… where you can find two large murals on opposite corners.
below: Along Rue Marie-Anne is part of Izabelle Duguay’s “Toucher L’horizon” with its pink/blue mountain rising above the blue water. The whole mural wraps around two sides of the building.
below: The “Ange de Bordeaux” was Aristides de Sousa Mendes (1885-1954). He was Portuguese consul-general in Bordeaux France where he defied the orders of the Portuguese government and issued visas to thousands of refugees fleeing Nazi-occupied France, including Jews. He lost his job because of it and died in poverty after the war. The many accolades and awards that he received all came after his death. The mural was painted by Awie in 2022.
below: A blue lion is the centerpiece in Kevin Ledo’s mural on Marie-Anne (across the street from L’Ange de Bordeaux).
below: This is a more complete picture of the mural. The blue of the lion as well as the patterns formed by the blue squares and rectangles recall some of the features of Portuguese ceramic tiles.
below: Waiting to cross Blvd Saint Laurent.
below: More of “Toucher L’horizon”
One of the corners at St. Laurent and Marie-Anne is Parc du Portugal – you can see some of the park trees in the picture above. Directly across the park from Izabelle Duguay’s mural are more artworks with a Portuguese connection.
below: This is a portrait of Amalia Rodrigues. As you can probably surmise, she was a musician. Rodrigues (1920-1999) was known as the Queen of Fado; fado is a Portuguese music genre. The mural was painted by Paulo Carreira.
below: This mosaic, “Azulejos” was presented to the City of Montreal by the Portuguese community. The word ‘azulejos’ refers to the painted and glazed ceramic tiles that the artwork is made of.
below: A closer look at part of the image. There are a lot of little details hidden in it.
below: “Whatever make sense to your soul”. Interesting sticker even if it has a grammar mistake in the text.
below: Shitty graffiti!
below: “Ma voix est-elle muette a vos oreilles?” A literal translation is: “Is my voice silent to your ears?” Or would Portuguese be more appropriate?… “Será que a minha voz é silenciosa para ti?”
The Ehrenfeld neighbourhood of Cologne is a “hotspot” for urban art of all sorts. This blogpost focuses on some of the murals and graffiti that I saw close to the train station. It is one of many posts featuring art in Arheneld.
below: By the German duo, Herakut, a girl and her dog in a blue and white striped shirt with words “Ohne dich würde ich mich nicht trauen” (Without you, I wouldn’t dare)
below: This geometric creation by Zedz is beside the Lidl parking lot.
below: “Matriarchy” is a mural by Ukrainian street artist AEC Interesni Kazki (aka Aleksei Bordusov). There are two naked women – one black woman riding a tiger and one white-ish woman sitting under a red umbrella. That’s quite the platform that shes sitting on.
below: SeiLeise (Tim Ossege)’s depiction of Cardinal Woelki’s as a Star Wars emperor wearing a dark habit and standing between two soldiers from the imperial guard of honour wearing red coverings and a fig leaf strategically placed.
below: This European flag is also by SeiLeise, a flag where the gold stars are being methodically cut off and removed.
below: “A Chinese Fairy Tale” was painted by Dabtar and A.Signl who are members of the street art crew Captain Borderline. Amnesty International and Colorrevoltion e.V. were also involved. Apparently the mural is a statement (or to raise awareness of?) the human rights situation in China. It dates from 2014.
below: This 3D large mosaic head is an earlier work of Captain Borderline (2011).
below: Once again, another Captain Borderline painting – this time they collaborated with local artist, Rakaposhii (mural ‘Mystical Wall’, shown in 4 photos)
below: This long wall was designed together by two street artists as part of the first City-Leaks Festival in 2011 – Swiss artist Smash137 and Dutch artist Zedz (see above mural). It’s title is “Musikalische Komposition”. Between when this picture was taken (October 2025) and now (September 2026) the building was demolished.
below: “Häusliche Gewalt” (Domestic Violence) was created by street artist RIPO (aka Max Rippon) in July 2014
below: Lichtstrasse with RIPO’s mural along with a couple of paintings higher up on the adjacent building.
below: In accessible – murals painted on a wall that is now behind a fence…. one of the pitfalls of art on temporary structures.
below: Potted plants, and/or plants in colourful vases surround a person who seems to be removing an animal (leopard?) mask in a mural painted by Gaupo Sapo (composed of YuMu, Krashkid, and Alexander Isakov) in 2017.
below: A very happy spray paint can admires its work?
below: Posters with messages like “We are all brainwashed” surrounded by winged phones and television emitting concentric waves. Another message from Vanessa Slagter is “Grow Women Power – Grow where you want. Not where they want to see you”.
