as I walk Toronto

True Colours

Posted: June 28, 2024 in galleries
Tags: art, Dignam Galley, Karen Taylor, Lin Duperron, love, paintings, Ruth Upjohn Gallery, Shawn Skeir, Stacy Athena May, True Colours, Ulla Djelweh, WAAC, Womens Art Association of Canada

“True Colours” was a brief exhibit at the Dignam Gallery. The gallery is run by the Women’s Art Association of Canada and is located in their building on Prince Arthur Street. This was their 3rd Annual Uptown Pride Exhibition. Saturday, 29th June is the last day of the show.

One of the nice things about this gallery space is the decor.

below: “Express Yourself” and “It’s bad bitch o’clock” by Karen Taylor

below: Hung over this old fireplace is a painting by Stacy Athena May. It is titled, “Hymn to Hera (Sisters Dance)”.

below: Another Stacy Athena May painting, “Dismal Entity” hangs over a matching old white fireplace. On the left is a painting by Shawn Skeir.

below: “Spirit Doll”, mixed media, sculpture by Steve Rose

below: On the right is “Pride on the Subway”” (2019) by Lin Duperron. The other 2 are by Steve Rose.

below: What’s so crazy about peace, love, and understanding…. over and over again. A twist on “What’s so funny about peace, love, and understanding” from the song written by Nick Lowe but made famous by Elvis Costello.

At the Women’s Art Association, there are two galleries – the Ruth Upjohn Gallery has its own small room. At the moment there are some marvelous photos by Ulla Djelweh, “Through the Garden Gate”, of flowers from a garden. These orchids are hers.

Uptown Yonge as the sun goes down

Posted: June 27, 2024 in construction, locations, old buildings, people, stores
Tags: buildings, concrete, construction, Eglinton, LRT, stores, Yonge

Were you an Edmonton Oilers fan? Did you jump on that bandwagon? On the night of the 7th game of the Stanley Cup playoffs were you glued to the TV? Or are you wondering what I’m talking about?!

I usually watch hockey games now and again, especially during the playoffs but I found that watching the Edmonton-Florida series was just too stressful. Instead, these long June evenings are great for walking! A little bit of Yonge Street, Uptown Yonge, was my stomping grounds the evening of the last game.

A few scenes from Yonge between Eglinton and Sherwood, in no particular order…

below: Old and new. I like the way the evening light catches the architectural details along the rooflines.

below: Playing peek-a-boo. The new pushes from behind.

below: Seating!

below: Northwest corner of Yonge and Eglinton, Yonge- Eglinton Centre with its updated glass facade.

When the Yonge Eglinton Centre was built in 1968, Eglinton was the last station on the TTC subway line. The Y-E Centre was a large development, and was the tallest building in the neighbourhood. There was a shopping centre, a cinema, an office tower, two tall residential towers, most of which still remain. Eglinton is no longer a gateway to suburbia; it is Midtown. The Y-E Centre is just another tall building in a sea of them.

below: The new entrance to the Eglinton LRT (unopened of course) with the Canadian Tire headquarters behind. Southwest corner of Yonge and Eglinton.

Lament for the Eglinton LRT. Metal fences and torn cloth. In tatters and disarray. Still not opened.

Maybe one day I will be able to walk somewhere in this city and not run into another hole in the ground. Note the usual – facades being saved, single houses that stubbornly remain.

Bus stop all tied up in knots.

below: With some paparazzi stalker vibes I’m afraid.

… Back home in time for most of the third period…. Sad to see Edmonton lose, but why is there hockey this late in June?

booming Bessarion

Posted: June 23, 2024 in construction, locations, public art
Tags: apartments, condos, construction, Demakersvan, development, Ethennonnhawahstihnen, Inges Idee, Jax, Joep and Jeroen Verhoeven, Leaping Lamp, park, Pierre Poussin, subway, TTC

Bessarion subway station has always had the reputation of being one of the least used stations in Toronto. I haven’t seen any recent numbers, but I suspect that a lot more people are now using the station. There are a lot of development changes happening in the area so the numbers will only increase in the future.

below: South entrance to Bessarion station

below: A Stop sign sits in the middle of one of the entrances to the new development on Sheppard Ave East beside Bessarion subway station. If you follow the left fork in the road, you will end up in the parking lot of the Canadian Tire store. This store is all that is left from the original 50 acre site that was home to a Canadian Tire warehouse and distribution centre. In 2000 Canadian Tire filed a plan to re-develop the whole site, including a new head office tower for the company. Although the plan was approved, it never came to be. Instead, most of the land was sold to Concord who is now in the process of redeveloping it.

