boxed in Tirana

below: Hippity hipster rabbit with sunglasses and tatts.

painted sidewalk box on a sidewalk in Tirana, a hipster with rabbit head, wearing sunglasses and with tattoos on his arm

below: Sargent Pepper theme, character in green with drums – Ringo Starr from the Beatles.

painted sidewalk box on a sidewalk in Tirana, Sargent Pepper cartoon character in green and playing drums, like Ringo Starr

below: A second Sargent Pepper character but this time it’s George Harrison in yellow. I didn’t see the other Beatles but I wouldn’t be surprised if they are in the city somewhere.

painted sidewalk box on a sidewalk in Tirana, Sargent Pepper cartoon character in yellow playing guitar while sitting cross legged on the floor

below: A child rides on the back of a white goose as it flies in front of a boat. The boy, in the red hat, is Nils and he has been bewitched by an elf so that he is only a few inches tall. The goose is his transportation and together they have adventures. Nils saves the goose and some ducks from a hungry fox; he also rescues a baby squirrel from a hunter. The Nils books were written in the early 1900s by Selma Lagerlof (Swedish), the first woman to win a Nobel prize in literature.

painted sidewalk box on a sidewalk in Tirana, large white goose flying over a wooden boat

below: Beavis and Butthead from the 1990s animated TV series.

painted sidewalk box on a sidewalk in Tirana, television characters from the 1990s, Beavis and Butthead, sitting on a red couch

below: Green Frankenstein.

painted sidewalk box on a sidewalk in Tirana, portrait of Frankenstein with green face

below: Blue woman with a feather

the narrow side of painted sidewalk box on a sidewalk in Tirana, painted blue with the portrait of a woman

below: His arms are covered with tattoos but the face has been defaced (or was very strange to begin with?) so I am having trouble figuring out who the character is.

painted sidewalk box on a sidewalk in Tirana,

below: Angry bird on the right, standing beside another hipster rabbit. The words stencilled on the box, “Nidermarrja e Dekorit Bashkia Tirane”, roughly translates to Decoration Enterprise, Tirana Municipality. There is a Dekori – Bashkia Tirane instagram page that features some of the artists whose works are found Tirane.

two painted sidewalk box on a sidewalk in Tirana, the one on the right is a red angry bird from the game

below: Chuck Norris

painted sidewalk box on a sidewalk in Tirana, portrait of man with text that says Chuck Norris counted to infinity twice

below: Quentin Tarantino.

painted sidewalk box on a sidewalk in Tirana, portrait of Quentin Tarantino

below: A tiger growls at the passing traffic

painted sidewalk box on a sidewalk in Tirana, tiger with open mouth

below: An older man with many birds in his beard, inspired by a poem by Edward Lear:
” There was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said, “It is just as I feared!—
Two Owls and a Hen, four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard.”

painted sidewalk box on a sidewalk in Tirana, man with large grey beard with birds in it

below: A rooster on a cat on a dog on a donkey in the night. This time it is a story that is referenced here, “The Town Musicians of Bremen”. Although the story dates from the 12th century it was first published in 1819 by the Brothers Grimm. It is the tale of 4 older animals no longer useful on their farms who meet up and decide to go to the city of Bremen to be musicians. They never get there but they have other adventures instead (you’ll have to read the story to get the details!)

painted sidewalk box on a sidewalk in Tirana, silhouettes of animals stacked on top of a donkey.  A rooster sits at the top.  Cat and dog in the middle, night time

below: Another story – here it is Peter Pan and the Darling children, Wendy, John, and Michael, flying off to Never Never Land.

painted sidewalk box on a sidewalk in Tirana, yellow box with black silhouettes of Peter Pan and the three children flying through the sky

below: Bob Marley in front of Hops.

painted sidewalk box on a sidewalk in Tirana, portrait of reggae musician Bob Marley

Corbet Place, Shoreditch

Here are a few photos of the graffiti that I saw on Corbet Place, London E1.

below: Into the machine, a MCLN plague doctor paste up.
The words in the background are ‘Dreamland Emporium’

a mcln plague doctor paste up

below: With horus, and with eyes all over, another MCLN plague doctor.

a mcln plague doctor paste up with the word horus on it as well as an eye

below: A face at the end of the street.

