You don't need to head to the Getty or the Broad to see some fabulous art in Los Angeles. Just looking around you, you can't help but notice a ton of great murals adorning the urban landscape throughout the city. Here are a few cool pieces that I stumbled upon during my recent stay in Los Angeles. I grew up in the Marais, so I have razor sharp eyes when it comes to spotting a Space invader piece. This particular one can be seen near the Black Cat in Silver Lake. Also in Silverlake, these colourful staircases. 52 staircases lace the hillsides of Silver Lake, dating back to a time when most residents didn’t have cars. Two of them, #StairTempo and the Micheltorena Stairs, received a boost of ...
Off the Beaten Path
Pow! Wow! D.C. – Murals in Progress in NoMa
Famed Los Angeles-based French street artist Mr. Brainwash recently painted an awesome mural on the wall of Union Market (read more about it here) and was quoted saying that he'd be back in the District because “Washington, D.C. needs it,” having so many “blank walls that could have messages for people to see life more beautifully.” Well, right now, a couple of blank walls in NoMa are getting some graffiti love as part of Pow! Wow! DC, a week long art festival. Most of the murals are still works in progress at this time, and Thursday night, I joined a (rather large) group of street art loving peeps for a walking tour of the neighbourhood led by local artist Kelly Towles who's been ...
Postcard from NYC: “Bird Watching” in West Harlem
Let's be honest, I'm a city baby and any flying animal that's not a pigeon is a pretty exotic bird for me! Bird-watching is not an activity I typically engage in... unless the birds in question happen to be drawn on urban walls that is ;-) Thanks to the Audubon Society and the Gilter & ____ Gallery, the Washington Heights/West Harlem neighbourhoods is just the perfect spot to catch a flock of colourful birds! All in graffiti of course... Right now there are a few dozens murals of varying scale scattered around uptown Manhattan, and eventually the goal is to have street artists and muralists paint over 314 different species of North American birds that a sobering 2014 Audubon ...
Postcard from the District: Mr Brainwash Mural at Union Market
You know the first lady is pretty cool when you find out about new murals from her instagram feed ;-) Michelle Obama marked International Women's Day and the first anniversary of Let Girls Learn, a U.S. government initiative aimed at educating girls around the world, at Union Market. She was joined by famed Los Angeles-based French street artist Mr. Brainwash, who had been commissioned by The Girls Lounge to do a mural on the theme of women education. The murals are full of colorful hearts, similar to the bleeding hearts/love wall graffiti by James Goldcrown, portraits (including renderings of Charlie Chaplin and Albert Einstein) and inspiring slogans like "Life Is Beautiful," ...
Helping Raise/Raze Come to Life at Dupont Underground
I had a ball - lame pun intended - volunteering at the Dupont Underground with some of my friends this morning. This was actually my first time in the abandoned trolley station which plans to open its doors to the public on April 30 with its first art exhibit, “Raise/Raze.” "Raise/Raze" was the winning project of Re-Ball!, an open design competition for a site-specific installation in the underground space using the more than 650,000 translucent plastic balls from the National Building Museum's "Beach" installation. So today we helped built the installation by glue-ing a bunch of these balls ...
Tips for Enjoying Cherry Blossom Season In DC
Spring is coming! Every year the highlight of the season in Washington is, of course, the annual blooming of the district's 3,000 Yoshino cherry trees. The whole town gets cherry fever and hundreds of thousands of tourists (and locals too) descend on the Tidal Basin and the National Mall to admire the delicate white and pink flowers. This year, peak bloom will hit between March 18-23, 2 weeks earlier than originally anticipated due to the recent warm temperatures. This means most of the National Cherry Blossom Festival, which runs from March 20 to April 17, will probably happen sans-blossom. Regardless, here are a few tips for navigating this huge Washington, DC event. SET YOUR ...
Off the Beaten Path: ToKi’s SYNTH SERIES 002 Yarn Installation
My (Southern Republican) husband always jokes around that he is very vanilla, and that I bring a little bit of spice, the rum raisin flavour if you will, to his life. I don't know about that, but I definitely bring him out of his comfort zone on a regular basis ;-) Like, the other day, for example, when I "dragged" him semi-willingly to an abandoned warehouse near the Rhode Island Avenue metro stop to check out an art installation by ToKi. Dragged him to this building: ToKi is a collaborative effort by two recent Howard University architecture graduates, Khai Grubbs and Toluwalase Rufai. Their latest work is a colourful art installation called SYNTH SERIES 002. Their main material: yarn, ...
Postcard from Philadelphia: 13th & Locust’s Rainbow Crosswalk
It was the day after the Supreme Court's landmark ruling legalizing gay marriage nationwide in the U.S. My parents and I were in Philadelphia to catch the Hermione tall ship while she was making her way up the East Coast. We were wandering around the city's Mural Mile, a 2.5 mile loop through downtown, to catch some of Philadelphia's most iconic street art. Suddenly, a pop of colour on the ground caught our attention for a change. At the intersection of 13th street and Locust, rainbow stripes had been painted on the pedestrian crosswalks, forming a bright and bold square. Turns out, this didn't just pop overnight following the Supreme Court decision. It had been planned long ...
Pick Your Own Tulips at Burnside Farms
Tulips are a beautiful symbol of spring. In Washington, tulips typically bloom right after the cherry blossoms have come and gone, but they were a little late this year, probably because we've had such a cold spring. Over the past 2 weeks though, their vibrant colours have been on full display across the city. And just outside of the District, a quick 45 minutes drive away, a farm in Haymarket, Virginia, plays host to one of largest pick-your-own tulips festival in the United States. Nicknamed "Holland in Haymarket," the festival typically runs late April to mid-May, depending on when the flowers actually bloom. Visitors pay an entrance fee of $3.00, and then there's a cost per stem ...
N Street Murals Project: 3 Buildings, 3 Artists
March 14 was a miserable day for a run. On top of that, the winter had dragged on so my husband's hadn't trained outdoors as much as he had wanted to. But rain or shine, in this case rain and lots of it, the D.C. Rock'n Roll marathon and half marathon was happening, and my husband was running it. And that could mean only one thing for me... I'd be out there cheering. My favourite spot on the route is right across the street from NPR, since that's an easy marker and it's close enough to home. After I spotted my favourite runner, I decided to make a detour and swing by the new(ish) Unleashed by Petco store in NoMa on my way home. And that's when I spotted a bright mural taking up an entire ...
