City Paint Phoenix 4 – behind the Barrio Cafe
The images from this next installment of City Paint Phoenix are from my first tour of the city with the intent of documenting its street art. I made them on August 10 of 2014…and if you notice that the angle and the lighting are a bit off, or awkward, or could simply be better, do note that I began shooting at 9:15 in the morning and, while the sun was clearly up and above the horizon, it had not yet made it up above this building, so I was not able to stand far enough away to make straight-on images, as the sun would have been shining directly into the camera. At any rate, here’s what I found. This mural is located on the back and west facing side of the Barrio Cafe, among other shops, at the address of 2814 N 16th Street. The Barrio Cafe has its own bit of artwork, so I will feature all of that in another post.
The first three images are looking north along the building…and the gallery that follows includes photos taken while walking back toward the south.
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Remember that you can click on any image in the gallery to be taken to the slide show that presents each image in a larger format.
If you’d like to see a photo series of the mural actually being composed, click on this link to Calle 16 Mural Project’s Facebook page and scroll down to entries dated 12/30/2012. It’s rather fascinating seeing it all come together. And…if you’d like to see more posts on street art and graffiti in both Phoenix and Salt Lake City, you can scroll to the bottom of this page and click on Street Art – Graffiti under the Categories widget.
City Paint Phoenix 3 – Flowers…with a Salt Lake City connection….
I’ve been traveling the streets of Phoenix for the past five months with a new eye that is open and welcoming of things that I had never noticed in my earlier years of living here. If you’ve been following this blog for at least a little while, you might know or recall that I’ve recently returned to this desert home after living in the Salt Lake City area for about four years…after having lived here in Phoenix for over 20 years…and you might remember, too, that I started a City Paint series in Phoenix that was similar to a series that I had going in Salt Lake for a couple of years. Well…this is the third post in my collection of graffiti and street art displays that I’ve discovered while driving about my new/old home.
This flower shop is located on the south-east corner of 5th Street and Roosevelt Street, just south of the center of town in an area that has become something of an art district over the last several years. From all appearances, the flower shop has closed its doors for business…the rooms were empty as I looked in from the street…and as you can tell by looking at this second image, the plaster is cracking on the wall and the paint is beginning to peel…which is understandable, given that the mural is on the west-facing wall of the building and in near constant exposure to the desert sun.
When I did a Google search of the artists (as provided by the names under the “E” in the first photo), I found that El Mac had created another image that I had seen in the past…which I had shared in another blog post almost three years ago. I featured the below photograph in In the Heart of the City and in City Paint 4 – Tucked-Away Alley-Way, and provided a third glimpse of it in the first image from City Paint 17 – Gallenson’s Gun-shop Elk Mural.
You can find these murals on El Mac’s web site at Ave Maria and Kofie and Mac…pages five and eight if you want to visit from going to his home-page. After you get to his home-page, click on the “Spraypaint” subheading…and be prepared to be amazed at what you’ll find. If you’d like to view more posts on the street art, building murals, and related graffiti that I’ve discovered in both the Salt Lake and Phoenix areas, you can scroll to the bottom of this page and click on Street Art – Graffiti under the Categories widget to see the earlier other posts.
City Paint Phoenix 2 – Hair Pollution
It’s been a few weeks since I started the City Paint Phoenix series, but here’s the second installment…all images were taken the same morning as the first of the series, City Paint Phoenix 1 – “Old Man Phoenix.” I don’t have a single image of the entire mural, as I would have had to stand a couple of dozen feet further away, and doing so would have brought me fully into the morning sun, so please try to imagine these first six images linked together from left to right, and you’ll have the entire mural. This piece of art is on the west-facing wall of a salon named, “Hair Pollution,” at 1524 E McDowell Road in Phoenix proper. I’m not sure how long the mural has been on this wall, but I found various links to it on-line, dating from 2012…when the paint was much less faded by the Arizona sun.
The second collection of photographs are close-ups or isolation shots of the various components, elements of the greater mural that struck me as significant in their singularity and caused me to wonder at how and why they might or could be related in such a way that would cause the artist, Joerael Julian Elliott, to combine them in this presentation. By the way, if you follow the link to the artist’s website, you’ll find (among other fantastic and wonderful things) a photo of the mural in its full form if you click on the “Public, and then the “Street” tabs. Also, please remember that you can click on any image to be taken to a slide-show that provides an even closer look at each photograph.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this second showing in the series of City Paint Phoenix…a representation of some of the street and building art that I’ve found during my commute and wanderings in my new and old home of Phoenix, Arizona, USA. If you’d like to see earlier postings, from both Phoenix and Salt Lake City, you can scroll to the bottom of this page and find the Categories widget…click on Street Art – Graffiti, and you’ll be taken to a continuous scroll of those earlier posts. Thank you for visiting….
