Dupont and Spadina

Posted: November 27, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
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A short walk around Dupont and Spadina.

At an intersection, looking across the street to a glass dome like structure that is a subway station entrance. Beside it is a building with a tag that says Uh Oh

The northwest corner of Dupont and Spadina and the weirdness that is the subway entrance.

 

Movember mural

looking across the street to a mural to commemorate Movember. Two large men's faces, both sporting moustaches beside the word Movember written in cursive.

On the northeast corner.  Mural by Elicser

 

The men’s faces up close.

close up of mural, showing man's face with furrowed brow and black moustache.

close up of mural, showing man's face including white eyes and a green moustache.

There are also a few brightly painted garages near the intersection.

A wood picnic table is in front of a street art mural on the side of a garage door

street art mural on the side of a garage door, multicoloured shapes and lines with the words 'escape reality' written in the top right corner

A van and car parked in front of a street art mural of a face in blue, yellow and red that is surrounded with stylized food, especially candy and popcorn. The neck is an iconic red and white striped popcorn container. The picture is reflected in the windows of the van.

literally, pizza face, by Tim Skynz

street art mural of a face in blue, yellow and red that is surrounded with stylized food, especially candy and popcorn. The neck is an iconic red and white striped popcorn container. viewed from the side on quite an angle

a multicoloured tiger's face painted on a garage door

(photo from 2012) This painting is still on a garage door on Dupont. I was going to re-take the photo today but there was a vehicle parked too close to it. Painted by Studio 32, Jose Gabriel.

it used to be Kromer Radio

Posted: November 27, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
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 In February 2014, plans to build a large Walmart store on the site of Kromer Radio (420 Bathurst St., just south of College) were shelved.   Kromer Radio was an electronics store and they occupied the building between 1974 and June 2012.

The alley behind the building has been a graffiti site for a number of years.

looking north up an alley. On the right side is a large 3 storey building that has graffiti along the lower part of it. On the left are garages with graffiti on them.

There is graffiti on the building

words written in white paint - "Don't make this building a Walmart"

including this anti-Walmart statement.

 

graffiti on a wall

graffiti on a wall - a chaos of tags and colours on a brick wall

graffiti on a wall - a man with a red face and hat, painted under a metal staircase.

graffiti on a wall - painting of a 'boom box'' or ghetto blaster'

There is graffiti on the garages on the other side of the alley as well.

graffiti on a garage door - a blue tag plus some purple creatures with faces and little skinny black legs. There are also words painted on the garage that say no Walmart

Again, there is anti-Walmart graffiti including this one that says “Need no Walmart”.

graffiti face, white on black, on one half of a garage door. The number 251 is painted in oranges and yellows as well.

 

murals in the park

Posted: November 26, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
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David Crombie Park runs along the south side of the Esplanade between Lower Jarvis and Berkeley Street.

At the east end is a basketball court and playground.   One of the back walls of the basketball court has been repainted with a mural by Shalak, Smoky and J. Periquet.

 

mural on the back wall of a basketball court
mural on the back wall of a basketball court

one end of the wall

mural on the back wall of a basketball court

the other side of the wall

the west side of the wall has been painted with a mural that looks like a train train going towards the sunset at the horizon. Three tall condos are in the distance

close up of the west side of the wall has been painted with a mural that looks like a train train going towards the sunset at the horizon

sugar beach

Posted: November 25, 2014 in general Toronto, locations, waterfront
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Sugar Beach on a November afternoon.

A time when you have your choice of seats to sit and watch the clouds race past and the wind whip the branches of the trees around.

Sugar beach with its white chairs and pink umbrellas, looking over the sand towards Lake Ontario

Late afternoon beside grey Lake Ontario.

Sugar beach with its white chairs and pink umbrellas, there are no people here, and the lake is looking a little grey.

The first hint of sunset appears in the sky.

Sugar beach with its white chairs and pink umbrellas is in the foreground and the city is behind it.

Darker skies over the city as the rain clouds pass by.

Sugar beach with its white chairs and pink umbrellas is in the foreground. The Toronto skyline is in the background, including the CN tower.

With the city behind.

Sugar beach with its white chairs and pink umbrellas, with a four storey building behind as well as some willow trees

The low sun of late afternoon is reflected off the umbrella stands as well as the glass of the Corus building behind.

