2016, a new year just begun, and with it a new country and a new blog.
I’ll be taking a break from blogging about Toronto as I do a bit of traveling once again. I have started another blog as a home for the street art that I see. It will include the pages of non-Toronto street art that I have on some pages in this blog (some have already been moved) as well as any street art that I see on this trip.
New blog: Eyes on the streets
Playing hookey, spray paint cans in hand, under the bridge.
![graffiti on concrete bridge supports - creature in yellow and orange with the words: One love to [heart] and for my best friend Gracie](https://mcfcrandall.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/blog_orange_yellow_graffiti.jpg)
below: On two sides, back and front, of the same post.
transcription of the plaque:
The Prince Edward Viaduct
Designed by Edmund Burke architect, and Thomas Taylor, construction engineer, the Price Edward Viaduct was opened on 18 October 1918. The Viaduct joined Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue from Sherbourne Street to Broadview Avenue, to provide easy access to the rapidly expanding suburbs east of the Do River. The Bloor section, carried on an earthen embankment, stretched eastward from Sherbourne to Parliament Streets. The Don section supported by a bridge 494 metres long, extends westward from Broadview Avenue. The Rosedale section, with a bridge span of 177 metres, forms a connecting link between them. On the recommendation of Jacob and Davies, consulting engineers, provision for a lower second deck was incorporated into the viaduct to carry subway trains. This foresight proved to be of inestimable value in building the Bloor-Danforth subway line 50 years later.
Toronto Historical Board, Toronto Transit Commission, 1981
Graffiti and street art on walls and garage doors in the alleys surrounding Sorauren Park.
below: If you are walking eastward along Dundas West, this is the first mural that you see.
below: A friendly fuzzy blackburn animal playing in the park
below: Dog (wolf?) by Aaron Li-Hill
below: The guy in the blue shorts is saying: “You don’t need a mirror to look good, you’re beautiful on the inside, like you’re brain and stuff.”
below: Spudbomb mural
below: by elicser, I was on cloud nine for a long time.
below: by elicser, It’s almost dark. One more wave, then we go in.
In the world of graffiti and street art, change is usually inevitable and sometimes interesting. One exception seems to be the alley that you can see from subway between Keele and Dundas West stations. The building on the corner of Bloor West and Indian Road is new, but otherwise little is changed. Even though most of the street art is the same as before, I don’t think that I have posted it in the past. Here is documentation of most of it.
below: King Midas still looks over the TTC parking lot at Keele station. Well, I’ve always assumed that it was King Midas although he was the guy whose touch turned everything to gold, not grey.
below: And this monkey is still asking what the noise is all about.
below: ‘Sink or Swim’ by elicser
below: A lovebot shares wall space with an Uber5000 birdie….
below: … because Everybody’s a Winner
below: Laser, not loser. Now with laser vision.
below: Ghostbusters in a hard to reach place
below: Zooks is still on her wall.
below: This turtle has seen better days
below: Guard dog at the bottom of the stairs
below: She seems to turn when the door opens, a mural by EGR art
below: He (she?) still keeps goal on the back porch.
below: This mural also has a painting of Marilyn Monroe in it along with Bruce Lee and Alfred Hitchcock. There were too many cars parked in front of it when I walked past the other day.
below: King Kong dominates this wall.
below: We Rise Up
below: War and Peace
![graffiti street art in an alley - Two black and white hearts, one with a face drawn on it. The words cloud + glare = [heart]](https://mcfcrandall.blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/blog_cloud_glare_heart.jpg)
Along a short stretch of Coxwell Avenue
Upgrades to Coxwell subway station include work on the north side of Strathmore Blvd. Two murals were created to brighten the hoardings around the construction site. Both murals are the work of a program called ‘City on the Move – Young Artists in Transit’. If you use Coxwell subway station you can’t help but see these murals as they are right across the street from the entrance.
below: ‘Today Reassembling Yesterday’ shows people standing within a miniature old East York. On both sides of the mural is a replica of a Hollinger Bus line ticket. This bus company was founded in 1921 by John Hollinger and it serviced the growing neighbourhood of East York. By the time the TTC took it over in 1954, Hollinger had 96 employees and a fleet of 56 buses that traveled twelve routes on such streets as Woodbine, O’Connor and Coxwell.
below: In this mural, five panels are covered with wallpaper of pictures of the past. Residents, the present day, peel back the layers of the past to reveal their visions and hopes for the future. On the left, red barns and hay stacks make way for solar panels over fields with bird filled skies. The next panel is also inspired by agriculture – healthy corn fields and other crops under a layer with horses and stables. The middle panel puzzles me. I’m note sure what the pictures on the brown paper represent but birds in a tree are under it. The fourth panel suggests accessible public transit. Lastly, cars and trucks make way for rivers to fish in.
