Someone seems to be posting poetry, not on social media, but as pasteup graffiti.
Look to the cornfields
Big stalks grow tall
Despite anyone around at all.
the sun could rise twice
but instead you came along
canaries dance on the wire and
sing a familiar tune
in the rain and in the snow
you’re just a little more
fish swim and birds fly
dogs howl and babies cry
your love for me I dare not ask why.
This incredibly intricate butterfly or moth by alfalfa faces Bathurst street. The body of the butterfly makes the human face within the insect unmistakable .
On the south side of the same building is this captivating turquoise-skinnedcharacter painted by muisca.
On the north side of the building there is a driveway that leads to an alley. There are murals on the side of the building as well as on other buildings and garages immediately adjacent.
below: This tiger by luvsumone (aka Moises Frank) is on a garage door in the alley.
below: If you follow the sound of many pigeons cooing you’ll find yourself in front of one of the garages that must have a pigeon loft on the upper storey. The same garage has two pigeon murals. This stylized pigeon who seems quite happy with his can of spray paint is on one side while the pigeon in the next image is on the garage door.
below: Stay fly pigeon, luvsumone, painted in 2017
below: Another of the alley murals.
below: The north side of the building has three murals of people. These eyes are part of a larger man’s face.
below: A woman’s face seems to float on the brick wall.
below: This wall has also become a memorial wall.
Just outside the street entrance to St. Clair subway station, there is a new large mural by birdo aka Jerry Rugg. It is on the side of 1 St. Clair East. Leafless tree branches reach above the roofline of the station. It looks like red and blue cube shapes are suspended from above.
below: Here is the full mural as seen from a bit farther back. Now you can see that the wires and cubes are not linked at all. The wires are those used by the St. Clair streetcar. This part of the city is also known as Deer Park hence the deer at the top of the mural.
There are construction hoardings in in front of 1 St. Clair East because the building is being renovated. Several images by birdo are on the hoardings. These are some of them:
below: It’s a flamingo, it’s an octopus, it’s a….?
below: An owl’s face
As an aside re the name Deer Park…. according to Wikipedia, “The name dates from 1837, when the Heath family purchased 40 acres of land on the northwest corner of Yonge and St. Clair…and named it Deer Park. By the 1850s the neighbourhood included a racetrack, a school, and a hotel at which patrons could feed deer which roamed the Heaths’ property. The Heath property was subdivided in 1846 and was entirely sold off by 1874.”
There is an alley that runs behind the north side of Queen Street West, just west of Spadina.
The next few photos are of street art that isn’t new (and it may appear in earlier blog posts). There are usually cars parked here and today most of the parking spots were empty.
below: An older elicser mural
below: Uber5000 painting (and his iconic yellow bird) – the man, the bird, and the surveillance cameras.
below: This house has been empty for a long time. The doors and windows are now covered with plywood, providing a canvas for some graffiti and a surface for a few paste-ups.
below: Urban ninja squadron is on the phone. Tacim Collective (from Milan Italy) is also represented here as is Paris BKC (Brass Knuckles Crew), and sketchrat.
below: There used to be a collection of these “blueprint” pieces (maybe four of them?). This is the last remaining one.
below: The lane ends in a mess at a chainlink fence that surrounds a vacant lot on Spadina.
below: Hidden away just beyond the fence is a face by Phillip Saunders.
There are two murals at Queen West and Denison.
On the northeast corner is a purple and black abstract painting by @onedaycreates and @mostlyletters (aka Jesse Watson). This replaces the green octopus that was painted here when the ground floor of the building housed the Hideout bar.
below: The back of the building
On the northwest corner is a mural of a path through birch trees in autumn that was painted by Jim Bravo. This replaces an older mural of a TTC streetcar (the one that included a woman pushing a stroller and a boy walking a dog).
At the corner of Beatrice and Dundas West there is a new mural by Elicser of a couple building with blocks, or more accurately, playing with Tetris shapes.
