Sweet Paradise seen

Posted on June 5, 2017 by Mary C

I saw these three posters on street art covered walls in Athens.
They are both part of an award winning series by Brazilian photographer Fabricio Brambatti.

below: “My Sweet Paradise” by Fabricio Brambatti a.k.a. Urso Morto

poster on an outdoor wall, a person wrapped in a red blanket and lying on the sidewalk

The small print on the bottom right of these two posters says:
” This is a poster part of the Guerilla Exhibition – https://void.photo “

below: “My Sweet Paradise” by Fabricio Brambatti a.k.a. Urso Morto

poster on a wall outdoors, of a man sleeping in a shopping cart outside.

below: Near the top right corner is another poster from the “My Sweet Paradise” series – the photo of the man lying on a black and white tiled floor. He is bleeding. There are many posters by #ironik on this wall as well.

a motorcycle is parked in front of a wall covered with posters. Some are advertisements and some are graffiti

Link to more information about Brambatti.

sprayed on the sidewalks of LA

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Mary C

As you walk around the Arts District in Los Angeles, watch where your feet are going.
You’ll see many stencils that have been spray painted underfoot.

This first one, women in head scarves, is obviously a political statement.
It was also the only stencil that was in two colours.

below: Dangerous insects, with scoped rifles for wings.

below: … and a dragonfly too. Weaponized terrorist bugs.
No wait, they’re Homeland Security agents in disguise.

below: No money, No honey.

below: Social media is selling your shit. Apparently there is a third one that says “Seeking your applause, your digital mirage” but I didn’t see it.

below: A red extremist. Love extremists.

below: A dove with a rose in its beak, La Rosa

below: I am fairly certain that the word says iagily but I haven’t been able to find any info online.

below: Got love?

below: I have always seen you. That’s the chorus/refrain from the song ‘Harriet’ by American Appetites. There may be other references?

below: Campbells soup made of vegans? or for vegans?

below: The last one is not actually a stencil but I couldn’t resist including it here.

Photos taken February 7, 2017

meating place and others

Posted on January 12, 2017 by Mary C

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?

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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.

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

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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.

Allentown (Buffalo) street art

Posted on January 10, 2017 by Mary C

The Allentown area of Buffalo is now home to some interesting murals. If you walk around the neighbourhood of Allen Street and College Street, this is what you might see:

below: ‘Voyage’ by Chuck Tingley, 2014. Commissioned by MyBuffaloPride and Loop Magazine and dedicated to Buffalo’s LGBT community and its allies. “In a world of scrutiny, we have the power to embrace our differences and use our inner light to guide us through the darkest of times.”

a mural called Voyage painted by Chuck Tingley on the side of a building in Buffalo, a large multicoloured boy is sitting in a small boat and holding on to a yellow paddle. The sky is rainbow colours.

below: The corner of Allen Street and Wadsworth Street.

intersection in Buffalo with old two storey square front storefronts. wet road, rainy day, liquor store on the corner that is now empty but the sign only half works - only half the letters in the word liquor are lit.

below: Nietzsche (German composer and philosopher) with the quote “Without music life would be a mistake”. When I googled to make sure that that was an actual quote, I found a quote from a letter that he wrote in 1888: “Music … frees me from myself, it sobers me up from myself, as though I survey the scene from a great distance … It is very strange. It is as though I had bathed in some natural element. Life without music is simply an error, exhausting, an exile.” The picture is on the side of a Nietzsche Bar.

street art picture of Nietzsche head and shoulders in black and white along with a quote that says Without music life would be a mistake.

below: It’s About Time, with three red fists on the upper part of the Allen Street Hardware Cafe. One is holding a yellow paint roller and one is holding a yellow spray paint can. The third fist is in the background and is holding either tools or paint brushes or markers? Painted by the Allen Street Street Art Collective (ASSA).