below: Concord has filled this community with a lot of public art including these colourful creations, “Jax” (2021) by Pierre Poussin

below: A few maple leaves forming a canopy – “Maple Leaf Trellis” by Demakersvan (aka brothers Joep and Jeroen Verhoeven)

below: Leaping Lamp by Inges Idee (a German artist collective)

below: There is also a rabbit (title: “Rabbit”), another artwork by Inges Idee. It’s made to look like a folded ribbon of highway; it sits next to the 401 highway.

below: Birds hanging out together between Bessarion station and the new community centre. They won’t be flying anywhere any time soon!

below: A small bird, a continuation of the tree full of birds, sits outside Ethennonnhawahstihnen’ Community Centre (it’s pronounced Etta-nonna wasti-nuh and it means ‘where they had a good, beautiful life”)

below: Real trees ready to plant.

below: A line of towers with row houses on the lower level marks the south side. The 401 highway is behind. A new park, also Ethennonnhawahstihnen’, lies in front of the new residences.

below: Water feature in the summer, outdoor skating rink in the winter

below: The view from the southeast corner of the property – the back of IKEA and the 401!

below: At least there have been a lot of trees planted back here and some thought has been put into using the landscaping to mitigate the noise from the 401. But the fact that thousands of cars and trucks pass her every day can never be downplayed. I hope that the units are well sound proofed. Having stood on balconies on other buildings that overlook a major road, I can imagine how noisy it is here too.

below: Looking southeast from Burbank

below: South side of Sheppard

below: The north side of Sheppard Ave looks like this – a row of lowrise apartment buildings from the 1960s or 1970s.

below: There are 2 major redevelopments proposed along here, 680-688 Sheppard and 690-720 Sheppard. Both involve condo towers.

Just west of Bessarion station is Greenbriar Road. There was a small community of single family homes, duplexes, and small apartment buildings back here. Almost all of it is gone or on the way out

below: A single, lonely, holdout surrounded by newer residences.

below: No sign?!

below: Southeast corner of Sheppard and Greenbriar (12 storeys, 145 residences)

below: There is a development notice sign on the front yard of 25 Greenbriar (23, 25, 27 and 29 to be replaced with 10 storeys, 169 residences).

below: A little farther south on Greenbriar the fences are already up (22-36 Greenbriar, 24 storeys, 351 residences).

Extra note: The northeast corner of the old Canadian Tire acreage, at 1181 Sheppard Ave East, remains undeveloped. It is the last piece once owned by Canadian Tire. It is adjacent to the Metrolinx rail corridor, about 100 m from the new Oriole GO station. [ed note: Prime real estate by the sound of it!]. Two towers will probably get built here, once the heights are finalized.

Sunny times

Posted: June 19, 2024 in general Toronto, locations
Tags: bottles, candy, chips, fish, food, grocery store, jars, meat, multi ethnic, multicultural, rice, sauces, shopping, snacks, soya sauce, store, vinegars

And now for something completely different.. something very yummy!

I stopped at Sunny Foodmart on Gateway Blvd because I needed something quick for lunch after a walk. I was amazed at what I saw. I have been in Asian grocery stores before but this was so much more.

below: Obviously she is over-dressed for the hot weather that we’ve had this week! Photos are from a couple of weeks ago 😄

below: Pani Puri originally from India or Pakistan, sort of like samosas but round. Fried dough balls stuffed with good things.

below: Quite a selection! Wasabi, soy sauces, teriyaki sauces, sukiyaki sauces, rice vinegar, oyster sauce, and many labels that I can’t read.

below: More bottles, more sauces. Sesame oil, apple cider vinegar, and cooking wine too.

below: Filipino spaghetti sauce – I had no idea that that was a thing! And the packaging is bilingual English/French!

below: Chaat is another new word for me. It’s another food that originated in India and has spread as street food in many south Asian countries. In the freezer below you’ll find sausages, fish balls, Chicharon Bulaklak (pork ruffle fat), smoked herring, and dried danggit (a type of fish from the Philippines, also called rabbitfish or spinefoot fish). In case you’re wondering what ruffle fat is, it’s not actually fat… Chicharon Bulaklak is made with the mesentery (or the connective tissue that joins the internal organs together). It’s salty and crunchy apparently. No, I haven’t tried it!

below: Bags of dried hawthorn, dried orange peel, dried lily bulbs, and longan berries, along with white pepper, cardamom, and aniseed. One of bags is labelled as amomum tsao-ko which is also known as black cardamom.

below: Freezers full of goodies – corn on the cob, scallion flower rolls, assorted dumplings, and golden saba bananas (short stubby bananas from the Philippines).

