Lima Street Art

South American street art is very distinctive for its colour, and while travelling I got to be able to identify most of it pretty easily.  Even if you don't know the artist (and I don't really know any South American artists) you can guess where they're from.  I came across quite a bit of art, especially around the Barranco district and at that one place along the coast mentioned in my earlier post.

American Street Art

The United States was one of the first countries to popularize street art, and the two biggest centers for it are in New York City and along the California coast. Here's a sample of the art I encountered around Los Angeles, San Francisco and Phoenix.

El Mac

If you go back to one of my very first posts on the street art tour I did in London you'll see a cowboy portrait by El Mac. The way he makes portraits in stripes makes them feel almost like auras, and the style makes his pieces easy to identify, a trait that I'm beginning to think is almost as important as actual quality and technique in street art. El Mac is from Phoenix, so it was nice to find a mural there by him (the third one). The first two were in Hollywood.

Herakut

I've mentioned Herakut before as well. They are a German duo that are probably my favourite artists, but I had never actually seen their art in person. I knew they'd been around California in the last couple years, so I made an effort to hunt down their pieces that were still standing (and a few locations where they weren't anymore). I'm especially fond of the first two here, which are on the walls of a building in Culver City. The last one is hidden in the back parking lot of a shop in San Francisco. A couple months ago Herakut started a new world tour that has so far had them leaving art around Asia and Australia. I'm a bit disappointed with my timing, since I'm missing out on art and shows they're doing in places I was just in, but I'm happy to see them out spreading their art around the world again.

Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey is probably the most famous American street artist, and his art is very design-oriented. I probably saw more art by him, but this large mural from LA is classic Shepard Fairey.

I don't have the time to try to figure out who did all the other stuff right now, but here's an assortment of some more of the art that I liked. Some of them are signed, but some will have to remain mysteries for now.

Los Angeles / Culver City


San Francisco


Phoenix

Days 309-311: Return of the Rain

While the rain wasn't constant, it was definitely regular, especially the first day. I spent a lot of the day in the hostel reading and using the internet. I had one trip out to China Town for lunch that ended up with me getting soaked, but by the evening the rain had died down enough that I ventured out with one of the girls in my room to try to find a place to each and watch the Australian Open men's final. Everywhere we went they either weren't playing it, or were playing it without volume. We found one place that had it in, but didn't serve food. We had a couple of beer there, then decided to hop over to McDonalds to grab food quickly between sets. Coincidentally they were actually playing the game in McDonalds, and we got talking to a few other people watching the game and ended up spending the next 2 hours watching tennis in McDonalds while eating 30 cent ice cream cones.

The next day I ventured out into a few of the Sydney districts further from the harbor. There was a small art gallery/shop in Surrey Hills that was my main focus for going to that area, but there were lots of the out of the way independent shops, restaurants and little bits of art that I enjoy so much.

From Surrey Hills I walked over to Newtown, which is another area that had been recommended to me. I didn't really know where to go though, and the main street of the area wasn't as interesting for me as Surrey Hills had been. I did find a burrito shop which had the best burritos I've had since leaving Canada, so it was still worth the trip over. In the evening the hostel had an activity out to a bar where you got a free drink and fries if you went. I have a hard time turning down free things, so I braved another period of pouring rain to go out. The free fries was actually massive plates of both fries and potato wedges. I didn't really stay out much beyond the food and drink, but Australia is so expensive that anything free helps.

I spent a lot of the next day in the hostel planning things and talking to the new round of people going through. One was having a birthday, and we decided to prepare a dinner of vegetables, rice and kangaroo steaks from the grocery store. We went out for drinks afterwards, but I didn't stay out too late since I had a train to catch in the morning.

Day 296: Healesville Sanctuary

Since the bus schedule was more convenient on Monday I attempted my trip to Healesville again. It was a 20 minute tram ride to the city center, then maybe an hour by train to Lilydale. The bus at Lilydale was waiting when I got there, so it was just another 40 minutes to Healesville and a final transfer for another 15 minute bus ride to Healesville Sanctuary. In simplest terms Healesville Sanctuary is a zoo - one of 3 in the Melbourne area. Unlike the other two, however, the one in Healesville only contains Australian animals. Since the animals are in their natural habitat it's pretty open. It also contains a large animal clinic that nurses and looks after both animals from inside the sanctuary and other wild animals that are brought in with injuries. Since I'm probably not going to get a chance to go deep into the outback to see all the animals in the true wild, I figured this would be something of a compromise.

I've always loved animals, and been fascinated by marsupials. I'm not going to go through animal by animal, but here's a mix of pictures from the sanctuary.

I had an seconardy reason for wanting to visit the place as well. I've mentioned Belgian street artist Roa a few times when I was travelling around Europe. One interview I had read with him explained how he always paints animals native to the country he's in, so he really looked forward to being able to travel to Australia or Africa or something to have new, interesting animals to paint. Well, in November he came to Melbourne to do a show and while he was there he visited the Healesville Sanctuary and did some paintings!

The first three are from buildings at the sanctuary, and the last one is from the cafe at the National Victoary Gallery in Melbourne, which led to me finding out about all the Healesville stuff in the first place.