Hamilton is increasingly becoming known as a haven for artists. This is demonstrated in the street art that has taken over the walls of the downtown core. Several of these pieces were created during Concrete Canvas, a visual arts festival that took place this past July. Each piece was painted legally and with permission from the city. Take this map along with you and go take in some of the art Hamilton has to offer!

Click a point on the map below to see some of the art!

 

Stop #1: 126 James St. South, “Gateway” by Vivian Rosas & Vesna Asanovic

This vibrant street mural is located on James Street, immediately next to the Hamilton Go Centre (36 Hunter St. E). It depicts different scenes from around the city through beautiful splashes of yellow, purple and orange. Scenes include hiking the Bruce Trail, walking along Art Crawl and eating pizza. It replaced an older, faded piece and is made of aluminum composite panels so that it can last for years to come. 

 

Stop #2: 103 John St. South, Angelo Mosca tribute by @scottanddestroy 

Scott McDonald is the lead curator of Concrete Canvas. His piece commemorates Angelo Mosca, a Canadian Football League player and professional wrestler known as King Kong Mosca or The Mighty Hercules. Mosca was a player for the Hamilton Tiger Cats and is in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. He is one of only a few players to have played in nine Grey Cup games. The painting is done in black, white and yellow to reflect the Tiger Cats colours, and shows Mosca running down the field.

 

Stop #3: 75-77 Hunter St. East, piece by @burnttoastcreative

This painting was done for Concrete Canvas by Burnt Toast Creative, also known as Canadian illustrator Scott Martin. It’s visible from blocks away with its blue sky and unique comic style. It sits directly opposite from the Angelo Mosca tribute and has an image of a giant hand holding someone aloft. If you're interested in his art style, you can see more of Martin's work on his website.

 

Stop #4: John Street and Jackson Street, parrot by @scottanddestroy 

This painting was also done by Scott McDonald. It features a colourful parrot that brightens up the otherwise grim parking lot and bus stop nearby. It is offset slightly by the Kings Pizza logo located immediately next to the beak. 

 

Stop #5: Main Street and John St. North, piece by @jordan_war  

This painting was done by Jordan Warmington, a tattoo artist at John Street Tattoo (179 John St. S). It was also done as a part of Concrete Canvas. It decorates the construction plywood that has been sitting unadorned for several years now. 

 

Stop #6: 81 King St. East, “Home Grown” by @luvsumone, @javid_jah and @danilotheartist

“Home Grown” was also done as a part of Concrete Canvas. It is located on the back of 81 King St. E, in a small alleyway. It features a house walking forward wearing boots. You can read more about this piece on @luvsumone's Instagram.

 

Stop #7: King Street East and Catherine Street, “Emanating Flash” by Kristofir Dean

This public art installation was created through the combined work of Effort Group, Scholar Properties Ltd. and the ARt Gallery of Hamilton. Dean is a contemporary artist and his work deals primarily in bright colours which can be found on display throughout the country, most notably at the Vancouver Mural in South Granville. You can read more about the piece on the installation itself.

 

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By: Elizabeth Ivanecky

Graffiti is vandalism — I won’t even begin to deny it, but it is also an important way for Mac students to artistically express themselves anonymously.

With November just a couple of weeks away, the stress of midterm exams and assignments is here. What it doesn’t mean is dropping all of our creative energy and redirect it only towards our studying.

The anonymity of graffiti art at Mac gives both freedom and power to the graffiti artist to speak their mind without the fear of their identity being discovered.

“Have you seen the White Whale?” adapted to the context of McMaster from Herman Melville’s classic Moby Dick nearly covered Mac’s pavements over the summer and start of the school year by an anonymous chalk artist.

Lines such as, “if all the buildings on campus were sea creatures, McMaster Hospital would be the Great Leviathan,” made you giggle a little at the unique comparisons of literary figures to familiar structures on Mac’s campus.

While part of a larger thesis project, the drawings of whales incidentally brought back memories of finger painting and chalk drawing in kindergarten to me. They helped me forget about the world for a moment and live in the world of imagination.

Chalk drawings around campus aren’t the only ways to share with others visually how you are feeling — writings on school property walls are rather fascinating. Whether on the walls at Mills library, on pages in a research book for a paper or even in the stairwells, reading an inspiring quote or encouraging words someone wrote for a stranger makes you feel connected for a moment to someone else’s lived experience. These snippets of life make you realize that we do not study in a vacuum at McMaster.

You might be indifferent to these drawings and writings or refrain from calling them artwork, but individually and as a whole they share a story about a part of someone’s life that wanted and needed to be heard by others. For a brief moment, you acknowledged someone else’s existence as a creative being and lived in their world of imagination.

Interestingly enough, there is no written policy on persecuting graffiti artists or the illegality of the act itself. It only becomes concerning if the graffiti art depicts racial slurs or hate graffiti of any sort against a group or groups of individuals. While vandalism is still a crime, we could infer that there is little priority on getting rid of current street art and the positives it can bring.

We are not alone in the midterm season or throughout semester for that matter. We may finish our work individually and alone at our crammed desks, but in the end we all have to slog through late nights, early mornings and some semblance of a weekend to complete our terms sanely.

It’s easy at this time of year to adopt a narrow focus of going from class to library, finishing assignment after assignment and ultimately just getting from point A to point B. Frankly, I’ve learned in my own experience as an undergrad that the extra hour editing a paper won’t make much difference, but an hour spent posting a blog entry or making a homemade card for a friend will.

I challenge you today to prove to yourselves that even with the heaviness of our textbooks in our bags and midterms looming in our minds that we are more than our student IDs and cumulative averages.

Try leaving a kind note in an envelope or message in a bottle for someone to find on campus — at least you will have shown that schoolwork at Mac didn’t cramp your style.

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