at least along Queen Street West……
Christmas is going to the dogs, and cats.
He knows when you’ve been naughty……
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Rudolph the red nose cat doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.
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A very merry pantone Christmas in 15-5519 aka turquoise, their colour of the year in 2010.
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Both hot and cold on display for a very, very, merry Christmas!
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The suitman mural is on a railway underpass on Dupont St., just west of Lansdowne Ave. It covers the walls on both sides of the street.
It was first painted and funded with $2000 received from the City of Toronto’s Clean and Beautiful program. But after Rob Ford was elected mayor and began his “clean up” campaign, it was painted over with dull grey paint. Rather silly considering that Joel Richardson was paid by the city to paint it in the first place. Late in October 2011 it was replaced with a similar mural. It took six weeks to repaint, 25 gallons of paint and 100 large cans of spray paint.
Most of the photos taken were taken on 30 November 2013. Some photos are from a two years previous and they are marked as such.
The picture on the south side depicts business men lined up to form mathematical equation.
The eastern part of the equation. That’s not a check mark on the right of the photo, it’s part of a long division sign.
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divide then multiply
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Well suited for a close up. (Photo taken Nov 2011)
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To the east of the bridge.
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X and + towards the bridge. (Photo taken November 2011)
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This photo was taken from across the street – looking through the concrete pillars that support the railway bridge.
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Immediately west of the underpass.
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This is one of the photos that was taken two years ago. I have included it for comparison purposes as the man wearing the gas mask is no longer part of the mural. Instead, three sitting women have been added at the bottom of the letter X. The next picture shows this part of the mural as it looks now.
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To the west of the train tracks. Note the absence of the man with the gas mask and the addition of the three women.
Photo taken November 2011.
“And do thy duty even if it be humble, rather than another’s even if it be great. To die in one’s duty is LIFE: to live in another’s is death.” [quote from the Bhagavad Gita, a 700 verse scripture that part of the Hindi epic ‘Mahabharata’]
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Looking back under the bridge, following the arrow.
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Photo taken November 2011
“This at least would be the case in a society where things were left to follow their natural course, where there was perfect liberty, and where there was perfect FREE both to choose what occupation we thought proper and to change it as we thought PROPER. THE whole of the advantages and disadvantages of different employments of labour stock, must in the same neighbourhood, be either perfectly equal or continually tending to equality” [quote from “Wealth of Nations” by Adam Smith]
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More information on this mural: http://joelrichardson.com/2011/10/
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A few things that I saw today as I walked from Richmond and Spadina, southwestward to King and Shaw. A beautiful sunny Tuesday afternoon.
rusted and authorized
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Happily perched above it all with a birds eye view of Richmond Street West.
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Smoking on the roof.
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Stop Rob Ford at the western end of a one way Richmond street.
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window and light, Palace Hotel, at King and Strachan.
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Afternoon light.
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fish piss in the alley
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Black and white and speckled all over. This was one in a series of five or six windows of various sizes along the same wall. The black and white painting gave the wall an interesting look although I am not sure of pictures of the individual windows are all that interesting!
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The alley I was walking down turned, but as I turned the corner I realized that I had come to a dead end. I spotted this poster on one of the garage doors that was there. According to the man standing inside one of the other garages, lots of people end up doing U-turns in front of his garage – including cars that come zooming around the corner, only to have to hit their brakes.
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A sticker of a black hearted, square headed, yellow robot on a blue dumpster.
for more information about the lovebots, http://lovebot.com/about
This photo was taken while standing in a parking lot near the southeast corner of Adelaide and Bathurst streets.
The graffiti across the lower part of the building is by homebase. Their website: http://www.homebasetoronto.com
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The Bloor GO station is undergoing a number of renovations as it will be the first stop on the updated Kitchener rail corridor running between Union Station and Kitchener. Bloor will be a stop for the new Union Pearson Express service to the airport.
A temporary wood fence has been erected between the tracks and the West Toronto Railpath for the duration of the construction. This fence has become a canvas for some of the local graffiti artists. I walked the length of the fence yesterday and I took a lot of photos! I started at the north end of the fence and the following photos appear in the order that they were taken.
open wide and say “ah”!
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Wickedly enchanting.
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Rob Ford and U in the middle of Spud.
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Toronto on backwards.
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Face to face across the chained gate.
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Looking up and down the railpath.
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Eyes closed, with a cupcake and a bike and perhaps a prayer.
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Of kings and angels.
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tagged
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Two
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dotted eyes
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Peruvian tag
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Danger cat.
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To the trains, orange and orange.
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Unfortunately I cut off some of the words written in purple, Junction Joe , Kwest, Takefive, Other Sense, Honour?, Rhinowreck
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Danger women and something black.
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Dark and Jetone the lurker.
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The truth is out there, and many other things in black and silver.
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Listen, study, develop
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The gate was boarded up too.
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sink in
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blue man by elicser
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Between the 2nd of October and the end of November when my photos were taken, there were some additions to the street art pieces, especially at the north end of the fence.