below: More frozen food – udon noodles, lamb rolls, lobster rolls, and bean curd. Boxes of coconut milk are stacked on the other side of the aisle.

below: That’s a lot of hoisin sauce!

below: Floor to ceiling jars, bottles, and cans including cans of green jackfruit still in the box.

below: Pork pieces, feet and hocks

below: Colourful veggie jars. Red peppers, sliced pickled jalapeno peppers, pickled wild cucumbers, white asparagus, peas, pickled white cabbage, and roasted eggplant.

below: There were a couple of aisles of bags of rice stacked in piles on the floor. Thai jasmine rice is pictured here.

below: Marjan rice from the foothills of the Himalayas (Pakistan) as well as Basmati rice.

below: No grocery store would be complete without a candy section – orange, mango, peppermint and ginger chewy candies. Lollipops. Ricola in the original herbal formula. And don’t miss the Super Lemon or Super Cola candies!

below: Pizza snacks (very Asian!) and shrimp chips. Honey butter chips and sweet potato snacks. On the bottom shelf, want want crackers – part sweet and part salty and totally yummy!

My apologies. All photos were taken with my phone so the quality may be questionable especially after reducing the resolution a little before uploading them. I hope that you still enjoyed the tour!

another bridge is open – Port Lands again

Posted: June 17, 2024 in construction, locations, public art, transportation, waterfront
Tags: beach, bridges, Cherry Street, Commissioners Street, construction, Leslie Lookout Park, Munition Street, parks, photography, Port Lands, Port of Toronto, redevelopment, Ship Channel, Toronto Harbour, Toronto skyline, Vid Ingelevics, waterfront

Welcome back! Bienvenuti! A colourful sign to welcome you and visitors to Toronto. I’m not sure how many visitors get to see this banner!

The Port of Toronto has almost become an obscure corner of the city. It’s certainly not where most tourists arrive in the city! Nor is it a place where residents venture.

below: Once there was a ferry between Toronto and Rochester that docked here but it didn’t last long. Now there are a few cruise ships that stop here. The building would be almost deserted if Netflix hadn’t taken over some of the space.

below: The fragments of railway track are reminders of the industrial past.

below: There are bits of track scattered all over the Port Lands

below: The Port is much quieter but there is still activity. These long metal bars that are neatly stacked on shore were probably recently offloaded.

below: Boats in the Ship Channel. The redevelopment plan for the Port Lands has always included the retention of the Ship Channel. The sand and salt for Toronto’s roads is delivered here.

below: At the east end of the Ship Channel, a new park is being developed – Leslie Lookout Park. The concrete cylindrical structure is a lookout tower so there will be views over a man-made beach (that appears white in the photo). The beach is larger in real life than it looks like in the photo.

below: Can you see the little sliver of blue water? That is the Ship Channel.

below: Looking south on Munitions Street

below: Toronto Firehall, Station 30, built in 1928 still stands. It is a heritage building and if the plans are followed, it will be repurposed.

below: The redevelopment of the Port Lands has involved a lot of infrastructure changes. Roads have been changed, rivers have been diverted, bike lanes and better sidewalks have been created. At times it has been confusing to navigate through.

below: The new Commissioners Street bridge is in, and there is water running under it. There is now a river on land that was once industrial. On the north side of the bridge there is a bike lane and a wide sidewalk.

below: The bridge offers new vistas of the city. Many new trees have been planted.

below: Lakeshore Blvd crosses the Don River on a very low bridge (like before) while the ramps between the Gardiner and the DVP curve above it.

below: Just be careful because there is no sidewalk on the south side (why not?? for the sake of saving money on 4 extra feet??)

below: The same sleek curvy design seen in the previous bridges is repeated here.

below: Another series of photographs of the work being done here, by Vid Ingelevics and Ryan Walker

below: One photograph is mounted on the roll-up door of one of the ESSROC cement plant silos

below: Like the previous series of images, most of the photographs are displayed down the center of what remains of Villiers Street, on top of the remains of the old railway line.

below: One more photograph on what remains of Villiers Street – and in the background, what remains of the eastern end of the Gardiner Expressway.

below: Southeast corner of Villiers and Cherry

below: One original bridge remains, the one with the long name – Cherry Street Strauss Trunnion Bascule Bridge.

below: The first of the new bridges that was actually operational is the south Cherry Street bridge, the yellow one.

below: The second new bridge on Cherry Street is now in use. For months we’ve been able to take pictures of the side of it as we stood on the old Cherry Street bridge. (see The New Cherry Street Bridge from Nov 2020). Maybe one day in the future there will be a streetcar on the east part of the bridge. As you can see, the rain came and we bailed. Better pictures of the bridge will have to wait for a future post!

below: The old Cherry Street bridge is gone and the road has been rerouted. The old jog in Cherry at Lakeshore is gone.

below: Misdirection.

below: Trying to see the new bridge from the site of the old bridge but there seems to be a construction site in the way.

below: Continuing north on the now straight Cherry Street. Any ideas what that white structure is ahead? It runs parallel to the railway line at track level and crosses Cherry Street just south of the railway underpass.