Sugar beach with its white chairs and pink umbrellas,

another bridge, near Woodbine and Gerrard

Posted: November 23, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
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Location: railway bridge over Woodbine Ave., just north of Gerrard St.

This underpass was transformed this past summer.  Raidi’aal Encompass, by Toronto based graffiti artist IAH Digital (Mediah).   It was done as part of StreetARToronto Underpass Program. 

a woman walking her dog passes street art in blues and browns under a railway bridge

Street art in blues and browns under a railway bridge

Street art in blues and browns under a railway bridge

Street art in blues and browns under a railway bridge

Street art in blues and browns under a railway bridge

new faces in the alley

Posted: November 18, 2014 in graffiti and street art
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New faces in the alley, or at least they are new to me.   Seen yesterday.

looking down the alley, graffiti on the walls on both sides including a large woman's head by the artist Kairo. She has curly hair and her face is about 7 feet tall.

face graffiti - a man's face on a piece of plywood. He is balding and there is stubble on his face. He seems to be sweating too.

sticker of eyes on a white and pink face. The sticker is on a pole and there is an orange wall that is out of focus behind the pole.

A bright and wild picture of a face with long long stylized hair in reds, oranges and pinks

A girl with long dark hair and with her eyes closed. From the shoulders up with one arm and hand included in the picture. Drawn on plywood and behind bars.

sticker of a man's head with an afro hairdo.

A stylized picture of a green, turquoise and red frog face with its tongue stuck out.

and a froggie face too.

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Tower Automotive building

Posted: November 17, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
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The Tower Automotive building is on Sterling Ave. in the Junction.  This ten storey building was built in the 1920s.  Tower Automotive went bankrupt in 2005 and the building has been empty ever since.  A number of years ago there was talk of turning it into studio space but for a temporary art installation or two, nothing has been done with this heritage building.

 

Chainlink fence in front of the building.

A chainlink fence surrounds the north part of the site.

….. but part of the fence was down and nobody was working on the site, so in we went.

Some of the graffiti on the west side of the building: 

graffiti on the back of the Tower Automotive building, a tall brick building - looking along the side of the building, the head of the reclining woman is in the foreground. Construction equipment is also in the picture.

graffiti on the back of the Tower Automotive building, a tall brick building - the backside of a naked woman who is lying on the ground. Much larger than lifesize, painted by Jarus.

graffiti on the back of the Tower Automotive building, a tall brick building - a large light blue face with tags on either side of it.

graffiti on the back of the Tower Automotive building, a tall brick building - the words cant hold me back are written in black on top of yellow and turquoise.
graffiti on the back of the Tower Automotive building, a tall brick building - a woman with purple hair wearing a brown and red hat. She is holding a blue watering can. She has an anchor tattoo on her upper arm.

moving around the building

On a concrete telephone pole, a black and white drawing of a man's head. The word Others is coming out of his mouth.

on the east side of the building

wall of a building with a wheatpaste lovebot and a standard city of Toronto development proposal sign. Some tags are also on the building.

The sign says “Draft of Subdivision Proposal, 158 Sterling Rd. – Castlepoint Studio Partners Limited has made an application to subdivide the property at 158 Sterling Road into 7 blocks in order to create a mixed use development that will have building heights ranging between 2 – 17 storeys.

a large gameboy lovebot on the side of a concrete wall.
lovebot and an anser black, white and grey face on a conrete wall.
a tag over old graffiti
blue construction fence is in focus in the foreground with a construction site behind it. A tall brick building stands in the construction site.

heritage murals – Kingston Road

Posted: November 14, 2014 in history, locations
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The Heritage Trail murals are a series of murals depicting the history of Scarborough.  The project began in 1990 and consists of 12 murals at different locations along Kingston Road (old hwy 2).

Just west of Midland Ave are two of the murals.

Half Way House painted in 1990 by John Hood at 2052 Kingston Road, the NW corner of Midland & Kingston Rd.  It is a picture of the Half Way House inn (and stage coach stop) that stood at this corner.   It’s name comes from the fact that it was halfway between the village of Dunbarton (now a part of Pickering) and the St. Lawrence Market in Toronto.   In 1965 the building was moved to Black Creek Pioneer village.

A mural that takes up the side of a building. It is a picture of an old two storey inn. It is a street scene as well, with people wearing clothes from the late 1800s.

