amjamin

A mural painted by Mexican artist Irving Cano Walls – they create barriers, could be seen as divisive, may draw a line between two extremes. For some, they are a blank canvas waiting to be splashed with vivid imagination and colours. These expressions are oft wild, rebellious, and a work of a free spirit – perhaps an oxymoron to the cold, restrictive space in brick and mortar. These expressions seek to unify the diverse and divided world. From Thailand to Turkey to Norway, closer to home in San Juan, New York, street art is transforming the mundane into the wild. “Street art is nothing else but urban poetry that catches someone’s eye,” says Christian Guémy (C215), French street artist. “Being a street artist is impossible because the city itself is the artist. Street art is a collective thing, participative and interactive, extremely linked to web 2.0 culture.” Irving Cano, growing up in Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, Mexico, gravitated to street art when he was 16. “There was a graff...

Capitolio de Puerto Rico, the legislative assembly  History. The word most times reminiscent of yellowing pages of books, oft-forgotten expanses of time. In the alleys of San Juan, Puerto Rico, the hands of the clock stand still in a time and era when pace of life was a gingerly trod cobblestone street, and aromas of pungent spices mixed with the subtle breeze of the Atlantic Ocean. San Juan, one of the oldest cities in the continental United States, is tucked away from the bustling Condado district; high-rises, stores, and shops, clubs and shiny, swanky cars transition to an elevation, where the old city appears, the tar of the road giving way to the cobblestone streets. This old city is a mix of 400 years of urban development, which has a confluence of varied eras of Spanish influence - Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque architecture - which encapsulates arches, drones and ornamentation on the facades of the structures. Known as La Ciudad Amurallada (Walled City), San Juan has one ...