Cities are a great canvas. They’re the place where ambitious young people go to seek their fortune in business music or art. Most often though, the idea of a canvas is just a metaphor. It’s rare, but sometimes the city is the physical canvas as well.

Witness the Paint the Town blog, where city streets and sidewalks stained with enamel are collected, documented and pondered.

The Paint the Town blog is a new concept that combines citizen journalism and street art. Viewers are encouraged to submit their best photos of paint spills and the subsequent foot tracks, tire marks and splatters that result. Once a user takes a picture of the unintentional art piece, the exact location of the spill is tagged on Google Maps.

So far, most submissions come from Berlin and New York City–maybe people are just less careful there–but wherever there are cars and paint, there are bound to be the foul-ups that end up on Paint The Town.

Some splatters look like snow, while others just look like a big mess. Once they happen, the splotches are difficult if not impossible to remove, but they become part of the urban landscape.

With archives going back to August of 2009, the Paint The Town blog has dozens of interesting, unusual and puzzling images to chose from.

Click here to see more transportation-inspired street art on AltTransport: Transportation Porn: Bicycle Street Art.