graffiti and street art | as I walk Toronto

Archive for the ‘graffiti and street art’ Category

alley detour

Posted: October 1, 2013 in graffiti and street art
Tags: CN Tower, doors, garages, graffiti, great wall of China, hi buddy, mural, my spot, poles, Toronto, words

Late last week a friend and I were walking to the Kensington area to take some pictures. We almost didn’t get there because we were distracted by a number of small alleys along the way. This is a small sample of what we saw that day.

A mural of the Great Wall of China has been painted on the side of a building. There is a hydro pole in front of it with a sign that says no dumping.

shadows on the Great Wall of China

Never lose your dinosaur

Black wall with a robot and heart sticker. Someone has written the words, what's real? what's not?on the wall as well

robot love – is it real?

A line of robot stickers on a short yellow pole in an alley

I guess one could make jokes about pole dancing robots.

buildings in an alley that have graffiti on them. the CN Tower is in the background

in front of the CN tower

crsy tag on an old grey wood garage in an alley

on a grey and weathered wall

two storey building painted grey and purple. The stairwell to the upper level is open. It is painted purple. There is an old chair on the landing.

purple entrance in the alley

graffiti image of a naked woman who is wearing an Indian feather headdress

loitering while wearing nothing except a few feathers

Concrete block wall with the words blue, blue, blue written on it. The sky behind is very blue.

Blue, very blue

A wall and door have been painted a maroon colour. Someone has written the words Hi Buddy on the door. There is a light fixture over the door but it is broken.

Hi Buddy on maroon

Black and white graffiti that says my spot

Please find your own.

havenbrook

Posted: September 18, 2013 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: 401, bridge, concrete, DOn River, face, graffiti, Havenbrook Park, mud, paw prints, raccoon, stencil, Toronto

I ventured north today, north of the 401….. to Havenbrook Park which is just far enough north to access the bridge under the 401 just east of Leslie Street. I went there because I had heard that some interesting graffiti could be found under the bridge. As you can see, someone beat me to it. It’s all gone, all cleaned up.

There is a small, and boring, amount of graffiti across the river and up the hill. If I also wanted to climb the fence, I could access a bit more graffiti. My cane was handy for managing the incline down to the river but that was the limit of my adventuring for today.

Having said that, there was this one piece of graffiti:

The graffiti had been cleaned up and so had the surroundings. It was probably the cleanest of the bridges that I have been under in Toronto. I saw rocks, dirt, water, paw prints and not much else.

Tower Automotive Building

Posted: September 2, 2013 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: 1988, blue face, brick, eyeless, faccio sempre la brava, face, fence, girl, graffiti, heritage, industrial, Junction, Loopy Le Loop, Looter, lsd, street art, tags, the Junction, Toronto, Tower Automotive, vacant lot, wall, watering can

Standing alone in a vacant lot on Sterling Road is the Tower Automotive Building. It was built by Northern Aluminium in 1920 and at some point became the property of Tower Automotive who used the site to build car parts. In 2005 it was declared a heritage building but it was closed shortly thereafter when the company declared bankruptcy.

The ten storey Tower Automotive bulding. In the foreground is the land left vacant after the demolition of the sheet casting machining buildings in 2010.

The ten storey Tower Automotive building. In the foreground is the land left vacant after the demolition of the sheet casting machining buildings in 2010.

Looking up the spine of the building. North side of Tower Automotive.

walking along the west wall

Faccio Sempre la Brava, translate from the Italian as I always do the good.

Faccio Sempre la Brava, translates from the Italian as, I always do the good.

Loopy Le Loop with tags

two wire gates. One has a sign on it that says 'protected by' but the name of the company is obscured by a tag

ungated

interior, doors

When I was researching this building, I found a site that has a collection of great photos of the interior of the building that were taken in May of this year:

jermalism.blogspot.ca/2013/05/abandonment-issues-tower-automotive.html

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walking Graffiti Alley again

Posted: August 22, 2013 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: colours, fish, graffiti, Graffiti Alley, marine life, McDougall Lane, paint, posters, Queen St. West, resurrect, Rush Lane, soul, spray paint, stickers, tags, Tom and Jerry, Toronto, uber, weeds

Behind the south side of Queen St. West, starting at Spadina and heading west. At Bathurst there is a slight detour because someone built a Loblaws grocery store and a condo in the way. But just turn south to Richmond and walk a short distance west. On your right there is a small alley; follow this lane to almost Dufferin street – if there is no construction in the way!

I have walked this route many times. Sometimes there are new things to see, or changes have occurred. Sometimes I just notice things that I missed on previous visits.

Larger than life. The woman on red has been there since the first time I walked this way a couple of years ago. The aquatic scenes on the building across the alley are a more recent addition.

Tom and Jerry and their never ending chase scene.

The alley changes with the seasons. Even here there is greenery.

Sunshine and shadows in the lane.

Above the alley. She now appears in a few places.

Tag, baker, inserted between two windows

I just want people to like me. A sticker in McDougall Lane, a good use of US Priority Mail labels.

I resurrect the destructed poster with a few tags added accompanied by a girl with a broken heart.

Black and white graffiti on a wall and door. There is life sized picture of a man on the door. He is holding a red heart in his hands.

He evolves. First his face was added – with googly eyes and his tongue stuck out. Now he seems to be anatomically correct as well!

Graffiti of many caricature images of Rob Ford. Most are black and white but one is red and white. Some of the edges are beginning to rip.

Starting to fray at the edges

back of a building on Queen St. that has a large red and blue tag on it. There is a large green skull-like picture on the door. Four blue recylcing bins are by the door.

Garbage bins guarding the door.

Uber's yellow bird is laughing and drinking something from a can. Somone has added the words grain fed to his forehead.

I’m not sure what he’s drinking, but apparently he’s grain fed. He looks a bit grubby because he’s sitting on the ground next to the dust and dirt in the lane.

A smiling Cheshire Cat and a few other creatures.

doorways 2

Posted: August 19, 2012 in general Toronto, graffiti and street art
Tags: doors, doorways, entrances

More Toronto doorways!

ready for Christmas

Liberty Village

purple! in the Kensington area

green garage door, Cherry St, port lands area

there’s a dragon at the door – in an alley off of Dundas St., just east of Spadina

little guy at 539 Queen Street West

graffiti – anti Rob Ford

Posted: August 18, 2012 in graffiti and street art
Tags: Eastern Ave., fence, graffiti, paint, Rob Ford, stencil, Toronto

anti Ford graffiti words and pictures can be found

on dumpsters ……..

Seen on a dumpster in Renfrew Place,

on fences…..

Stencilled onto a fence on Eastern Avenue in Leslieville. October 2012. Not the best quality photo I’m afraid. As of December 2012, the fence is gone.

on walls….

anti Ford poster with a Rob Ford quote that is anti cyclist

“My heart bleeds for them when someone gets killed. But it’s their own fault at the end of the day.” Rob Ford quote from March 7, 2007.

We can’t afFORD painted on a wall on Augusta Ave., Kensington

I am not sure if this started life as an anti-Ford piece of street art, but the placement of the sticker has made it one.

Ford gives and gets in this one. Seen on “Graffiti Alley” behind Queen St. West

Rob Ford on Spadina near Baldwin

Ford for ex-mayor. On Spadina near Baldwin

and on garage doors……

Rob Ford lurking in an alley.

eyes – here’s looking at you

Posted: August 15, 2012 in graffiti and street art
Tags: blue eyes, eyes, graffiti, murals, street art, Toronto, urban

I like taking photos of eyes whether they are part of a larger piece of street art of they are from something else! Here’s a selection of some of them.