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milky way revisited

Posted: July 21, 2017 in alleys, graffiti and street art
Tags: aliens, alley, face, graffiti, green people, lane, lion, Milky Way, mural, naked, painted, parkdale, people, rose, space aliens, stickers, street art, streetcar, tree, vines, weeds, women

Sometimes graffiti and street art have a short life span. Many taggers don’t care about what they are tagging over. Street art can also be “interactive” in that stickers and paste ups can get “added” to a piece. Anyone with a marker can have their say. On the bright side, new murals get painted and new paste -ups appear. And that is why I go back to the my favorite alleys every once in a while. This morning I walked the Milky Way again.

below: The Parkdale mural by Race Williams is still looking good.

below: The naked women are a bit more modestly dressed than they once were .

The most noticeable change is the fact that many pieces are now at least partially covered by greenery – small shrubs and tall weeds have proliferated and are looking quite healthy.

below: This lion is looking more and more like the king of the jungle even as the words faded and peel.

below: The small aliens at the top of the building are now in the shade of a fast growing tree.

below: And the larger aliens on the fence really need a hair cut now.

below: A large pink peony (at least that’s what it looks like)

below: The fence around the garden.

Previous Milky Way posts
Back to the Milky Way – Sept 2015
Walking the Milky Way – Oct 2014

mural across the doors – Port Union

Posted: July 13, 2017 in doors, graffiti and street art, history, locations
Tags: #Thursdaydoors, Audreys Flowers, back door, bikes, Blinc Studios, cars, cyclists, doors, grass, history, KFC, lake, mural, mural routes, park, people, porch, Port Union, steps, story, swan, Thursday doors

Across the back of a row of stores in Port Union there are some doors that have been painted over with a mural. These are some of them:

They are all part of the same mural. The mural is so big that I couldn’t get a picture of the whole thing unless I made a very long skinny panorama – which I decided against. I think that you should get a good idea of what the whole mural looks like from the following set of photos.

below: The mural tells the story of Port Union starting with a First Nations settlement in the area.

below: North end of the Port Union mural. The mural faces the parking lot of a complex consisting of the Port Union Community Centre plus a library and Charlottetown park.

below: The railway comes to town.

below: And that brings us back to the swan and KFC at the south end of the mural.

This mural was painted by Blinc Studios and was part of Mural Routes. Artists are: Allan Bender, John Nobrega, Azadeh Pirazimian, Jesse McCuaig, Chris Brown, Frances Potts, and Melissa Bessey.

Other blogs that feature doors can be found at Thursday Doors, courtesy of Norm 2.0. (see the little blue link between the end of the blog post and the comments section).

Heritage Trail, mural 8

Posted: July 7, 2017 in graffiti and street art, history, memorials, public art
Tags: Alexandra Hood, burying ground, cemetery, church, grave makers, graveyard, Highland Creek, historic, John Hood, Jordan Post, Melinda Woodruff, monuments, mural, Scarborough, stones, store, tombstones, Wesleyan Methodist, William Tredway, winter scene, Zeb Salmaniw

Sometimes when you search for one thing you find another.

The other day I posted pictures of the Cliffside murals in Scarborough. When researching, them I discovered that there are other murals in Scarborough thanks to Mural Routes. Of course, I had to go exploring!

Murals are often in parking lots or in alleys. Last weekend I found one in a cemetery. “Building the Addition to the Wesley Methodist Chapel, Highland Creek, Winter 1867” is on the side of a building that abuts the Wesleyan Methodist cemetery on the east end of Old Kingston Road.

below: Most of the mural. Design and artwork by John Hood , assisted by Alexandra Hood and Zeb Salmaniw, 1994. There is a small portion of the mural missing in this picture. On the right is a panel that tells the story of the mural.

This is what the words say:

The following is an extract from the ‘The Christian Guardian’, a Methodist newspaper:
Your numerous readers will be glad to hear of the success of the Wesleyan Methodist Church at the Highland Creek, on the Scarboro’ Circuit. The above church was found to be entirely too small for the accommodation of its increasing congregation. The friends therefore decided to put an addition to the church 18 feet by 24 feet. It was re-opened and dedicated to God by divine service last Sabbath…” Wm. Tredway, Scarboro Dec 20, 1867
This mural depicts this event as it may have appeared from the northeast corner of this cemetery, looking southwest, across Old Kingston Road in mid November of 1867.