Just farther to the west is another mural.  ‘The Bluffs as Viewed by Elizabeth Simcoe c. 1793’ was painted by Risto Turunen in 1992.  It is on the side of the building located at 2384 Kingston Rd, now Wong’s Martial Arts.  Elizabeth Simcoe was the wife of wife of Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada.
mural on the side of building depicting an early scene from Canadian history - a small rowboat with a couple of people in it is passing by the cliffs that are now known as the Scarborough bluffs.

The property beside this mural is now vacant and is enclosed by the type of blue temporary fencing that you see around many construction sites all around Toronto.  If there was a building there, it has been demolished, otherwise there is no work being done there at the moment.

mural on the side of building depicting an early scene from Canadian history - a small rowboat with a couple of people in it is passing by the cliffs that are now known as the Scarborough bluffs.

Wongs Martial Arts building, a nondescript two storey brick building.

under Adelaide and Richmond

Posted: November 13, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
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Both Adelaide St. East and Richmond St. East pass over King Street as they converge into Eastern Avenue.  Recently the concrete supports that help hold up these overpasses have been painted in bright, bold pictures.  The murals are entitled ‘Frozen Memories’ and they were designed and painted by street artist Shalak Attack with help from Bruno Smoky and Fiya Bruxa.

 All four pillars of the overpasses are in view.

Each pillar has a large face on the side that faces King Street and a picture that depicts something representative of Corktown on the other sides. 

Paintings on the large T shaped concrete supports of the overpass, in the foreground is the face of a man with the eyes on the upper horizontal portion of the support and his mouth on the lower part.

These murals are a part of the StreetARToronto Underpass Program or “StART UP.” 

Paintings on the large T shaped concrete supports of the overpass, a man passes by on the sidewalk while in the foreground is a support painted with street scenes. Houses and streetcar tracks.

Enoch Turner established Toronto’s first free school in the Corktown area in 1848. 

Paintings on the large T shaped concrete supports of the overpass, a young girl in a pink top sitting at a table and writing in a notebook. The word love is written on one of the pages.

painting of the Enoch Turner school on one of the pillars supporting Adelaide St. East in Toronto. Other Corktown houses are also painted here on the lower part of the pillar.

  Two of the main industries in Corktown were bricks and beer.   One pillar pays homage to the people who worked in these industries, including this bricklayer.

Paintings on the large T shaped concrete supports of the overpass, a man portrayed in blue tones, wearing an old fashioned hard hat and holding a trowel.

Mural on concrete pillar of a blue brick layer surrounded by symbols of industry such as factories, gears, beer bottles, bricks. There is a parking lot surrounding the concrete support so there are cars parked in front of the pillar.

This mural is a another tribute to the early days of Corktown.   Sailing ships, maps and compasses are for the immigrants that came here.   The first church built in Corktown was Little Trinity in 1843.   It’s stained glass window is shown here.

Paintings on the large T shaped concrete supports of the overpass, three supports are in the picture. The one in the foreground has marine scenes - two sailing ships, a large turtle, and waves. The two supports in the background are those with faces, one man and one woman.

other views

blog_overpass_face2

Paintings on the large T shaped concrete supports of the overpass, a large multicoloured woman's face is on the concrete support that is across the street. A chain link ffence and yellow fire hydrant are in the foreground.

back to Graffiti Alley

Posted: November 12, 2014 in graffiti and street art
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Just a few pictures of some of the street art near Queen St. West and Augusta.

Street art in Graffiti Alley, a poser mural with 3 olive green bunnies. The words, The World is Dying for Bold Ideas are written around the bunnies. One bunny has a paint roller and another has a can of spray paint.
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Street art in Graffiti Alley, detail of a red and black piece on which someone has placed a sticker that says "May this day be yours. "
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Street art in Graffiti Alley, detail showing what looks like an eye between two sets of teeth. In the background, and to the right, are two bikes parked against the building that is covered with uber 5000's marine scene
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Street art in Graffiti Alley, Six Six Demigods black and white face of an old man with a flowing beard
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Street art in Graffiti Alley, a guy who has earphones on that are plugged into a phone or something similar. The wrods "Turn off your phone" are included in the graffiti
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Street art in Graffiti Alley, an orange stickman (stickman?) on a hydro pole.
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Street art in Graffiti Alley, picture of a man's face. He seems to be leering with his tongue (which is green) hanging out of his mouth. He is above another picture of a pair of anser eyes.

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