‘New Revelation, at Coxwell’
a poem by George Elliott Clarke, Poet Laureate of Toronto 2012-15
to accompany the mural at Coxwell stationAs wallpaper peels to windowpanes, spy
Grass, insurgent, urging all our future
Is Spring: Sunlight sparks sweat and dream; wind drives
Machines. Thrilled, birds wing and sing so sprightly,
Everyone delights. Blossoms float perfumes.
Branches brandish emerald bouquets. Our lungs
Flood with surging airs, clean as chlorophyll,
Mint-new, mint-tangy, so song is born,
Just by breathing. Wheels become our earthly
Wings, so infant and elder, builder and
Dreamer, can flit – transit – through the city
As public millions that public millions
Uphold, so that the lame, too, can take
The air and wheel down to creek, stream, and lake.
Suddenly glittering, afresh with fish.
The TTC also owns property on the southeast corner of Coxwell and Danforth. Back in 1915 this facility was built as the Danforth carhouse for the streetcars that ran along the Danforth. When the Bloor Danforth subway line opened in 1966, these streetcars were retired and the carhouse was converted to handle TTC buses instead. In 2002 the Danforth carhouse (or Coxwell Barns) was shut down. Some of the property has been sold off but the TTC still has a presence there.
below: Along Coxwell Avenue, south of the Danforth, there is a fence that separates TTC property from the street. It was a typically drab TTC concrete barrier. Recently it was painted by a group of volunteers. The word ‘transition’ now pops out at passersby from a colourful mural designed by Sean Martindale.
If you walk a few more blocks south on Coxwell, you will come to a fence where many butterflies have stopped to rest.
They share a fence with a few creative owls wisely made out of recycled materials. Tin cans, CDs, buttons, bottle tops, corks, paper clips, sunglass lenses, clothes pegs, foil plates, and bits of plastic repurposed.
below: A little red fairy door, home of the Earl Haig gardener. This past summer there was a project called Danny’s Urban Fairies. Fairy doors that were hand crafted by local artists started appearing in stores and parks along Danforth East (from Jones to Westlake). Some of the fairy doors remain but many were auctioned off in November to raise money to support the non-profit East End Music Project.
below: No bows and arrows allowed!
Today’s blog post comes from slightly farther afield than I usually venture. I went northwest to the Jane and Finch area. As I drove north on Jane street, I spotted some eye-catching paintings on the walls of the Driftwood Community and Recreation Centre.
below: ‘Unique’, a vibrant heart painted by Girls Club
below: ‘Rooted’ trees by Lil Bruxas and part of ‘United Freedom’ on the back wall
below: ‘United Freedom’ by Essencia
below: A blackburn traffic signal box sits on that corner. Straight from the jungle.
A little father south there are a couple of high rise apartment buildings on the northeast corner of Jane and Finch. Each has a mural painted around one of the entrances to the building.
below: ‘Be Inspired, Love Yourself, Educate Others’ by the BeLovEd movement,
painted by Shalak Attack and Fiya Bruxas, 2011.
***
below: ‘Strong Women, Strong Community’ also by the BeLovEd Movement surrounds a doorway. Although there is a sidewalk that leads directly to the corner of Jane and Finch, no one was using this entrance. I was alone when I walked around this building from the parking lot by the main door.
There’s another new mural in town.
This one is on Keele street, just north of Bloor.
It is under the subway bridge, directly across the street from the Keele subway station.
It was painted by Rob Matejka and Tommy Matejka.
The mural was a collaboration between StreetARToronto, Bloor by the Park BIA, and the City of Toronto.
This post is the result of a very wobbly and random circular walk around part of the Wychwood Heights neighbourhood last weekend. A hodge podge of this and that.
below: The intersection of St. Clair West and Vaughan Road circa 1912
below: I didn’t quite recreate the picture above but it is still obvious that the brick building is still standing after just over 100 years but that every thing around it has changed.
below: Just to the north, 78 Vaughan Road…. didn’t this store used to be an ice cream place?
below: Ah yes, there is still remnants of ice cream cones above the window so my memory is correct.
I wonder what happened to it?
