November | 2015 | as I walk Toronto

Archive for November, 2015

Bloordale to Brockton

Posted: November 29, 2015 in general Toronto, graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: alley, altered signs, architecture, Bike Pirates, CN Tower, dragonfly, fake leg, fences, garages, graffiti, Haven Espresso Bar, houses, lane, laneway, love yourself, mural, park, poppies, protest posters, residential, skyline, spudbomb, stickers, Susan Tibaldi parkette, tracks, Union Pearson Express, UP Express, walls

A walk down Brock Ave, well sort of. I don’t think I’m capable of walking in a straight line.

Brock Avenue, just north of Bloor, the Haven Espresso Bar, a tiny little place with good coffee. I don’t usually start my walk with a cup of coffee but I was intrigued by the smallness of the space.

below: This is the mural on the wall beside the coffee bar. It’s just the word Haven but there are some interesting details in the letters.

below: The local park is called Susan Tibaldi Parkette, named for a woman who was active in the community. This cheerful toucan overlooks the park.

There are a few painted walls and garages in the area around the park.

below: Including this spud bomb covered garage door.

below: On a wall, ‘Building with the Gods, James Massey R.I.P’

below: I spotted this on a pole just before I headed south. A little bit of sparkle to brighten the day.

The area south of Bloor was once the village of Brockton. Back in 1812, one hundred acres of land from what is now Queen Street, north to Bloor Street, and west of Dufferin Avenue was granted to James Brock (yes, a relative of Sir Isaac). After James died, his widow Lucy had a road built that run down the center of the property. This road was Brock Avenue. She subdivided the property and sold the lots to smaller land holders. This settlement became Brockton. In 1884 it was annexed by the city of Toronto.

below: Colourful cat and mouse games on a wall just south of Dundas. I couldn’t find any ‘signature’ on the wall and I haven’t been able to find out who painted this. I’d love to know.

below: Malabar Ltd. It looks unkempt and I thought it was abandoned. The gate to the parking lot was open and there were a couple of cars parked behind the wall. A quick search online and I discovered that this site is still operational, but only serves the professional opera and theaters industry.

After passing under one of the greyest, dingiest railway bridges, I came to a street – not sure what it was!

A Toronto street sign in blue and white that is covered with a vine

I checked a map – it’s Cunningham Ave.

.
But it afforded me an unobstructed view.

I looked around a bit but there wasn’t much of interest on my side of the tracks and I wasn’t about to cross over! I did notice that there is graffiti on the track side of the wall around the Malabar parking lot. Something to explore another time… when I don’t have to dodge trains!

As the leaves fall off the trees, the houses are hidden less. I like looking for older and/or unique architectural details that are now easier to spot (and take pictures of!)

below: The first time I saw one of these “half houses” I was quite surprised (it’s behind the large tree). I now realize that there are a number of them in the city but it was still a fun find.

below: Brick and wood trim details being preserved and restored on an old house.

below: There are a number of old square houses in the neighbourhood.

an older square brick house on a corner of a residential street in Toronto.

below: A house with an old second storey wooden structure. I don’t think it can be called an oriel window but I don’t know any other architectural term to describe it.

below: Although it’s not as easy to see in this picture, this house also has an old window and wood structure. The fence around the neighbour’s yard is probably not as old as the porch, but it to is from a bygone era. Is it from the 1960’s? I suspect that they were very trendy at one time although I have seen this sort of design more as balcony railings than as fences.

below: Symmetrical but not symmetrical

below: The back of Bike Pirates, a DIY bike workshop on Queen West, has a mural by Jonny Cakes.

below: Someone’s got a leg up!

Up over a door that is…. this door in fact.

below: And there were a few other little amusements along the way.

a drive by

Posted: November 27, 2015 in graffiti and street art, public art
Tags: Eglinton Ave East, geometric, IAH Digital, Leslie St., Mediah, mural, North York, railway bridge, terra strat'aa, underpass

“Terra Strat’aa” is a new mural by IAH Digital (Mediah) that now covers both sides of a railway overpass on Eglinton, just east of Leslie Street. I have been meaning to take pictures of it for a few weeks now. One of my excuses for not getting there sooner is that it is not convenient to get to by foot and once there, it’s in a photographic wasteland.