below: The William Tredway mentioned on the mural opened his first general store at the corner of Eglinton Ave & Kingston Rd. In 1865 he sold it and started over with a store on Old Kingston Road at Morrish Road. It is this second store that is shown in the mural. Tredway sold that store in 1878 to devote himself to politics as well as a career as a Justice of the Peace.

below: The bronze plaque near the entrance to the cemetery.

bronze plaque on a stone wall in the Wesleyan cemetery on Old Kingston Road, Highland Creek, Scarborough

“This Highland Creek burying ground dates back to the reign of George III prior to 1800. On this site stood Wesleyan Methodist Church 1865-1891 merged with Bible Christian Methodist Church 1863-1891 which became Centennial Methodist in 1891 and later Centennial United Church 1925, plaque erected 1967, Centennial of Canada’s Confederation by Centennial United Church of Canada and Wesleyan Cemetery Board. “

The cemetery consists of a 1/2 acre plot. Back in 1834 it was part of 500 acres that was acquired by Jordan and Melinda Post in trade for their 15 acres at King & Yonge. Some of the stones predate 1834 and as mentioned on the plaque, there was a burying ground here before 1800. The oldest stone might be that for William Pearce, son of John and Susan who died 18 Aug 1813 at age 11 years & 5 months. Local legend says it became a burial ground when a passenger on a passing stage coach died there.

Jordan Post (1767-1845) and his wife Melinda (nee Woodruff, abt 1780-1838) were both born in Connecticut but were married in York (Toronto) in 1804. Jordan was a watch maker and when he arrived in York in 1802 he was the first watch maker in the town. He had other businesses as well but he probably made most of his money speculating in land. In 1834 he moved to Scarborough township, to the location of this cemetery, where he built a sawmill. Both Jordan and Melinda are buried here along with an unknown number of others, including other Posts and Woodruffs. There are stones for 76 people including Ann (d. 1903) and Edward Littlejohns (d. 1887) pictured above.

below: An interesting juxtaposition – The real monument on the left is for Edith, infant daughter of Henry and Eleanor Lanktree, died 26 Sept 1872 at age 16 months. The bottom part of other stone also mentions Henry and Eleanor Lanktree but I can’t read the inscription on the top part.

The church is no longer there. It once stood next to the location of the mural with the cemetery around it. Today the cemetery is maintained by the community.

Cliffside murals

Posted: June 30, 2017 in graffiti and street art, public art
Tags: animals, B.C. Johnson, bear, Cliffside, Dan Sawatzy, Elizabeth Simcoe, golf, Half Way house, historic, Jeff Jackson, John Graves Simcoe, John Hood, Kingston Rd., moose, murals, Onondaga, outside, Phillip Woolf, plants, public art, Risto Turunen, Scarborough, Scarborough Bluffs, schooner, Spooners Garage, walls

Cliffside is an area around Kingston Road in the west side of the city and the ‘cliff’ in the name refers to the Scarborough Bluffs. The murals in this post are all on Kingston Road just west of Midland Ave. They are the result of work of Mural Routes, an organization “dedicated to the creation, development and promotion of public wall art” since 1990.

below: ‘Spooners Garage’ by Phillip Woolf, 1992. Art Spooner’s garage in Cliffside was built in 1926 (and rebuilt in 1947). The mural has two parts, each showing a different time period. They face each other.

below: … and the later version

below: ‘H.M. Schooner, Onondaga c. 1793’ by Jeff Jackson 1992. The Onondaga was built near Kingston in 1790 and it served with the Provincial Marine until 1797. It was the ship in which John Graves Simcoe and his wife Elizabeth sailed across Lake Ontario to York (now Toronto) to establish the capital of Upper Canada.

below: ‘Let’s Take a Walk on the Wildside’ by B.C. Johnson, 2016. Canadian plants and animals cover all four sides of Ikki Sushi – herons, bears, moose, beaver, and fox among the pine trees. Creeks, swamp, and waterfalls can also be seen. More of Johnson’s work can be seen at Sandown Lane Cliffside blog post

below: ‘Cliffside Golf Course’ by Dan Sawatzky, 1991. Founded by George McCordick in 1931, the Cliffside Golfcourse was south of Kingston Road and overlooked Lake Ontario. It closed in 1950. The mural is faded and partially obscured by two trees.

below: The words on the mural tell the story of the golf course.

