Buddhist Street Art, Part 5

It's been a long time since I've updated this series, and there seems to be some great new stuff out there. For Parts 1-4, please check my archives for Jan. 2010, Mar. 2010, and Feb. 2011. If not otherwise noted, the location is Los Angeles. The first one is my favorite, a Steve Jobs sticker on Melrose and Fairfax. Let's hope he's really in this place!

Zen Steve Jobs

West Hollywood. Photo: Stephen Bay

Monk rendered by Zen priest Jens Jansen, Frankfurt, Germany

Western Ave. & Wilshire. Photo: Eric Skothes.

Photo: Zcommunitybuilder

Undeniably Cryptik!

Main St., Santa Monica. Photo: ExperiencingLA.com.

Cryptik Ganesh. Babar goes to India.

San Francisco, Mission District. Buddha House Mural by Laura Campos.
Photo: Franco Folini / Foter.com / CC BY-SA.

Buddhist Street Art = Part 4

These have been my most popular blog entries, so I've just added another pt. For the other 3, see Jan. and March 2011.

Chess with the Dalai Lama, 3D street painting, Tracy Lee Stum

Tibetan Black Magic, Cryptik

abstraction848

The Dude Company - Dalai Lama (via SReed99342)

Free Tibet, Poland, Trzgef

Zurich, Switzerland

Thanks, Hello Tibet blog

Part of an ongoing public mandala project.  Photo: Eric Cowan.

Berlin Wall, Germany

Philadelphia, PA, USA

University of Costa Rica

Seoul, Korea

Buddhist Street Art - Part 3

[This series has been one of my most popular, so I've decided to add more. For Parts 1 & 2, please see January 6 and January 17, 2011 entries.]

Thinking>Seoul>R. Mardres

Om Mani Padme Hum>London hoarding>Padmayogini

Zen truck>L.A.>GraffHead

Williamsburg, Brooklyn>nycshawnphotos

Amsterdam>JennaU

Rio de Janeiro>saopaulo1

Malaysian restaurant>Melbourne, Australia

Near Cabbagetown, Ont., Canada>J. Diggity

Yello Monk>unknown

Buddha by Slick>Garey St., LA Arts District

Buddhist Street Art - Part 2

1/Spaulding at Melrose, LA. Photo: George Szakall.
2/Cabbagetown, Toronto. Photo: J. Diggity.
3/Leiden, Netherlands. Photo: Maurits Burgers.
4/Brazil. Photo: Tvindy, Flickr
5/"Basic Buddhism 2" by artist Jason Etienne. London Buddhist Centre.
6/San Francisco. Photo: Liz Hager.
7/Art by Karve. Photo: Mike Cargill.
8 /"Praying Monk" by artist Gaia. Seoul, South Korea
9/London. Art by Banksy.
10/Art by Shepard Fairey. Bowery, NYC. Photo: Brecht Bug, Flickr.

Hoodie Monks

While I was researching the previous piece, I came across this article on The Worst Horse about the Hoodie Monks of Japan, in the tradition of Santoka and all of those early Zen wanderers, mendicants, beggars (in today's parlance, "homeless"). The Hoodie dudes are a small group of ordained Shingon monks who are using street culture, including graffiti, to express Buddhist thought.

According to one member, Gomyo, "The whole hip hop attitude of 'just don't give a fuck' and questioning authority fits perfectly with the Buddhist attitude of free inquiry, though my take on what it means to 'not give a fuck' probably differs from the average gangsta rapper's."

This is a good reminder of just how radical a path Buddhism once was and still is.

http://theworsthorse.com/hoodiemonks/hoodiemonks.html

Buddhist Street Art - Part 1

[For Part 2, see 1/17/11 entry]

I've been collecting images of Buddha and other Buddhist-related graffiti for awhile now and finally decided to pull some of it together. A lot of it lives in LA, where Buddha clearly has a job to do.

Working at the car wash? Western Ave., LA. Art by El Mac & RETNA.

Photo by Robyn Franckowiak.

Must be the karma wash. Photo by Robyn Franckowiak.

Billboard by Cryptik. [Abbott Kinney, Venice]

"Simple Monk" stencil. Artist unknown.

Bodhidharma and his bike. Lansing, MI. Photo by Skylar Woodman.













More Cryptik LA.

Cryptik.

Cryptik. Echo Park, LA. Wild--this looks just like Echo Park to me.

Dog Buddha (looks like Anubis). Downtown LA Arts District.

Toulouse, France. Photo by Ideacat.



















Let's hear it for all the great artists here, who unfortunately must remain unknown due to this world's ridiculous laws about street art. We celebrate your work.