a brick two storey store with a mural on the upper part in red, yellow and black, with the words It's about time. The picture in the mural is three red fists. One is holding a yellow paint roller and one is holding a yellow spray paint can. Another mural is in the background, a car parked on the wet street, a pedestrian on the sidewalk

below: ‘Tribute to Spain Rodriguez’ by Ian DeBeer. Rodriguez was a comic artist who was born in Buffalo and the piece is largely about a fight that he got into in the bar across the street (once the Jamestown, now the Nietzsche).

long horizontal mural drawn like a comic book strip, dedicated to the memory of Spain Rodriguez and painted by Ian DeBeers in 2013, a large woman's face with bright red lips, the word 'she; painted in red, a motorcylce, a man wearing a hat,

a motorcycle, part of a larger mural

below: When this mural was first completed, the grey parts were black. The large picture of the man that stands between the windows on the left and those in the middle, was quite distinct. Now, you might have missed him when you first looked at the picture.

the front of a building is covered with black and white poster sized pictures of people.

below: The pink stripes in the background of the finger-like portions of this mural have also faded considerably since the mural was painted in 2013. “The work we do is not for the faint of heart”.

a mural on the side of a building. On the left is a purple and black drawing of what looks like fingers. on the right are yellow and turquoise stripes with the words, the work we do is not for the faint of heart

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below: The last ASSA mural features an iron fireman. It’s a long horizontal mural with the words Iron and Fireman written in large letters over shapes that resemble flames.

word Iron written in large letters, part of a mural

below: Between the two words is a painting of a black ‘iron fireman’, a robot-like creature shovelling coal to feed the fire. This was the logo for the Iron Fireman, a coal stoker first developed in the 1920’s by Thomas Harry Banfield and Cyrus Jury Parker. A coal stoker mechanically feeds coal into a furnace or boiler – the Iron Fireman was a commercial success in the days when coal was a commonly used fuel.

picture of a black robot figure shovelling coal

word fireman written on large letters in a mural, brick buildings (apartments) behind, cars parked in front.

below: One of the other interesting things about Buffalo is how the architecture is different here, or at least different from what I am used to in Toronto. The building with the green details on the front is the Puritan Building, built in 1893. It has recently been renovated with the Billy Club restaurant on the ground level and three storeys of apartments above. And yes, that is a purple house on the right. Many of the houses in the area are painted in bright and cheerful colours.

mural in the middle gound, two low rise buildings in the background, one is the Puritan building with green details around the windows in the front of the building.

below: She’s almost disappeared.

very faded street art piece of crouched young girl with a pony tail - although it is faded enough that I might be wrong.

below: But he’s as vibrant as ever.

a painting of a man has been mounted in an arched window, covers the window.

a red brick building, side of a store, bottom part has been painted orange, probably to paint over graffiti, but has since been tagged twice, once in black and once in red, a parking lot is in front of the wall, with a small snowbank at the edge.

a door is covered with graffiti stickers.

Jerome Street graffiti, Shoreditch

Posted on October 13, 2016 by Mary C

Just east of Commercial street in Tower Hamlets, Shoreditch is Jerome Street, one of many little streets in the area. The old home of Godfrey Phillips Ltd, tobacco and cigarette manufacturers is at the corner of Jerome and Commercial. The lower level with the red brick and large windows is now a restaurant.

a view up Jerome street, old industrial brick buildings.

below: It’s a bird, it’s a plane…. no it’s suit wearing mallards with proper footwear. Face the Strange.

three face the strange stickers, men with mallard duck heads and wings and wearing suits, are flying

below: Go fly your kite with this cute teddy bear by unify.

a teddy bear paste up or stencil sits on the sidewalk. he is holding a kite string in his paw and the kite is above him on the wall. A green sticker says go fly your kite. The signature says unify. the word unify is written many times in the kite in different colours to make a design on the kite.

below: An assortment of stickers and paste ups. A man with Mickey Mouse ears – Magic Kingdon, Join the Club. Three of the posters are in Italian – one is mostly obscured by the skull, the one below the skull translates to “I have the memory of a goldfish” and the one above Mickey ears is a longer description of how this person can’t describe is love for another. The poetry is the work of Movimento per l’Emancipazione della Poesia.