We now exit the Port Lands and finish today’s explorations…. with the exception of one quick note…. I noticed that the old Canary Diner on Cherry is now painted a reddish orange colour. It looks like it is being renovated. A story for another day!

of king and queen and in between

Posted: June 11, 2024 in construction, galleries, graffiti and street art, locations, old buildings, public art, windows and walls
Tags: Alex Bacon, Churchill statue, city hall, concrete, development, Dogman, Eaton Centre, facades, Gillie and Marc, Moses Znaimer Way, mural, Myla Borden, Nadya Kwandibens, photography, quilts, Rabbitwoman, Red Chair Sessions, redevelopment, reflections, sharks, signs, Susan Lawrence, Textile Museum, textiles

Also could be called, “Of bricks and stones and a lot of glass.”

I was recently telling a relative that one of the best ways to explore Toronto, especially downtown, is just to get off at a subway station or streetcar stop and start walking. There is always something to see. This walk is the result of taking my own advice and just getting off at Queen station and seeing where my feet took me. First stop was the Eaton Centre where Michael Snow’s birds still fly. “Flightstop”.

below: Interior, Eaton Centre where all the benches have been removed. Sadistic? Gone are the days when you could take pictures of the men sitting outside Victorias Secret.

below: As I walk around the city, I see more and more of this – the glass wall. This view is south on James Street as I walk between the Eaton Centre and Old City Hall.

below: Approaching City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square from the east you now encounter a conundrum. Did people hit their heads on the low ramps? Or were people camping out here? A poor, and I hope temporary, solution.

below: A few images from “The Red Chair Sessions”, photography by Nadya Kwandibens A series of 9 large photos is on display in the ground floor windows of City Hall (viewed from outside). On the right, Sage Paul, designer and artist, originally from English River; on the left, Mushkegowuk Iskwew from Peetabeck (Fort Albany Ontario).

below: Portrait of Ogimaa Kwe Bnes (aka Chief Lady Bird, her Spirit name) from Mnjikaning and Aura from Onyota’a:ka, posing under a mural that the two of them painted at Underpass Park.

below: The backside of Sir Winston Churchill as he walks away from City Hall – something to think about? The new court house is in the background.

below: New court house from the corner of Chestnut and Armoury.

below: Reflections in the glass of the new court house

below: Across Chestnut from the court house is an old hotel that is now part of U of T. Its older brick and concrete facade contrasts with the glass and steel of the newer building.

below: More concrete, the back of City Hall (completed 1965). This is not a view that is typically shown but I find it fascinating that there are no windows at all on the outer sides. As it turns out the back walls are made from 18 inches of reinforced concrete that allow for cantilevered floors which in turn make it possible to have an inner structure with few structural elements.

below: Also on Centre Ave is the Textile Museum. At the moment one of their exhibits is about quilts, “The Secret Codes: African Nova Scotian Quilts. Some of the quilts are older ones like this pair by Susan Lawrence (1931-2008) which is a variation of “square in square” pattern.

below: Other quilts are more contemporary such as these three by Myla Borden from New Glasgow NS

I first read about these quilts on a blog, junkboattravels.blogspot.com She has a more thorough description of the exhibit along with some pictures. I will add a few more of my photos at the bottom of this post, but if you are interested in seeing others, I recommend checking out the link above (and then scroll down a bit).

below: Looking north on Centre Ave to Dundas and beyond. The facade of the old brick building on the northwest corner is being saved. It was built in 1928 as an extension to McLean Hunter which was on University Ave. This Beaux-Arts style building has five storeys of offices and four storeys for a printing plant.

below: A closer look at the facade.

below: Also Centre and Dundas, but the eastside of Centre, a colourful spot… and a trendy way to liven the street appeal of a parking garage.

below: “The world is a little bitter. I want to give you a little sweet.” written on the inside. Tiles in a marvelous tessellation by the front door.

below: Reflections in the glass at the northwest corner of University and Dundas.

below: Crossing University Ave. while looking west on Dundas. There’s a curvy new building underway.

