snake heads

below: “C’est compliqué” (It’s Complicated) by Sara Erenthal. Unfortunately the bottom part of the mural has been painted over. Originally there were two figures within the body of the woman (see next photo)…..

part of mural by Sara Erenthal, woman with surprised expression on her face, black line drawing but with red mouth

bottom part of mural, two figures sanding together

below: All wrapped up.

painting on a wood fence, probably male character with head wrapped in white bandages, blue shorts up to chin, big mouth,

below: Take the iconic I ♥ NY and transform it into a love letter to Montreal.

I love anything to do with Montreal graffiti

below: Tasty treats and curly straws.

man sitting on bench beside a food shop, with mural on outside wall, line drawing of people with drinks with curly straws, and one dog,

below: You’ve seen the signs that say “Beware of Dog”, well, here we have Beware of Old Bald Man!

doorway covered with graffiti including a bald wrestler on the door wearing bootss

below: She has six hands, two of which are holding a skull. She also has a very long (and ugly) tongue. Not the kind of person (creature?) that you would want to run into in an alley – even if she does have some similarities to the Hindu goddess Kali. Kali is associated with time, destruction, death, and the Divine Motherhood; she is the power of creation and destruction. I guess that she needs six hands after all. Painted by Bibi Una.

below: Obscured by fragments of those left behind.

eyes, from an older piece of street art where the lower parts of the face have been papered over with other graffiti, now torn

below: Sad button eyes

graffiti in Montreal on a red brick wall including a sad character that looks ike a stuffie with stitched mouth and tummy, sad face mouth, one eye is an X and the other eye looks like a button that has been sewn on

below: Happy faces

scrawl graffiti in blue and red including a couple of happy faces on corrugated metal fence

below: Rage5 stencilled on five heads covered

5 stencils in a row, woman in black head scarf, necks covered too, with rage5 on each head, graffiti in Montreal

below: mmm

graffiti of man farting. body looks lke Homer Simpson but head is different

below: It vaguely looks like a person….

drawing in black with red scribbled over it, that looks vaguely like a person, graffiti

below: A tiny man under a red heart

two pieces of graffiti on a wall, one is a tiny man and the other is a red heart

below: “I’m feeling blue – may be the skeleton is too, he’s been scrolling so long on his phone he doesn’t realize that he’s now dead.

slaps on the back of a sign, a blue square with text that says I am blue.

below: A big toothy grin and a sticker from peau-bleus

below: FUQU and a wrench (probably profane but c’est la vie), wings and devil horns.

sticker graffiti, character with fuqu on front

below: “I’m grateful you’re alive” … I am also grateful that you have found your way to this page!

sticker graffiti, white with words written on it, I am grateful you are alive

Photos taken September 2024

Warburton Lane

Posted on April 10, 2026 by Mary C

below: Warburton Lane in central Melbourne was full of stickers and paste-ups including this happy little octopus with a zigzag smile

below: This pile of animals by Kaffeine – with a pink pig in a jaunty vest on top – covers a double door and more

below: About the graffiti on the left – one of the characters that often appears in Mr. Dimples graffiti such as this one, is the fellow with the funny rectangular head – with a button for one eye and a stitched X for the other.

below: A D7606 crayon writes something on the wall while two big eyes watch. But I’m worth it!

graffiti paste ups and stickers on a wall, D7606 crayon, eyes, a sign that says I'm worth it

graffiti paste ups and stickers on a wall including catchoo worm with tongue stuck out, a typewriter with a piece of paper with words until the west wind brings you back again. A pair of eyes, a cat collage on sheet music paper, a train by D7606, t bonez from urban ninja squadron dressed in red and giving peace sign with two fingers

below: “Until the wind from the west brings you back again” is in the middle, to the left of a very red T-bonez from Urban Ninja Squadron (peace man!). On the other side there is a cat collage on sheet music by chacha_doune (aka Cha). It’s difficult to see but the train headed your way has “God Save the Queen” written on one of its front corners – That paste up seems to be a collaboration between D7606 and Voxx Romana.

graffiti paste ups and stickers on a wall

below: White chickens

below: That’s the biggest carrot that I have ever seen! … and the skinniest ankles!

below: … Safety pins and a lot of piercings! This crazy pink haired punk emu is full of holes! Painting by John Murray.

below: Meet Nancy – another John Murray emu

below: This is Effie; she’s obviously related to Nancy!