The last two murals have appeared in a previous blog post that I wrote once upon a time when I didn’t know how many Scarborough murals there were. Even now I’ve hardly scratched the surface.

below: ‘The Half Way House’ by John Hood, 1990. The mural is at the corner of Midland Avenue & Kingston Road which is where the inn and stage coach stop was located. The building was moved to Black Creek Pioneer Village in 1965.

below: ‘The Bluffs as Viewed by Elizabeth Simcoe c. 1793’ by Risto Turunen, 1992. The story is that Elizabeth Simcoe was so impressed by the view of the cliffs she persuaded her husband, John Graves Simcoe, to name the area after Scarborough England where there are similar cliffs.

There are more murals on old Kingston Road both to the east and west of these, but that will be a story for another day.

also see: Heritage Trail Mural 8 – Old Kingston Road

Brockton murals

Posted: June 27, 2017 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: artists, Brock Ave., Brockton, cat, corn, daisies, Dundas West, flowers, gourd, guitar, hibiscus, Jonny Cakes, lovebot, melon, mouse, mural, owl, paint, sewp, Tilay & Aner, walls, window, woman

Or more exactly, murals on Dundas West near Brock and Sheridan.

Starting with an old favourite – I had mentioned this mural in a prior post, Bloordale to Brockton, but at the time it wasn’t finished and it had no signature. Now it is completed and signed, Jonny Cakes and sewp.

In the background (on the other side of Brock Avenue) is a new mural by Tilay & Aner.

If you are familiar with the area, you will know that a very large Lovebot was on a wall here. You’ll be happy to know that he’s still here, large than life, kitty-corner from the cat and mouse.

Tilay & Aner have also painted another mural nearby, one with a South American flavour. It is on the side of building on Dundas West, but closer to Sheridan Ave.

almost clandestine Clandestinos

Posted: June 21, 2017 in alleys, graffiti and street art
Tags: alley, alligator, animals, ape, bird, Bruno Smoky, clandestinos, creek, crocodile, driveway, Dundas West, feathers, graffiti, lane, leaves, nature, shalak, Shalak Attack, smoky, street art, turtle

On Dundas West, just west of Dufferin, there are two lanes with large murals by clandestinos.

One is the alley to the west of the Lulu Lounge where both sides are covered with fantastic paintings by fiya, shalak, and bruno smoky as well as a few others. I blogged about it just over two years ago and here is the link to the original post, “life as the shadow of vida“. Earlier this week I took another look at it – it’s still looking great and there have been no changes so I didn’t take any photos.

The other alley is nearby but on the north side of Dundas Street. Actually, it’s hardly an alley, more like a driveway which made taking pictures of the whole mural difficult. Also, if you are traveling eastbound on Dundas, you’d miss it. Here are the pictures that I managed to take:

butterfly ways

Posted: June 20, 2017 in alleys, graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: #cruz1art, @anyamielniczek, @smugugly, alley. lane, blackburn, braes, butterfly, caterpillar, colours, cruz1, David Suzuki, faces, garage doors, Garrison Creek park, hibiscus, horus, J. McKie, Jeff Blackburn, mska, nature, NEDO, Nick Sweetman, paint, park, possum, snake, Snowy, spray paint, street art, streetARToronto, tuffytats, wales, water lily, xyz

Garrison Creek park is a small strip of green between the railway tracks an alley of garages. Many of the garage doors were painted last weekend with murals all on the theme of butterflies. There are about 30 paintings and they are the work of a number of different street artists. The project was curated by Nick Sweetman and it is part of the David Suzuki Foundation’s Butterflyway project; StreetARToronto was also involved.

If you don’t like pictures of butterfly murals, I suggest that you skip this post because I’m sharing photos of a lot of the garage doors! In no particular order here they are:

mural of an orange and blue snake loosely tied in a knot around a purple tree, blue butterfly hovers in front of snake's face, mural by Cruz 1

Artist: Cruz1

Three black line drawings of a butterfly, with details and shadowing, very realistic looking, on a fence

Artist: unknown (by me)

Artist: blackburn

many whimsical butterflies and caterpillars

Artist: J. McKie

pink water lily painted on a black background

Artist: C Mazzulla

a mural on a garage door in an alley, part of butterflyways project - a possum and a butterfly by wales

Artist: wales

Artist: 2US & XYZ (not positive about that)

a mural on a garage door in an alley, part of butterfly ways project - very stylized abstract picture of a butterfly and a flower

Artist: XYZ & MAC

a mural on a garage door in an alley, part of butterflyways project - two adjacent garage doors, the left one is by mska and is a brown butterfly and mushrooms. on the right is an hibiscus flower by horus taffytats

