Archive for the ‘graffiti and street art’ Category

Three Sisters, Tikay and Aner

Posted: June 19, 2019 in graffiti and street art
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Three Sisters – both literal and allegorical. Three women, each with a vegetable, and these three vegetables, corn, squash, and beans, are the three sisters of indigenous agriculture. These were the main crops of most North American native groups and they were usually planted together; together they thrived for thousands of years.

large mural by street artists tikay and aner on Dundas West, 3 indigenous women in traditional clothes with symbols, corn, squash, medicine wheel, flowers,

This is one of two murals by Paula Tikay and Aner Urra (aka tikay & aner) in the Dundas West area.   They are two indigenous Mapuche artists from Chile who were invited to come to Toronto to paint the murals.

close up of woman with long black braided hair, standing in the midst of a squash plant, with yellow flower, a squash, and many leaves, in mural

close up of two women in mural with cobs of corn and alarge green bean growing on a bean plant, lots of leaves

looking down a short narrow alley with a large colourful mural on the left side, blue background with leaves and vines in the foreground

a window in a brick wall, Raptors flag inside but shows backwards outside, mural painted around the window in blues with green leaves and vines

The project was organized by Rodrigo Ardiles (of the Dundas West Museum).  This neighbourhood was chosen because of its ties to the many immigrants from Chile who have found a home here as early as the 1970s.   Children from the nearby Alexander Muir / Gladstone Avenue Junior and Senior Public School and The Grove Community School had some input on the mural.    Also involved was StartARToronto.

and even more Raptors

Posted: June 12, 2019 in graffiti and street art
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There is another Raptors mural!  Not on Queen West this time, but in the Dundas & Sherbourne area.  It was painted by Javid Jah and luvsumone (aka Moise Frank).

a mural on a red brick wall, King of the North, face of a basketball player, Toronto Raptors number 2, with a crown on his head, Kawhi Leonard

below: On Yonge Street by the north end of the Eaton Centre are these words which were painted by the same two men. The letters are supposed to be 3D and rising out of a black square hole in the sidewalk.  North Side rising.

painted on a sidewalk in front of the Eaton Centre, are words North Side, written in Raptors colours, as support for Toronto's basketball team as they play on NBA finals playoffs

below: The Raptors logo is painted on the sidewalk outside Scotiabank Arena.

the raptors basketball team logo is painted on a sidewalk along with the words Eastern Champions, painted after they won the last round of the NBA playoffs

See also
1. Queen Street Raptor and
2. Raptors updated – into the finals

Kensington never disappoints

Posted: June 11, 2019 in graffiti and street art, locations
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murals in Kensington, Mona Lisa with fruit, and Poser bunnies,

Here you will find a few random things that I found the last time I wandered through Kensington, some large and some small, but most new to me including this wonderful dinosaur mural by Nick Sweetman.

on a Kensington wall, a large mural of dinosaur on a black background it's wearing a small gold crown with 3 points,

below: Kids for sale.   Perhaps they mean goats?  Hmmm……

sign in a store window that says kids for sale

below: She needs a better makeup artist.

head of a mannequin with large brim hat, shoulder length blond hair, red sunglasses, lipstick

below: An exhibit: petrified skull and horn of a Shoasaur, approx 1.4 million years old, right?

tacked to a wood fence is an old wood shoe form that someone has turned into an exhibit of a fossilized skull and horn, complete with drawings of the animal that it came from

below: A profane glove

one single glove with a face drawn on it and fuk you written on it, stuck on the top of a wood fence post

below: Pasted, ripped, and painted…. an abstract in the making.

posters on a window that have been partially ripped and streaks of red paint sprayed on them, also white spray paint

below: Soap ghost has some good advice

a small paste up on a green fence that is soap ghost, words say wash your hands

below: Two witches grace a door –  XVIII The Full Moon Witch and XVI The Hell Hath No Fury Witch

two cars stuck into the crack formed between a door and a wall, two witch cards,

below: Urban ninja guy has grown a mustache!

three stickers and paste ups on a metal post, urban ninja warrior on the top, with a black mustache, and a pink and blue bunny face on the bottom

below: Spanish graffiti says “Estamos solas pero nos tenemos todos” which equals “We are alone but we have all (everybody)”.

black and white paste up on a wall, Spansih words that say estamos solas pero nos tenemos todos

below: Weed the bored as a play on We the North.  So many Raptors references around the city these days!

chalk drawing on a sidewalk that says weed the bored

below: A candle to light Death’s way.

