Tag Archives: Spanish

a walk around Holyoke

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Over the past few days I have posted pictures of some of the murals in Holyoke Massachusetts. This post will be that last one for that city for now. I know that I didn’t see everything that Holyoke has to offer but I hope to be back soon!

below: “Yagrumo” by Vero Rivera. Rainforest plant with palmate leaves – In brown and white, together forming patterns and designs.

mural on an old brick building, by vero rivera, design using patterns of brown and white leaves
closer view of the brown and white palmate shaped leaves in the rivera mural in holyoke

below: Painted by David Zayas, high energy dancing, with music and movement. The rooster may not be dancing but it too moves with energy and vigor.

mural by david zayas, woman dancing, rooster
rooster, in a mural, mostly its head

below: The Master of Masks, by David Zayas and Don Rimx. The mural portrays Don Raúl Ayala Carrasquillo, who was a master in the art of making vejigante masks – A vejigante is a folkloric character in Puerto Rican festival celebrations, especially during Carnival. He learned his craft from his father and he, in turn, passed the tradition on to his children.

large mural on the side of a midrise residential building in holyoke, of a man in a red baseball cap who is making a mask, by david zayas and don rimx, vacant land around the building, cars parked nearby
closer view of large mural on the side of a midrise residential building in holyoke, of a man in a red baseball cap who is making a mask, by david zayas and don rimx

below: “Child Flower” painted on the former Boys Club building on Race Street, by Gleo

yellow mural by gleo, a boy surround by big yellow flower

yellow mural by gleo, a boy surround by big yellow flower

below: Colonia – topless, draped with a Puerto Rican flag.

painting on a door at number 403, back of figure with word colonia written across the back, smiley face graffiti on the head,

below: Frankie Borrero’s creation, “Transición de las antepasadas” (Transition of the Ancestors)

mural with many people in it
closer view of frankie borrero mural with many people in it

below: Right – The mural says EL ARCOIRIS as a tribute to an after school program created by Nueva Esperanza more than 20 years ago. They use art and murals as part of their program to engage youth. This mural is a tribute to those pioneers and was painted by Golden 305 (aka Cristhian Saravia). Previously, I posted another of his murals in Holyoke

On the left is “Chromoji” by Bikismo (aka Ismo La Joya del Caribe, or the Chrome Master)

two murals, on left what looks like a shiny reflective face made of ice or metal, and in the right, text mural that says el arcoiris

below: An older El Arcoiris mural, faded blues with a rainbow connection between the two windows. Flowers and butterfles, and a guitar.

older faded el arcoiris mural with flowers, butterflies, rainbow and a Puerto Rican flag

below: A mural on the side of a bakery. Puerto Rica and the USA, Palm trees and sunflowers. Farmers harvesting food from the fields behind the city streets.

mural on the side of a bakery, with garden in front

below: There’s even a horse drawn carriage.

below: Nuestras Raices = Our Ancestors

part of a mural with a fountain and sunflowers

below: On the large wall of University Products, Yo Soy I am by TakeOne and GoFive

large mural of a boy in native american headdress with red and blue feathers, also the words, yo soy, spanish
An interesting description of this mural is on the Beyond Walls website: “Yo Soy! I am anything and everything. It is not enough to simply exist. Playing it small doesn’t serve the world, therefore it does not serve me. I embody the very essence in which life is created.
I am a powerful force.
I am light.
I am beauty, undefined.
I am capable.
I am resilient.
I am, You are, We are
ENOUGH!”

below: As mentioned in my previous post, Holyoke has the largest number of Puerto Ricans per capita outside of that country.

El Spirit Republic of Puerto Rico – Defending our roots and our communities.

below: mmm

below: Tim Purington was a City Councilor and public health advocate who died in 2019.

memorial_fingers_heart-2

below: Needle exchange programs were one of the public health initiatives that he advocated for.

below: “Iguana-boina ” by Rafique aka Rafael Enrique Vega. Here we see the union of the iguana, the symbol of the sun, and “boina”, a dark-colored snake that represents dark rain clouds. From these, life is formed. These elements are found in the Taino creation story where the cave of Iguanaboina was the primordial den from which the Sun emerges to illuminate the earth and to which it returns to hide as the moon emerges. The Taíno people were the predominant indigenous people of the Caribbean.

below: Alvin is missing the rest of his chipmunks.

