Travel and 2020 are mutually exclusive concepts. Except for skiing (driving between New York and Vermont), I went nowhere this year. By now, I entertain myself with old travel photos.
I am taken with the fact we humans treat architectural blank spaces like vacuums, filling them with artwork or just frilly trimmings. Some “solutions” to the unused space are quite involved, extending beyond painted murals to tilework, mosaics, frescoes and sgraffito.
Whereas murals range from the most rustic (starting with graffiti that has flair) to the carefully planned and executed trompe l’oeil.
I have many photos from all categories, around 1,500 total — way more than I would have guessed. Therefore, I am limiting today’s “art exhibit” to those photos whose filenames include “WallArt” or “Mural,” which are essentially the same, plus a subset with “Trompe” in the filename.
I have leaned heavily on murals in a previous posting featuring Ajijic in Mexico (https://besttripchoices.com/ajijic-mexico-and-its-paint-jobs/) and did the same, to a lesser extent, in a Rio de Janeiro blog here: https://besttripchoices.com/rio-de-janeiro-carnival-town-olympic-city/, so I’m traveling elsewhere during this exercise.
But I am starting in South America. There is more of the fantastical or mythological in the South American examples than the North American or European, or at least that is true of my photo collection. A tiny selection of my photos follows. I don’t know how many of these paintings no longer exist; therefore, all photos are dated to indicate a time when they certainly did exist.
Santiago, Chile (2017): I love that someone decided to create a takeoff on a Van Gogh painting for all to enjoy on the streets of Chile’s capital. This appeared in the edgy bohemian Barrio Bellavista, an area boasting scads of bright and imaginative murals.
Buenos Aires, Argentina (2005): Street artists assembled a ragtag collection of materials to create the appearance of activity along the rim of an apparently abandoned, or at least unused, lot. The result features amusing characters, some painted and a few as sculpted figures.
Pisac, Peru (2011): Above, part of an extensive mural in the Andean market town of Pisac, illustrating life in the region. In this section, men and women can be seen harvesting potatoes (upper right); working the land (upper left), and making pottery (lower right).
Santiago, Chile (2017): The above was one of an array of colorful images painted on the man-made embankments along the Mapocho River.
Bogota, Colombia (2012): Another setting for whimsical images, on a house in the Candelaria section at the heart of Colombia’s capital. The house sits on a street called Callejon de las Brujas, meaning Alley of the Witches.
Aberdeen, Washington (2018): This mural takes away any drabness from a parking lot. A small town, Aberdeen is known for street art, which includes, besides murals, a series of fabricated “rare and endangered species,” sculpted by some very imaginative artists.
Billings, Montana (2013): A cheery mural celebrating local child care services
Astoria, Oregon (2018): The above is part of a considerably longer mural that decorates the old Mason, Ehrman & Co. Warehouse Building along the Columbia River on Astoria Riverwalk. This work involves some trompe l’oeil tricks: The door is real, but the dock and windows are not.
Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada (2012): A shoe seller cleverly promotes his business with a telling piece of art.
Seoul, South Korea (2014): A charming image seen on the Insadong shopping street in South Korea’s capital.
Stirling, Scotland (1997): When I visited Stirling Castle in autumn 1997, parts of the castle were under scaffolding, and the work area was surrounded by a wall covered with paintings illustrating the construction process as it might have looked when the castle was built, around the early 12th century. This photo features one of the panels.
Belgrade, Serbia (2009): Artists brightened side-by-side buildings in Serbia’s capital with these images. The figure on the right boasts a mouth full of teeth that are actually tiny buildings. And, at left, the veggie in his hand is a tree.
Palermo, Sicily, Italy (2017): An animal like I had never seen, this bright example of Sicilian street art livened my walks while approaching Palermo’s Mercato Ballaro.
Utrecht, The Netherlands (2010): A joker on a wall in the middle of this Dutch city.
And for more in the realm of optical illusions, best known by the French moniker, trompe l’oeil:
Berlin, Germany (2018): This was a fun test for my eyes, near the Hauptbahnhof (central train station) in Germany’s capital.
Dijon, France (2019): A building that seemed buttressed with ironwork was a surprise in Dijon, the town that we usually, and rightfully, associate with mustard.
Quebec City, Quebec, Canada (2005): For optical illusions, the best example in my collection is this building in Quebec. One wall is covered with images suggesting a collection of buildings of varying heights, even with trees in the background. I zoomed in for more details seen in the second photo, below.
This blog and its photos are by Nadine Godwin, BestTripChoices.com editorial director and contributor to the trade newspaper, Travel Weekly. She also is the author of “Travia: The Ultimate Book of Travel Trivia.”
