Toronto artists Eric Cheung and Sean Martindale have been busy around their city, turning advertising posters into graffiti pocket planters. Introducing nature to the urban environment in ways that might encourage others to do the same, or to at least consider such possibilities.

On their blog Cheung writes:

A further addition to the Natural Urban Interventions. I see this as an impromptu architectural green wall system (or satire of one) that is cut out of existing poster spaces. Some may call it guerrilla gardening, but I see this as more of an ‘Urban Hack’ in its ability to jam an urban system and provoke reaction

They want you to join them, the planter templates are on the blog as well as photos and updates about how their urban project is going.

Here’s a great world of words produced by German advertising agency Kolle Rebbe, they hired the Hamburg affil­i­ate of Optix Dig­i­talPic­tures – a multi-​disciplined, full-​service post-​production facil­ity, with its head office in Toronto, to create a rather uncon­ven­tional com­mer­cial for Inlin­gua, learning Business English. A packed motion graph­ics piece that com­pares the global econ­omy to a bat­tle­field.

Ghostpatrol is an Australian artist currently working in a studio in Melbourne called Mitten Fortress. Ghost started out stenciling walls but has since moved into painting and mixed media. His work is quite versatile from plush dolls to giant murals, usually with pretty vulnerable characters that you almost want to take home with you- to get them off the streets. Check out more of his amazing work here.

Sometimes it’s true- Sydney needs to come down hard on it’s posers.

I thought seeing as Ghassan did a sweet Australian post this week I would switch it up and do a North American one.

Over 120 illegal billboards throughout New York City were white washed by dozens of volunteers for Jordan Seiler’s ambitious “New York Street Advertising Takeover”.

NYSAT was organised as a reaction to the hundreds of billboards that are not registered with the city, and therefore are illegal. While illegal, these violations are not being prosecuted by the City of New York, allowing the billboard companies to garner huge profits by cluttering our outdoor space with intrusive and unsightly ads.

After the illegal spots were white washed, over eighty artists transformed these spaces into personal pieces of art.

Holiday graff paintings from Aussie Brad Gill of the giggling corpse.

Happy Easter.

You can see good graffiti in most cities around the world. Sometimes you see some that really is odd, I like that stuff best. This week I found some gems from a couple of small towns in outback Australia.

I am particularly fond of the the town of Telfer’s graffiti. Sometimes the small and unpredictable works really make your day.

Perth street art production group Ololo recently approached the construction manager of an inner-city skyscraper when they heard he hated the grey walls of the recently built Condor Tower five-story car park. The three creative friends – Hurben, Shensing and Griv asked to embellish the interior with street art-inspired murals. Each floor has a theme based on the elemental planes of earth: Space, Sky, Land, Underwater and Core. Local and inter-state artists came together to fill the space with color. Participating street artist ‘Creepy’ hopes the project will encourage similar ventures between urban developers and the creative community within Perth.

In Australia there are tons of milk crates all over the place and the crateman crew are becoming well known for making and positioning ‘crateman’ around different cities.

From the Crateman Crew:

“The Adelaide Fringe Festival commissioned us to design a float for their opening night parade, based on some of the work we have been doing with milk crates, and in particular the idea of ‘crateman’.

We were reluctant however to simply relocate our street based work into a radically different arena. Instead we were interested in the idea of a parade as being a cross between performance art, sculpture, and audience participation.

The crate sphere was designed to be rolled down the street as the final act in the parade. Comprising of 688 milk crates and being over 4.5 meters high, it had an estimated weight of over 700 kilograms. It was hoped that upon seeing us struggle with the beast, members of the audience would join in, and help us roll the sphere to a glorious end!

Unfortunately the reality was somewhat different.

People in their curiosity came closer and closer to the ball - but were reluctant to get involved and help, or move out of its way when it threatened to crush them. Our cries of distress were misinterpreted as part of the ‘theatre’ of the situation, as we struggled to maintain control. After completing about a quarter of the parade route, the organizers and the police decided to pull the plug, and ordered us to stop the ball.

It was rolled to the side of the street, and left to sit in a ‘no parking’ zone. Here it sat for a day or so, puzzling passers by, a strange visitor to the quaint streets of Adelaide.”

Road warning signs are fair game for graffiti artists. Of course there are equivalents in every country in the world, but here are some gems from my turf.