It was another sunny afternoon and a good time to go to the Piazza del Duomo to wander around. I hadn’t known that there was a sidewalk art sale going on. Much of the work was very mediocre, as if the artists were uncertain. I saw the work of a few painters that showed surety, [...]

They put the temporary, scaffold-and-tin poster walls back up in my neighborhood just in time to feature advertising for the regional elections. Three inch holes are bored into the sidewalk, with rubber plugs for the off-season. Overnight, they can pop the plugs and throw up the walls clean and ready to be weighted with soon-flaking [...]

As a designer, I’m enchanted by the signage I see around Italy and France and love to stumble across old signs that haven’t been tampered with or “updated”. They have such flavor and style.

Scatter sculpture, paintings and installations in amongst mediaeval buildings and you’ve got the makings of a visually exciting weekend! The Bologna Arte Fiera got me into town, but I went about seeing it in a very random manner. I simply stumbled upon the art pieces as I found them. The piece that was most delightful [...]

Walking past the bus stop, this ad stopped me in my tracks. McDonald’s. (A stranger in few parts of the world.) The assurance of 100% Italian Meat. The seared map of Italy on the big Mac meat patty. “When you eat our meat, it’s a whole other story, all Italian. Here’s a link to their website. [...]

A wall along the canal features this singing bluebird and it makes me smile every time. Whether intended or not, it feels “sunny” to me and perks me up. My Grandma would have liked it. Her favorite color was blue. It’s a blue sky Autumn day in Milano today. Mid-60s. Not a cloud and hardly [...]

This sign stopped me. I grew up hearing the name “Rossignol” in connection with skiis. Here was a cool old bike shop and it had cool old-style bikes inside, plus some swanky, new ones. But no skiis. I hope they never paint that sign.

When they told me you could play football in the streets of Milan during the month of August, they weren’t joking! I had been asked the standard question, “where are you going for August?” Fortunately, I had already made plans for Ischia and Ireland during the month. The Italians are serious about their month-long vacations [...]

The mural right across the grassy patch from the “Ozmo Mural“.

I just liked this!  (Is that a highly stylized “ciao”? Or a tag? It could be both.)   And here are other portions of the same sign:

The “street art” – the graffiti and murals – around here keeps my fingers clicking. And I find imagery around any corner, behind, under and on top of other things. The back sides of billboards. The hard-to-access building facades. The posters on top of posters, then layered and peeling. I find brick coupled with print [...]

This spiral greeted me as I stepped out of the Romolo subway stop near home.

I’m always looking for an interesting “M”, since that’s my first initial and often how I sign my letters and e-mails. This one is quite beautiful, found just around the corner from my apartment, along the canal.

Taking a shortcut through an alley way in Burien on a recent hot day, I saw this perfect red onion sitting alongside a painted backside wall. I swooned and had to shoot it. The colors. The textures. And the unlikelihood of finding such a thing! It still makes me laugh.

I chuckled over these shoes in an alleyway in downtown Seattle and loved the tones of red and pink, plus the one stone opposing the shoes. So close to departure and my senses are keenly heightened. Light and scent and my surroundings are more vivid. I’m REALLY paying attention (even though I do as a [...]