I hadn’t planned to drive past it today but I did….and I had my camera in the front seat with me….and believe it or not, the traffic on Eglinton was extremely slow, even slower than usual! I think that these photos were meant to be. 🙂

two number tens

Posted: November 26, 2015 in history, public art
Tags: 10, ACC, air canada centre, captains, George Armstrong, history, hockey, hockey players, Legends Row, Maple Leafs, public art, statues, Syl Apps

Earlier in November, two more statues were added to Legends Row outside the Air Canada Centre, Syl Apps and George Armstrong. Both men were Maple Leaf Captains and both men wore jersey number 10.

below: Blue and white confetti at the unveiling of the latest statues on Legends Row.

below: An old photo showing Syl Apps and a young George Armstrong when the latter was given Maple Leaf jersey 10 to wear. Armstrong was the first player to wear number 10 since Apps had retired.

below: George Armstrong, past and present, at the unveiling. Armstrong played 21 seasons with the Maple Leafs between 1950 and 1971. After retiring from playing hockey, he coached the Toronto Marlies for a few seasons and he was on the Maple Leaf scouting staff for many years.

below: Also, number 10, Syl Apps joined the Maple Leafs in 1936. While he was captain of the Maple Leafs, the team won three Stanley Cups. Apps retired in 1948.

below: left to right: Mats Sundin, Borje Salming, Darryl Sittler and Ted Kennedy

below: George Armstrong and Johnny Bower

below: left to right: Borje Salming, Darryl Sittler, Ted Kennedy and Syl Apps

below: Just around the corner, two statues of a slightly different nature

Two mannequins, one male and one female, are dressed in Maple Leaf hockey clothing. Toques, heavy sweaters, T-shirts and scarfs, all in blue and white with the Leafs logo

food, food, glorious food

Posted: November 25, 2015 in galleries
Tags: Amanda White, Andree Wejsmann, Artport, broaches, brooches, Bruce Cochrane, ceramics, corn, Erin Riley, food, Forage, Harbourfront, hunters, Lana Filippone, leaves, lemons, Lisa Myers, Lynn Price, natural dyes, ode to a lemon, photographs, photography, rings, Sooyeong Lee, squash, Thea Haines, Victoria Piersig, video

Food is an important part of our lives and there is a lot that we take for granted about the food we eat. Food, and all that accompanies it, is the theme of a collection of art exhibits at Harbourfront’s Artport. On display is work by a number of artists who have been examining different food related issues. How we see food, it’s role in our lives, how healthy is it, it’s production, and how we obtain it, are just a few of the questions that are explored. We eat food but what about the parts we usually waste?

Below is a sample of what is on offer.

below: ‘Wearable Food – Hat’, 2014, by Sooyeong Lee, part of a series of photographs that displays food in atypical and unexpected ways. An acorn squash fascinator is precariously perched on her head.

below: ‘Frugivore Project’, 2011-ongoing, by Amanda White, an attempt to communicate biologically with tomato plants. White bought tomatoes from the grocery store and ate them. She harvested the seeds after they had passed through her digestive system and then planted them. After the plants bear fruit, it is eaten and the cycle continues.

below: ‘Foraged Palette’, 2015, Thea Haines, made with wool, silk, linen, hemp and cotton with natural dyes. The dyes are made from food waste such as carrot peels, onion skins, pomegranate skins and avocado pits.

below:‘Strain to Absorb, 2015, by Lisa Myers, three digital files running simultaneously. Blueberries contain the pigment anthocyanin which the artist produces from strained fruit.

below:‘Accidental Hunter’, 2014, by Erin Riley, hunting with a rifle received as a gift from her father and taking pictures of the event.

below: ‘Delicate merchandise!”, 2014, by Lynn Price, oil on paper. The title comes from a poem called ‘Ode to a Lemon’ by Pablo Neruda (see bottom of post)

below:Functional Ceramic Tableware, 2005-2015, by Bruce Cochrane

below: Trading Places, Victoria Piersig. A series of photographs from a journey spent onboard a ship transporting wheat from Thunder Bay to Montreal.

below: cookie cutter rings and brooches, by Andree Wejsmann

below: Teerex and Triceratops Corn Cob holders, 2012, by Lana Filippone

***

‘Ode to a Lemon’ by Pablo Neruda

Out of lemon flowers
loosed
on the moonlight, love’s
lashed and insatiable
essences,
sodden with fragrance,
the lemon tree’s yellow
emerges,
the lemons
move down
from the tree’s planetarium
Delicate merchandise!
The harbors are big with it –
bazaars
for the light and the
barbarous gold.

a walk on Eglinton

Posted: November 23, 2015 in general Toronto, history, locations, transportation
Tags: architecture, bite me, buildings, bus bays, concrete, dolls, Eglinton, glass, historical, reflections, shadows, signs, street, Toronto Hydro, Toronto Hydro-Electric System, TTC, windows