below: A little bit real in the midst of a lot a fantasy. By Lukas Kasper.

street art in Warburton Lane, Melbourne by Lukas Kasper of a lion face with very realistic furry nose but stylized abstract rest of face

below: More mixing of reality and fantasy – human, animal, and robot with a disturbing outcome.

street art mural, man walking on all fours, with a tail, with some body parts made of mechanics

below: High red shoes and not much else

2 pieces of street art in Warburton Lane, Melbourne. Part of a painting of white leaves on black, one a slap by leilah of a cat-like woman robot with high red shoes and bikini

below: mmm

paste up graffiti, large piece, woman with two heads

below: A lone fisherman surrounded by barbed wire.

street art in Warburton Lane, Melbourne, a circle of white barbed wire. in the center is a framed photograph of a man fishing beside purple water

below: Angry suburbia

below: mmm

graffiti and street art, Mr. Dimples, a woman holding a bomb

below: Mr. Dimples again

below: Neftnik’s young woman wears a green outfit with leggings that are blue with red polka dots.

below: That’s a bomb?

below: Up, up, and away – that’s one way for a ladybird to fly away home!

below: A jumble of slaps

below: Peppa Pig, Nemo, a happy flower, and a banana with a face… and more.

collection of graffiti stickers and paste ups on a wall

below: Potted plants

black and white paste ups, line drawings of plants in pots, old and weathered

below: A handful of dripping diamonds

street art in Warburton Lane, Melbourne, black and white, handful of dropping diamonds

below: Robot heads on circles

street art in Warburton Lane, Melbourne, Robot heads on background full of circles, design

below: Portrait of a woman

Photos taken February 2025

Collingwood (Melbourne) portraits

Posted on January 22, 2026 by Mary C

A collection of faces that I saw as I walked around Collingwood one summer day.

below: She looks down on the parking lot.

street art painting, portrait, woman's eyes and nose on grey wall, high above cars parked below, lower part of face has been tagged over

below: Artist LING painted this image of Patrick Coyle on the side of the Albion Hotel. Coyle was the original owner of that hotel.

street art painting, portrait by artist LING, of Patrick Coyle, man sitting with a full glass of beer in his hand, elbow on table, chin in hand, face has mustache and beard

below: mmm

street art painting, portrait, 2 workman with beards and mustaches, yellow and orange high viz vests, black wool hats

below: An older portrait by Adnate graces a small brick wall.

street art painting, portrait, a woman, by adnate, with head scarf and red cloth covering mouth

below: There is another, much larger, Adnate mural nearby. This apartment building on Wellington Street was painted in 2018. I wrote a blog post about it a few years ago – Four Adnate Faces, Dec 2018

below: On the left, is a portrait by Vince Moloney. Three little yellow characters by dscreet are on the door to the right.

on the left, in grey tones, street art painting, portrait in greys of young man wearing large headphones and on the right, three yellow characters by dscreet, one of which looks like an owl

below: Another portrait by LING, this time it’s Alf Stewart who stars in ‘Home and Away’, an Australian soap opera.

street art painting, portrait by artist LING, of Alf Stewart, under a street sign that says Bedford street, red car parked in front, person on sidewalk beside,

below: Michelangelo on a wood fence.

Michelangelo portrait in many colours, on wood fence in alley,

below: It almost looks like someone is playing “Peek a Boo” although I am sure that the two faces were not painted at the same time, or by the same person.

below: Drew in bright colours

top of head in blue, bright blue nose, pink glasses, yellow and green eyes, red very short hair and red eyebrows, word Drew written across bottom of face, 24

below: One of the uglier faces that you will see today…

ugly mis-shapen face painted on gate, small forehead, large jaw, mouth and teeth, long nose,

below: With visions of palm trees in front of his face – a blue skull by Callum Preston

blue skull wearing red glasses with images of palm trees in the lenses, by Callum Preston

Photos taken February 2025

in the alleys of Owen Sound

Posted on December 31, 2025 by Mary C

Owen Sound is a small pleasant Ontario town that is nice to wander around. It has more street art than one might expect from a town its size.

parking lot and alley behind shops in Own Sound, three storey brick buildings with street art murals along the bottom third.

below: Back in 2013, the Bleeding Carrot Cafe decided that the alley adjacent to the cafe needed some art and thus the Bleeding Carrot Alley Project was born. That summer, the exterior walls of the cafe (in the alley) were painted with street art murals. Most of them still exist. Although the Bleeding Carrot doesn’t seem to be in business any more, it has left behind a colourful legacy. The first part of this blog post is dedicated to those murals.