painting on a fence of death with his scythe and holding a candle

below: Watching the street, or has that orange cone caught his eye?

mural of a large face with eyes looking outward, looking onto the street where there are people passing by, Kensington storefront

Keep your eyes open!

rants in the alley

Posted: May 25, 2019 in alleys, graffiti and street art, locations
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a red and white Canadian flag printed on a sticker that says Toronto Canada that someone has added their tag to, stuck on a utility pole in an alley

Today’s wander down Graffiti Alley yielded more than just a few new paintings and bits of graffiti.  I also came across a group of students from da Vinci school who were there doing an assignment that involved filming each other giving rants in the alley.

one woman is filming another woman who is talking in graffiti alley

two girls checking a video on a phone, other people nearby, in graffiti alley

below: Nipsey Hussle memorial mural by Sum Artist

black and white mural portrait of a young man in a toque, signed sum artist

one boy is filming another as he talks in the alley, in front of a colourful mural

woman in red dress and red shoes, graffiti on an alley, on a wood fence that has been painted white

two stickers on a graffit covered metal utiity pole. one sticker is a black drone in a grey circle

one woman is filming another woman who is talking in graffiti alley - in front of Uber 5000's mural

one woman is filming another woman who is talking in graffiti alley in main part of alley

below: Smile!

graffiti, word smile

three girls working on a video in a corner of an alley, on is filming with a phone and one is talking and one is holding the paper with the words on it.

a poorly done blue faced woman with red hair, beside a doorway with a black, white, and red, geometric face

a boy in shorts and a baseball cap is filming another boy in blue fleece and camo pants as he is talking in front of a mural in graffiti alley

mural of a pink praying mantis on the right and some students in graffiti alley on the left

teacher, students, and other people in graffiti alley

black and white painting of a man's face, very large, part of a mural in an alley

Today’s encounter reminded me that I once encountered Rick Mercer in the alley as he filmed a rant for his TV program – photo from October 2011.

photo from 2011, Rick Mercer and film crew walking down Graffiti Alley as he filmed a rant for his TV program.

One last thing that I want to address here – maybe you could call it a rant of my own.  Except that it will be in pictures not words.  There’s something new in Graffiti Alley; it’s not unexpected but that doesn’t make it any easier, or better.   The old Stephenson Rental building is on its way down.

demolition sign on a metal fence in front of a graffiti covered wall

In fact, it’s mostly down.

only one corner remaining, demolition of building in graffiti alley, covered with street art

demolition of building in graffiti alley

and mostly sad

demolition of building in graffiti alley, remaining buildings in the background

Queen Street Raptor

Posted: May 24, 2019 in graffiti and street art
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Kawhi Leonard, bigger than life, on Queen Street West.

I came across this mural of Kawhi Leonard a few days ago. When I tried to find out when the picture was painted and who the artist was, I discovered that the mural had already been updated.

mural of a basketball player, Raptors #2, shooting a basketball with one hand, large mural on the upper two storeys of a store, people on sidewalk below

So back I went – to what has become a popular spot. Now the picture is Kawhi’s game-winning shot in the final seconds of the final game against the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference semi-finals.

By the way, it’s not painted. It’s printed on vinyl in 6 panels and then stuck on the wall. And the storefront that it’s on? No sign? It’s ‘OD Toronto’ which is a consignment store with more Kawhi murals and stuff inside.

mural of a basketball player, Raptors #2, shooting a basketball with one hand, large mural on the upper two storeys of a store, people on sidewalk below

In case you haven’t heard, Raptors won last night to lead the NBA Eastern Conference finals 3 games to 2 against the Milwaukee Bucks. The next game is tomorrow night (Saturday). If the Raptors win tomorrow, they advance to the NBA Finals for the first time ever…. and the parties will begin. If they lose tomorrow, one more game will be played on Monday night. The Western Conference finals are already over; the Golden State Warriors beat the Portland Trailblazers in four straight games.

