10. The Maltese Festival (Part Two)

We're just back from our three-month romp through Southeast Asia. We took hundreds of pictures of street art (among other things) and will post the best once we've had a chance to sort through them.

In the meantime, we'd like to pick up where we left off before our trip, with another look at the annual Sliema Street Art Festival. Earlier, we presented the best of the 2013 festival. Now we're going to showcase some of our favourites from 2014.

Undoubtedly, the most powerful (and largest) work was by France's MTO. His wall mural, The Mediterranean Door, was a symbolic protest against European immigration policies that force illegal migrants to risk their lives at sea:

Also powerful (and also large) was Berlin's Die Dixons' spotlight on violence against children:

The beautiful sea around Malta once again inspired some artists, like local tattoo master Justink's (aka Justin Bonnici):

And provided a backdrop for others, like French artist Sone:

Many artists picked up on the nautical theme as well, like Kazakhstan-born Alex Maksiov, who whimsically welcomed those in attendance:

and equally light-hearted Danes, Sea Puppy, Prosimian:

and Skum:

Italian streetscape painter Vera Bugatti took the word "street" quite literally, adding colour directly onto Sliema's waterfront promenade: 

There was one mystery in Malta that we weren't quite able to solve. We saw a number of colourful portrait murals but couldn't figure out who painted them. They weren't signed; aren't on the Sliema 2014 Facebook page; and, don't appear on a Google search. If you can help enlighten us, please drop us a line at two.nomads@icloud.com