as I walk Toronto

below: ‘Greetings from Bloordale’, a painted Bell box by Faussy

below: A mural on the exterior of the Russett Ave entrance to Dufferin subway station painted in 2017 by Ted Hamer and a group of students from the Toronto School of Arts ( Sonja Clarke, Stephanie Steele, and Maryam Sadeghpour).

 

below: Another Bloordale mural, this one on the side of TL Variety on the northwest corner of Bloor and Emerson

below: Mr. Sundown

below: Weathered sign at Bloor Christian Fellowship

below: Torn awning at Five Star Variety

below: Walking past a vacant lot on Bloor (once was a used car lot)

below: On the east wall of the Bee Shop

below: The beehive of qualities and virtues

below: mural in an alley

below: Bloor & St. Helens, construction fence around the parking lot of Value Village

below: Vito’s Barbershop in bright yellow

below: Northwest corner of Bloor and Lansdowne

below: On the fence, north side of Bloordale Collegiate a shared map project by Shel Kahn and DMG+.  Choose a ribbon and pin it on the map to show where you would like to be.

below: Also on the fence at Bloordale Collegiate, empty milk bottles.  “The milk from these bottles fed my daughter.   What wisdom to nourish a child you love?  How to make this country sweeter to First Nations children?”

below: hearts and flowers in a laneway

below:  Pumpkins growing on a trellis over the frontyard.

below: Julie Dzerowicz is the Liberal MP (federal) for the Davenport riding. I am not sure of the meaning of this window except as a protest of some sort?

below:The kitten mural has been partially painted over and the store is now empty.

below: It looks like its got a face of an apple, shrimp legs, and a pickle on its forehead.

below: Butterfly mural

below: Lakes, mountains, and trees in a somewhat Group of Seven looking mural.  It is difficult to see in this photo but written in blue in the bottom right corner is a poem, ‘Blasphemy’, by Lawren Harris that appears in his book, “In the Ward: His Urban Poetry and Paintings.  I have included the poem under this image.

“It is blasphemy
To be merely mortal
To wilt under the weight of the ages
To succumb to second hand living
To mumble of catch phrases
To praise far off ways things
And sneer at your neighbour’s clumsiness
To say nay, nay, and smile at aspirations, dreams, and visions.”

*****

More poetry, this time on a door.

Top:

When I remember a boat
it yaws at the mouth of an inlet
And that’s all
From my bedroom window
You could make out the gull-white trim
And from the shore
listen to its restless guests
No water splashes against the prow it splits calmly to both sides
One sail booms and dies down
No wildlife
No sense of my mother’s voice, far away
the supper prepared
Much too much time
#whenirememberaboat #mine

Bottom:

The sad instability and inscrutability
Of this impossible universe
Felt more deeply in the skin with each passing maritime hour
Our souls’ absurd sobbing
Over unfamiliar ocean expanses with islands in the distance
Over distant coastlines of land not visited
Over the ports that grow clearer with their houses and people
As the ship approaches
#maritimeode #alvarodecampos #fernandopessoa

Alvaro de Campos (1895-1935) was a Portuguese poet who also wrote under the name Fernando Pessoa.

 

*****

More Bloordale doors

below: Pale green (seafoam green?) leaves and flower rising upwards at 1195. “Floral Impressions”, painted by Julia Prajza.

below: A happy musical gate, “Joy in Little Things” by anastatica.art aka Anastasia Tarkhanova

below: “Portals” was part of BIG on Bloor Festival at the end of July. Some residential doorways (six?) were painted like the two above as well as this one: “Shoals” by Andre Castro.

below: Martin Luther King surrounded by stained glass patterns and tiny beige tiles at 1179A

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Other graffiti and street art

below: Bell box painted by Gosia Komorski

below: Truck with a pink blossom tree on the back and an orange bird on the side

below: Purple man

below: Garfield trying to be incognito

below: Vandalized words on a phone box