The plan was to start walking westward from Eglinton subway station.

below: The first photo I took was right after I got off a bus at the station. With the ongoing reconstruction at Eglinton, there is now easy access to the old bus bays. There is still a fence around them, but at least they can be seen and photographed. These bays have not been used since 2004 and the area has been fenced off and unused since then. Now they sit empty in the shadow of the ever increasing tall buildings around them.

below: Looking west along Eglinton Avenue after the completion of Eglinton station in 1954. The street running north-south just beyond the bus bays is Duplex Avenue. There is now a police station on the SE corner of that intersection. On the NW corner you can see the brick Toronto Hydro-Electric Building with its large front ‘door’. It is still there.

historical black and white photo, aerial, from Yonge Street looking west along Eglinton Ave showing the bus bays at Eglinton subway station, up to Duplex Ave is shown clearly.

source: City of Toronto Archives, online

below: (taken later in the afternoon, on the way home) The intersection of Eglinton and Duplex from west side with the brick Toronto Hydro-Electric building now between glass buildings.

below: After leaving Eglinton station, this caught my eye. The glass cube-like building on the NE corner of Eglinton and Duplex reflects the afternoon sun onto the walls of the Toronto Hydro-Electric building across the street.

below: On Duplex, right behind this brick building is an intriguing building. The highly textured concrete exterior and the 3D patterned wall are suggestive of the 1960s although I could be wrong. It’s ugly yet fascinating at the same time. Now that the leaves have fallen from the trees in front of it, the pattern of trapezoids, diamonds and rectangles is revealed…. as is the dirt and grime on the concrete. The fact that there are no windows and doors facing the street provides a clue that this is yet another Toronto Hydro building.

Somethings old

below: A sign with an old Toronto HU (Hudson) exchange phone number. HU1 would be 481. This number is probably from the late 1950s. In the early days, Toronto phone numbers had only 6 digits. In the mid 1950s a seventh digit was added and then between 1961 and 1966 the letter prefixes were phased out, replaced by numbers.

below: The Eglinton Grand, art deco building from 1936; National Historic site since 2003.

Somethings new

And some window ‘shopping’ to do

below: Marbles wedged between glass make an excellent decorative touch.

below: little Japanese wooden dolls in the window of the Sake Bar

below: And even a lovebot hangs out here

below: A little chuckle at this sign….

below: And then later I saw this.

Rather than wait for a bus I decided to keep walking home but unfortunately it’s that time of year when the daylight hours are just too short. One last look at where I had just been before putting my camera away and heading home.

return to Lawrence West

Posted: November 22, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations, public art
Tags: birds, brunosmoky, camel, CN Tower, dead, death, Earth, elephant, environment, essencia art collective, exploitation, fiya, gas mask, Lawrence West, lumber, mural, oil fields, pyramids, Shalak Attack, tiger, vulture

As promised a few blog posts ago, I went back to take more photos of the now complete mural on the underpass on Lawrence Avenue just west of Caledonia. It was painted by Essencia Art Collective (Shalak Attack, Fiyabruxa and Brunosmoky).

Love or Love

Posted: November 21, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations, public art
Tags: Allen Expressway, Art Start, community, empty, flower, heights, home, Lawrence Heights, limitless, love, love or love, mural, Ranee Ave., renewal, Sean Martindale, shoot for the stars, stars, streetARToronto, telephone poles, Toronto Community Housing, Yorkdale, Zachary Court

I drove the back streets to Yorkdale yesterday. It’s not something that I normally do; in fact I can’t remember the last time I drove those streets. But I’m glad I did because I found another mural painted on an underpass. Four sections of concrete wall, four words in bright colours – Love, Home, Limitless, Heights.

Home – just to the right of the word ‘home’ was a large heart that unfortunately I missed when I took the next photo. There was also a sign describing the story behind the mural.

This community mural was painted by youth from the neighbourhood, Rocco Ursino, Salim Yislam, Michelle Collin, Jaden Beckford, Tamika Smart, and Hassan Mohamed under the mentorship of Sean Martindale and Joshua Barndt. Apparently it was inspired by a popular local expression “Love or Love” and tries to convey compassion, hopefulness and determination. Needed sentiments as this neighbourhood undergoes major changes and revitalization.

This 2012 project was produced by Art Starts in partnership with Toronto Community Housing and office of councillor Josh Colle. Funding was provided by StreetARToronto and TCH.

