Art Murals and Vandalism in Playa del Carmen
It's been a while since I shared some murals that I've discovered in my wanderings around Playa del Carmen, Mexico. I found some more beauties, but also something that was rather disheartening.
The good news first :) This girl's eye caught mine as I walked by, and I purposefully did not crop the photo tight so that you could see the car to the right and realize the sheer size of these art peices!
I've walked by this one before, and have been intrigued with the old-school cassette tape unravelling in her hand, and the fact that she is a cyborg of sorts. Very cool! I believe it to be a testament perhaps to how technology is literally becoming a part of us.
I shared this one before in a post, but was very saddened to see what someone had done to defile this artist's work. Here is the original :
And what I noticed today :(
I'm only left wondering why? How could someone just paint over something so beautiful? Wouldn't they realize the amount of time and love that went into the creation? The whole thing just made me sad. And angry.
But, instead of getting down about it, I decided to focus on all the other murals that have been done, all the beauty and not the destruction of this one peice. That is not to minimize it in anyway, it was just something I needed to do so I wouldn't get in a funk, as I like to call it :) Soon after, I walked by this beauty.
I'm including this next photo as well so that you can see how difficult it must have been to paint it.
Some serious talent around here for sure! Now, let me get my hands on the person with the spray paint can...
Hope you enjoyed the selections. Sometimes, if I find one that is particularly interesting, I'll delve into what I think their symbolism or artistic purpose might be, but today, I'm sharing the beauty. However, if you have any insight that you'd like to share, I'd love to hear it.
I found so many new ones today, too many to share in one post, so stay tuned for more later :)
Proud Member of :
I love the jaguar! awesome stuff. Art will find a way :)
Thanks @steven-patrick! The jaguar is pretty cool for sure :)
Thankfully!!
These are amazing pieces! It saddens me too to see that people destroy beautiful art work but this kind of graffiti. I have seen many of them in different cities too!
Thank you @delishtreats! The city at one point had a big beautification project and so many of the ugly, grey concrete walls were transformed :)
for one it's about art and creating something. The other is to make a mark and could be for a couple reasons
Yep, especially around here, I'm sure there's a point being made that I'm unaware of. It still bugged me though:) I love a lot of the graffiti that I see...it's art too. Just wish this guy could have found his own empty wall!
I always considered graffiti as what the one did to the painting. and what was originally there as art/painting no matter the canvas.
What he did was on purpose, destructive and I do not condone it
I agree @wolfhart! My dad would say, "that kid needs to be put to work!"
Your dad is a kind man :)
He is old-school for sure! and smart. and kind :)
Art murals were create by the good people but vandalism is a creation of jobless people😯 vandalism sometimes mean to be made as a secret message or code to their community or to the art murals painter. Whatever it is, art murals are awesome, art galery free of charges to enjoy.
Proud to the artists who paint the art murals and love the one who share this wonderful pictures and story 💝
Thank you @cicisaja. There are so many beautiful murals around here; I think it was part of a beautification project by the city some time ago, because there are so many ugly concrete walls. I like your comment about the jobless and vandalism haha It's probably true :)
Since you're not going for meaning here, I won't attempt to figure anything out. As it is, I don't know that any of these are "think" or "message" pieces. Not unless they're subtle to the point of subliminal.
I do have to say, though, the anchor tear drop on the first girl is an interesting choice. From what I'm reading, it's supposed to symbolize being grounded or hope. I think there might be some extra significance of it being under the eye, but I don't know what that is. Tear drops are suppose to be about killing someone, but I don't think that's what the anchor is suggesting.
The rest of the images are all very cool, except of course, for our tagger friend, who needs to get a life.
I've always heard the tear drop is about killing someone too, so hopefully that's not what it means here :) Someone pointed out to me that the cassette tape in the one photo says, "The earth dies screaming"!! I'd not noticed that at all!
I'm with you regarding the tagger. Thankfully, I don't see much of it around here!
I did a post a couple days ago on another mural that blew all of these out of the water. Also, no deep meaning there (it was jungle greenery, the ocean as a backdrop, and some animals), but absolutely beautiful. You probably know that most construction here is cinder block based, so grey upon grey. These murals add so much color and beauty to what can be pretty dull. Plus, it helps me ignore all the garbage littered around :)
Yeah, I missed that, too. So, there's two main references to "The Earth Dies Screaming." Since it's on a cassette tape, it could be this song by UB40, which I guess came out in 2010, so well within the era of CDs and potentially digital music (can't remember when that started, but it was back in there somewhere with the iPod and others). If it is that song, the cassette tape fitting into the face of an android (maybe) is an interesting retro throwback.
