Discovering Street Art with Urbacolors

Street art is like a free gift to the world, a little something that can brighten your day, open your mind, make you laugh, or just jolt you out of the humdrum of everyday life and better notice the world around you. I'm of the opinion that there's a difference between graffiti and street art - one is a scribble that defaces a hundreds-of-years-old sculpture in a park, and the other is the expression of true creativity that adds value, beauty, humor and/or political commentary to the structures that form our cities. If you're into street art, and you have a smartphone, you've got to download the free app Urbacolors.

(photo via Urbacolors)

Started by a pair of Parisian dudes with a passion for discovering street art (Matthieu "Le Geek" and Aurélien "Le Hipster"), Urbacolors is something like a map, gallery and community all rolled into one. You can find street art wherever you may be in Paris using their handy interactive map, share your photos with the rest of the Urbacolors community (therefore adding to the map) and connect with other street art lovers from around the world. You can start a collection of your favorites so you'll always know where that awesome Banksy is, or look up where the nearest (or newest) Space Invader mosaic is perched.

What I love about Urbacolors (besides that it's free!) is that it's like your very own customizable walking tour. Take advantage of a sunny day to wander around the city finding Don Mateos and Fred le Chevaliers in nooks, crannies and staircases all over Paris.

Or anywhere! Urbacolors isn't restricted to only France - there are uploaded photos from as far away as Iceland, Argentina, Thailand and that pretty country known as America. If you're a fan of street art, get on Urbacolors and start sharing, and discovering, those little surprises cemented onto the walls near you.

(photo via Urbacolors)