The world is a canvas with street art

We love to walk a lot when we travel and it’s always a bonus to turn a corner and be faced with beautiful bold street art. Some call it graffiti and others see it as urban art or street art, but regardless of what you call it, the artworks often evoke emotions.

Often seen in the seedy neighbourhoods, in some cities the artworks are in very busy, prominent city centre locations and laneways. Some are subtle and unobtrusive, you could easily walk past oblivious if you weren’t looking for them. We often stand and ponder, deciphering and interpreting the artist’s impression and just the sight of such vibrant creativity makes my eyes happy.

The splash of colour often tells a story and brightens up a dull, lifeless alley way. Don’t forget to look up, some street art does not jump out and catch your attention, subtle arts are sometimes away from the street art scenes, up high in tourist areas making the search for them very rewarding. They say a picture paints a thousand words and when it is plastered on the side of a huge building those words clearly tell a story, a message we can all understand. Street art can transform an unsightly, boring grey concrete structure to a playful, creative place to decipher the artist’s interpretation.

Tolerance by Alaniz in Amsterdam

In recent years bold, bright, highly detailed art by local and international artists are constantly changing. Many alley ways have transformed into a thriving art scene, not only beautifying neighbourhoods, but creating outlets offering an insight into a city’s culture, history and current day issues through visual story telling.

We love tracking down the deluge of iconic street art in fringe areas throughout our travels discovering playful, whimsical and emotion packed designs. There is sometimes a fine line between graffiti and street art but in many cities’ street art is no longer illegal graffiti and many now commission famous artists and those that are lessor known to create impressive murals and creative arts bringing an explosion of colour in their unique style.

The emotion packed designs are something we can understand and ponder as the city takes on a new level and truly becomes a canvas. This style of art speaks in a number of ways. It can transform and empower people, bring people together and creates a better version of public space. Brides to be love incorporating street art, especially the details and perspective of neon graffiti murals, as a fabulous backdrop for their wedding photos. Street art is unique, vibrant and when commissioned is a great initiative to reduce the cost of graffiti clean ups.

Street art is constantly changing, You can see it one day and it can be covered with an impression from another artist the next, whilst some remains around for years. If you are lucky you can often see an artist at work if you visit some of the commissioned outlets for youth and the arts in a city. Beyond paper and canvas street art can bridge cultural and language barriers, and is fun to understand, perceive and comprehend.

Where is your favourite street art? Have you seen any of the arts in this post, do you know where they are?

If you enjoyed this post you may want to check out some street art around the world and in our own hometown, Perth.

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