Early March 2019

Introduction

I’m going to group some the the street and wall art I’ve seen by theme, as I did in my last post about the street art here in San Juan. Click here to see that post. I’ll show some examples of wall art related to food, then some faces, and then one just in time for spring training.

Food

While not a major theme, I have found several examples of wall art showing food in one form or another. The fist one seems to celebrate Puerto Rican coffee which, by the way, is excellent. I wrote about the recovery of the local coffee industry here. Check it out.

Cheeseburger anyone? Hamburgers are popular here – in fact, there is an iconic place near here named El Hamburger. It is immensely popular, with a cheese burger and fries for $5.50. And they now have some local craft beers. What more could one want?

How about some local fruit? Mangoes, papayas, pineapples, passion fruit, guava – take your pick. Here is one pineapple for your consideration.

Faces on the Wall

I’ve shown you the Woman with the Green Face before. I find her evocative and beguiling. She’s been painted over so my photos may well be her the only way she will be remembered.

I like the Woman with the Blue Face as well. She is more severe than the Woman with the Green Face, more, ah, in your face, as it were.

The Woman with Veil is also from the Sagrado Corazon neighborhood. This was an immense undertaking – she fills a three story wall. There is a religious theme about this work but I’m not sure I understand it. Anyone want to help me? Leave a comment. She is still there – much faded but still overlooking her neighborhood.

Here is another face with what seems to be a religious them. I just found her – the Woman with Rooster and Pineapple overlooks Avineda Fernando Juncos in the Miramar neighborhood. This is another large effort – she is on a wall about two stories high. Maybe some day I will retouch the image and remove the wires in front of her. A project for a rainy day. Again, I’m not at all sure of the symbolism. What’s with the rooster holding a key? And the pineapple? Please leave a comment if you can help me.

The Woman with Six Arms also needs retouching – another rainy day project. But she protects her Santurce neighborhood. Or is she encouraging you to do something untoward?

I hope you don’t think all the faces on the wall are of women. The Golden Buddha protects a no parking zone in Rio Piedras.

Finally, I hope you don’t think all the faces are even human. This version of King Kong overlooks a side street in the Puerta de Tierra neighborhood of San Juan.

Fun

As a kid, I used to love to read that major league pitchers and catchers had to report for spring training. It convinced me winter would soon be over. There is a winter league in Puerto Rico, and last year the team from Santurce was league champion. A fan in the Manillas area celebrated their accomplishment in a most appropriate manner.

Notes

These are all my images. I used Adobe Lightroom and/or Photoshop to make various adjustments to the original images.