Someone Got Creative (18 Photos)

Someone got creative with what was already there

A pipe on a sidewalk already had the shape of an alligator. It just needed someone to notice. These artists found other possibilities in ordinary materials, from a cracked wall to loose stones on a beach.

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🌀 “Circumflexus” — By Jon Foreman in Llano, Texas, USA 🇺🇸

The stones get smaller as the rows bend around the circle, making the ground seem to dip beneath them. Jon Foreman built “Circumflexus” for Llano Earth Art Fest. Photo by Laurence Winram Photography.

💡 Stone Fact: Foreman says this arrangement took four days to complete, beginning with the largest stones at the back.

More: Land and Beach Art by Jon Foreman

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🐊 Pipe Alligator — By Tom Bob in New Haven, Connecticut, USA 🇺🇸

That long snout was already there. Tom Bob painted an exposed pipe on Whitney Avenue green, then added eyes, teeth and little feet on the pavement.

More: Genius Artworks by Tom Bob

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🐆 A Leopard From Nature — By Hannah Bullen-Ryner

Blue petals, pale fragments and small dark pieces become a leopard’s face. Move closer and it breaks back into all the little things Hannah Bullen-Ryner arranged on the ground.

More: Ephemeral Art by Hannah Bullen-Ryner

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🧵 “Stone Ribbon” — By Jon Foreman in Druidston, Wales, UK 🇬🇧

A strip of pebbles runs over the boulders and out toward the sea. Foreman made “Stone Ribbon” at Druidston, keeping the line going wherever the beach got in the way.

More: Jon Foreman Uses Nature Like This

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🪵 Ethel in the Wood — By David Zinn

The cut end of this branch was waiting for a resident. David Zinn gives Ethel a little hollow to peer out of, using the grain and dark shading to make the flat drawing feel tucked inside the log.

💡 Artist Fact: Zinn says his temporary drawings use chalk, charcoal and found objects and are improvised where he makes them.

More: David Zinn’s Hidden Chalk Art

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🌺 Looking Up — By Rodrigo Rodrigues in São Paulo, Brazil 🇧🇷

The child looks up into a canopy that grows beyond the painting. Rodrigo Rodrigues places the portrait beneath real flowering branches, letting the leaves and pink blossoms complete the top of the picture.

More: When Nature Becomes Design

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🦗 Scrap Grasshopper — By Bordalo II in Lisbon, Portugal 🇵🇹

Bent panels and discarded objects become a huge green grasshopper against a purple wall. You can still pick out the separate pieces; the insect holds together from a few steps back.

💡 Artist Fact: Bordalo II’s name is a tribute to his grandfather, the painter Real Bordalo, whose legacy he wanted to carry forward in a new form.

More: A Collection of Street Art by Bordalo II

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👓 Snow Glasses — By P183 in Russia 🇷🇺

From above, a streetlamp becomes the raised arm of a giant pair of glasses. P183 completed the frames on the snowy ground; the people walking past make the scale of the joke clear.

More: Street Art by P183

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🐪 Camel Caravan — By OAKOAK in France 🇫🇷

A crack in the concrete gives this little caravan its route. OAKOAK only needed a few silhouettes to make the damaged wall look like a stretch of desert.

More: Lovely by OAKOAK

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🎧 An Oversized Walkman — By Tom Bob in New Bedford, Massachusetts, USA 🇺🇸

The blue box already had the right shape. Tom Bob added a cassette window, buttons and a headphone-wearing listener to make an oversized Walkman. He called the piece “Close Your Eyes, Breathe, Relax”.

More: Street Art by Tom Bob — Collection 2

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🪁 “Kite” — By Pejac in Al-Hussein, Amman, Jordan 🇯🇴

A real child watches a tiny kite flyer in the wall. For this 2016 intervention, Pejac scraped away parts of the already peeling paint to reveal the scene. Photo by Pejac.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsKitePejac · 2016 · Al-Hussein camp, Amman, JordanScraped, no paint addedOne of four camp piecesSpanish Embassy support1Pejac removed bits of peeling white paint to expose shapes in the dark wall beneath, instead of adding colour.Hyperallergic2According to GraffitiStreet, the boy’s kite is a house uplifted with its roots still attached.GraffitiStreet201620 AprArrested Motion photos201621 AprStreet Art News photos201621 AprGraffitiStreet photos201621 AprVICE reportRead the full file →

More: Street Art by Pejac

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🤖 Robot City — By Psoman in Osaka, Japan 🇯🇵

A flying vehicle seems to pull out of this little building, carrying a frog and a rabbit through a crowded mechanical city. Psoman painted the scene at JR Nishikujō Station; even the real pipes along the wall are worked into the picture.

More: Outer Space in Street Art

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⛵ The Boat Library — Cala Portalga, Polignano a Mare, Italy 🇮🇹

An old fishing boat has a second job beside the sea. Shelves fit inside its pointed hull, and the invitation along the bottom is simple: take a book, leave a book.

💡 Book Fact: Local fishermen cut the boat in two. One half became a nativity scene; this half became the book exchange.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsLibrarcaLocal fishermen · 2021 · Cala Portalga, Polignano a MareFishermen of Cala PortalgaHalf a wooden gozzoAbout 100 books in 20211Fishermen cut Carlino’s old gozzo in two: one half held a nativity scene, the other became the library.la Repubblica Bari2The first local report, on 6 January 2021, called it “Libarca”; later reports use Librarca.OggiConversano20216 JanFirst local report20211 Marla Repubblica Bari20214 MarCommons photo from the path202114 MayCommons photo20211 JulCommons photo at sunset202225 AugCommons photo202331 AugQuotidiano di Bari202510 JanQuotidiano di Bari again202626 AugTorino Cronaca featureRead the full file →

More: 8 Street Art Masterpieces That Will Make You Fall in Love with Books Again

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🐔 The Painterly Pollo — By David Zinn

A pale patch in the brickwork becomes a chicken with a paintbrush. The existing mark supplies most of the body; a few added details make it look as if this little painter has been working on the wall all along.

More: David Zinn’s Hidden Chalk Art

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🧩 A Mosaic Around the Pole — By Ememem in Lyon, France 🇫🇷

The missing pavement gives this mosaic its outline. Curved rows of blue, white and red tiles wrap around the pole, turning an awkward little gap into the most colorful part of the sidewalk.

💡 Repair Fact: Ememem coined “flacking” from the French word flaque, meaning puddle, for this way of filling damaged streets with art.

More: Mosaic Street Repairs by Ememem

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🪴 A Wall of Planters — Valparaíso, Chile 🇨🇱

Painted houses share this wall with real plants. Bottles and small containers become planters, and their trailing leaves spill over the tiny streets and windows. Even the garden gets to join the picture.

More: Nature’s Revenge (14 Photos)

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🚀 Bullet Bill From the Drainpipe — By Pappas Pärlor in Sweden 🇸🇪

That downpipe has become a launch tube. Pappas Pärlor placed a fuse-bead Bullet Bill at its opening and a tiny Mario below, letting the real street supply the rest of the game level.

More: Pixel-Art Street Interventions by Pappas Pärlor

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🧱 A Toy-Brick Repair — Warsaw, Poland 🇵🇱

Red, yellow, green and blue toy bricks fill the missing corner of the concrete. The jagged edges are still there, but the gap now looks like a small piece of a toy city.

More: What If LEGO Could Repair the World?