Not Sleeping Tonight (12 Photos)

Halloween, Built Into Walls and Ruins

A dragon once lay across a garage roof in Massachusetts. Outside Barcelona, an abandoned brick building got a doorway full of teeth, and on a beach in Normandy an old blockhaus wears the tentacled face of Davy Jones. Two of these works were made for Halloween. All twelve would look at home on October 31.

More: Skeleton Art (24 Photos)

---

💀 “Skull 2022” — By DavidL outside Barcelona, Spain 🇪🇸

Two hollow eye sockets and a nose sit above an arched doorway, and the painted teeth turn the opening into a mouth. DavidL works in abandoned buildings, and many of the ones he has painted have since been torn down, which he accepts as part of the job.

More: Surreal Art by DavidL (15 Photos)

🔗 Follow DavidL on Instagram

---

🦖 Dinosaur Skull — By SCAF

The first photo shows an empty, damaged room. In the second, a dinosaur skull with a jaw full of teeth bursts out of the same corner, and someone has climbed up to sit on it. SCAF often paints in abandoned factories and needs from two days to a week for a mural.

More: 26 3D Paintings by SCAF

🔗 Follow SCAF on Instagram

---

🐉 Halloween Dragon — By Tom Saltsman in Marblehead, Massachusetts, USA 🇺🇸

The dragon’s head rests above the front door, and one huge wing hangs down past the corner of the house. Architect Tom Saltsman built the garage-sized creature for Halloween 2018. It exhaled smoke, and its red eyes lit up.

💡 Halloween Fact: The dragon did not come back. Neighbors asked for it the next year, but Saltsman loves that his displays go away.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsHalloween DragonTom Saltsman · 2018 · Pleasant Street, Marblehead, MassachusettsBuilt by an architectBlew smokeRed eyes that lit up1Neighbors asked for it back the next year, but Saltsman told WBUR, “I love that it goes away.”WBUR2According to Oliver Reports, it drew attention from around the world, and Saltsman estimates more than a thousand people came to see it.Oliver Reports201830 OctBoston 25 photo on the house201830 Oct7News report20181 NovHomecrux, MassLive photos201929 OctGone; ghost ship in its place201930 OctSaltsman: “another year it was a dragon”Read the full file →

More: This Dragon Someone Put on Their House for Halloween

---

🐦 Skeleton and Bird — By SMUG in Frankston, Victoria, Australia 🇦🇺

A towering skeleton bends down to look at a small blue bird perched on one bony finger. SMUG painted it as the headline wall of the first Big Picture Fest in March 2018, and some residents called it “grotesque” and “frightening to children”.

💡 Nerd Fact: The skeleton is gone now. The Park Lane building it was painted on has been demolished.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsSkeleton and BirdSMUG · 2018 · Park Lane, FrankstonFirst Big Picture FestFestival headline pieceSkeleton with a blue bird1Some residents called the huge skeleton “grotesque” and even “frightening to children”, the Frankston Leader reported, according to 3AW.3AW2In October 2023 a local writer reported that the Park Lane artwork would be destroyed because the building was being torn down.Weekend Notes201813 MarFestival walls announced201825 MarInstagram photo201826 MarInstagram: “#finished”201828 MarGraffiti Street report20182 Apr3AW: town divided20183 AprStreetArtNews feature201911 OctOn council street art tours2023Visitor guide: “part of Park Lane”202317 OctBuilding to be torn down202427 NovLast marked as seen202520 MarMarked removed: building demolishedRead the full file →

More: Street Art by SMUG

🔗 Follow SMUG on Instagram

---

🐙 “Davy Jones” — By Blesea & BABY.K in Biville, France 🇫🇷

Davy Jones’s tentacle beard spills down the front of an old blockhaus on the sand, and the two side wings become his hat. BABY.K and Blesea spent four days painting it and shared the result on April 4, 2021. The bunker stands on the beach at Biville in La Hague, about a kilometer from the car park.

💡 Nerd Fact: The pirate shares the bunker. Blesea had already painted a Cyclops from the X-Men on the side at a right angle to the sea and a sphinx on the dune side.

More: Davy Jones in Normandy by Blesea and BABY.K

🔗 Follow Blesea and BABY.K on Instagram

---

👀 Church With Eyes — By Nikita Nomerz in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia 🇷🇺

Eyes stare out of the two arched windows, and the doorway gets a row of teeth. Nomerz painted it on an abandoned church.

💡 Nerd Fact: Nomerz founded the MESTO street art festival in his native Nizhny Novgorod in 2017 and published an encyclopedia of the city’s urban art in 2022.

More: Street Art by Nikita Nomerz

🔗 Follow Nikita Nomerz on Instagram

---

🔪 “Halloween Party!” — By Blesea in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, France 🇫🇷

Ghostface leans over a concrete pillar that has been painted as the knife, while a man in a respirator plays the victim in the grass. Blesea shared the wall as “Halloween party! Cherbourg 2022”.

💡 Movie Fact: The mask is older than the movie. Snopes reports that the novelty company Fun World created it as a Halloween costume mask in 1991, and that it was licensed for Scream in 1996.

More: 14 Murals by Blesea

🔗 Follow Blesea on Instagram

---

🌿 Child in the Ivy — By La rouille

A pale child seems to dissolve into a damp corner, and real ivy has grown straight across the painting. La rouille is self-taught and, according to his official bio, discovered painting late, during urban explorations.

More: Street Art by La rouille in an Abandoned Building

🔗 Follow La rouille on Instagram

---

🎈 “Airhead” — By SHOK-1 in London, UK 🇬🇧

An X-ray skull floats up the wall like a balloon, and its painted string ends in the hand of a man standing below. SHOK-1 painted it in Hackney in 2020.

💡 Nerd Fact: There is no tape or masking behind those soft X-ray layers. He painted “Airhead” freehand for London Mural Festival, using a technique developed over nearly 40 years.

More: Street Art by SHOK-1

🔗 Follow SHOK-1 on Instagram

---

👋 “hello there : )” — By näutil near Valognes, France 🇫🇷

A grinning skull fills a concrete pillar in a roofless ruin, while two empty windows behind it frame the sky. näutil painted it in 2021 in a former industrial ruin near Valognes in the Cotentin.

💡 History Fact: Its wealth of old buildings earned Valognes the nickname “Versailles of Normandy” during the Age of Enlightenment.

More: Life and Poetry by näutil

🔗 Follow näutil on Instagram

---

💀 Skull in a Ruined Room — By Tempero Diabetico in Portugal 🇵🇹

A cracked skull glows out of the dark back wall, and the man stepping through the doorway shows how big it is. Tempero Diabetico is a graffiti writer from Vila Franca de Xira, near Lisbon.

📷 Photo: Marina Aguiar

More: Art Hidden Inside Empty Places (8 Photos)

🔗 Follow Tempero Diabetico on Instagram

---

✂️ “Edward Scissorhands” — By DavidL outside Barcelona, Spain 🇪🇸

Edward’s wild hair and long blades stretch across a peeling blue room, a few steps from a window full of daylight. DavidL painted it at an abandoned site nicknamed “Fraggle Rock”, a long drive from Barcelona.

💡 Movie Fact: Stan Winston created Edward’s scissor hands from a drawing by Tim Burton. Winston and Ve Neill were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Makeup.

More: Edward Scissorhands by DavidL

🔗 Follow DavidL on Instagram