A little dead end alley in Kensington and the graffiti I found there.
A chain link fence at the end of the alley.
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I love the way that the faces are incomplete compared to rest of the anatomy.
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The seemingly endless battle between graffiti artists and those who wantonly tag over their work.
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squares pieced together
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hidden doorway
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steaming
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chaos with stickers and scribbles
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grimacing skull by the fence
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Sonya’s Park, a small green space on Oxford Street.
On the east side of the park there is a brick wall that had a number of scenes painted on it. The pictures depicted a trip to Kensington market, circa 1885. Some of the murals remain intact while others have been defaced.
Oxford St., from the park.
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Trip to Kensington market, circa 1885. The first of the murals on the brick wall on the east side of the park.
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Once upon a time there was a mural there. Sadly, taggers have made their presence known.
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buying fruit and vegetables, circa 1885
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stop not taggin art & watch yourself
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at the back of the park
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diamonds of colour
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Plea no the, Elder abuse, and Don’t worry CAMH is only a block away, all on one sign
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One house in the city.
508 in the middle
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eyes on the street
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bird contemplating a wire
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outdoor plumbing
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characters on the north wall
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Tarps, ropes and metal cradles.
Lovingly and carefully stored boats, asleep for the winter awaiting spring and the start of a new sailing season. Canada, where the sailing season is short.
Red and blue Gecko in hibernation.
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A chilly trio in white, blue and yellow.
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Whiteness on a winter afternoon when the sun is trying to shine through the clouds.
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All tied up and radiating griminess.
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Rays of sun try to brighten the day.
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Perched on shore and looking out over the lake, but stuck behind barbed wire.
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Although snow and ice are an integral part of a Canadian winter, it is always interesting to find them in different settings. For example, icicles forming along the seams in the hull of a boat that is up for the winter.
Braided Ice.
More Icicles
Looking southward from under a blanket of snow.
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Serenity carefully tucked in and tied down to wait out the cold.
With many thanks to Stephen for giving me access to the yacht club for a few minutes this afternoon!
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Playing with lights, colours, and reflections at Brookfield Place.
Bay St., south of Wellington
From the bottom up, Allen Lambert Galleria, the 6 storey atrium of Brookfield Place, designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.
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Looking upwards, Christmas Ring Tree, Brookfield Place.
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Playing with reflected light from Christmas decorations.
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Horizontal abstraction of light and colour.
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Walking on thin ice?
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And now the lights are purple…. The lights change colours after a few minutes – purples, reds, greens, and blues.
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Photography under the purple lights.
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I didn’t see the electrical outlet when I took this photo. I was just attracted to the tiny squares of light by my feet.
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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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