Island Mystery: Sign Painting on the Caye

It’s a riddle…wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.  I’ve been noticing it for years but just recently, more examples are popping up.  There is a mysterious style of sign in San Pedro, Belize.  A swirled font – sometimes on a slant, sometimes creative liberties taken with traditional letter order.  Highly stylized faces strangely reminiscent of the famous Easter Island statues.  I love them all.

So wildly mysterious.  Is it one person painting these signs?  I’ve written a few blogs about the Quirky Cute and Weird Signs of Belize (see below)– how did I miss this phenomenon!

Let me show you some examples that I photographed earlier this week.  I bet, with a quick walk through town or your neighborhood on Ambergris Caye, you can find lots of illustrations.  Please send them to me.

Here we go.  Starting at my favorite morning taco spot.  $3 dolla pork taco with onion and a banana juice please.

Across the street.

And then at this beautiful dock just feet away…

Along Back Street in town.

I stopped for something to drink at one of my favorite stores – try to get there when they have fresh creole buns.  YUM!

I don’t think the telephone has been working for 10 years.

Just across the street…

And around the bend…a new creation I’m told.  The artist was described as a “white man with a bushy red beard”!

A CLASSIC example.

Clues…

And then my favorite – at a small shop just around the corner from the beach in Boca Del Rio.  A hand like a lobster claw!

I’ll keep searching for an answer.  My working theory is that it’s just a popular sign design and NOT one artist.

I found one example to bolster that hypothesis.  THIS!  A photo I took in Caye Caulker in 2013.  Elvis and Priscilla under a house in exactly this style.

I wonder if the King is still there.

 

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