street art

Photo Essay: My Day at Art School in Mexico City

by Ekua on January 14, 2012 · 10 comments in captured on memory card,Mexico,street art

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had a friend from the States who was in Mexico City at the same time as me. She was there with a small art class and they were kind enough to let me tag along for one day of their mural painting.

The wall space they were provided with was located at CenArt, a colorful multidisciplinary art and education center in the Coyoacan borough of Mexico City. Painting is not a medium I specialize in, but I did get to put in a few strokes of light blue for the sky. I really enjoyed being in that environment for the day, surrounded by creative people in such an artistic space:

Really great art work on display on display in one of the lobbies.

Even the workshop space looked so artistic.

A work in progress.

A little garden made with recycled scraps.

Their almost finished mural against a backdrop of two very colorful buildings.

The resident cat relaxing in the bushes.

Centro Nacional de las Artes (CenArt)
Avenida Rio Churubusco 79
Colonia Country Club
Coyoacán, 04220
Ciudad de México

Visit their website for information on performances and exhibitions.

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Photo of the Day: Bursting Through the Berlin Wall

by Ekua on November 9, 2011 · 7 comments in captured on memory card,Germany,street art

As I was sifting through photos last night, I came across this shot of one of the coolest murals I saw in the street art-friendly city of Berlin. I spotted it at the East Side Gallery, a long stretch of murals that cover a section of remnants of the Berlin Wall.

The car smashing through the wall is a Trabant, the main vehicle of the German Democratic Republic (the former East Germany). The license place displays the date, November 9, 1989. That was the day the Berlin Wall fell.

I remember that day and the events that followed. I saw images of it on the news. Crowds poured across the border, people partied on top of the wall, and the emotions were intense. I was way too young to have any idea why such a border could exist and what the fall of it really meant, but I knew it was something big.

My young mind also couldn’t have imagined that almost twenty-two years later, I’d find myself standing in some of those same places I saw on the news, now with an understanding of that wall’s significance and a palpable sense of the potency of witnessing and experiencing history.

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Photo Essay: Street Art in Oaxaca

by Ekua on October 12, 2011 · 11 comments in captured on memory card,Mexico,race/culture/identity,street art

Stencil art, paintings, wheatpastes, stickers, and plain old graffiti found while roaming the streets of Oaxaca:

A Jimi Hendrix sticker pasted on a street sign.

Kudos to anyone who can explain this one to me.

I noticed several of these images in different locations throughout town during my time in Oaxaca.

A depiction of Emiliano Zapata, a leader during the Mexican Revolution. His name was later taken on by the Zapatista Army of National Resistance, the revolutionary group in Chiapas that rose up in the mid-90s.

A police monkey. The artist’s message is self explanatory.

I spotted this on a wall of someone’s private residence. I think it’s the coolest painting of La Virgen de Gaudalupe that I’ve seen thus far.

Partially scraped off, but still effective.

Another Love Klan stencil image. I thought the juxtaposition of the street art message and the “peligro” tape (the equivalent of caution tape in the United States) blowing in the wind in front of it was interesting.

It was unexpected to see an image of a woman with an afro and African features in Oaxaca.

A wall covered with various stencil art images and various messages.

A close up of some the stencil art lining the top of the wall.

Just some random graffiti.

Undoubtedly a favorite. I like the combination of photograph-like faces with wonky limbs and colorful blobs for bodies.

This mural is called “Juguemos Juntos” (Let’s Play Together) and it was painted as part of a Oaxaca cultural event in in May 2011 that discussed and celebrated the culture of people of African descent in the states of Oaxaca, Veracruz, and Guerrero.

I remember walking this way a year before and it was covered with murals. This summer it was covered with artsy graffiti. Street art is fleeting and that’s one reason why I like to capture it with my camera.

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