Montreal's Murals #2

heroic15397 (62)in #mural • 8 years ago

Allow me again to bring you along on a picturesque trip inside Montreal City's painted walls gallery.

Click on the legends below the pictures and it will take you exactly where the murals' pics were taken.

Much more than with images and links only, I'll try to provide you with words so to put these rural masterpieces into context concerning their specific geolocation. You might also find some personal stories or collective history spicing up the recipe.

Let's do this!

Before we embark on this second Montreal's Murals journey, I would like to go back in the main area where the first installment of this series took place in order to salute a sympathetic looking Buddha-like fellow.

Buddha board on the corner of Rue de Mendeta & Avenue du Mont Royal E

One mural I had forgotten to include in our last walk, going from west to east on Mount Royal Avenue, was the one beside the La Tulipe theater once known as the Théâtre des Variétés and prior to 1965 as the Théâtre Dominion. Having housed a cinema between the two wars then a playhouse for the Montreal burlesque scene, it is now mainly use as a venue for musical concerts. In this 2013 work of art, I love the autumn ambiance colours mixed with the bizarre shape of the house and the weird mushrooms. Maybe this is too dry of an appreciation and could better be poetically described as the miss Teri feel of what a little moonlight can do in being reminiscent of an Halloween scene.

Mural on the corner of Avenue Papineau & Rue Généreux

Now, on our way we go, this time not on foot but on a bicycle. More specifically, we will ride on the Route Verte #1, on our way toward the north central side of the Montreal Island, that is to say in the direction of where I live now, meaning Ahuntsic. Our departure takes place in a park where I once met, completely by chance, a beautiful actress name Catherine de Léan. When I told her how I loved her performance in The Secret Life of Happy People, not only was I not able to name the movie but I also managed to forget the name of the actor in the leading role, Gilbert Sicotte who is a know television figure here. Talk about an akward way to not impress a pretty girl as if I had absolutely no clue what I was talking about.

Beside the Parc des Carrières there is a car wash, and that is why the mural shows a lave-auto signboard on the following first half part.

Mural at the Parc des Carrières

If we continue northward on the bicycling trail we will pass in front of my two favorite murals on this post. The first one was drawn on the wall of a drugstore, the second one we find painted on a bicycle shop.

Mural on the corner of Rue Boyer & Rue Saint-Zotique E

Mural on the corner of Rue Boyer & Rue Villeray

Then we arrive at the Quebec Autoroute 40's Metropolitan elevated portion which can be seen in black & white on the apartment block's wall close to it. A plane also appears on it reminding us of the Montréal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport found not so far away from where we stand.

Mural on the corner of Rue Jarry E & Rue de Lorimier

On the other side of the highway, there is the Saint-Michel Environnemental Complex and the Cirque du Soleil gathered around the former Miron Quarry. At the entrance of the CESM stands the Tohu, la Cité des arts du cirque and the Recycler c'est notre avenir (Recycling is our future) beautiful mural.

Mural on the corner of Rue Paul-Boutet & Rue Jarry E

Keeping track of the graffitis trail instead of the bike one, we have to make a detour in Montreal North. There on the facade of a community center, we find another multicultural themed mural. Being at the same time an educational center, could this explain the chair shown on one of the side walls of the building?

Mural on the corner of Boulevard Pie-IX & 47e Rue

I'm not a big fan of murals motivated by marketing but I have to be fair and say that I also believe that art, whatever being the purpose behind it, should always be treated for what it is all by itself first, meaning in this specific case as the result of an artistic approach before being considered as a consumption needs creating tool. This time I won't waste any time telling you what kind of store is on the other side of that wall, it being as obvious as it can get when looking to buy a product.

Mural on Rue Forest

After this eastward deviation let's zigzag back closer to my home, at the Parc du Sault-au-Récollet which is also the name of the neighbourhood. We've started with a Buddhist inspired image; now let's end this with a spiritual charged one.