many pieces of street art, including a man wearing mickey mouse ears, a large grinning skull in yellow and orange, and poems written on posters in Italian.

below: A tribute to Prince

a paste up street art piece in tribute to the musician Prince, his head in profile in a heart with purple accents

below: Another assortment of stickers and paste ups. Another Join the Club, Mickey mouse based paste up – this time with “Where dreams come true”. Also, more Face the Strange but instead of flying ducks, we have fruit portraits. Do men look better with grapes or oranges instead of faces? I like the matching gloves on strawberry man. Lastly, I think that’s Queen Elizabeth in the pink and blue poster, along with I made you a moron. Think of it what you will. I suspect that the Rebel Rabbet sticker was added later.

stickers and paste up street art on a metal box and wall on a street corner including 6 posters by Face the Strange where men's portraits have fruits instead of heads, orange, grapes, strawberry, banana, and apple. Two other paste ups as well.

below: Stick figures with something to say, even if it’s things like “Danger is only safe in pairs”, “Once all this was just a memory” and “You can’t paint a hen”.

black outlined stick figures with white word bubbles, two people and a dog.

below: The whole wall (fence)

brown wall with barbed wire across the top, covered with graffiti

below: Another view of the street

looking down a short narrow street with three or four storey brick buildings on either side, construction of a building at the end of the street, covered with green netting on the bottom, and white plastic on the top

below: London beach on construction hoardings

construction hoardings covered with street art, a Road closed sign is in front.

Photos taken in September 2016

more Dublin street art

Posted on October 11, 2016 by Mary C

Street art seen September 2016 in various parts of the city.

below: A place for Jenny to sit on a rainy day, by Albenty.

mural on a wll painted white, by Albenty and for Jenny, a red straight back wood chair with a red umbrella hovering above it

below: Wanted Kats, the Superhero Lady, by Amanda Deer, on a metal box beside the street.

on a metal box beside the road, a blue kat superhero woman with an rocket tank on her back, brih=ght pink background, by Amanda Deer

below: “Trust me, you’re lovely.”

a young man on his phone is standing in front of a street art painting, lavender colour background with a boy and girl withtheir back to the viewer. THe boy has his arm around the shoulder of the girl. There is a heart in the upper right corner, outlined in red and containing the words Trust me you're lovely.

below: “Once we were heroes”, by canvaz

stencil of a man sitting on a stool, wearing a suit and hat, and holding a sign with red letters on white that say Once we were heroes.

below: “I feel free when I’m riding a horse in the wild… Also when I take Ecstasy”

wall painted red, stencil of a horse's head plus some blobs in green, yellow and blue. Words written on it that say I feel free when I ride a horse in the wild and when I take ecstasy

below: Making his escape on Earl Street.

altered red and white circular no entry street sign, a black figure is trying to climb out of the white horizontal bar

below: U Are Alive

mural, diagonal rainbow stripes for the background, large white letters for the words U are alive

below: Better together crayons. Red + Blue = Purple. By peachydublin

a poster of three crayons standing together and holding hands. The one in the middle is purple and it's shorter, On either side is red and blue. At least that's what the words say, only the blue has been coloured in, signed #peachydublin

below: Making music, musical shamrocks

black stencil on a wall, a girl is playing a trumpet and out of the trumpet come shamrocks, three leaf clovers

below: Believe. A portrait of Kate Taylor, an Irish boxer and winner of a gold medal in the 2012 Olympics in the lightweight division.

poster on a grubby dirty white wall of a woman in profile, black with white top and red boxing gloves held in front of her chest. The word believe is written in capital letters under her

below: Pink vines growing towards the door by the bridge.

man walking away from the camera, walking past a mural on the side of a shop, pink vine growing upwards, a small round balcony with a window.

below: On the wolf’s back. Available

black drawing on white of a woman sitting the shoulders of a person with a wolf head, hands on her knees, signed Available

below: A yellow horned animal on the street

mural of a yellow horned animal on the side of a store, beside the sidewalk

below: Vote yes for marriage equality.