below: The old court house, or Toronto Courthouse, which was built in 1966 is on University Ave just north of Osgoode Hall. It is a 20th Century Modern building clad in Queenston limestone, a stone that you can also see on many other Toronto civic buildings such as the ROM and the . It is quarried in Queenston, near Niagara Falls, and at one point was the largest quarry operation in Ontario. You’d easily mistake it for concrete.

below: Cannons and yellow umbrellas

below: Behind the yellow umbrellas

below: A narrow passageway between buildings.

below: Old City Hall clock tower

below: The CN Tower sneaks into the photo. At Osgoode, Metrolinx has taken over part of University Avenue for construction of the Ontario Line across Queen Street.

below: Even Campbell House is behind scaffolding.

below: Just another Toronto street corner.

below: Another facade saved. This one is at Queen and Simcoe where a bank once stood.

below: The wide open mouth of the green monster reaches upward as it tries to grasp the red balcony between its jaws.

below: This is the bank in question, The Canadian Bank of Commerce, built in 1930 just after the beginning of the Depression. The photo was taken in 1931. Take a close look at the other buildings in the picture, the stores to the right. The structure with the Coleman Oil Burners billboard is gone but take a look at the next couple photos which are of this stretch of Queen West today.

below: Queen West struggles to maintain its character. The store in the middle is definitely in sad shape. It looks like it would collapse if the others weren’t there to support it.

below: There’s a little white “ceremonial” street sign, just below the blue and white Queen St. West sign, that let’s you know that this stretch of road was also named Moses Znaimer Way. Znaimer had a long career in the entertainment industry in Toronto including co-founding CITY-TV, MuchMusic, and more. In Toronto, a ceremonial street name is secondary to the legal name. I am not sure how many there are in the city and I haven’t gone down that rabbit hole to find out. Interesting idea though.

below: Queen and McCaul, looking west

below: Gelber Brothers ghost sign on Richmond Street.

below: The CN Tower… again! and Hooters (do they still exist?)

below: Murals in a parking lot. Both were painted by Alex Bacon.

below: Blue marine life, sharks circling. An ominous hook. This one of many Pangea Seed Foundation sponsored murals in the city. Some of the others appear in a much earlier blog post, “love letters in paint” (2016). Pangea Seed’s original mission was to use science, art and creativity to “inspire positive change around pressing ocean environmental issues”. This campaign has now branched out to increase awareness of the issues involving out fresh water lakes and rivers as well.

below: Restaurants on John Street.

below: A vacant building longing to be another restaurant. In the meantime it’s been painted black… and as I type those words I am reminded of the Rolling Stones song, “Paint it Black”. The song is a bit depressing and negative but then again, so is a blackened building.

older three storey building with mansour roof and upper gable windows, painted black, vacant, ad posters on it

The last stanza is “I wanna see it painted Painted black
Black as night
Black as coal
I wanna see the sun Blotted out from the sky
I wanna see it painted, painted,
painted Painted black, yeah

below: “We See You” shout out to the doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals that worked throughout Covid. “Thank you”. Painted by Elicser Elliott.

below: Variety on Adelaide. Bricks and stone and a lot of glass.

below: Looking east along Adelaide (a one way street with bike lanes and newly rebuilt streetcar tracks).

below: Looking down the middle of the glass and metal sculpture in Grasett Park. If you were to step back a bit, the sculpture takes on the shape of sails of a ship.

below: Looking through the netting/glass, same sculpture as above. The park is named after Dr. George Robert Grasett, a medical doctor (1814-1847). The park stands on the site of the Emigrant Hospital built in 1847 to treat “ship fever” (typhoid) and other sicknesses in the Irish immigrants who started arriving in greater numbers that year. Many died on the journey and many more were sick when they arrived. Dr. Grasett was appointed as Medical Superintendent of the hospital but he died of typhoid fever about a month afterwards. His name, as well as the names of the other doctors, nurses, and orderlies, (and one priest) are engraved on the benches in the park.

below: Designs in the pavement – etched into the granite is an 1842 map of Toronto.

below: Widmer Street, where a row of old houses has been preserved, but are dwarfed by the developments around them.

below: King Street, looking east from John Street.

below: It’s always there! The CN Tower again.

below: Southeast corner of King and John. Another glass wall.

below: Another row of preserved brick facades. This time on King West.

below: Rising above the Royal Alex Theatre

below: This is “The Poet, The Fever Hospital” (1992) by Bernie Miller in David Pecaut Square

below: Nearby is a new sculpture by Gillie and Marc and it has a very long title: “He was on a Wild Ride to a Safer Place with Rabbitwoman and a Dogman” (not the Dogman from the childrens books!). There is an empty seat at the back of the bike and it’s waiting for you to join them on their wild ride!