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Graffiti and street art on the garages
of David French Lane and Alan Powell Lane
David French Lane runs south from Barbara Barrett Lane (just south of Bloor St.), one block to Sussex Ave. If you cross Sussex Ave., the lane continues as Alan Powell Lane. Both lanes are lined with garages for the houses on Borden St. and Brunswick Ave., the streets that run parallel on either side of the lanes. Alan Powell Lane also runs behind Central Tech Collegiate.
There is an excellent interactive map of the lanes of Harbord village and the people for whom they were named at http://www.harbordvillage.com/laneways/lanewayinteractivemap.html
A railway locomotive roars past the corner of Barbara Barrett Lane and David French Lane.
Camille is loved.
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Darth Vader and the dogs
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The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog, in duplicate. Looking north up Alan Powell Lane.
A posr rabbit lurks in the corner, Alan Powell Lane
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Barbara Barrett lane is located in Harbord village. It runs east-west and is immediately south of Bloor Street West between Borden Street and Brunswick Avenue.
The lane was recently named after Barbara Barrett who was the founder of the Toronto School of Art in 1969. The school was originally located at Sussex and Brunswick. Barbara died in 2005 in her 89th year.
Like many lanes and alleys in the area, there are a number of murals and interesting pieces of graffiti.
birds on a wire
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solving Rubiks’s cube
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one way to the window
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at the corner
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girl on a swing. She is in the entranceway to the Green Room restaurant.
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smiling, laughing stencil faces
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zipping around
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a door in the mural
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On the 19th of April, 1904, a large section of downtown Toronto burned for nine hours.
Map showing the area of Toronto affected by the fire of 1904. Bay Street from the Esplanade to Miranda Street (just south of King Street) was the hardest hit. At the time, this was called the Wholesale District of the city.
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Aftermath, Bay street, April 1904.
In part, because the fire started in the evening, there were no fatalities. As a result of the fire, 5000 people were left without a job. In 1904, the population of Toronto was about 200,000 so the loss of employment on this scale had an impact on the city.
Mural painted on the back of the building on the northwest corner of College St. and Croft St. (398 College St.), commemorating the fire of 1904.
Demolition of the ruins left by the fire took many weeks. On the 4th of May, John Croft died while using dynomite to bring down the remains of the W.J. Gage building on Front Street. His was the only known death associated with the fire. What is now Croft Street was renamed in his honour.
The east side of 398 College St., at the south end of Croft St., is painted with a mural as a memorial to John Croft.
northeast corner of the building
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Burned out buildings, April 1904
The images of the fire’s aftermath are available online. The originals are kept at the City of Toronto Archives, located on Spadina Road., just north of Dupont Street.
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This post is a continuation of the previous post, titled Croft Street.
There is a red, white and blue mural at the south end of Croft Street. It covers the side of a three story brick building.
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flat black apartments at 396
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Croft Street is not a street, but it’s more than a lane.
It runs between Harbord Street and College Street, just west of Bathurst Street. Although there are many different interesting things to be seen when you walk along this street, I have chosen to focus on the street art for this blog post. The following is a selection of what I saw.
surveying the scene
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a closer look
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paint and rust
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can’t sleep so I write
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Harbord street sign
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Did you know our Monty the cat?
King of Croft and all that
(Ask your dog. Ask your cat)
Did you give him a pet
Once you had met?
Or tickle his soft silken tum tum?
Did he tell you his tale in articulate meow
And share his affection with a rub of his brow?
His loss here has left us really quite blue
But remembering all of those of YOU
Who knew how to share a sweet kindness true
Who would pause on the way,
In midst of each day,
To offer wee beastie
affectionate feastie
In Memory of Monty
Thank you!
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painted cat on painted window sill on painted brick wall
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on the streets of Toronto
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hidden doorway
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tutti frutti
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with hands on hips and with added words
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art at the front door
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greenery
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black and white and red all over
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Here I stand in silence
but the patter of the rain
who I was, you’ll never know;
my triumph
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staring eyes
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mail man
At the south end of the street, there is a large red, white and blue mural by posr. I have not included it in this blog post because it warrants a post of its own. It’s the next blog post, or the URL is https://mcfcrandall.wordpress.com/2013/11/05/posr-on-croft-street/
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paper people of Graffiti Alley
Three Bills
This is now a recurring theme in stencil/paper graffiti. Originally, the Bills were used in response to ‘post no bills’ signs on fences surrounding construction sites.
The Bills here, from left to right, are Bill Gates, Bill Murray and Bill Clinton
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In the fall of 2011, many of these Rob Ford stencils appeared in Graffiti Alley, amongst other places. They were the work of Toronto street artist, Deadboy. This might be the only one that remains in this alley.
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Leonard Cohen: “only one thing made him happy and now that it was gone everything made him happy”
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“I don’t do floors”
“Clean it up yourself”
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big ears and the astronaut
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I have not included all the stencils in Graffiti Alley as some have appeared in prior posts. See https://mcfcrandall.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/walking-graffiti-alley-again/
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alien in the alley
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With thanks to:
Georgette for her help with the three Bills
and Sally who recognized Leonard Cohen.
as I walk Toronto 