Here's the video of the song. Kind of weird. A-bomb explosions to reggae music, basically.
There was also a movie by the same name which came out in 1965. It's Sci-Fi, and interestingly enough, it features robots, but they don't look anything like the one in the mural. They look like a cross between a guy wearing a hazmat suit and an old time deep diving suit. This one doesn't have nuclear war at it's heart, though. It's the robots. :)
Here's the trailer, in case you fancy some black and white B-movie watching:
There's also the letters TEAVIM and FABS on the tape too. FABS appears on the other murals, so I'm guessing that's the name of the artist, but the other word is separate by quite a bit of space, so I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean.
Thank you for doing the leg work Glen! The music video is weird, but I remember UB40 well, although not that song :)
That's funny! This video is also weird...classic B-movie :)
I wondered what TEAVIM meant as well. I guess this one overall doesn't have the guts of the other mural post you researched for me! I really appreciate the effort though :)
There's a lot of "street art" that can be quite beautiful and inspiring... and quite different from "tagging" which is just what I think of as "visual violence."
"Visual Violence"! What a perfect description of it! I have some seen some great graffiti that I would include under the "art" umbrella, but this certainly wasn't one of them. Thank you for stopping by @denmarkguy!
I love the second one the best! Although the cassette tape is a little old fashioned!
I remember when I got my first Walkman haha, then the Disc-man, but I had to be careful not to shake it to much if I went for a jog with it lol. I think there's a whole lot of meaning to that one that the artist intended though...even though, I agree, it's a little old fashioned :)
...and spinning them around on a pencil to rewind them!
hahaha that's hilarious! I'd forgotten about that!
For me, being sad about the mural being vandalized is a bit like being sad the lion is eating the gazelle. If street art was on a pedestal too, there would be no room for punk if that makes sense. Museum art is just so elitist and so “beauty” being tarnished by something “less beautiful” is an affront to the establishment.
That being said, I can understand the sinking feeling and the why moment.
That all makes perfect sense, and I've seen some awe inspiring graffiti, but this bit of tagging just didn't compare to what it was covering up :) I actually used to supply paint cans to a kid I knew back in Vancouver who was a great artist and loved graffiti; I think he loved being able to paint where he shouldn't and the thrill of running from the police haha.
Thanks for these! I always see these beautiful wall murals from latin america, they really amaze me in how elaborate they are many times. It's something that's very rare to see in my part of the world. And yes, it's a damn shame when they are vandalized by others :(
Damn shame is right! Where is your "part of the world"? These murals do make things way more beautiful than the cement blocks that every building is constructed with!
Thanks for stopping by @pandorasbox!
I'm from the Netherlands, where, much like in The Shire and Hobbiton we like to keep things controlled, orderly and neat. Graffiti is usually often removed although lately some pieces have been allowed to stay.. allowed being the key-word :)
Oh, I see. I didn't realize it was quite so "orderly" there. I'm from Canada and there's certain rules regarding street art, but a lot of the times, it's also removed. Here in Mexico, it's a bit of a free for all.
There's a happy medium in there somewhere I think :)
Yes, we're kind of like the Germans in that regard (except cooler 😎). I like to make the Hobbiton joke because the Netherlands is 100% man-made and then some. There is not a single tree in the country that was not planted by us, not a single inch of ground that was not cultivated or otherwise shaped by the Dutch. In fact, when we lacked more inches to cultivate we just made more land by draining the ocean some more ;)
When flying over our country, it looks like this in most parts:
or even more orderly like this:
Talk about orderly :)
And then if you add in some villages like this, the hobbit-connection is easily made:
Perhaps they're not underground built in hills like Hobbits - but I'm sure that's only because this country is so flat we don't have hills.
Then again, if the Dutch are hobbits then it's really weird that nowadays we're the tallest people in the world..
hahaha like the Germans, but cooler :) I had no idea!!!! I just read this to my husband and neither did he!
I love the fact that you included the photos too. Thank you for that! I grew up on a farm in Southern Ontario, Canada and your photos reminded me of that :
No little cute hobbit houses though :)
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Thanks for these! I always see these beautiful wall murals from latin america, they really amaze me in how elaborate they are many times. It's something that's very rare to see in my part of the world. And yes, it's a damn shame when they are vandalized by others :(
It is a damn shame, I agree! Where is your "part of the world"?