House of Paint festival director shares 4 favourite street art spots

There is so much local street art in Ottawa, but it's easy to walk by without realizing that those walls have stories to tell. Some pieces fill a wall with colour and whimsy while others might require a bit of detective work to locate.

House of Paintcelebrates street art, hip hop culture, dance, music and more. CBC Ottawa is a proud partner with House of Paint and so we asked Veronica Roy, House of Paint's festival director, to tell us a bit about some of her favourite street art spots in the city.

What are your favourite places to see street art in Ottawa? Click here to find out how you can share your photos with CBC Ottawa on Instagram.

Location:Lyndale Avenue and Carruthers Avenue
Artist: Daniel Martelock

Roy says this mural is one of her favourites because it's "off the beaten path."

"It's a little part of the city that a lot of tourists wouldn't come to and that if you don't live in Mechanicsville or Hintonburg, you might not know it was here," she says.

"It's by Dan Martelock, who is known for very whimsical pieces, like birds and snacks and food, which are some of my favourite themes in art."

Location: TheFlava Factory
Artist: Street Art Miniature

This next pick is street art for the "keen observer," Roy says.

Street Art Miniature creates teeny tiny pieces of art out of polymer clay and hides them all over the city. Roy showed us this hip hop sneaker hidden between the bricks outside the Flava Factory on Wellington Street West.

"I like it because it's something that you have to be paying attention to your surroundings to see," she says.

Location: ByTowne Cinema
Artists: Mique Michelle and Kalkidan Assefa

Walking down Rideau Street, you might have passed this large, colourful mural and wondered about the back story. It's a collaboration between artists Mique Michelle and Kalkidan Assefa, depictinglocal musiciansElberlynand Kimya.

"If you look atthe texture of the background colour, there are names of Franco-Ontarianartists in a hand-style," Roy points out. "It's just a really nice celebration of diversity in Franco-Ontarian culture in Ottawa."

This mural is one in a series across the city celebrating francophoneculture and community.

Location: George Dunbar Bridge

Of course, the Dunbar Bridge near Brewer Park is one of Roy's favourite graffiti spots. It's the first legal graffiti wall in the city andthe home of the annual House of Paint festival.

"This is just a free-for-all for artists, where any artist can come down and paint," she says.

During the festival, which runs from Aug. 23 to 25, artists from across Canada and the US will set up under the bridge and create curated pieces, but those murals don't stay up for long.

"After the festival, artists come in and just repaint whatever they want. This bottom row of pieces is all from the past few days, few weeks. It's just constantly changing and evolving as an ephemeral piece of community art."

Share your photos with us

These are just a few examples, but there are dozens to chose from. We want to see the street art in your community. Share yourphotos with us on Instagramwith the name of the artist and any other details you want us to know about the local art in your neighbourhood.

Don't forget to set your account to public and use #CBCOttawa, so we can find your photos.