below: “Any Europeans should see behind the wall” by the artist Benten.
below: “Believe Israeli women” and “Make street art great again”. The artist’s ‘signature’ looks like biebezvrfarbe.rise
below: A man and his hair.
below: Vincent was painted on his hair even though this is Sid Vicious (of the Sex Pistols). This stencil Sid with a can of Fanta in his hand is by Petit Agite. The pink heart is an add-on.
below: A guitar player – with legs doing some awkward things!
below: Four little bits and pieces – A NanE popsicle with a goofy toothy expression. A black and white Bustr (?) who seems to be gaping wide mouthed at the tiny woman’s portrait. The latter was made by Henry Paulson who seems obsessed with three or four young woman whose very similar portraits can be seen in a LOT of places. Last, top right is Little Vandal Cube by Reth.
below: More Henry Paulson faces… some normal, some with big lips, some with mismatched eyes…
In the past few months I have posted three sets of pictures of Bonn murals and graffiti. The images that I am posting here are all that I have left from my time in Bonn. At this point, I have no plans to return so this is “the last of Bonn”. Of course, if anyone wants to send me pictures of more Bonn urban art (because I am sure that I missed some, or that there is more recent art/graffiti), I will be happy to post it with full credit.
below: “Einsusflug” and a tripping pigeon wearing its cool sunglasses.
below: “This zystem is our enemy”. To which someone has replied, “True that”.
below: Many of the sidewalk/traffic/utility boxes around central Bonn have been painted with scenes from the city. This is the Old City Hall (Altes Rathaus) that dates back to the 18th century. I have always liked how City Hall ‘translates’ to Rat House in German!
below: Another box, this one with very stylized, almost abstract, trees.
below: Images of Johannes Sebastien Bach (1685-1750), the German composer, are all over Bonn.
below: Part of a monochrome mural by Nicolas Araneda aka niko.volts that has a lot of very American feet walking all over the faces of other people as lay on the ground…. ‘Trampling’ might be a better verb than ‘walking’
below: Some walk in heavy boots, and others swim with open mouth ….
below: “Not today Satan”. There’s a lot going on here – the Silly Sausage Gang being front and center. 33wallflower33 in her white coat with the fuzzy collar and little decorations by catchoo . There is also a T-bonez (of urban ninja squadron fame) wearing a green shirt and a necklace with a pendant – that’s Sticker Eddie he’s wearing, apparently. The red-hearted pug’s name is Mopsi. Mopsi has something in his mouth but the donut is in the way (for more Mopsi see the Instagram page of his creator, So schoen immer weider)…. And the other dog is a collaboration between TRP613 (check out the reflections in the sunglasses!) and DivadogLA
below: “Get me out of here” and a dose of Instant Karma.
below: Free Iran
below: This painting of a woman with her headphones above and yellow birdie walking a dog below was one of the first murals in Graffiti Alley – the work of Uber5000. Not many originals still exist!
below: Elicser Elliott’s contribution to a larger mural that has been painted below the pink Poser bunny, “Don’t watch me cry”
below: Half a face. He only needs one eye to stare at you.
below: Gold… With a garland of white and blue flowers.
below: A very large and very purple bear is at the door.
below: He or she looks rather cramped in there. Signature says Neem?
below: Another flower garland and another Neem head squeezed into a box.
below: Scowling and smoking with ace in his cap.
below: Skydome forever and ALCS, as well as Vladdy’s number 27 shirt and World Series 2025…. little blue and white pieces of ceramic that celebrate the Toronto Blue Jays that someone lovingly made.
below: One Inch? … And other stickers crammed together.
below: “We are the colours of corn”
below: More stickers and pasteups including catchoo’s dumpster fire that t-bonez from urban ninja squadron is using to dry his socks and underwear.
below: A couple of contributions from Dogmaslaps here (they’re all about dogs in case you haven’t guessed yet).
below: More pasteups, some of which are quite intricate and detailed … especially the top two (vulture and jaguar?) which are both the creations of Ezpektro.
below: Sharing space with the Ezpektro pieces are a few smaller pasteups, some of which were made by artists that are new to me. There is a pink bike in the top right, the same bike that is in the Make Art Not War poster in the above image… BikeDeSuro creates stickers and wheatpaste featuring bikes. From the left, a woman by Fiigueers and then a young girl with the Spanish words, “que nunca se apague la llama de la autonomia” which translates to “may the flame of autonomy never be extinguished”… The collection is rounded out with a guitar player from Sentient Cookie and a cute little green guy from Catchoo.
below:MonkYi cat with a very real looking heart in his claws. Two carp swimming on the pavement in front.
below: Charmander, a Pokemon character.
below: Alfred E. Neuman makes an appearance in a couple of places – he’s the dude from MAD Magazine.
below: By 50 shades of greatt aka Adam McKnight – It looks a lot like Sponge Bob… maybe it’s his cousin? But what’s with that tongue? It looks like a slug is trying to slither out of his mouth.
below: Verity and a happy face.
below: Someone is not impressed…. Lame
below: Green guy says: “In one year’s time, strike your blow, I shall return.”
