Leaside has murals!

Posted: August 20, 2016 in graffiti and street art
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
2

Today’s story begins back in 2007 when elicsr painted this mural behind a store that fronts on Eglinton East.

mural depicting the biblical story, Luke chapter 15, of the prodigal son

It depicts the bible story of the prodigal son.  A very brief summary of the story – A wealthy king had two sons.

mural of the prodigal son, the wealthy king with his two sons at the beginning of the story

The younger son took his half of his father’s money, left home, and squandered the money. He fell into hard times.  He realized that he would be better off as a servant in his father’s household than living in penury on his own.

mural, the younger son leaves his father the king where he goes and squanders his half of his father's inheritance

So he returned home to repent.  His father celebrated the return of the son and forgave him and his prodigal ways.

part of a mural, return of the prodigal son to his father, the king.

Fast forward to August 2016 when the alley became a canvas for 46 street artists and their Wall Expressions project, Go Big or Go Home.  I walked the alley on Thursday and this is what I saw.
[Warning: a lot of the street art is text or abstractions which may not be your cup of tea. ]

below: Girl power skull with pig tails by dudeman.

street art mural on the side of a garage in an alley, by #dudeman, blue stylized skull and cross bones with pig tails on the skull, the words, girl power as well

below: Under the weather vane, a newer garage door painted with a mural by Mediah IAH aka Evond Blake.

two garages in an alley, both covered in murals. On the right is a newer garage, with a weather vane on top, and a mural in blue and greys, geometric and abstract shapes. On the left is an older garage door with multicolured street art on it.

below: Black and white owl on a branch by mska

mural by mska of an owl sitting on the branch of a tree, the owl and tree are in black and white, there are concentric circles in many colours in the background.

below: SPUD bombs and swirls on the back of Eco Cleaners.

spud bombs and swirls on the back of eco dry cleaners

below: And another SPUD creation on the other side of the lane.
A few skulls seemed to have snuck into the painting!

spud bomb and swirls street art on a fence in an alley

below: ‘Mars Attacks’ by the ACK crew, wales, miles, noser, braes and tensoe.

large mural on a two storey brick building, mural is called Mars Attacks, shows a green robot like alien and lots of tags.

below: Garbage bins lined up in front of a horus/tuffytats rose in blue and red.

mural of blue and red roses, large and stylized on a wall, a line of small trash bins in grey , blue and green (garbage bins, recylcing bins and organic waste bins) is in front of the artwork by horus also known as tuffytats

below: A swirly wavy mix of colours brighten up a wooden fence.

a section of wooden fence covered with street art in pink and orange and turquoise and purple striped swirls

below: Red head (and shoulders) man

street art mural on a garage door, head and shoulders of a man in red tones,

below: The Men’s Salon Barber Shop now has a mska creature, complete with scissors in hand, by the back door.

back door of men's hairsylist and barbershop, 814 Eglinton East with a white skulled creature holding a pair of scissors by mska as well as a large yellow 814

below: Next to the barber shop is this mural, or at least this is part of it.  The next photo….

multicoloured mural on a wall with a car parked alongside it.

below: … is the end of the mural.  I’m not sure who painted it but the marks on this are: Mark One, BOB (or 13013) and xFLA,.

tag-like street art in yellow and orange on the side of Bonavista store, alley north of Eglinton East, back of car in the picture - it's parked in front of the rest of the mural

below: A mural for Loui by minus two (and others?)

mural, street art text and tags with words 'for loui'

below: More text and abstractions, this time by manic, roam and acuse.   Loui gets another mention too.

 

street art mural of text and colours across the back of a building in an alley

looking at a building so that the corner is in the front, can see two sides of the building, both of which are covered with murals. Wood railing across the top as there is a balcony up there

below: In the foreground, a Nick Sweetman shrimp swims across a mural with help from peru and ctr.

an alley with street art murals, a pickup truck and a car parked in front of one of the murals

below: A closer look at that shrimp

a street art painting of a colourful but realistic squid in yellow, turquoise, and blue, painted on a wall

below: Another large mural with more than one photo.  At one end there’s a zas possum hanging out, spray paint can in hand – possibly up to no good?

street art of a large possum standing on its hind legs, and standing beside an open door

below: And at the other end there’s another animal that is usually nocturnal, a raccoon.  An animal that is no stranger to Toronto!

large street art animal, raccoon, in a mural, with a white crown on his head

below: Look up, way up!  There’s a dog on the roof.

mural on the side of an upper storey, above the roof of the bulding beside it, a dag, some text, and the back of a man painting on the wall

below: Swimmer with a bathing cap looking at you, by sparr

mural on the side of a building, a woman's head and shoulders. She's in the water and wearing a bathing cap. Above her is a painting of a man spray painting on a wall.

 

below: Phil wrote his name on a garage door.

large blue letters P H I L in street art form on a garage door

below: Sofe in orange and green tiger stripes

large letters S O F E in orange and green tiger stripes with purple sky-like background

below: Two more garage doors.

two garages in a lane with street art spray painted on their doors.

below: Bright colours stand out on the side of this garage near the entrance to the lane.

mural on the side of a garage by cruz 1 art, a young girl in orange with many colours abstractions around her

below: Rozy, from the other side.

mural on the side of a garage by cruz 1 art, a young girl in orange with many colours abstractions around her

below: someone beginning with the letter m?  (m–?) and lerch.

mural in an alley, horizontal street art aerosol spray paint artwork of text graffiti, two different ones side by side

below: Big fat P in pink by bias? at number 153

a large fat P in pink on a white wood fence, with some other symbols as well, street art

below: And last, a little snail

a small painting of a large orange and blue snail on a fence beside a tree in an alley

This project had help and support from Toronto Police (53 division), Stephensons Rental, Dominos Pizza, and StreetARToronto.

video of the event on vimeo

in an alley, back of a store, old rusty metal stairs to the upper storey, small awning over the backdoor, laundry hanging by the door, weeds growing in front of the bottom of the stairs.

small metal box, part of doorbell system, covered with graffiti stickers, including purple horror face of man

 

 

Comments
  1. icelandpenny says:
    August 21, 2016 at 12:46 am

    Love this, and love that it’s in Leaside! A juxtaposition worthy of the !!! marks.

    Reply
    • Mary C says:
      August 22, 2016 at 12:38 am

      When I first heard that there was a street art in Leaside I was a bit skeptical. Luckily I checked it out anyhow!

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s