The mural is on Ranee Avenue as it passes under the Allen Expressway. It is also right by the south entrance to Yorkdale subway station.

When I parked my car I saw this telephone pole – Shoot for the stars. Great advice!

And because one thing always leads to another, I was parked on Flemington Road beside this – the remains of Zachary Court.

The street is fenced off and the houses are empty. Some of the windows are missing but most are boarded up. This must be the neighbourhood redevelopment referred to in the description of the mural, or at least part of it.

There was another telephone pole with a happy picture painted on it but looking a little worn.

There are two development proposal signs posted on Ranee Avenue that pertain to this area. One of them is for a seven unit, three storey townhouse development on Ranee Avenue itself. The other is for the demolition and replacement of 233 social housing units as well as the construction of 824 market value units serviced by a new public street. The latter development involves a number of streets besides Zachary Court on both sides of the Allen Expressway (Zachary Court backs onto the west side of the Allen).

mosaic people

Posted: November 20, 2015 in public art
Tags: Adelaide St. West, Bell Canada, ceramic, downtown, exterior, glass, glass ceiling, Immigrant Family, mosaic, pieces, public art, sculpture, small piece of something larger, smalti, Stephen Andrews, tiles, Tom Otterness, Toronto, Trump International hotel, walls, York Wilson

The other day I came across an interesting mosaic of which the picture below is just one part. There is a plaque beside it which says “Seen at a disance the mosaic reveals a crowd of people sheering and clapping, people of all backgrounds, which is the unique mix of Toronto. Up close, the images dissolve into abstract patterns of colour and light.”.

The mural is called ‘A Small Piece of Something Larger’ and it was designed by Stephen Andrews and fabricated in Montreal by Mosaika Art. It is made of smalti (hand cut mosaic glass), gold tiles and hand glazed ceramic tiles.

I’d love to show you a picture of the whole thing but I can’t. The piece is located in the taxi drop off and valet parking area of the Trump International Hotel. I dodged cars while I took these photos. The wall that it is on looks cheap, especially with the dreary doorway that cuts into the mosaic. Another strike against this piece is the very yellow nature of the lighting in this space. I played with the colour balance on the photo below to try to capture the true colour of the artwork.

It really deserves a better location.

The above picture was taken from the NE corner of Bay and Adelaide.
Just a few steps west on Adelaide is this mosiac (look up!):

It is above the entrance to the Bell Canada Building at 76 Adelaide West. Five panels, each twenty feet tall and five feet high, of glass mosaic tile are embedded in the cement of the building. It was designed by York Wilson and installed in 1965 when the building was constructed.

The theme of the piece is communication and each panel represents a different form of communication. From left to right: writing, drawing, music, voice, and satellites.

Staying on Adelaide, walk east again but continue to Yonge Street. Here you can find another hidden, almost secret, mosaic that many people have walked past and never seen. Find the silly little entrance way to what is called the Dynamic Funds Tower on the SE corner of Yonge and Adelaide. Stand outside the entrance but don’t go in. Now look up.

Three very different mosaics all within a few steps of each other.

….and there’s one last stop on our mosaic tour. It’s not a mosaic but looking at Stephen Andrews’ work at the Trump Hotel reminded me of a sculpture. If you walk down Yonge Street, just south of the railway tracks you’ll find a bronze ‘Immigrant Family’ by Tom Otterness.

A roly poly mother, father and baby in arms. A bit cartoonish but vague enough that they represent no one immigrant group. They could be any piece in the mosaic that is Toronto.

With a shoutout to Penny at Walking Woman since it was because of her blog post that I learned about the Otterness sculpture.

wall compositions

Posted: November 19, 2015 in abstract
Tags: brick, colours, corrugated, doors, exterior, faded, Ford logo, glass, metal, mosaic, old, paint, panes, red, texture, tiles, walls, windows, wires, wood

Walls are fascinating. They are made of different materials each with its own texture. Some walls have windows or doors of varying sizes and shapes. People put things on walls. Walls have colour, shape, texture, line, tone and sometimes text. In other words, all the visual elements of design are there to be discovered. The following are just a few that I have seen this summer.

along the south wall

Posted: November 16, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: @kizmet32, @moveslow, abstract, animals, arms, Bloor West, eagle, eys, fish, geometric, graffiti, hands, letters, mural, octapus, painting, railway, spray paint, street art, tags, underpass, wallnoise, wallnoize

Back in the spring I posted pictures of the murals that were painted on the north side of the railway underpass on Bloor Street just east of Dundas Street. Since then, the walls on the south side have also been painted. Both walls were Wallnoize projects.