There is not a lot of graffiti in Seoul of the sticker and paste up variety. I think that there is a connection between graffiti and tattoo artists in many places. There may be a few places to get a tattoo in Seoul but it is not common. You can find graffiti but you have to be looking for it.
below: Korean poet, Kim Soo-Young, The bottom text is a line from his poem Grass (풀), asking “Why do I get enraged over such small things?”
below: The Korean text written in the top left translates to “Come to your senses” or “Get a grip”. Seen in the Insadong neighbourhood of Seoul.
below: “WDF” stands for the Welcome Daehakro Festival. Daehak-ro is a famous performing arts and theater district in Seoul, South Korea. Not really graffiti?
below: The wall mural of a vintage red locomotive is a signature feature of Cheolgil Wang Galbisal, a popular restaurant in the Sinchon area. The restaurant is located near the Gyeongui Line Forest Park, a linear park built along an old railway line. You can argue that the engine isn’t really graffiti – but the cat probably is?
below: Another cat, but this time its looking up to the cherry blossoms that are always in bloom.
below: A black stenciled woman in a red skirt with the text “Scattering of Sprites”.
below: Nancy (Nancy Ritz) is a comic strip character created by Ernie Bushmiller in the 1930s. Here she is smoking a cigarette, something that she probably never did in Bushmiller’s day especially since she was drawn as an 8 year old girl.
below: Lucky fox banana virus – choose 4 random words to describe your group! What words would you choose?!
below: A sticker bombed electrical utility box with “Keep Going” in the center where the letters appear to be painted on tin cans wrapped with black paper or tape.
below: Chimps and Burgers – this is actually the name of a burger restaurant in Seoul and the mural, obviously, is associated with it. Not really street art?
below: Bananas!
below: “Live a Great Story” and “Push it a Stop”.
below: A tiger smoking a very long pipe in the presence of two white rabbits – this is a common Korean folk tale image. Tigers are powerful but are often gullible and, therefore, targets of rabbits who are clever tricksters.
below: One small wall with tags – a rare sight in Seoul.
below: Stickers on a pole. Paper tiger jumping through a flaming hoop.
A few little pieces seen around Windsor (Melbourne)….
below: A Marilyn Munroe look-alike; I doubt that she had a tattoo around her neck though.
below:Junky using an old beer can, a blond beer by the looks of it.
below: Another Junky crushed can with bottle tops, rusted with age.
below: What time is it? The time is now….
below: A little square head by Conrad Square and a maroon vulture wearing a baseball cap on his head and a padlock around his neck. I am sure that THEF has a meaning so if anyone knows what it is, please let me know too!
below: How many little critters were squished together to make this cluster?
below: The Pink Panther sporting some tattoos by mik3_tee, a Brisbane based artist.
Kiefernstrasse translates to Pine tree street… it is a street in Dusseldorf that has history. It is lined with apartment blocks that started life as homes for workers in the local factories steel works in the late 1800s. Some were damaged during the war. In the mid 1900s they became home to squatters and other “left wing” groups. Now many of them have been fixed up and/or covered with large colourful murals.
below: He’s hiding behind a tree now – a mural that M05K and Johanna OLGA painted in 2013
below: Bare feet on long skinny legs stick out of pink pants.
below: At street level, groups of strange characters in black outfits are standing around. Except for the little one, they are all wearing hats shaped like pyramids.
below: There are quite a few signs that help tell the story of Kiefernstrasse. The headline on the poster below is ” 1992 Wandbilder sind lebendige Kunstwerke” (= Murals are living works of art) and the article talks about 1992 and how it was the year that Klaus Klinger, Daniel Pulido, and a group of youths painted “Everything’s Bananas” at number 37. This was the first mural on the street; it no longer exists.
below: Daniel MacLloyd painted this large blue bird.
below: This gable is covered by a marine scene – including turtles swimming in the water – was painted by Ami One
below: Bright orange faces!
below: The Dusseldorf monkey is also here.
below: And again!
below: A bright red door, surrounded by….
below: … a long red dragon winding its way through golden clouds.
below: Käferhouse, or Beetle House, by Till Martin Köster and Christian Bolte, 2008. Insects galore! beetles, ants, roaches, bedbugs…. including some with human faces on their backs.
