Mural on the wall of the Sanko Trading Company
(a Japanese Canadian business, since 1968),
corner of Claremont and Queen St. West,
There are many Japanese motifs in the mural including sushi.
A robot is at the door.
Painted by Ken Galloway, Timothy Fukakusa, Mitsuo Kimura, Takashi Iwasaki, Darcy Obokata, and Shogo Okada in the winter of 2013-2014
More on the Japantown Mural
On Queen St. West, just before it meets Roncesvalles Ave., is the Corona Restaurant and Nightclub. Along the wall of this building are a number of pieces of street art. Only a small section is visible from the street.
If you follow the alley that runs behind Queen St., you will find more street art alongside the same building.
The back part is a mural entitled ‘Destination Mammal Cabana’ by Birdo, Spudbomb and SKE1. It was painted in 2012.
On the north wall of the same building…..
If you look closely at the above picture, on the right hand side metal pole supporting the landing, is a sticker. Below, that sticker up close.
Looking west along the alley towards Roncesvalles Ave.
but if you walk slightly west, away from Roncesvalles, you will encounter two more pieces by Birdo. The ‘Dreamer’ is on the same building as the Destination Mammal Cabana that is pictured above.
In the early 1900’s brothers George and William Dempsey bought a store on the northwest corner of Yonge and Shepard from the Sheppard family. It became known as Dempsey Brothers.
below: The store in the 1960s
In 1989 the property was sold to developers but the store remained on that corner until 1996. At that time it was moved a few blocks north to a site on Beecroft Ave; the site is now known as Dempsey Park. The building was renovated and became the home of the North York Archives, an arrangement that didn’t last long. In 1998 Mike Harris and the provincial Conservative government of the day amalgamated the old city boroughs into one City of Toronto. North York ceased to exist and their archives merged with those of the new city. Instead, the old Demspey Brothers store is home to Beecroft Learning Centre.
The restored Dempsey Brothers store, now at 250 Beecroft Avenue.
Where Dempsey’s once stood, there is now this….
… a 7 Eleven and a McDonalds. I doubt that anyone thinks “nice corner” when they look at it.
below: Looking southeast from the front of Dempsey Brothers store many years ago.
The billboard is an ad for Simpsons, a department store that is long gone.
For a long time, a grocery store stood where the billboard is in the above photo. But now that corner is changing again.
below: An attempt to replicate the location and angle of the above photo
below: Looking south across Sheppard Ave. East at the north side new Hullmark Centre including the new subway entrance.
below: Looking north up Yonge Street from just south of Sheppard Avenue.
The new Whole Foods store is the first building on the right.
The southwest corner is also undergoing major changes.
below: The greenish coloured Emerald development is almost complete. And yes, the tops of the buildings are meant to curve that way!
Located at the northwest corner of Regent Park Blvd and St. David St.,
(which is south of Dundas East and east of Sackville)
painted on the wood hoardings around a construction site.
This wall was painted as part of The Patch Project
PATCH = “Public Art Through Construction Hoarding”
Unfortunately, one photo that is missing is one of the section of the wall that is a large section that says “Conquer Adversity with Diversity”, the title of this work.
More information on The Patch Project
Along with many other people, I have been watching the demolition on the southeast corner of Dundas & Sumach streets, part of the Regent Park redevelopment. This 14 storey apartment building was designed by Peter Dickinson; it was built in the late 1950s.
January 31st, 2015
I first saw this building being demolished on a grey day at the end of January.
I’m not sure when the demolition actually started.
Looking north up Sumach Street.
The colours of past lives.
3 February
It would have been a cold job, working outside during the coldest February on record.
In the midst of demolition.
10 February
Looking across the intersection of Dundas and Sumach.
A view from the south.
Looking west from River Street.
Another view from River Street.
12 February
17 February
23 February
27 February
There were always a number of people taking pictures whenever I was there.
dust storm in the sunlight
28 February
… after 5 weeks, 6 March
Just another hole in the ground.
Graffiti in a Cabbagetown lane.
.
Behind 509 Dance, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre on Parliament Street.
The other day I was driving near Yonge and Finch when I made a wrong turn. I found myself driving on some streets that I don’t think I’ve ever been on before. Getting lost can have its rewards….
I discovered pink and blue palm trees in Hendon Park!
Chinatown Mural
2011 by Alexa Hatanaka and Aaron Li-Hill
Commissioned by the Chinatown BIA & located in an alley near Dundas & Spadina.
The mural is based on scenes from everyday life in Toronto’s Chinatown.
Flowers, a sign of spring. No real flowers outside yet and probably not for quite a while!
Instead we’ll have to settle for European pottery florals from the Gardiner Museum today.
below: Ewer and basin, Sèvres France, 1757, porcelain, attributed to Jean-Claude Duplessis. Pink ground with foilage-like edges.
below: Purple flowered mullein plate, from Derby botanicals, pattern 216, England, c1800.
On the 4th of February I posted some photos and information on Douglas Coupland’s ‘Gumhead’. This is the installation where people are meant to interact with a large head by sticking chewed gum to it. The plain black head gets transformed into something new (a sticky mess?). At that point, the head been inside Holts for Men for about two weeks. One of the photos from early in February is this one:
Yesterday, almost three weeks later, I revisited it and this is the photo that I took:
I was expecting to see more gum on the head. After all, a similar piece in Vancouver was totally covered by the time the exhibit finished. As I stood there in my winter walking clothes, i.e. not dressed for shopping at Holts, I thought of a few things.
The Vancouver ‘Gumhead’ was outside with easy access to all.
Although this ‘Gumhead’ is visible from the street, it doesn’t invite people to come inside and interact with it. Unless they have heard about the exhibit, passersby may not realize that they have the option of sticking their own wad of chewed gum on some guy’s big face. In addition, inside a store is not really a public place. It would be interesting to know how many people came in off the street to take a closer look at it. By ‘people’ I mean non-customers with no prior knowledge of ‘Gumhead’.
And anyway, it’s ugly. That’s my two cents worth.
You have until March 9th if you want to get yourself to Bloor and Bellair (near Bloor & Yonge) to participate. Gum is provided.
