Late March 2020

Introduction

I suppose everyone has felt, at one time or another, that they were being watched. I sometimes feel that way in my walks around San Juan. I’ve decided to share some of the wall art that may have caused that paranoid feeling.

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ve seen some of these before. But there are some new ones as well.

The images have been minimally edited. I’ve cropped them and adjusted levels. I’ll share a more completely edited image at the end.

Unadorned Eyes

I’ll start with an old favorite of mine – Woman witn Green Face. She is gone, having been painted over. But she is still evocative.

Here is a recent find. She iseems to be wearing the uniform of the Puerto Rico national team. Perhaps she is a well know local athlete.

Here’s a somewhat sterner face.

The woman below seems to be curious about something.

I don’t get the next one. If anyone can tell me the significance of a woman holding a rooster with a key dangling from his beak and a pineapple in her other hand I’d like to hear it. I very much like this. Perhaps some day I’ll devote some time to editing it – removing the wires, etc. I think it would be worth the effort.

I’m not quite sure what the next woman is holding. Is it a conch shell? A piece of fish? Some kind of fruit? Any ideas? Let me know.

A friend of mine calls the next one Proud Woman. I like that name for her. She does have much to be proud of.

I really like the next one, except for the window in the upper left. Reto y Resistencia means challenge and resist; the art probably dates from the anti-government demonstrations in August of 2019.

I have to admit I don’t recall where I first saw the Woman on Blue Background. I’ll have to go through my notes and see if I can find a reference to her.

Finally, to end this section, another stern woman, this time on a colorful background.

Bespectacled Eyes

Some eyes peer out through spectacles. Here are a few examples.

I found the Woman with Fashionable Glasses on Calle San Miguel. A resident there saw me taking pictures and graciously came out and moved his car out of the way,

This guy looks pious enough. I first thought he was a priest but I think the jewelry and tattoos signify another type of concentration. I’m not sure what – any ideas?

This old guy is probbly glad he has a fixed income pension, and that happy hour is approaching.

I found the next example on the door of a shop on Avenida Juan Ponce de Leon in Santurce.

Here is another recent find. He looks like he is getting ready to say something important

I’ll finish this section with an image suggesting everything is OK.

Non-Human Eyes

Here are a few examples of alien eyes I found.

I don’t quite get the space suit and the candle, or the three eyes. I suppose it could have something to do with the corona virus but the painting predates that.

I suspect people walking along a pedestrian mall in Rio Piedras get nervous when they see the next example.

The next example is also from Rio Piedras.

The last one in this section reminds me of something that you might see in an old Indiana Jones movie, guarding the entrance to some archaeological wonder.

Disembodied Eyes

Every once in a while I see wall art featuring eyes with little reference to a body. Here are a few examples.

The next eample is more of a disembodied head. This certainly does capture the agony Puerto Ricans felt during the political demonstratons of the summer of 2019.

I like the way the Puerto Rican flag is used in the eye below.

Flower Power

Every once in a while an artist uses flowers as eye cover. Here is one example.

Eyes Wide Shut

One final example. I found this character in a wall in Santurce. Maybe he is dreaming of a plantain.

Editing

As I said in the beginning, these images are minimally edited. I wanted to show one example of more extensive editing. I’ll show the origianal as obtained from my camera, and the final after I worked on it.

Conclusion

I had great fun putting this together. And I have plenty more. Stay tuned.

Notes and Sources

The images are mine. I use a Sony point and shot digital camera and Adobe Lightroom and/or Photoshop for post processing.