below: One of the many interesting smaller artworks found among the larger murals is this pair of kids in the playground riding their elephants and playing at war, or protest, or being social justice warriors… your choice. Google wants me to believe that it is a Banksy but I am not falling for it.
below: Another social commentary artwork. This time a girl has plenty to eat (and takes a picture of it) while the person beside her goes without.
below: A white unicorn with laser vision – the little white sign painted into the mural says “Laser Rainbow Unicorn & Robocat Rider”. Apparently cats riding unicorns in space is not an unusual theme. The other little sign says “Kevin Gucci” – is that the artist?
below: Strange things are happening on the balcony! There’s even a sheep…. but wait, that’s not a real balcony, instead the artist has employed what is known as “trompe-l’œil style” – it’s painted to look like a wooden balcony structure.
below: At street level, under the balcony seen above, is an alcove for a garage entrance – but it seems like a green police van is parked there already! I wonder what the gnome mechanics are up to!
below: 2007’s addition to the street was a (mostly) monochrome mural that is part puzzle pieces and part little figures. Ben Mathis was responsible for creating the ‘grid’, while MaJo Brothers painted the figures such as this robot holding a cracked egg. Was it dropped? Or is it hatching? 2007.
below: Splotches of blue
below: The characters (animals) in this mural are Marsupilami. They first appeared in the Belgian comic book “Spirou” in 1952 in a story below: The characters (animals) in this mural are Marsupilami. They first appeared in the Belgian comic book “Spirou” in 1952 in a story written by André Franquin. In the story, a man delivers a mysterious package from South America and as it turns out, the package contains a baby Marsupilami. Franquin continued writing about their adventures until the 1970s. In the 1980s the characters were re-invented and found themselves in TV episodes and video games.
below: The next two paintings flank a doorway, one on either side – an equestrian statue (i.e. a man on a horse) and a woman from time gone by but with anachronistic cans of spray paint in her hands.
This image shows another of the articles documenting the history of the area. This one describes an event in 1919 where a train was robbed outside Dusseldorf by a gang of about 30 men, led by “A communist from Kiefernstrasse” known as Steil. He was subsequently shot by the police and died from his wounds.
below: Stencil, boy with a large helmet – ready to be an astronaut. Once upon a time there were a few more details visible in the helmet. This ‘Space Travel’ was made by Seileise aka Tim Ossege.
below: Everyone’s painting these days!
Another poster tells the story of the first Streetfest here in 1982 where the greengrocer’s shop was turned into a cafe with a borrowed sound system.
below: It almost looks like a giant crossword puzzle.
below: Neptune swims upside down
below:The Reds are reaching out, wanting to run? looking for something?
below: He doesn’t look very happy.
below: Jesus carries a goat
below: On an upper wall, a golden Buddha sits and meditates.
below: “Love will tear us apart” more than once.
below: Together in one place, four little pieces by JoinyStreetArt (round white face), sm111le, Karl Heinz Swaggert (hairy fellow on the left), and Metraeda (pink cat). If you have been following this blog, you will probably recognize some of the names and their corresponding styles.
below: Bad Goat, with a strand of green vine and a third eye
below: “Nothing else matters” actually refers to a football club.
below: Nippes has it’s own mural complete with city skyline on a red background – painted by Robin Von Gestern.
below: These little Kölner Heinzelmännchen can be seen on the side of a residential building. These helpful gnomes appear in German legends and folklore; they are rarely seen because they do their work at night and in secret.
Goodlack Art has painted them falling down the stairs – Ooops, not so quiet tonight!
below: As part of Cologne’s City Leaks street art festival, this mural was painted by Danjer Mola.
below: This mural is Okik Momoe’s little bird on a branch… in a fishbowl?
below: Preparing to paint a new mural by a community garden.
below: Immediately above the new painting (above) is a large mural depicting daily life in years gone by.
below: In fact, there is a matching mural on the other side of the garden lot.
below: Another gable mural, this one by Sat One.
below: A closer look at part of the mural
below: This cow, painted by The Kuhl Kid, is a common sight around Cologne. Here it is behind a fence
below: Even though most of the cow is missing, it is still recognizable as being the same as the one above. A little red heart glued into a jar lid seems perfectly placed between the cow’s ears.
below: Cars, pipes, and other accessories on a brick wall
below: Cars and flames. Why are flames so often associated with fast cars?
“Wo immer ich bin vernehme ich deine stimme ihr sinn Schwingt durch raum + zeit in sussem einklang Verbringen wir jede stunde”. Translation: Wherever I am, I hear your voice, it’s meaning, it resonates through space and time In sweet harmony we spend every hour.
Eyes on the Streets 