One of Those Days (8 Photos)

Street art for one of those days

David Zinn’s chalk lizard Reggie sits slumped at the end of a vent pipe after several attempts at figuring out the washroom hand dryers. The faces in these eight works are for days like that, when small things suddenly feel like too much.

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🐯 A Worried Tiger — By Tocha One in Aracaju, Brazil 🇧🇷

All those stripes, whiskers and teeth, and the tiger still looks as if someone has just asked how its week is going. Tocha One gives the face wide eyes and a downturned mouth, making the expression the whole point of the wall. The artist shared the mural on Instagram.

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🤡 The Clown Has Had a Long Day — By AREN in Mexico City, Mexico 🇲🇽

The red nose is ready for a performance; the eyes are somewhere else. AREN’s clown keeps hold of a spray can while the heavy eyelids and slack mouth do the talking.

📷 Photo: Gilberto Ruiz

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Quick question: guess the city

A heartbroken sponge by a wall of gig posters. Which city is he stuck in?

AMilanBNaplesCTurinDRome

Just show me

Show answer

Rome, Italy 🇮🇹

🧽 Show Biz Ruined Me — By Pao in Rome, Italy 🇮🇹

SpongeBob’s usual grin has disappeared. Pao painted the electrical cabinet in Rome in 2012 and gave his fallen cartoon star a cardboard sign; the artist’s archive records the title as Show biz ruined me.

💡 Artist Fact: Pao is the name used by Milan-born Paolo Bordino (b. 1977), who began working on the street in 2000 and became known for painting Milan’s concrete bollards as penguins. After the 2007 exhibition Street Art Sweet Art at Milan’s PAC, he moved on to canvas and fiberglass as well.

📷 Artwork: Pao

🌍 Play our Guess the City quiz: 8 more cities →

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🦇 Hard Life for Heroes — By Johann’s Art in Normandy, France 🇫🇷

Batman is in tears, with a bottle at his feet. Johann’s Art brings the superhero down to street level, shoulders hunched and head lowered inside his cape.

💡 Pop Culture Fact: Batman was created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger and first appeared in Detective Comics #27, cover-dated May 1939, in a story titled “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate.”

More: Hard Life for Heroes by Johann’s Art

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👀 Not Impressed — By Vanyu Krastev in Bulgaria 🇧🇬

Two googly eyes and a mail slot make a very flat face. The chipped paint and narrow opening were already there; Krastev’s addition makes the door look as though it has answered quite enough questions today. It belongs to his long-running Eyebombing Bulgaria project; Colossal once called eyebombing the street art equivalent of drawing a funny mustache on the Mona Lisa.

More: More Eyebombing by Vanyu Krastev

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🐓 A Short Temper — By Wellington Galone in Santa Isabel, Brazil 🇧🇷

Galone packs the irritation into the chicken’s eyes. The lowered brows and untidy feathers make this close view feel like the moment just before an argument starts. The detail is cropped from a larger wall, where graffiti lettering continues to the right.

🔗 Follow Wellington Galone on Instagram

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🛡️ Tired — By Nikita Golubev (ProBoyNick)

The armored figure has put the fight on pause. Golubev draws the light areas by working through the truck’s dirt, so the bowed head and resting body stand out against the dark surface. The Russian painter and muralist has been drawing on dusty trucks and vans around Moscow since at least 2018, knowing that the next rain or car wash will erase the result.

🔗 Follow Nikita Golubev on Instagram

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💨 Completely Exhausted — By David Zinn

The white vent pipe is real where it leaves the wall; the rest, including the tiny green lizard at the end of it, is chalk. Zinn’s own caption supplies the backstory: “After several attempts at figuring out the hand dryers in the washroom, Reggie was literally exhausted.”

💡 Artist Fact: Before the chalk drawings, Zinn spent about twenty years as a commercial artist in Ann Arbor. According to the Ann Arbor Observer, his work ranged from theater posters to a recycling comic for the city’s Waste Watcher newsletter.

More: More Chalk Art by David Zinn

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Which one is your favorite?