below: Brilliant red poppies painted by Andree Levie Warrilow

a young woman's face and some bright red poppies, a mural

below: This was the first mural that was painted in the alley, a boy and his toys.

below: Another from 2013, painted by Alan Glicksman … where everybody seems to be talking.

below: Keep on rockin’ downtown, bright yellow by Robert Menzies (also 2013).

below: More 2013 – a surreal scene by Marc Matei with a purple octopus (with more than 8 legs!) makes a headpiece for a surly looking man who has a shaggy beard and one big tooth.

street art mural, purple octopus, orange donkey, man with beard,

below: Portrait of Jim, by Jennifer Crawley (2013)

below: Logan Pellerin’s trippy trees and a rocky road that leads infinitely into the distance

below: Jana Miller painted these wavy rays of sunshine.

below: In later years (post-2013), the other side of the alley was also painted.

alley behind shops in Owen Sound, three storey brick buildings with street art murals along the bottom third.

below: An orange skull

below: “Vida” is a collaboration between artist Billy Goodkat and local high school students. Vida is the Spanish word for Life.

alley behind shops in Own Sound, three storey brick buildings with street art murals along the bottom third. Purple stripes

brown turtle partially submerged in water, face is above water street art painting

below: A large section of wall in Carney’s Lane is covered by this Owen Sound mural which is also known as the Koodoo mural.

street art mural with words, Owen Sound, and a pink bunny and a blue fish

below: The south wall of the Grey Gallery is covered by “Transformation” a large mural by Raquell Yang that was painted in the summer of 2020

mural painting along one wall, exterior, outdoors, of the Grey Gallery Garden. Two large blue whales across the top, two male portraits below with a large eye with butterfly wings between the men

below: There is a large mural behind the Roxy Theatre that was painted to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the theatre. It is composed of a number of theatre related vignettes. It is the result of a collaboration between a number of artists under the leadership of Billy Goodkat.

car in parking lot, parked in front of a large theatre themed mural painted on the back of a cinema

below: And last, I found a wall covered with Emily May Rose’s raccoons.

blue raccoon with a microphone, Emily May rose mural in Owen Sound

pink and blue raccoons, one playing a guitar, the others dancing on the stairs.

Photos taken July 2025.

along rue Oberkampf

Posted on November 7, 2023 by Mary C

Rue Oberkampf is in the 11th arrondissement in Paris.

below: Tall pink mural by Francis Essoua, (aka Enfant Précoce)

below: A mix of little scenes, thunder and lightning, twins in red, pictures in a gallery,

below: Horse, by BONOM aka Vincent Glowinski

below: There were two little quick sketch portraits in red and yellow, possibly by LUIS?

below: A squashed spray paint can, a NEXT (nextmosaic) pedestrian crossing mosaic, and an orange and purple skull.

below: More little things, mostly paper this time – white dove of peace on the mailbox and two larger pieces beside, both by Corine Forest

below: These stencils were on a building at the corner of rue Oberkampf and rue Camille Crespin du Gast in the 11th.

below: A Kraken (aka Lou Daho) octopus, swims past as an orange cat or tiger jumps down.

below: “Telemaqueland” by Hervé Télémaque, was painted in 2000 along with eleven other large murals in Paris as part of a project “the walls of the year 2000” (les murs de l’an 2000).

below: Like many Paris streets, there is an Invader mosaic high up on a wall.

Photos taken March 2023

Greenleaf Street., Rochester NY

Posted on July 16, 2023 by Mary C

This is another post about some of the murals seen around Rochester. As you may have noticed, there are many!

below: A small tree grows in front of a mural of stripes, rectangles, and other shapes

a small tree on the grassy area in front of a mural with stripes, shapes, and different colours, abstract

below: What big feet you have!

close up of top of a door that is within a mural, it looks like large foot is resting on the door

below: That foot, and the skin tight boot, belongs to this man, the creation of Swedish artist Andreas Englund who likes to paint people in grey superhero outfits with scanty red pants. This was part of Wall/Therapy 2015.

below: The abstract painting in greens and blues is the work of Nova.

two murals, one is man removing his boots and other is abstract lines in greens

below: Skull surrounded by moths, butterflies and flowers that seem to be growing out of it in a work titled “Cosmos” by Nico Cathcart as part of Wall/Therapy. Painted in Sept 2021.

