More mural art from my neighbourhood. This is from a back alley a few blocks away, behind a mix of commercial and residential buildings.
I thought I’d take you for a short walk this morning while I chat a bit about the conversation that my last post elicited. I began responding to comments there, then got too busy elsewhere, and I’m realizing now that perhaps it’s enough for me to initiate the conversation but then it’s okay to step back and let you talk. I know from comments that many of you appreciate my efforts to respond to all comments individually, but I also know you’re a sensitive and thoughtful bunch and you can see how time-consuming this gets. I’ve decided I’ll respond to those few comments that seem to require it, but otherwise just let you read and respond to each other. If you haven’t browsed the conversation yet, I urge you to — so rich!.
This isn’t a permanent change — but I can see that it might work for a certain kind of post, the kind that elicits a sharing of anecdotes or perspectives or memories, ones that you’re really sharing to a wider audience than just me. I hope that makes sense and that it doesn’t change your willingness to participate in conversations here. Let me know what you think.
As you’ll see above, while the murals generally fare quite well (many of those from last year’s Mural FEstival remain tag-free to date), this beautiful, geometrically fascinating wall by Priscilla Yu has been the victim of some vandalism by spray-can.
Below, this giraffe peeking out from an explosion of pink magnolia blossoms easily coaxed a smile from me on a Saturday morning walkabout a couple of weeks ago. I’ll definitely be heading them for some cheer on a dreary November day when smiles are harder to come by.
This mural has been up for several months now — there’s a bio of the artist, Ilya Viryachev, along with a short video of its creation last winter, here.
And below the mural, you can see that the art on the walls has inspired some philosophical adornment of the alley’s dumpsters. . . .
On the opposite side of the back lane, at a right angle to the murals above, is this gorgeous piece by portrait artist Francis Tiffany. Sadly a victim of some lesser talent armed with a spraycan, this mural is titled “Vancouver Summer Fun.” And while I’d have preferred it not to be so quickly defaced, I must say that there’s something about the con/text that speaks the city more clearly and honestly, to me at least, than if the same image had been painting on a large canvas and hung on a protected gallery wall. That drooping electrical cable, the bilingual warning about who may park here, that discarded paper coffee cup. . . . The location is so close to one of the city beaches, but for some it’s a world away. . .
And to wrap up today’s post, some photos from another day’s walk, in a different direction but still only blocks from my home. This mural is by Vancouver-based comic-book artist Johnnie Christmas (this is a cool article about work Christmas did last year with Margaret Atwood for the Angel Catbird series), and was painted last month for the 2017 Vancouver Mural Festival (note that on his Tumblr site, the artist thanks a number of “friends, loved ones, and volunteers” who grabbed brushes to help complete the mural).
I love the energy of this one. The sense of motion is strong, both latent and released. . .
And the colour! Again, if you know what Vancouver can be like (note the colour and message of the text above Christmas’s tiger), you can imagine how welcome this chromatic exuberance will be in November or February (or March, April, often May, for that matter).
That’s today’s tour. Hope you enjoyed it. Your comments are always welcome.
Beautiful murals on a morning walk. Hubby and I may be back in Vancouver in early December, and I'd like to feel the warmth rolling off that rosy wall during a dark winter morning's walk. I did a little pecking around the interwebz and found the Vancouver Mural Festival website at vanmuralfest.ca/ and locations of the 2017 murals. It's easy to imagine clasping a hot coffee with my mittens and tooling around those alleys. 🙂
Ann
Thanks for adding the Vancouver Mural Website link, Ann. I think I've included it in earlier posts, but I'll pop it in above as well. If you think you'll get to the area in early December, we could walk a few blocks together and stop for that coffee.
I would love that, Frances. Very gracious of you! If we do come up in December I'll give you ample notice. Thank you. 🙂
Ann
*We are in constant flux* Yup!
Dumpster wisdom 😉
All those murals seem a bit over the top for my taste. My preference would be to walk in a park with beautiful green grass, trees and some flower borders. Alternatively, a deserted beach also works nicely. That said, I am glad you are enjoying the murals in your neighborhood. Susan
I don't see it as either/or, Susan, but it's good to know what you like. I'm curious about what makes the murals "over the top," collectively? They strike me as being so varied, but it's true that they need to be strong enough to contend with an urban environment.
I love these murals. The giraffe, and even the woman with the spray paint tattoo;).
Ha! Yes, it's a tattoo, perfect! 😉
I do like urban edgy…that's what cities are. Next time we are in the BIG city we must take a stroll. I do admire what the mind can conjure up….in an artistic way.
All
And let me know if you spot some good murals on your travels…
I like murals and hate when beautiful buildings (or any buildings) are ruined by vandals and sprays-completely two very different things
We have new murals (not many in our city altogether) across the zoo,on my way home-this time by Academy of Arts students (not so big and interesting as yours :-)))
Dottoressa
Yes, they're very different things. I'm not happy to see beautiful buildings desecrated. That vandalism/graffiti, though, speaks a discontent and sense of disenfranchisement that is also part of a city and perhaps needs to be heard/seen.
If we get to Zagreb again, we'll have to check those murals out. You do have some marvellous Croatian street artists doing beautiful work.
I don't think we have anything like this in our city , nothing so accomplished . They work well in their situation but, as Dottoressa says , spray on squiggles on lovely buildings are not nice .
Wendy in York
I've just done a bit of Google research, and apparently you have a gorgeous new work in Stonegate at the back of Brown's Department Store. It was created by Los Angeles-based artists and layers various textual systems — calligraphy, hieroglyphics, Hebrew, medieval typographies — to reflect on moments in York's long history. Sounds worth a peek!