Bloomingdale Murals

(update 2009.02.05 - For some reason, lots of the murals have been painted over with a whitewash or something. Oh well.)

I drive down or take the L past Western pretty much everyday, and I see bits of some crazy murals on this little underpass down an alley. Finally decided to investigate a couple weeks ago, turns out the "alley" is a street called Bloomingdale, and there is about a mile of murals all along the wall.

Just a casual point & shoot walk. Most of the murals were on the north side of the wall, and therefore (in this hemisphere) are always in the shade. The diffused light made capturing the tones easy but also flattened the overall appearance of the murals.


This is the one I see when I drive by. Crazy shit, right? I mean, one half of that guy is in an Aloha shirt growing a palm tree on his head, and his other half is a robot shooting a laser out of his eye at a heart he is gripping with his robot hand. It's weirder than rocket propelled Mayflower-esque boat next to it or the lady with smoke for hair walking a duck that wears heels.


This one stood out because it was airbrushed. It extended further down, transitioning into a related scene. I'm not showing that part because I thought that part looked like crap. Really, it looked like some two year old scribbled what looked like a homeless man breakdancing next to a broken boombox. Ok that actually sounds like it would be awesome but trust me it wasn't.


Further down were more underpasses with all sorts of interesting stuff.


And strange stuff.


And a zebra waving a flag, and it also looks like he is chewing hay, or perhaps vomiting on his friend.