as I walk Toronto

The best walks are those where you discover things that you weren’t expecting.

Slices of pool cues and wood, toy figures and animals, as well as small bits and pieces have been put together with patience and imagination.  The methodical, artistic work of Albino Carreira covers his garage in a lane.  It looks like a work in progress.

below: Rising above the garage is a sculpture that resembles a spinal column with its stacked vertebrae.  Albino Carreira was a construction worker who came to Toronto from Portugal in 1972 as a young man.  In 1993 he fell from scaffolding on a job site,  cracked his skull and broke his spine.   Albino survived the fall and doctors were able to fix his skull with metal plates and reconstruct his backbone with pieces of bone from his leg.

below: As you can see, one side of the garage is painted bright red, blood red perhaps.
But it is also a vibrant red, full of life.

below: The north side of the garage (the side you can’t see in the first picture) is covered with slabs of polished stone with marbles in the grouting between the stones.  All parts of the pool cues were used, including the rubber bumper ends in the pattern seen here.

below: The wasps have found it and they must like it too.

below: Some examples of the eclectic assortment of objects that have been used…. skulls, Santa Claus, beetles, butterflies, gold golfers, figurines, and champagne corks.  I spent quite a bit of time looking at the details, but then again that’s the sort of thing that I like to do.  I find it rewarding to discover little things that other people might pass over.

As I wrote this blog post, I kept thinking that I should go back to see if there was anything that I missed… and then I learned that his house is also decorated in a similar manner so now going back is definitely in my future!