SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA 🇨🇷 STREET ART & GRAFFITI: MONKEY MAN 🐵

22feb19. San Jose, Costa Rica 🇨🇷

SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA 🇨🇷: PORTRAIT OF A STREET PERFORMER & HIS FRIEND

22feb19. San Jose, Costa Rica 🇨🇷

SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA: HOW CAN I HELP YOU TODAY?

IMG_4292IMG_4293IMG_4287IMG_4289IMG_4306IMG_4303IMG_4302IMG_4313IMG_4314IMG_4312IMG_4350IMG_4348IMG_4347IMG_4346IMG_4345IMG_4335IMG_4352

20feb19. San Jose, Costa Rica.

SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA 🇨🇷: YOU GO ALONE

“Great artists make the roads; good teachers and good companions can point them out. But there ain’t no free rides, baby. No hitchhiking. And if you want to strike out in any new direction — you go alone. With a machete in your hand and the fear of God in your heart.” ― Ursula K. Le Guin
“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.” ― Joseph Campbell
“Pure Life”

“We no longer believe in anything.”

11/12/13/14/15feb2019. San Jose, Costa Rica 🇨🇷.

SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA POLITIKS & GRAFFITI: “REBELLION”

My journey to becoming a global documenter of graffiti and street art began back in Bogota, Colombia in 2012. It was all of the words scrawled and stenciled on the walls all over the city that prompted a keen interest within me. Two things happened: My Spanish improved quickly (because I had to go home and translate the words into English) and secondly, I got a sense almost overnight of the political issues of the disenfranchised elements of society within the country.

Realizing that graffiti had the power to communicate important messages and concerns of ordinary citizens, I began to pay close attention to the writings on the walls all over the world. It’s amazing what you can see when you look. It’s amazing what you can hear when you listen. It’s amazing what you can understand when you open your heart.  

Once the foundation of my passion was set, my documentation progressed to all genres of street art including murals, stickers, sculptures, wheat pastes, everything and anything, that I judged to be making a statement of some kind in a public arena. 

Since 2012, this blog has grown exponentially and one series in particular, the “Politiks of Graffiti” series featuring street art images I’ve collected around the world, combined with the weekly list covering the current state of the U.S. government compiled by activist Amy Siskind, has garnered a lot of interest and has a bit of a following on Twitter. It’s important to note that I cover all forms of political statements I discover in public art. It’s unfortunate that it just so happens, the current “P.O.G” is heavily laden with visual commentary of ’45.’ I would love for it to be something else, or something more, and I believe it will be, eventually. 

In the future, I plan to do a book of “Graffiti and Global Politics,” or something like that, using the images I’ve collected around the world in the past decade. 

That being said, I am currently in San Jose, Costa Rica and the walls are rife with political statements. 

Please check them out below: 

DCIM103GOPROG0101513.
On the very first day I arrived in San Jose, I saw this stencil on walls, on roads (literally, I was crossing the street, looked down, and this image was stenciled on the road!), and here at a bus stop. I researched to find out that this man is Oscar Arias. He is a former President of Costa Rica and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He’s been accused of sexual assault by a nuclear disarmament activist. VIOLADOR is RAPIST in Spanish. 
DCIM103GOPROG0031587.
These two stencils are about domestic violence and oppression of the poor. On the left: “If he insults you, he doesn’t love you. If he hits you, don’t stay.” On the right: “The rich abort the dying poor.” 
DCIM103GOPROG0031506.
“The revolution will be feminist or it will not be.” I take it to mean that the revolution must be run by women, because if it isn’t. then there won’t be one at all. 
IMG_3927
“There are bullets and good decisions.”
IMG_3743
“They infuse terror and want forgiveness.”
IMG_3971
“Welcome Migrants”
IMG_4080
“My body does not want your opinion.”
IMG_4090
“The rich abort the dying poor.”
IMG_4099
“Against patriarchal and capitalist violence, our deep rebellion.”
DCIM103GOPROG0071510.
“The earth is feminist.”
IMG_3766
I’m not sure about this translation: “Outside rosaries of our ovaries.” It definitely has something to do with telling men that they don’t make decisions for women and their bodies. 

11/12/13/14/15FEB2019 San Jose, Costa Rica.

SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA STREET ART: TRADICIONAL by SAN RAMON CREW

DCIM103GOPROG0491634.DCIM103GOPROG0481633.DCIM103GOPROG0471632.DCIM103GOPROG0461631.DCIM103GOPROG0451630.

15feb2019. San Jose, Costa Rica. 

SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA STREET ART: ANOCHE SOÑÉ CONTIGO

DCIM103GOPROG0391624.

DCIM103GOPROG0381623.DCIM103GOPROG0401625.

15FEB2019. SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA.

SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA: VIVIENDO LA VIDA

DCIM103GOPROG0241527.
Correos de Costa Rica. Central Post Office. Built in 1917.
IMG_4189
7 Cardinal Rules of Life = Siete Reglas Cardinales de la Vida

1. Make peace with your past – so it won’t disturb your present.

2. What other people think of you – is none of your business.

3. Time heals almost everything – give it time.

4. No one is in charge – of your happiness. Except you!

5. Don’t compare your life to others – and don’t judge them. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

6. Stop thinking too much – it’s all right not to know all the answers. They will come to you when you least expect it.

7. Smile – you don’t own all the problems in the world.

IMG_4175

IMG_4170
Barrio in the valley
DCIM103GOPROG0261611.
“57% of the population identify themselves as Roman Catholics, 25% are Protestants, 15% do not have a religion…”

DCIM103GOPROG0171520.DCIM103GOPROG0021586.DCIM103GOPROG0341619.IMG_4260.JPGDCIM103GOPROG0361621.DCIM103GOPROG0371622.IMG_4077IMG_4079IMG_4106

IMG_4103
The sun can be strong on the streets of San Jose

IMG_4093

DCIM103GOPROG0081511.
Avocados for sale
DCIM103GOPROG0151518.
Peatonal. = Pedestrian.
IMG_4081
Old Skool mural

IMG_4011

DCIM103GOPROG0051508.
La sera feminista o No Sera. = It will be feminist or it will not be. 
IMG_3987
This woman was an unwitting crossing guard for me. I waited to cross the busy street until she did, and when we were halfway across, I said “Gracias!” and she laughed. Costa Ricans are pura vida. 

11/12/13/14feb2019 San Jose, Costa Rica 

SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA 🇨🇷 GRAFFITI: TOPAN

14feb19 San Jose Costa Rica 🇨🇷

SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA 🇨🇷 GRAFFITI: GUER

14feb19 San Jose Costa Rica 🇨🇷