UPDATES:
1. A third mural appeared after here the Raptors won the Eastern Conference championship.
2. Another Raptors mural, near Dundas & Sherbourne

GAWD’s animals

Posted: May 18, 2019 in graffiti and street art
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Just south of St. Clair West, Runnymede Road runs under the CP train tracks.   In the summer of 2017 the wall on the west side of the underpass a mural was painted by Christopher Ross (aka GAWD).  It is a collection of animals, mostly in shades of pink and blue – dragonfly, pigs, birds, and more.   Most of the animals are in pairs.

part of a mural by Christopher Ross on an underpass wall in pinks and blues, a dragonfly

mural on a wall, two fat pink pigs snout to snout

part of a mural by Christopher Ross on an underpass wall in pinks and blues, a pink bird

part of a mural, two bird heads in orange and brown tones

part of a mural by Christopher Ross on an underpass wall in pinks and blues, a blue animal and a pink animal

part of a mural by Christopher Ross on an underpass wall in pinks and blues, a large blue bear

part of a mural by Christopher Ross on an underpass wall in pinks and blues, the end piece of the mural, mushrooms

At one end of the mural, this little engine sits on a tree stump.

part of a mural by gawd, a little railway engine sits on a tree stump

wall blobs

Posted: May 18, 2019 in graffiti and street art
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I’ve called them blobs for lack of a better word. It’s almost as if someone’s conceptual art project was released into the wild.

three black and white photo paste ups that look like ameobas or primitive life forms on a concrete wall, outdoors,

below: These two blobs look a like amoebas, or other single cell life forms. Can’t you picture them swimming in a pool of muddy water?

two black and white photo paste ups that look like ameobas or primitive life forms on a concrete wall, outdoors,

below: There is definitely a “life form” quality to them. With a little imagination, the middle one looks like a chicken embryo inside an egg. In fact, all three could be embryonic.

three black and white photo paste ups that look like ameobas or primitive life forms on a concrete wall, outdoors,

below: Now the life forms have evolved a bit and developed tentacles or little stringy bits like a jellyfish has. They seem to be interacting.

seven black and white photo paste ups that look like ameobas or primitive life forms on a concrete wall, outdoors,

Have fun with them!
I found them on a wall on Runnymede Road just south of the CPR tracks at St. Clair.

UPDATE: These blobs are water photograms produced by ‘J’ . A photogram is an image made without a camera; objects (in this case, water) are placed directly on light sensitive paper. When a light is shone onto the objects, different shades of grey are produced depending on how much light reaches that paper surface. The more light, the blacker that area of the image becomes. White areas are produced by objects that allow no light to pass through.

today’s advice?

Posted: May 17, 2019 in graffiti and street art
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“Stop at nothing to get a head”

stencil on a wall that has been spray painted a pale blue, black ink, man holding a tall stick on the top of which is a head, words that say, stop at nothing to get a head

But be careful…. that head could become some body’s dinner!

a small paste up on a utililty pole, blue stencil of the monopoly guy's head, top hat and X's for eyes, under his head are the words eat the rich

grominator and more

Posted: April 23, 2019 in alleys, graffiti and street art
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Every once in a while, but not as often as I should, I go through old files and folders of pictures that I have taken.  Pictures that I have meant to use but never got around to it.  Today I found a series of photos from mid-February, back when there was snow on the ground.   In amongst them were some graffiti and street art shots from somewhere between Chinatown and Kensington and those are the ones that I chose to show you here.

terra cotta coloured wall with a black door. graffiti and tags in the door including a pasteup poster of two men. A red stencil of a maple leaf is on the wall

below: A tribute to Prince on a utility pole

graffiti featuring face of Prince, on a utility pole

below: Mural by @emstroart (aka Rei Misiri) and @kuyaspirit

large mural on the side of a red brick house

below: It’s seen better days.  A grubby and dirty dog in the water.

old picture of a white dog in a pond, with yellow background, painted on a wood fence. One board is broken, paint is peeling, fence is dirty

snowy alley with two ruts for wheels of cars, garages with graffiti on left side, small church near the end of the alley, large condo and CN Tower in the distance

below: Two grominator creatures- one of them is an historic figure (!?) beside a cat

a grominator mural on a white garage door in a lane

below: …. and the other has a happy friend

a grominator piece of graffiti and a pink smiley face monster, both on a brown garage door in an alley

snow covered lane with garages

below: A few hearts and a little star in a whirlwind of colour.

three tiny yellow hearts and a tiny yellow star drawn on a wall with colourful spray paint graffiti

below: Even the pole was included.

text street art on the lower level of a building in a lane

workmen on the side of a street, windter, snow, alley with a mural on the right,

a bike locked to a tree on a sidewalk in front of a mural on a building, snow,

eye spy

Posted: April 22, 2019 in alleys, graffiti and street art
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Two pieces of street art side by side in a laneway.  Eyes looking outward, watching you as you pass by.

a black and white painting on a wall of a very large pair of eyes, very realistic looking, black and white, on a yellowish brick wall

black and white realistic painting of a pair of eyes, larger than life, on a yellowish brick wall. A small motorcycle is parked in front of the wall.

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