Cuenca’s historic old city stands on a bluff, high over the Tomebamba River. Several huge staircases join the river with the old town, and most of those steps are garnished with contemporary examples of public art. In this case, it is a mural expressing a poetic pause in the middle of a city of concrete and rubber. The stylized faces reminded me of a Picasso sketch – I thought that including the steps in the foreground, diminishing in width as they flowed towards the mural, would suggest the cubistic era in which he worked.

A street artist has humanized the walls of a drab utility box, transforming it into a whimsical human cartoon. I caught the light at just the right time of day – early morning. The low angle of the light softly sculpts the painted panels with shadow, making the cartoon figure seem as if it is just waking up.

An alley wall offers a dual dose of patriotic symbolism. The rich colors seems to shout their proud sentiments from a heavily textured surface. This wall affirms the local support of political policies involved in dual complex and devastating wars that few passersby comprehend.

We were having breakfast at a coffee house in the tiny town of Stanley. At the next table, a reunion of some kind was in progress. I photographed them because a portrait of the Dalai Lama incongruously looks down on them from the wall overhead, apparently adding his blessing to the get-together. (As one of my travel companions notes in her comment below, the Dalai Lama apparently visited the Stanley area, and thus this well known portrait hangs on the wall of the town's coffee house.)

The once luxurious Westward Ho Hotel now provides low-income housing to seniors, many of them living alone. I often take my tutorial students to shoot here, because it offers so many contrasting visual elements. In this case, the wall of its elevator lobby is decorated with a cheerful salute to the Thanksgiving holiday, yet it has been placed right next to a permanent sign designed to keep residents from “loitering.” The two signs clash within the frame of my image, which encloses them side by side above an empty wooden chair. The contrast between the signs is incongruous – the larger, more colorful Thanksgiving sign offers a pleasurable sentiment. The slightly askew “No Loitering” sign warns people not to stand or wait around the elevator lobby just to pass the time. The verb “loiter” also connotes improper or sinister motives, diluting much of the good will intended by the Thanksgiving salute. This wall speaks, but it seems to speak at cross-purposes.

One of the most bizarre murals I have seen covers an entire side of the Poison Spider Bicycle Shop in downtown Moab. There is a fence between the wall and a gas station parking lot. This fence offers a layer of reality that brings the fantasy to life. A giant spider steps out from behind a curiously shaped rock and gives chase to four cyclists speeding away behind that fence. My image includes not only this wall that speaks, but the upper front section of the bike shop as well.