two adjoining window shapes with brown frames and rounded tops. On the left a picture of a man voting yes with the words marriage equality. On the right the word yes in yellow with a yellow heart.

below: Two pieces. Trees, mountains and sun that has been tagged over and second, a long blue haired person by Evolve Urban Art.

two street art paintings on a yellowish stucco wall, side of a building. One is a stylized landscape with trees, mountains and sun that has a large tag on top of it. The other is a person with long blue hair, hand by chin, head and shoulders only, by Evolve Urban Art

below: Another piece by Evolve Urban Arts, this time on Thomas Street.

a street corner in Dublin, two men are walking on the sidewalk past a shop, Welsh's confectioner that is closed. A street art painting is on the metal screen or awning that covers the window of the shop.

below: What caught my eye here was the word “Don’t” on the door. Perhaps Simone and Caitlin were here too.

exterior of the The Tenters Bar in red with black trim, closed and boarded up. The door is brown. Stencilled on the door is the word Don't. Simone and Caitlin are also written in white on the red wall.

below: Space invaders, cute little creatures, come in peace.

a line of 5 space invader creatures from the video game, with the words we come in peace under them.

below: I saw this face a number of times in various sizes…

large paste up a man's face, white with black line drawn features, on grey wood hoardings in front of a construction site.

below: … including this one, diceman by canvaz

large paste up of a man's head on a door of a grubby dirty white wall.

below: A cute little white cat and white dog surrounded by flower petals.

flowers in different colours, black and white pattern on petals, plus red petals, yellows and pinks too. In the background a pink blob with words written on it, street art,

a metal street box is covered with a colourful painting of a shite skull decorated like Mexican day of the dead on a many patterened background.

abstract painting street art on the side of a building and over the door, many colours and shapes

little street art painting of a yellow and black little guy with face towards the wall (or is faceless)

below: A younger Seamus Heaney, Irish poet. 1939-2013. Winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

poster of a portrait of a man with ripped corners

Yeats poem, Sligo

Posted on October 7, 2016 by Mary C

On a wall in Sligo Ireland, written large, is a poem by William Butler Yeats. It is called “When You are Old” and it goes like this:

a mural covers the side of a multistorey building, a woman's head and lines of poetry, When you are old by William Butler Yeats.

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

below: A mural that is a portrait of the poet, William Butler Yeats on the side of house undergoing renovations.

city streets in Sligo Ireland with houses, pedestrians and road. A crane is being used to demolish the top part of a house. On the side of that house, exterior, is a large mural that is a portrait of the poet William Butler Yeats (W.B. Yeats)

evolving word bubbles, Hosier Lane

Posted on January 29, 2016 by Mary C

Hosier Lane in downtown Melbourne is always full of tourists. If you search online for street art in Melbourne, you will certainly find Hosier Lane. Like a lot of popular graffiti places, there is some good street art and there is some junk. I have been to Hosier Lane a few times now and what is interesting is how frequently things change in the alley. New paintings, or new little things are always popping up.

below: I took this picture, and the next one, the first time that I was in Hosier Lane.

graffiti on wall, words that say I have no idea what any of this shit on the walls say? Nice colours though

below: The thought bubble in the foreground was a much more popular place to pose.

Lots of graffiti on the wall of Hosier Lane, windows with metal bars over them, a man poses in front of words that say "Maybe if I pose for a picture in front of this wall it will help to hide the fact that my life is a lie"

Lots of graffiti on the wall of Hosier Lane, windows with metal bars over them, a woman poses in front of words that say "Maybe if I pose for a picture in front of this wall it will help to hide the fact that my life is a lie" while a man takes her picture with a smartphone camera

below: On a subsequent visit to the lane, the instructions became a bit more explicit.
I love the sneering pink face beside the sign!

below: The third time I saw this wall, a life size man had been added.
Take your picture with a stranger!

below: The other word bubble had also been added to.