Artist: (left) mska, (right) horus, tuffytats

a mural on a garage door in an alley, part of butterflyways project - two adjacent garage doors, the left one is a monarch butterfly landing on pink flowers, on the right is a riot of blues and greens

Artist: (left) braes, (right) C. Perez

a mural on a garage door in an alley, part of butterflyways project - a pink and purple butterfly that looks like a face, with daisies

Artist: @anyamielniczek

a mural on a garage door in an alley, part of butterflyways project - a black butterfly with orange and blue highlights, on a green leaf

Artist: P.S

a mural on a garage door in an alley, part of butterflyways project - two adjacent garage doors, the left one is painted on a light green fence and is a flower in pale oranges and beiges. On the right is a purple butterfly

Artists: unknown (by me)

a mural on a garage door in an alley, part of butterflyways project - a red butterfly with a bright light in the center of it.

Artist: NEDO

a mural by smugugly on a garage door in an alley, part of butterflyways project - a red, black and bluish butterfly

Artist: @smugugly

a mural on a garage door in an alley, part of butterflyways project - two adjacent garage doors, the left one is a stylized (cubist) butterfly in blues and purples. On the right is a Nick Sweetman yellow butterfly with black details as well as a white Scottie dog that looks like Tintin's dog Snowy

Artist: (left) FIP or FYP? , (right) Sweetman

a mural on a garage door in an alley, part of butterflyways project - two adjacent garage doors, the left one is painted by braes and is a portrait of David Suzuki. On the right is a blue mural by C. Perez

Artist: (left) braes & wales, (right) C. Perez

a streetcar, a giraffe, and a few dinosaurs

Posted: June 10, 2017 in graffiti and street art
Tags: alley, alleys, birdo, dinosaurs, giraffe, mural, old, outside, peeling, Sears St., stegasaurus, streetcar, streets, TTC, wall

Streetcar, giraffe, and dinosaurs – these are three words that most people would never have the opportunity to put together in one sentence without talking nonsense.

First, here is the streetcar that I am refering to. It is a mural on Connaught Avenue, on a building that is part of the TTC’s Russell Carhouse (also called Connaught Carhouse). The house in the mural is the Ashbridge Estate which is across Queen Street from the TTC yard. The sign over the door of the streetcar says 505 Hillsdale; I haven’t been able to find out why it says that.

Next on the list is the giraffe – a mural by birdo.

I’m sure that you can see the pattern developing! You’re obviously thinking, “Because the third word is dinosaurs, there must be a mural depicting dinosaurs.” .. and you’d be right. There are four dinosaurs on Sears street to be exact.

Three of the dinosaurs are on the same wall – the two above and the one below. All of them were painted by Mike Kennedy.

The fourth one is across the street. Sears is a street in name only, it’s narrow like an alley.

None of these murals is new but they are in out of the way places and I suspect that not many people have seen them. I hope that they were new to you!

colourful cuteness

Posted: June 9, 2017 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: animals, bunny, cats, dog, mural, painted, Queen St. East, rabbit, street art, Toronto Humane Society, turtle, uber5000

Hey! Stop and take a look.

There’s a new mural in town that covers most of the south wall of the Toronto Humane Society on Queen Street East (at River Street ). What could be more appropriate for this wall than cats and dogs and other animals?

I first saw the mural late in May when just the outlines of the animals had been drawn on the wall. The artist, Uber5000, been working on it since then…. it’s not quite finished but it’s looking great! Bright and cheerful; colourful and fun.

below: The mural has turtles and rabbits – Yes, the Toronto Humane Society has bunnies and turtles too (but I don’t think they have such cool red glasses)!

below: The dog portion at the east end of the mural just needs some finishing touches.

below: Of course there are cats and kittens… and cute and playful ones at that.

UPDATED (August 2017): The mural is now finished.

A great addition to Queen Street East!

early June version, Graffiti Alley

Posted: June 2, 2017 in alleys, graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: abstract, circles, colour, composition, faces, garage door, giraffe, graffiti, Graffiti Alley, lek_gold, line, man, marker, monster, paint, people, Rush Lane, shape, stencil, street art, woman, words

I found myself on a sunny Friday afternoon with time to spare. I haven’t walked Graffiti Alley in the warmth for quite a few months so off we went, hunting for new things, forgotten things, and special ‘are they still there?’ things.

below: Vitality at 505 “It’s showtime baby girl, own it”