This post has grown. It’s longer than I had envisioned it when I started putting ideas together a few days ago. I am not sure whether to thank you or to congratulate you for getting this far! Maybe both. Anyhow, I hope that you’ve seen a few new things, or interesting bits, as you’ve scrolled through this post. Perhaps the pictures have brought back some memories? In the meantime…..

As promised earlier, more quilts to end the post.

quilt in a museum with a poem on it as well as black and white photos

“Sing poets of this beauty
Sing choirs of this inviolate pride
Make these moments precious to history
Let these scenes live in every eye”

a bridge to nowhere

Posted: June 2, 2024 in construction, locations, nature
Tags: Bermondsey, bridges, DOn River, East Don Trail, electricity, flowers, paths, railway tracks, the Meadoway, transmission towers

Another gorgeous May morning, another coffee shop. This time it was Circles and Squares Bakery on Bartley Drive where the butter tarts are amazing (well, what isn’t amazing there?).

Most of you are now asking, “Where is Bartley Drive?” Answer – close to the Bermondsey Transfer Station as pictured below. That’s where the garbage trucks go. It is also where you can drop off your hazardous waste or renovation waste, things that aren’t allowed in the trash you leave at the front of your house (or throw down the chute in your building). That large grey building is for yard waste. And yes, there is a lingering odor.

It is also close to the Bermondsey Hydro One Transmission Station.

below: Warning sign. “Property and copper marked for police identification.”

below: The transmission station is on the Hydro Corridor that cuts a swath through Toronto. There is a plan to turn most of it into “The Meadoway”, a bike and walking path that runs through a restored meadow. The paths are more developed in Scarborough, see blog post “the Meadoway” from November 2021.

At the moment this section of meadow has limited access. There is a dirt road that runs through the Hydro Corridor, west towards the Don River.

… but the bridge over the river is not quite complete. Once it is finished, it will connect The Meadoway and the East Don Trail.

Crossing the tracks anyhow.

below: Immediately after the newest bridge over the railway tracks, there is another bridge. This one crosses the Don River. This is now part of the East Don Trail. There is a section of the East Don Trail north of Eglinton (by the Rainbow Tunnel) but at the present time, they don’t connect. It’s an ongoing project. The large poles beside the path are the makings of a large net.

below: The nets are because Flemingdon Golf Club is right here. I suspect no one wants to get hit by a flying golf ball.

below: Looking back towards the newest bridge

below: White flowers on a Cranberry Viburnum plant.

below: Don River

It’s a quiet spot. But obviously some people make use of the space! Stonr’s hot box clubhouse.

Google maps shows the East Don Trail continuing south at least as far as where the Don River passes under the Don Valley Parkway. Unfortunately, the next time the path encounters the tracks, it ends. I forgot to take a picture but the tracks form a wall at the end of the road. There is a dirt path that runs uphill through the woods (away from the tracks) that probably leads to the Spanbridge Road neighbourhood. Instead of exploring further we retraced our steps back to Circles and Squares.

With thanks to the Wednesday morning walking group!

once upon a May morning

Posted: June 1, 2024 in alleys, graffiti and street art, nature
Tags: Alice Pasquini, alleys, allium, bergenia, Branca Gomes, buds, chicken cow, coffee, College St., croissant, Darth Vader, flowers, graffiti, houses, Joe Rd., lanes, laneways, Little Italy, Little Portugal, Marija Pomagaj, murals, Nuits Balnéaires, owl, paste up, Paul Glyn-Williams, Sam the Record Man, spring, stickers, sumartist, superman, Trexlorian

This is another “walk with friends” post; three of us out enjoying a May morning looking for signs of spring (and summer!), bits of art, and other eccentric little details. Like all good walks, this one started with a coffee and a bite to eat. In this case, at Rustle and Still on Bloor West, a Vietnamese coffee shop

where I tried their purple sweet potato croissant. Highly recommended!

We walked more or less south and west from Bloor and Palmerston to Queen and Dunn. This is some of what we saw. … Starting with the colours of spring with lots of greens

below: Flowers such as these big purple balls of allium

below: More purple – Bergenia Crassifolia flowers seem to want to jump out of the garden.

below: Grape vines coming back to life.

below: Crabapple tree blossoms in abundance

below: … and flowers of a different kind. Purple orchids on a garage door painted by Trexlorian.

below: Spring colours here too… Fabulous bright orange toes!

And other colours too….