This is another blog post about Croft Street, a short street that runs between College and Harbord streets just east of Bathurst. It has changed a lot since I first wrote about it in 2013. The corner of Croft and College Streets was home to the mural commemorating the fire of 1904 – it is long gone. In between then and now, the south end of Croft was spruced up with colourful murals and planters in 2016. These are a few pictures that I took as I walked up Croft yesterday (after dodging construction stuff and workmen at College).
below: A mural by Elicser is at the northeast corner of College and Croft.
below: Praying mantis mural
below: Croft is not immune to the construction/renovation craze that we’re in the midst of.
below: The fire station tower at College and Bellevue is now visible from Croft street.
below: Looking up Croft Street. One of the garages now has a Raptors logo and the one next to it is being renovated.
below: Some of the 2016 murals and planters are still in place.
below: Looking north across Vankoughnet Street
below: A door to nowhere
below: We are the future and we don’t want any junk mail
below: The door with the metal strapping is still there.
below: A large grominator on a brick wall
below: Morning glory flowers and vine growing up a street sign pole.
below: More flowers, red rose stenciled onto a garage door
below: Garage doors painted by Bruno Smokey and Andrea Manica
below: A fun ride in vibrant colours by dudeman
below: He may be blue but he’s smiling.
below: Preening and posing or just walking past. Saturday afternoon in Graffiti Alley.
below: It comes with words, a quote from Al Capone: “You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun, then you can with a kind word alone”. A mural by Madmaxxoner
below: A series of urban ninja squadron stickers on a pole
below: A grey face on a door, part of a mural by elicser
below: Square face with a four pointed crown, drawn on orange
below: So we meet alley drinking in fact(?) at 2 pm on a Teusday (sic Tuesday) it’s cool(?) and I have a half size bottle of wine some of us are in love and some us can’t be. We break off spinning in all directions and haven’t stopped since. And on top of it all is a paranoid sticker in his pink briefs. Make of it what you will.
below: Posing at the end of the alley
below: Set-up for a selfie
below: More of someone else’s selfie, this one in the partial darkness.
below: Smoke break
below: An uber5000 painting of blue cat painting a yellow birdie with a predatory camera bearing down on them.
below: We are all human by Kaun
below: More sharpie words, this time about the atomic power of prayer. Oh dear, I googled it and it’s a thing.
below: Paper paste-up telling us to eat more or proclaiming the presence of eatmore?
Over the span of just a few years I have watched as street art went from questionable legality to mainstream; now it’s jumped to very trendy. From vilified to Yorkvillified?
below: This large mural was created by Kazakhstan born, Montreal-based, Ola Volo.
below: Close up of part of the mural by Whatisadam
below: Mathieu Bories, also known as Mateo, works on the woman’s blue and yellow head scarf.
below: This OK is coming unstuck, peeling off the wall. This mural was painted by Ben Johnston whose work often features text that looks 3D
below: This staircase, with artwork by Getso, is going to turn into a instagram hotspot. Her shoes may be famous already! Actually, I took a quick look through a few possible hastags while writing this post but so far there haven’t been too many images of people posing here.
below: Across the back wall, above the upper level, is a long mural by Mr. Brainwash that is supposed to look like a wall of graffiti
below: Up on the scaffolding working on Mickey Mouse and his orange ears, is Xray aka Brian Lanier.
below: I think that it says love, a mural by Peru143
below: The streaks and splotches of colour are part of the wall that was painted by Risk. It is also the space surrounding the entrance to the Taglialatella Gallery. It was this gallery, along with INK Entertainment, that brought together the artists to paint the murals and many of them have pieces for sale in the gallery. I appreciate that the gallery is supporting street art and that artists can make money from their work but there is a heavy presence of commercialism around this enclave of murals that makes me uncomfortable.
…murals that is.
On Euclid Avenue just south of College there is a lane that runs towards Palmerston Avenue. I am not sure if it has a name (Paese Lane is the extension of this lane on the other side of Euclid). As you can see, there are now some murals in this lane.
below: Pinks and blues combined in a mural by Getso
below: An unfinished mural by Adrian Hayles
below: A portrait of Greta Thunberg by Meaghan Claire Kehoe.
below: A dark haired woman in a blue head scarf with a purple conehead flower by drippin_soul aka Kalkidan Assefa
below: Raccoons have taken over this part of the alley! A mural by Emily May Rose
below: (across the lane from the ones above) This little green guy is up to no good! Great ready for an explosion! Perhaps life’s a blast?
Laneway mural project organized by KJ Bit Collective
as I walk Toronto 