An Asian woman poses in front of a wall of graffiti. On the wall in large red letters are the words 'look at me'

words on Sydney walls

Posted on January 25, 2016 by Mary C

These words were all found in Newtown, Sydney.

below: “Oh Ian I’ll bring the old box where the quiet lies and the time died.
Oh Ian I’ll bring it all for you to see – Ian”
em>and “How could he

Two sets of words, one on white paste-up on a brown wall, and one written directly on the wall in black marker. On the white: How could he only ve been thinking for 4 two days/isn't thinking an ongoing process. and on the brown: Oh Ian I'll bring the old box where the quiet lies and time died. Oh Ian I'll bring it all for you to see - Ian.

below: “Oh Benita please don’t stick a knife into Linda.”

poster on wall that says Oh Benita please don't stick a knife into Linda. A picture of a toaster is below the words.

below: Kind? and P–? 2015

old, ripped past-up that had words on it, a hole it in reveals a drawing of a person underneath

below: “He was a tag |a used kleenex | a big wreck – Latham”

A white poster shaped paste up of a man sprawled on a chair wearing just underpants. Lots of empty beer bottles on the floor around him. Words above him say "He was a tag. a used kleenex. a big wreck" signed by Latham.

below: “When people tell me to look on the bright side I take that as a tacit permission to murder them – Vivi”

words written in block letters, black marker on brick wall "When people tell me to look on the bright side I take that as a tacit permission to murder them. Vivi"

below: “All is motion. Stillness is an imaginary state, future and past, the indoors and outdoors. We ‘the now’ merely a window through the pictures pass”

sticker on a one way sign, black words on white. All is motion. Stillness is an imaginary state, future and past, the indoors and outdoors. We 'the now' merely a window through the pictures pass

below: poetry in yellow

A poem written in yellow on an old wood fence

graffiti | paste-ups | words | street art

after the last departure

Posted on December 21, 2015 by Mary C

The last train left Buffalo Central Terminal station on October 28, 1971. Many of the platforms remain, abandoned for more than forty years. It was a modern structure when it was built in 1929 but now it lies in disrepair. The upper level offices and waiting rooms are open to the elements and the tracks are overgrown.

graffiti on the walls of an abandoned building, blue and green tags

There are few reminders of its former life

pink concrete post with an old painting on it, red circle with white words that says fire extinguisher here. Someone has written in yellow below it, not anymore.

but most things that could be removed were ripped out long ago.

crumbling brick pillers in front of a wall on which someone has written Slime heads

large pink hand giving a thumbs down sign, graffiti on a wall. the words Urban scar have been written beside it. The hand is in a large yellow oval shape

graffiti painting - a man with the words Can't you see? The foundation is crumbling. Trashman is written in large red letters, also a mock coca-cola logo
hole in a brick wall, through the hole can be seen graffiti writing on the wall that says Dawg tag klew memba only!

An x has been cut into the edge of piece of corrugated metal. Someone has painted two white dots above it to make it into a face

graffiti painting of a person's head with wide brimmed red hat covering the upper part of the face. Words coming from his/her mouth are: For adult intellectuals only. On a wall in an abanded train station

walls in a state of decay and crumbling, with scrawls and graffiti on them

broken brick wall with an orange and yellow bright tag on it.

a wall with yellow and white tags, an abandoned train station, the room is now open to the elements

a blue tag that says youlok on a wall in an abandoned building

red and white horizontal striped square painted on a wall of an abandoned building with a drawing of a padlock on top of it. Brand name of the lock is master.

pink and purple stencilled butterflies on a concrete post

Words and other graffiti written on grey walls of an abandoned train station in Buffalo, one set of words says This place is a prison. Another set of words says Our work was good

street art paintings on the walls of an abandoned train platform.

red and white horizontal stripes in a square with a large H.A. painted on top of it. Someone has made the first period into an exclamation mark. Written in black on top it are the words Life Lyfe Nigger

a large spiral made with spray paint on a concrete block wall

Eyes on the Streets

and feets on the ground. Graffiti, street art and murals seen while wandering the streets and alleys of our colourful world.

Tag Archives: words