A red shed (or gate?). Also, the metal gate and fence with the circles is unique!

A bright pink house (with red trim! … and a green front door)

below: The ivy has gone crazy here but the cheerful blue trim hasn’t been hidden… yet!

And while we’re looking at houses, one little house stand alone dwarfed by the large brick house on one side. Even the other houses on the left are larger.

below: Another tiny house stuck in the middle!

below: This is actually a row of three little homes where the outer two have a peaked roof.

There seem to be a lot of houses that have expanded upwards with third storey additions, or new rooftop balconies.

below: An alley view – What caught my eye here was the fact that all six houses have an upper level (rooftop?) balcony with a wood railing.

below: And then there are the houses that look like they have never changed. This one still has the old asphalt shingle siding in fake brick colour.

We came across this Joe Road front yard where someone must be a Toronto Maple Leafs fan.

below: This is the view of Joe Road from across the street, the neighbour’s view

below: The yard is full of stuff, knickknacks of all sorts. The interior is dark and some of it is difficult to see without trespassing. Some of it is held together with spray foam insulation.

below: A fish on a plaque, a black and white cow, and that red and white thing – is that a painted rock? What kind of symbol is that (if anything)?

below: Superman, a chicken, a cow, a man’s head carved out of stone, a large blue Disney something or other, and various other toys and trinkets piled high.

below: Darth Vader (but with a bit of extra white?) and an owl guard the upper level.

below: Another yard, another set of animals. This time it’s a pelican, an orange butterfly, and a sheep in a little garden that looks like so neat and tidy. Someone has put a lot of work into this space. Two yellow tulips are in bloom – they are real but I’m not sure that the orange lily is.

below: Creativity on a slightly grander scale (complete with “Beware of the dog” sign).

below: Hiding his face. The enemy remains unseen.

One sign that you are in Little Italy or Little Portugal is the requisite religious icon by the front door

Little Italy and Little Portugal both claim portions of College Street

below: The mural on the side of a building at College and Crawford celebrates Branca Gomes who was the first Portuguese teacher in Toronto. She started teaching in 1964 at the First Portuguese School on Augusta. She also taught at Alexander Muir Elementary from 1969 to 1974. The small green space in front of the mural is the Portuguese Pioneers Parkette.

below: Across the street from Branca Gomes is this mural. in 1937 Sam Sniderman, along with his brother Sidney, opened Sniderman’s Music Hall record department in the family store at 714 College Street. They later moved the store to Yonge Street where it became ‘Sam the Record Man’ (or colloquially, Sam’s). In their heyday, the early 1980s, there were 140 Sam the Record Man stores across Canada. The mural was painted by sumartist (aka Paul Glyn-Williams).

below: Neither Italian nor Portuguese but Slovenian in a mosaic above the door to a church. Marija Pomagaj, Mary of Perpetual Help, or more loosely, Mary, Help of Christians.

below: Greens, yellows, and purples in the vertical panes of glass. What this photo fails to show is that the green and purple form two large cross shapes on the front of this church, the Toronto Spiritualist Temple on College Street. There is a third cross, in blue, to the left of the purple.

below: This billboard above the Ladybug Tavern on College is actually part of the CONTACT Photography Festival. Two figures draped in yellow stand under a palm tree, one of whom is wearing a bird-like mask. It is part of “Window into Bassam” by Nuits Balnéaires, an artist from the Ivory Coast (where Grand-Bassam is a city).

below: At College and Ossington, a mural by Alice Pasquini (in partnership between the Istituto Italiano di Cultura Toronto, the College Promenade BIA and the City of Toronto).

We explored a few alleys … where we encountered a few faces and strange creatures

No faces in this lane but the barbecue looks shiny and new… and ready to use.

below: How many raccoons live here?!

below: Infill housing? – with an air conditioner and a satellite dish.

below: Black Lives Matter 24/7 in both directions

Graffiti that we saw:

below: The man behind the mask, by Bruho

below: A stencil of a penguin and its little one

below: Paper paste-up of a lions head with its eyes blacked out.

With thanks to Merle and Nancy who went wandering with me that morning.

“Liquid, Gold” and other matters

Posted: May 27, 2024 in galleries, locations
Tags: Alex McLeod, art, digital art, embassies, Harboourfront Centre, Liquid Gold, Morgan Possberg Denne, Nada Al-Obaidi, Ontario Square, paintings, power plant, Power Plant Contemporary Art, salmon skins, stone, Witness

Back down to the waterfront, Ontario Square and Harbourfront to be more precise.

below: Three large pieces by Alex McLeod, “Liquid, Gold” are on display on the walls of the underground parking entrance structure in the middle of Ontario Square.