mural, large skull, many butterflies around it

below: Letters and symbols

street art mural featuring letters of the alphabet

below: Pink face but with only one visible eye, by Sam Rodriguez, 2014.

below: Omen (from Montreal) painted this woman lying on her side with her eyes closed.

mural by Omen in Rochester, pale skinned woman lying on her side with her eyes closed, large

below: The World is Yours by Queen Andrea (as in Letter Queen!), 2014.

below: Super Fresh

mural with cursive writing, calligraphy, says Super Fresh

below: Mural by Pixel Pancho, a boy embracing a robot that has seen better days.

large mural by Pixel Pancho of a robot and a boy

close up of the boy in Pixel Pancho mural

below: “Mother” by Maxxer242 aka Max Gramajo, painted in Sept 2021

mural, black background, woman portrait in blues

below: Another mural featuring text.. A Word is an Image, by Shoe aka Niels Shoe Meulman. Image is written in very large letters spread out across the black wall.

Part of a larger mural, black background, white lettering, A word is

below: Four quadrants of an eye and cheekbone is all that remain of a once larger mural by Daze aka Chris Ellis.

a mural divided into four equal sized rectangles, two top and two bottom

Photos taken May 2023

Some of these murals appeared in an earlier blog post titled, “murals, Rochester NY” from Dec 2015.

Graffiti Alley Bone Head

Posted on June 27, 2023 by Mary C

There are a series of 5 paintings by Bone Head nestled between the windows of a building that backs onto Graffiti Alley in Toronto. As the name suggests, Bone Head painted characters with large boney heads or skulls. They also have a penchant for white shirts and striped neck ties!

graffiti painting by bone head on a brick wall in the narrow space between two windows, large boney head, narrow white shirt and striped neck tie

at 1st Street North & MLK

Posted on April 23, 2022 by Mary C

below: The northwest corner of Martin Luther King Blvd and 1st St North in St. Petersburg Florida where there are a few murals on the buildings. The mural of the cat and dog in the foreground was painted by Matt Kress.

below: On the other side of the building (an animal hospital) are more cats and dogs.

In the first photo, you can see small parts of another mural. This one features well known cartoon characters such as the cats Felix and Garfield, as well as Disney’s Donald Duck, Daffy Duck, and Goofy. It was painted by Greg Mike as part of the SHINE mural festival in 2021.

below: The whole mural

below: The last mural here, on the far side of the back building, is another recent painting. Also part of the SHINE 2021 festival is “Tell Me How You Feel, Part III” by Bakpak Durden.

Maika

Posted on February 19, 2022 by Mary C

Maika is another Montreal street artist. So far, these are the paste-ups of hers that I’ve seen as I’ve walked around the city.

Red, white, and blue, melting into a puddle.

on a black door, a white piece of paper paste-up with a drawing, head and shouders, of a person. Line drawing. There could be one face or two depending on which way you look at it — One face or two?

a man walks past a wall that has a poster graffiti on it, unfortunately there is a rip in the paper so image is difficult to see but there is a had and a cow's head, image by Maika — The hand of David as a wing but with the head of a cow.

graffiti pasteup colourful image of a hand and open cigarette lighter but instead of a flame there is a small bouquet of flowers — You can’t start a fire with flowers can you? Lit.

other Artist Lane murals and graffiti, Windsor, 2018

Posted on August 2, 2021 by Mary C

Artist Lane runs parallel to Chapel Street between Green and Union streets, just north of Windsor railway station. Most of the lane is covered with street art of some sort.

street art painting of a man's head, a woman's head and a bird's head, all above a text piece

street art painting in Artist Lane of a man with two merged heads. He has one set of hair, four eyes, two noses, one mouth. below: Four hairy dudes by AEON aka Tom Gerrard
stencils of four people's heads with bright orange hair

Artist Lane, Windsor, Melbourne with street art on garages and walls

street art in Artist Lane, two faces, one man in orange hat, also a fish

a blue mural at the end of Artist Lane, a blue creature

below: “I ain’t afraid of no ghost”, says the cat the skull and the devil.

black drawings on white of a cat head, and a skull. cat has word balloon that says I am not afraid of ghosts

graffiti of a cat in egyptian goddess outfit
below: Fresh presto phats diva!
a text abstract street art with the words fresh presto phats written in the top corner