Scenes from the A Train. Murals

Some sort of decorated building in Denver, as photographed from the moving A Train.

Scenes from the A Train. Sugar Warehouse, Denver Colorado.

Old sugar warehouse as taken from a moving train, the Denver RTD A Line.

Morey Mercantile Company Building, Denver Colorado

This building, and the one to the immediately left, were owned by the C. S. Morey Mercantile Company.  I'm not sure of its vintage or what its used for today.

Inkmonstr mural, Denver Colorado.

I have no idea what the story behind this is, but this Inkmonstr mural is located in downtown Denver, Colorado.

Spratlen-Anderson Wholesale Grocery Company (Edbrooke Lofts), Denver Colorado

This is the Spratlen-Anderson Wholesale Grocery Company Building, and neighboring buildings, in downtown Denver Colorado. Today this it the Edbrooke Lofts.  The building was constructed in 1905 with a floor added in 1911.  The grocery company was dissolved in 1923 after which the Davis Brothers Drug Company occupied the company until 1957.  It was converted to lofts in 1990.

The M. J. O'Fallon Plumbing Company (Colorado Saddlery) Building, Denver Colorado

This building in Lower Downtown Denver was built for the M. J. O'Fallon Plumbing Supply Company whose painted bricks still adorn it.  The most famous industry to occupy this 1906 structure, however, was Colorado Saddlery which only moved out of it in 2005 after having occupied it since 1945.  Today it houses shops and lofts.

"LoDo Wellness Center", Denver Colorado

I've been going by this giant mural of a guitar playing cowboy for years and I have in mind that it used to be a Sheplers store in downtown Denver.  Now, of course, in weedy Denver it's apparently a marijuana dispensary.  Oh well.

Wax Trax, Denver Colorado.

This is a photograph of Wax Trax, the legendary Denver record story located in two side by side old buildings in that city.  Currently its adorned with a large painting of Lemmy Kilmister, the late front man for the band Motorhead.

This photo was obviously taken from a distance, and inside a vehicle, so the large mural isn't easily visible in the photo but it was taken from a well known photograph of Kilmister in which he's wearing a short brimmed hat featuring a U.S. Army crossed saber device and an Ordinance branch device.  Kilmister had a thing for military paraphernalia.

Painted Bricks: Purina Elevator, Denver Colorado

A new elevator mural:

Formerly:

Purina Elevator, Denver Colorado:

Terrible photo, but the elevator features a puppy playing with a ball.

 Hmmm. . . puppy replaced by a kitten. . . symbolic?

Sidewalk Compass, Denver Colorado.

Sidewalk compass located near the Brown Palace in Denver. Teh odd angle of the bottom photograph is explained by a desire not to have my shadow in it.

Barth Hotel, Denver Colorado

I don't know anything about it, other than that the Barth Hotel is located in Lower Downtown Denver.

The ? Supply Company, Denver Colordo

A snapshot, this depicts a building that has a tile sign noting that its a supply  company, but I'm not sure what sort of supply company, as a tree obscures that part of thesign.

Icehouse, Denver Colorado

This old building in Lower Downtown Denver bears a name that is somewhat confusing.  With a name suggesting cold storage, the building was in fact built as the Littleton Creamery and Beatrice Foods Cold Storage Warehouse.  Now, however, its an apartment and condominium building and it also houses a bar named the Icehouse Tavern.

View House, Denver Colrado

The sign for the View House cites it was established in 1915.  I don't otherwise know anything about it, other than that it's right across from Coors Field.

Penn Garage, Denver Colorado

The former Penn Garage in Denver Colorado.

Bar, downtown Denver

Not sure of the name, but its next to Wax Tracks in Denver Colorado.  An example of a contemporary bar mural, advertising Pabst Blue Ribbon.  This place obviously also offers pizza.

The Clyfford Still Museum, Denver Colorado

Most of the signs up here are of older painted brick signs, of course. There are exceptions, and this is one, but this is particularly an exception as I'm going to comment. 

Commentary from me isn't unusual, but usually it's on our Lex Anteinternet blog and not here.  But I cannot resist.

This is a very large sign skillfully rendering a photo of Clyfford Still into a sign. The big streaks on the end of the sign is a late example of Still's allegedly artistic work, better regarded as junk.

Still was a 20th Century artist who, starting off in the 1920s, had a public art career. Early on he actually painted figures but, starting in the 1930s, his work began to somewhat resemble that of other period modern artists and following that it was reduced to colored blotches such as we see Still, smoking a cigarette, contemplating here.  It's ironic that, in order to represent Still to the public, the museum has to use a photograph, rather than one of his crappy pointless blotched up canvasses.

On the side of the photo the following is set out:

The canvas was his ally.
The paint and trowel were
his weapons. And the
art world was his enemy.

Apparently art itself, at least in an intelligible fashion capable of conveying some meaning to 99.9999% of humanity, was also his enemy as the result of the use of his weapons was the slaying of intelligibility.  It's complete junk.

But then, a lot of "modern" art is.

Well, in that war the guerilla of public indifference is probably the victor, as the big result of stuff like this is the separation of humanity from its artists.  So, if any meaning was intended to be conveyed, it's conveyed to a pretty self contained little crowd.

Jackson's Sports Bar, Denver Colorado

Mural on the side of Jackson's Sports Bar in Denver, which is right across the street from Coors Field.  This was taken from a distance as I was waiting to get into a Rockies game at the time.

Pepsi Cola sign and The Dutch Mill sign, Champa Street Denver Colorado.

Sometimes the photos are just bad.  The nature of snapshots, I guess.

Pepsi sign and The Dutch Mill sign, Champa Street, downtown Denver.

Storage Building, Lower Downtown Denver Colorado

A building in LoDo that at one time offered space for storage.