a truck painted in yellow and red stripes is parked on the side of a narrow street, brick three storey buildings on either side, graffiti on the wall at the end of the lane

below: Hello, is it me you’re looking for?  Not where you’d expect to find Lionel Ritchie.

a bright pink rectangle paste up with a neon green milk bpttle with blue highlights, words, hello is it me you're looking for, with a picture of Lionel Ritchie

below: A Voxx face, Stay Lucky, Code, and a Mario Brothers (sort of!)

stickers and paste ups graffiti on a wall, Mario brothers parody, man by voxx,

below: On the wall at the corner of Jerome and Corbet. A very messy wall.

a wall covered with tags and other graffiti, stencils, paint, paste ups, surrounding a yard by an apartment complex, brick building in the background
below: I’m doubtful that this is actually on Corbet Place but it’s nearby and it’s colourful!

mural in yellow and blue on exterior wall of urban outfitters in Shoreditch London, abstract face with white eyes and teeth

Photos were taken in September.

Braithwaite Street, Shoreditch

blog_braithwaite_street_sign_london

Most of Braithwaite Street is under railway tracks next to Shoreditch High Street station on the London Overground.   The south end of the street used to be called Wheler Street and appears as such on google maps.  Photos taken September 2016.

street art paste up of two people, man and woman, that look like inflatable dolls. The woman is holding the leash of a balloon dog.

below: Mssd Connctn, To the one who could have been everything, sorry I swiped left.

street art and graffiti in Shoreditch England, on Braithwaite Street,

below: More of the detailed grasshopper pasteups (previously seen on Grimsby Street) and an old paper pasteup of a Chanel No. 5 perfume bottle…. this one full of skulls.   The perfume bottle is the work of endless.

street art and graffiti in Shoreditch England, on Braithwaite Street, a grasshopper paste up, an old chanel number 5 perfume bottle

below: Above the grasshoppers is a headless flying horse or pony.  The star on its backside suggests that it’s from My Little Pony.

street art and graffiti in Shoreditch England, on Braithwaite Street, paste up of a flying pony with its head cut off, also a dodo bird

below: Portrait of a street artist with spray can, respirator, tattoos, and bling, by Cloakwork.

street art and graffiti in Shoreditch England, on Braithwaite Street, mural of a large fat man with gas mask on and spray paint can in hand by cloak work

below: Graffiti under the bridge.

street art and graffiti in Shoreditch England, on Braithwaite Street, on the curved walls of an underpass, darkish, with a couple of people walking under the bridge

below: A jumble of facial features.

an arch under a brick bridge is covered with plywood and painted blue. On it is a jumbled face in five pieces. Two people are sitting on the kerb in front of it.

below: A collection of little graffiti pieces high on a brick wall.

street art and graffiti in Shoreditch England, on Braithwaite Street, three little pieces on a brick wall behind a wire fence

below: Another chanel perfume bottle by endless, this time Marymee and eau de streetart.  The cat playing card has some tiny words written on the bottom including, @hellothemushroom.  A google search reveals this to be the work of Sara Doucette.

street art and graffiti in Shoreditch England, on Braithwaite Street, a yellow chanel perfume bottle with MaryMee on the label as well as eau de street art. Also a playing card, ace, with cat face on it, and the words @hellothemushroom

street art and graffiti in Shoreditch England, on Braithwaite Street, a woman walks past construction hoardings covered with street art

street art and graffiti in Shoreditch England, on Braithwaite Street, large mural of a woman with back to viewer, lifting up the skin on her back to reveal digital codes

below: A painting by Nathan Bowen.

street art and graffiti in Shoreditch England, on Braithwaite Street, a painting by Nathan Bowed on a man in yellow clothes (a clown?)

below: A few pasteups including one that resembles Lt. Vincent although it’s a little bearded guy in a snail shell being pulled by a large red cat.

street art and graffiti in Shoreditch England, on Braithwaite Street, six or seven paste ups on a wall, including a Lt. Vincent being pulled by a cat

below: Pink, fuzzy and spread eagle on a wall – a large teddy bear.