From the words on the wall: “Liquid, Gold” envisions oases where fragments of coral, flora, gems, and precious metal formations emerge. Delicate structures are weaving a narrative of resilience and adaptation. The crystal-clear waters, reflecting the azure skies above, beckon viewers to immerse themselves in the tranquil embrace of nature’s bounty. Each ripple in the water is a testament to the fluidity of existence, whispering tales of renewal and transformation.”

below: There are more large images from this series on the walls in the hallway of Harbourfront Centre. McLeods artwork is on display through to December.

below: Another exhibition now on at Harbourfront Centre is “Future Matters”. Matters is a play on words here as it means both ‘materials’ and ‘is important’. One matter, or material, is stone. It is represented here in this large collage of photos of quarry walls by Nada Al-Obaidi.

below: Another material, and one that most of you wouldn’t think of, is dried salmon skins. Here, Morgan Possberg Denne has used 74 skins to fashion two lampshades.

There are other exhibits that don’t photograph all that well (or that I curated out) such as crumpled bits of paper on tables, fabric made of milkweed, and paints sourced from a vacant lot – using crushed snail shells, and sumac flowers for example.

Also at Ontario Square is the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery. There are two exhibitions on there at the moment. First, a retrospective of the work of June Clark and second, a look at the research by Terence Gowan on architecture in some of the embassies around the world.

below: Gowan has extensively studied the architecture of American embassies in Baghdad, Havana, Ho Chi Minh City, and Ottawa (the last one is unbuilt), including how different materials are used. Over time, the materials and methods have become more sophisticated and complex as governments demand more safety and more secrecy from their embassies. From a sociological perspective, or as a look at the history of international relations, it is a fascinating exhibit.

But does this work translate well to an art gallery setting?

below: The most eye-catching of the June Clark art installations is “Harlem Quilt” (1997).

Each light is mounted with a piece of fabric on which a photo of a person has been printed. In many cases the light obscures the face of that person. I am not sure if this was intentional or not.

below: The installation has a room of its own and the effect that it produces is quite ethereal.

below: Another exhibit that is part of Clark’s “Witness” is a circle of chairs made of washboards titled “Keepers”. Like most of her other work here, it features people in her life. Each chair is decorated with items that evoke the memory of a person that mattered in her life.

below: One of 10 pieces from “Homage”. Again, a tribute to other people in Clark’s life.

below: And last, the one part of Clark’s work that is about her is “44 Thursdays in New York” where each piece has a photo of herself plus a copy of her journal from that day, for 44 consecutive Thursdays in 2004 when she was living in New York City. I’d love to be able to read the words as well!

two Queen West galleries

Posted: May 23, 2024 in galleries
Tags: Bill Hornbostel, CONTACT, Contact photography festival, Courtney Fairweather, Elaine Fleck Gallery, Eric Garsonnin, Gallery 1313, James Sutherland, Janne Reuss, Joachim Oepkes, Jude Marion, Lilianne Schneider, Margaret Kittel Canale, photographers, photography, photos, Ted Scott, Ulla Djelweh

… a CONTACT Photography post.

Gallery 1313 and Elaine Fleck Gallery are within a block of each other out in Parkdale and both were participating in this year’s festival.

The Elaine Fleck Gallery were featuring the work of one artist, Bill Hornbostel, in a retrospective show titled ‘Luminous Realism’. At Gallery 1313 I saw ‘Offshoot’, a collection of images from nine photographers. Unfortunately the latter was only on display until May 19th.

below: Hornbostel’s images are large, and shot at slightly longer exposures. Some of the photos, like this one of traffic on Bay Street south of Old city Hall, were taken in Toronto

below: ‘Offshoot’ at Gallery 1313

below: Margaret Kittel Canale, two building exteriors, orange and blue.

below: Jude Marion (two photos), industrial areas in Hamilton.

below: Lilianne Schneider with “Displaced” that looks at the abandonment and relocation of two heritage structures.

below: One of the photos by Courtney Fairweather who chose to highlight cell phone usage in today’s society.

below: Some interesting photographs by Ted Scott

below: When I first posted this, I thought these images were part of ‘Offshoot’ but I was mistaken. They are in fact part of a solo exhibit of digital photocollages by Janne Reuss (in a separate little room) titled ‘Thread(t)s and Narratives’ .

With apologies to the photographers whose work I haven’t shown (not missed on purpose): Joachim Oepkes, Ulla Djelweh, James Sutherland, and Eric Garsonnin.

The Bill Hornbostel show continues until the end of May

as I walk Toronto

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