  A few days ago I posted pictures of the father and baby moose that Bordalo 2 made on Clemente Street and yesterday I shared images of the mural ‘La cultura es poder’….   But there are many more Holyoke murals thanks to organizations such as Beyond Walls and Nueva Esperanza.   I think that I have barely scratched the surface.  
Photos taken July 2024

Okudart in Ronda

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There are now two large murals by the bus staton Ronda and both were painted by Okudart (aka Okuda San Miguel). They are titled, “The New Flamenco” and featured brightly coloured dancers with flowing dresses, fans, and flowers in their hair.

Photos taken February 2023

Baptist Lane, Melbourne

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Graffiti and street art seen in Baptist Lane, CBD

below: looking down the lane.  On the immediate right is an old mural of the Last Supper which has been scrawled over almost to the point of making the mural indecipherable.

graffiti and street art in an alley, pale yellow walls

once it was a sepia toned painting of the last supper (religious) but it has had a lot of graffiti written on top of it

below: A blank eyed bride with her flowers

black and white pasteup of a bride in veil, with 5 black stars encircling her head, holding a large bouquet of flowers

below: Two faced and holding up a jacket.

two black and white pasteups on a wall. on the right is a pair of white hands holding up an open jacket and on the left is a woman's head with two pairs of eyes, and a pair of hands below the head

below: Red brick wall and a window box

two windows in a small building in a lane, surrounding the windows is street art like a window box, awning, and then the wall space between the windows is decorated too

street art beside a window

below: I’m against all authority except my mother (close enough translation anyhow).

words on top and below a headless figure holding the head of a woman in its hands, words say contro toda autoridad excepto mi mama which is Spanish for I defy all authority except my mother below: Studying the hole in the fence

black and white pasteup of a person in a hoodie standing behind a chain link fence with a hole in it.

below: Two little catstwo black and white cats on a pasteup in a lane

meating place and others

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More Buffalo NY street art

below: On the side of Lorigo’s Meating Place on Grant Street, a large mural featuring many people that was installed in 2013.  This is “Grant Street Global Voices”; it was created by muralist Augustina Droze with help from students at International School 45 and Lafayette High School.   Eighty panels were put together to form the mural – and unfortunately a couple of them seem to have fallen down.

5 storey brick building on Grant St in Buffalo, with green trim around the windows and a small parking lot beside, sign on the side of the building says Meating Place. There is a large mural on the side of the building featuring realistic portraits of many people, including two trumpet players, a girl in a red head scarf, and other men and women,

below: Also on Grant Street is another community mural… The PUSH mural by Max Collins and others, named for the fact that it is over the entrance to PUSH (People United for Sustainable Housing) center.

mural over the entranceway to a building. Two sets of clasped hands, all with different skin tones. Scenes of children playing in the background.

below:  A large octopus swims close by on this door.
A supersized creature for a supersized door.

blue mural on an industrial building door, blue marine scene feathuring a large close up of an octopus eye and part of its body, along with some yellow fish, some lily pads and a water lily flower

 

below: Unicorn!  But behind a fence.

mural of a unicorn with a rainbow coloured horn, jumping, behind a wood fence

 

below:  It was the interesting architectural detail over the door that first caught my eye.  Then I notice the words, “diez anos como un roble cayendo”  Ten years like an oak falling?

blog_como_un_roble_cayendo

below: A flute player plays to a parking meter.   A Buffalo parking meter of a type that is long gone from Toronto streets.

black and white photo of a man playing the flute, pasted onto a woodedn fence beside a sidewalk, next to a book store, a parking meter nearby, on a street in Buffalo

below: Sweetness cafe is the scene of at least three pieces of street art, starting with this woman who smiles at those of us who look up from the sidewalk.   I also like the white mugs hanging from the awning.
a large, life sized or larger, paste up of a drawing of the head and shoulders of a black middle aged woman, smiling, above the awning for the Sweetness cafe. 6 white mugs hang from hooks through holes along the lower edge of the awning

below: The door next door has been re-done but that involved removing the face of this paste-up.  A facelift gone awry.

blog_new_door_old_pasteup

below: But this painting is still on the wall of the Sweetness Cafe.

blog_street_art_painting_sweetness

below: And we’ll end with the trash.  He’s looks happy to take care of your garbage.
Added note, Sonder is a band from Buffalo

part of the side of a green metal container for recycling bins on a Buffalo sidewalk, relief sculpture of a man on the side, to which someone has added to sticker, one is a happy face sticker on the head and another is a parody of wonder bread that says sonder.