street art and graffiti in Shoreditch England, on Braithwaite Street, a pink teddy bear with terry cloth body high on a wall, beside a black and white pasteup of a bomb

below: Rapid.  Mask and goggles. Street art by Someart

street art and graffiti in Shoreditch England, on Braithwaite Street, a painting of a man's head wearing balaclava and goggles, with word bubble that says I am Rapid Some Art

below: Shoot the Bank with photos added above and “Not Art” sprayed below.

street art and graffiti in Shoreditch England, on Braithwaite Street, black and white piece Shoot The Bank with a picture of a man in mask and with rifle. In red spray paint someone has written over it Not Art. 8 posters above it, with photos

below: ‘Stranger Things’ from the Netflix series.

street art and graffiti in Shoreditch England, on Braithwaite Street, mural entitled strange things, man in old fashioned scuba mask waving, in turquoise background.

below: Construction hoardings on Braithwaite immediately south of the tracks around what used to be a car park.

street art and graffiti in Shoreditch England, on Braithwaite Street, construction hoardings covered with street art

below: Continuation of the hoardings… the red brick building is Bedford House, at the corner of Quaker and Braithwaite streets.

street art and graffiti in Shoreditch England, on Braithwaite Street, construction hoardings covered with street art

below: Another Nathan Bowen work, this time beside a strange drawing by Clancy.

street art and graffiti in Shoreditch England, on Braithwaite Street, a painting of a Buckingham palace guard with its bushy black hat and red uniform, on a union jack by Nathan Bowen and a drawing of a man sitting on a sidewalk by Clancy

 

Brick Lane, Shoreditch

There is a lot of street art and graffiti in Shoreditch and one of the streets where it is plentiful is Brick Lane.   There is much more than be covered in one blog post.  What follows is a selection of the street art that I saw in that area back in March.  I’ve tried to find the artist as often as possible…  but it’s not always possible!

below: Four people, quadruplets, standing at attention with eyes forward, on a wall.

paste up of four men standing in a line, shoulder to shoulder, on a background of graffiti tags.

below: Letters pasted on a wall, “Expand your comfort zone” but with D, U and Z missing.
A couple of faces looking on.

words on a graffiti covered wall that once said Expand your comfort zone, but some of the letters are missing and others are starting to peel.
below: Posters by agheras73 aka Arturo Garcia de las Heras

a row of posters showing a man in various jumping poses, each with a different coloured background, green, orange, red and blue.

street art of a man with skull face, helmet and googles on his forehead, ammo belt across his chest.

paste up of a woman's head, black sunglasses, with some red details and highlights on her face

below: On the left is a woman in profile by Irish artist Iljin.

three graffiti faces on a wall, one woman in profile painted in blues and two identical black and white paste ups of a young man

street art and graffiti on a wall, a woman in a green skirt suit and some creature's heads

below: Blue head, red head, @ne_illustration aka Nathan Evans.

two large heads by ne illustrations, a blue head and a red head.

below: Love, love bunny-ish paste up and love on polka dots.

a square paste up of a rabbit's head and a circular paste up below it, white polka dots on blue with the word love written in cursive in the center.

 

below: “This being human is a guest house.”

scribbled drawn line drawing of a face with a wide open mouth, amongst other written graffiti on the wall

below: He stands guard by the door while she watches the passersby.

a very small black stencil of a man with a target as a head, standing on a wall, with feet at sidewalk level . Near him is a woman's face painted on the wall of a doorway

below: A likeness of Frida Kahlo sitting cross legged with her hands in her lap, a few scribbles by Elsie and a paste up of Lt. Vincent and his cat  – his red, white and blue character is seen  running all over Shoreditch.

a paste up of Frida sitting crossed legged on the floor, hands in lap,

below: What do a plastic toy helicopter and airplane, a scrunched up foil wrapper, part of a German cigarette package (rauchen mindert ihre fruchtbarkeit = smoking reduces fertility), a pink pencil and a picture of what looks like Richard Nixon (who is it?) have to do with each other?  Not sure, you’ll have to ask artist Mr. Fahrenheit.  He’s the maker of the art with U R so Porno Baby.

street art picture of Richard Nixon's head, with red paint splattered below.

below: Queen Elizabeth over and over again (also the work of Mr. Fahrenheit), along with Pinch Rio whoever he may be.  Do the numbers on the poster have any significance?  The bottom line is a date but the others are a mystery.

many identical paste ups of Queen Elizabeth's head, outlined in different colours, pasted on a wall,