This summer Eugene Oregon hosted a really cool event where muralists were invited from all over the globe to decorate our buildings. There was such an abundance of amazing talent! What a cool idea & now we are so lucky to have reminders of this great idea on otherwise pretty ugly buildings all over town.
The pics below are just a small sample of all new art; I mean to take another tour on my bike soon to see the rest.
First here is the map that I tore out of the Eugene Weekly of the murals & key to who did them & where they are from:
(The green markings are my notes to keep track of what I'd seen so far & landmarks that I know to help finding them easier.)
This is probably my favorite. Steven Lopez is an amazing local talent that I began admiring when he put up a sweet mural on a patisserie near where I worked back in 2000. His use of color boggles and his subject matter is always lovely, whimsical & magical.
I couldn't take a good photo straight on because the sun was causing too bright a glare :)
When my friend & I went to look at this next mural, also by a local artist, she was there painting with her crew & a couple of lovey big dogs. They were all really friendly & didn't mind answering our questions while they worked. Her name is Ila Rose.
Across the way from Ila's piece we found a Blek le Rat! He was the super-cool French street artist who agreed to come, this is what I heard, only if he could put up a bunch of pieces all over town in un-advertised spots. It has been so much fun discovering them in such unique places!
Here's the one we found across the way & by the train tracks:
It's small in this pic, I wish I would have gotten closer.
Here's another one from Blek le Rat that is downtown on the same block that I work.
And another one that I found right by the bus station:
And another one that I found between the bus station & my workplace (I really love this one!):
These next pics really don't do the piece justice; the alley was so narrow it was impossible to get a pic of the whole thing! The artists are from Brazil & called Acidum Project.
The detail on this mural is really fun:
OK, I just realized these are all my favorite; I'm really excited by this next one. It is by Telmo Miel and he is from The Netherlands.
This first photo is of the unusual grid that he used first (which is really a neat way to go about it):
And here is the same piece closer to being finished:
Finally I close with the Big Bang of Eugene's new murals. This is by a Chinese artist by the name of Hua Tunan and it takes up the broad side of a building an entire block long! The colors are incredible & the imagery is so exciting; you really feel like you are right in the middle of some ancient battle between tiger & dragon gods.
Thank you for taking a look!
Come to Eugene to see these yourselves!!
spectacular murals, art in the city, is a work with great artistic value, really beautiful.
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Public art is a great thing & I feel so lucky to live in an area that devotes such resources to it :)
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You should tag this post on the steemit world map! https://steemit.com/@steemitworldmap
I think it would be a great addition to the map. Love the art, and you're right it's so hard to pick a favorite! The first probably drew me in the most- I loved the honeycomb pattern floating in the background and the use of cool colors on the shadowing of the bee- a very interesting combination of Impressionism and realism.
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Hey! Great idea & I will do just that!
The first muralist is definitely worth checking out; every piece he does is just amazing. I just love his colors.
:D
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I love this post! I think it is so cool that Blek Le Rat only agreed to come here if he could put up guerilla art around town. Nice job finding his installations. This was really fascinating and I am somewhat ashamed that I have not actually even seen many of these in real life despite living right here.
Elephant shoes!
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I found another one the other day underneath a coffee shop counter downtown. I was all excited, but no one else was so I didn't take a photo. Now that I see others ARE into the this kind of thing, I'm going right back there & taking a pic!
Elephant shrews ;)
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tripodelic, sister.
heard there's a pied piper mural somewhere 'round town.
yummy job of shooting these. you've made real photographs instead of phone snaps.
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I wonder if I can track him down! Maybe if I just put on a rat-tail he'll come to me...
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b'lieve it's the same rat artiste you've already mentioned. anyway, found it: (vantage from parking garage 10th and Oak)
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These are fantastic! Eugene should be very proud! Thanks for sharing this art.
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Love it ! Murals also turn winter blues to different colors.
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So true!!
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Hi, I live here in Eugene, and I even grew up with Ila Rose. The thing about the mural project here is that the City of Eugene actually failed miserably in trying to "pretty up" the town.
We have a vibrant and active art community here, many of whom i have the good fortunate to be friends with, and many of whom would have loved an opportunity to contribute work to the city's project. Yet the city council completely side-stepped any local involvement in favor of flying in well-known (and expensive) artists from all over the place. These artists have no connection to this place, and the murals reflect this fact. They seem out of place, and disconnected, and irrelevant. Plus, the money these artists were paid for their work is siphoned straight out of the community, instead of being recycled into local businesses. The exception to this, of course, is Ila, who is at the top of her game, as well as the local scene.
So now we have a bunch of (for the most part) ugly, if not well-executed, murals to remind us of how the city council enjoys wasting our tax dollars on PR stunts instead of ACTUALLY improving the community in any meaningful way. Good job, Eugene.
Every time I see this stuff around town, it just reminds me of the gaping pits from decades past, that stood for an incredibly long time as a testament to the self-interest and ineptitude of our maladroit political class.
As the poet once said, "Ever thus."
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And congrats on your curie vote!! Yay!
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Thank you for this blog. It shows how important art is in daily life. Your photos clearly show how the art lifts the whole environment.
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I live in Guatemala, and here there is not much art in the streets, like mural art. Only in certain places you can find some in small format. I would love to be surrounded by that much color and expression... You are lucky!
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Thanks for the upvote on my JOULESTEEM circuit post. Regards.
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Those are some pretty good murals. My favorite is the one with the tiger on it with the red background! Thanks for sharing this with us! 😀
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Thank you so much for sharing this!! Funny, I just published a short memory from my stay in Eugene. You live in a lovely city and so great for bicycles!!
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