There are a number of alleys to the north and west of the intersection of St. Clair and Vaughan Road. Most of them are quite tidy and well looked after. They were also full of surprises, bright little things that put on a smile on your face on a December afternoon.
below: Like little pictures painted on canvas….
below: and painted on wood
below: or painted directly on poles.
below: There was a fence made of old wood doors
below: There was a great creature with googly eyes and a rectangular orange nose.
below: And of course there were some painted garage doors.
below: These garage doors are a sample of the more than 40 doors that have been painted as part of the Kenwood Lanway Art Initiative.
While walking on the streets in the neighbourhood I saw a couple of little houses
as well as larger buildings with intricate architectural details.
below: A checkerboard effect with the bricks on the La Salle Apartments. As an aside, the small bush in front of the building was in the picture no matter what angle I tried. It was a lilac bush and I am sure that there were buds on it.
below: A little fake balcony with a white post railing on a low rise apartment building.
below: A line of little arches across the roofline is echoed in the larger arch patterns over the windows. There is a small relief sculpture near the top corner of the building (slightly behind the tree) but I can’t tell what’s on it. A coat of arms maybe?
below: There were quite a few four storey brick apartment buildings that looked like they were built in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Perhaps there was a little ‘condo boom’ at the time?
below: Like the condos of today, many of the buildings had names such as Maple Villa
and Maplewood
below: The backs of all those apartment complexes are nearly as interesting as the fronts.
This is one of the only construction sites I saw although….
… this Presbyterian church looks like it is about to be redeveloped. It is one of three churches at the corner of St. Clair and Wychwood. The church was built in 1926. There is a brief description of the property on the Stanton Renaissance website but very little information is given beyond a “transformation” of the church and the creation of “high end residential boutique”.
below: Mural for Sea With Fish and Chips on St. Clair West
below: As I circled back the intersection of Vaughan Road and St. Clair West, I spotted a large doubledecker strawberry and vanilla ice cream cone on the side of Dutch Dreams. Hey! The answer to my question. The ice cream place from 78 Vaughan Road has moved a couple of blocks south, complete with it’s collection painted old fashioned milk cans.
below: One last picture. As I waited for the Bathurst bus, I found myself standing across the street from this building. The curve of the roofline is interesting, but even more interesting is the the fact that there is an occult store in Toronto. Candles, herbs, incense, jewelry, I’m now wishing that I had crossed the street to investigate further! And, smile, the store next to it is Pandora’s salon. Pandora, the one who in ancient times opened a box and unleashed all sorts of evil on the world.
There is so much to see in this city, big and small, mundane and interesting, bland and colourful, old and new; we’ve got it all. It’s not uncommon to walk a route many times and still see something new each time. The little details are easy to overlook. Yesterday I walked parallel to Queen Street West from Roncesvalles eastward. There are lots of little alleys in the area and the streets are interesting too. I wasn’t alone. Penny (from Walking Woman blog) provided a second set of eyes as we went looking for whatever there was to find. Four eyes really can be better than two! Although we saw many things (of course!) I’ve chosen to concentrate on the “little things” that we spied.
below: Happy. Faces at our feet. Happy to see you walk by.
below: Faces above our heads. A one way sign as a canvas.
below: And faces at the end of the path.
below: Yesterday’s lovebot sighting
below: It’s December, but this house is still ready for Halloween.
below: A little leprechaun in a tree. Perhaps he’s been here since St. Patricks Day? And how many leprechauns have crossed here? We weren’t lucky enough to see any yesterday.
below: One use for a bathtub! Dirty, not clean.
below: A different approach to keeping the flowers blooming well into December… they’re looking a little faded, but they are still pink and growing in abundance.
below: But even a single flower adds to a picture.
below: Pictures on walls can delight, even ones as simple as this little pinwheel.
below: Make art not war….
below: … or make money. The money shot.
below: She was hiding in the back corner of a store.
below: Miniature eclairs for sale at The Tempered Room. We didn’t try them but they looked fabulous.
below: Dean’s pink ride was parked for the afternoon.
below: A mystery message. Google tells me that pav is a type of Indian bread but I don’t think that that’s what the writer was referring to here. Belongins (belongings?) here probably means possessions but I like to play with words and so I wonder if it is the other meaning of belonging, i.e. as in “a sense of belonging”. Or maybe, he be longing all his life to be under a palm tree?!
below: The sign for Cattlemens Meat Market is looking a little worn,
and not because it’s been here since 1538!
below: And last, three stencils that were close together in an alley, three animals, an old fashioned upright vacuum cleaner and an old video camera.
If you are driving or walking west on Sheppard Avenue, just past Midland Avenue, you will notice a new mural on one corner of a railway underpass. This mural was recently painted by street artist Elicser.
as I walk Toronto 