Wall Art: Happy Public Life

Traditional Korean villages were walled and although most people in cities now live in high-rises instead of homes, you can still find little alleys (and villages) with 5-10 foot cement walls surrounding houses and their dooryards.  Those walls are for family privacy and for securing one's drying peppers, laundry, tiny garden, and kimchi pots.  At first, the walls make a neighborhood look unfriendly (and darn hard to drive though, as they were designed with walking in mind.). But increasingly we have noticed that many walls are regularly painted with brightly colored depictions of nature, people, traditional village life, etc.  And I have come to love exploring new areas to see what public artwork they might hold.  Here are some examples.

From Yeongdeok, a coastal city 45 minutes north of Pohang, known for its fishing (especially crabs).

Happy crabs. 

This appears to be an angry whale confronting a crab at dusk.
With a mountain village and rainbow on the next wall. 

This is probably my favorite Korean wall art ever.

These artworks are from Jukcheon-ri, a tiny nearby village which decided to feature the "Kakao Friends" emoticons from KakaoTalk (the Korean version of Skype; photo credits to Sam Lantinga):

Here we see Neo (a blue cat), Muzi (rabbit?), Tube (duck), Frodo (bear), and
APeach (which is, well, a blushing butt). 

In case you're interested, APeach (The Butt) is quite popular and has been marketed on socks, car fresheners, pencils, etc.  Butts everywhere.  

On a rather different wall in Jukcheon-ri, a gorgeously rendered but rather confusing message about war and peace:

Dove + olive branch + Kevlar vest.  

And some from a tiny alley of coffee shops off "stream street," a pedestrian mall in downtown Pohang.

A nice combination of fine art reproduction, a cheesy "Photo Zone" directive, and other artwork.

Did I mention "and other artwork"?  Ah, yes.  The grossly overestimated allure
of using English to attract the sophisticated coffee drinker....