Happy New Year!

Ok, so we are 12 days into the New Year (2026) and it hasn’t exactly been a stellar start for our Country – but hopefully you are all finding some sort of peace and joy in your daily lives.

My friends and I decided we would start the new year with art and beauty. Our first stop…Graffiti Alley in Baltimore.

Baltimore is an interesting place, one that carries visible scars of gentrification through abhorrent policy making that still shows its ugliness, today. Redlining defines Baltimore, block by block, as the government drew maps to indicate “hazardous” areas – or areas deemed too financially risky to invest in (read: too black)- leaving the city a mosaic of built up and run down patches.

Of course, this isn’t exactly surprising. Our country was (and arguably still is) built on racism. What is interesting is how tiny those patches are. It is almost disorienting as you meander through Baltimore, transitioning from one street in disrepair to another lined with beautiful buildings and renovated row homes, in quick succession.

Take Graffiti Alley, for instance. It is not but a few blocks from what would become our second stop that day: The Baltimore Art Museum. A museum that draws in a diverse crowd, although many of whom would not be caught anywhere near Graffiti Alley. Museums rely on all sorts of patrons, especially when the entrance fee is $0. Why is the juxtaposition of the alley to the museum so fascinating, though? You’d have to rewind time a bit to understand that.

The alley was once a place for heroin addicts and unsavory sexual exploits, but in 2005, after an art studio (Graffiti Warehouse) purchased the adjacent property and designated the location a safe space for urban artists, the new, and current, identity of the side street was born (Atlas Obscura piece). Graffiti is still illegal in the city and carries a fairly disproportionate consequence, but with a place like graffiti alley, budding street artists have a place to practice their skills, without the fear of prosecution.

Additionally, beautiful murals have also popped up all around, adding life and color into struggling neighborhoods. How the city splits hairs on what is an accepted mural versus other forms of street art likely has something to do with requesting approval or acting as a community, but I’m not sure. They are incredible, however, and hopefully, one day I’ll get around to finding them all to photograph.

Until such time, enjoy the photos of this concrete jungle. This is the only time this alley will look exactly as it does below, as the artwork changes regularly. During my visit to this colorful ecosystem, I spotted a pair of owls, a leopard, a raven, a cat, a dog, and a myriad of other creatures.