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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Posr on Croft Street
Posted: November 5, 2013 in graffiti and street art, locationsTags: brick wall, hidden doors, mailboxes, mural, photos, posr, rabbits, red and white, street art, Toronto
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Croft Street
Posted: November 5, 2013 in graffiti and street art, locationsTags: alley, Always, brick wall, cat, colours, Croft St., face, garage door, garages, graffiti, head, lane, Monty, MUHA, murals, photographs, photos, poetry, rain, rust, stencils, street art, Toronto, wood, words
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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red umbrella day
Posted: November 4, 2013 in abstract, general TorontoTags: alley, autumn, brick, brighten, city, damp, fence, gate, homeless Jesus, humour, lane, leaves, purple wall, rainy, red umbrella, stone, Timothy Schmalz, Toronto, urban, wet, whatsoever, whatsoever you do, wood, yellow wall
umbrella, parapluie, paraguas
red, rouge, rojo,
Grey, damp days always need a touch of colour.
Yesterday, as I walked from Dupont subway station to Kensington I made use of my red umbrella. It kept me dry. It brightened up a few photos!
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Every rainy day needs a splash of colour.
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caught in the alley
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When this mural was first painted, there was a downspout for the eavestrough running down the side of the wall. Her hand was painted to look like it was reaching for, or holding onto, the downspout. Because that downspout is no longer there, I decided that she needed something else to hold on to.
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left in a puddle
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‘Whatsoever you do’, a sculpture by Timothy Schmalz. It is also referred to as ‘Homeless Jesus’. This installation is outside of St. Stephen-in-the Fields church on College Street. It was installed on 14 September and was originally scheduled to remain there until 6 October. According to the description of the sculpture, it is a fiberglass cast of a silent, huddled panhandler. A person that people walk by and ignore. But if you look at the outstretched hand, you will see the stigmata (the wounds of Christ).
When we first placed the umbrella over her, we worried about the appropriateness of such an action but as I took the photo, a passerby commented on how people have been known to place cheeseburgers and other food in her hand.
The statue was stolen at the end of November. More information
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car roof reflections
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red and yellow
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top hat, umbrella…. where are my dancing shoes?
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Toronto siesta
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something old, something new
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The End
Special thanks to Sasha and David who played along and made the day even better!
Also to Michael for crouching against a purple wall!
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zombie for a day
Posted: October 27, 2013 in eventsTags: blood, bloody faces, chains, gore, men, people, Pokemon, rat, Rob Ford, scary, stitches, teeth, wild, women, zombie walk, zombies
Toronto Zombie Walk, Nathan Phillips Square,
26 October, 2013
The rain stopped just before the Zombie walk started but there was a very chilly wind blowing. The weather didn’t stop the zombies! It didn’t stop the fun either.
I met a zombie, and it was fun.
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keeping it in the family – like mother, like daughter
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zombie repose, by the archer
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A rat’s best friend.
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cute but bloodied
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They humoured me.
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even Pokemon was not spared.
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dripping blood, and the eyes…….great zombie eyes!
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an eye for an eye, oh wait, a pencil for an eye
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bulletproof
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screaming, blood curdling screams……
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one of the many great interactions between the zombies and their audience
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so much for the orthodontics
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even zombies need a break
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Rob Ford meets zombie
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paper people
Posted: October 25, 2013 in graffiti and street art, locationsTags: alley, big ears, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Bill Murray, black and white, broom, deadboy, drawings, everything made him happy, graffiti, Graffiti Alley, lane, Leonard Cohen, paper, people, photos, Rob Ford, stencils, street art, Toronto, woman
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.
Adelaide abstracted
Posted: October 13, 2013 in abstract, general TorontoTags: abstract, brick, city, door, fire hydrant, glass, grate, green wall, Hyatt hotel, metal, orange, orange wall, photos, pink wall, reflections, shadows, Toronto, urban, windows
Today was a beautiful, sunny and warm October day. The warmer than usual weather that we’ve been having continued today, the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend. The nice thing about walking in downtown on a Saturday, especially the Saturday of a long weekend, is that there aren’t many people around. Nobody to give me strange looks as I take pictures of things that most people just walk past.
Today I walked Adelaide Street between Spadina and University and back again. I also took a detour along Pearl Street which runs parallel to Adelaide, but one street south.
fire hydrant in the middle
reflections in the windows of the Hyatt Hotel
in the washroom, Ravi Soup restaurant, 322 Adelaide West. If you have never eaten here, the food is fabulous, the restaurant smells wonderful and the staff are very friendly. I highly recommend it.
reflections
criss crossed window
green and white divided
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piles
Posted: October 13, 2013 in eventsTags: ai weiwei, art, bell trinity square, bicycles, chairs, city hall, metropolitan united church, nathan phillips square, nuit blanche, Pascale Marthine Tayou, plastic bags, squirrel, Tadashi Kawamata, Toronto
Piles of chairs, piles of bicycles and piles of plastic bags. That is the best way to summarize three of the Nuit Blanche installations that remained on display for a week or so after the 5th of October.
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First, the pile of chairs
Garden Tower, by Tadashi Kawamata of Hokkaido Japan
in front of Metropolitan United Church
“As if each person who sat on these chairs left a piece of himself, the work evokes the beautiful and utopian spects of the myth of the Babel Tower, a humanity speaking with one voice and engaged, with solidarity, in the building of a better future.” (from the sign accompanying the installation)
Garden Tower chairs in front of Metropolitan United Church on Queen Street East.
Looking upward from inside the pile of chairs. There was a pathway that ran through the base of the tower.
new found habitat for one of Toronto’s four legged residents
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Then the pile of bicycles:
Forever Bicycles by Ai Weiwei at Nathan Phillips Square
bicycles in front of city hall
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one bike amongst many
Nathan Phillips Square on the wet and foggy morning after Nuit Blanche.
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Last, the pile of plastic bags:
Plastic Bags by Pascale Marthine Tayou of Cameroon
interior, Bell Trinity Square
The plastic bags hang from the ceiling like a big blob. Like confetti, or bits of coloured paper, ready to be dropped on the people below.
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Nuit Blanche 2013
Posted: October 9, 2013 in eventsTags: 401 Richmond St., ai weiwei, bikes, bones, city hall, CN Tower, crowds, George Walker, graffiti, honey, installations, leg, lights, nathan phillips square, nuit blanche, painting, people, phones, photography, pics, posters, prints, spheres, street art, Toronto
Saturday, 5th October
downtown Toronto
This is only a small selection of the art installations and exhibitions that were on display that night.
Bones, leg bones? Part of the ‘Indicator’ installation at Gareth Bate Art Projects, 401 Richmond St.
“Birds, bats, bees. Indicator species tell us when ecosystems are in peril. Bones, sugar, dripping honey – a meditation on catastrophe and connection.” The bones hung from the ceiling and the honey dripped down the walls.
Artists: Karen Abel, Jessica Marion Barr, Gareth Bate
A timeline of the life of Conrad Black in black & white woodcut prints as shown at a gallery at 401 Richmond Street. Artist, George Walker
silhouettes
at Much Music, Queen Street West
phones lifted skyward
Black & white art made using electric currents & little wires that spun in circles.
401 Richmond Street
bkies, bikes, bikes
spraying in the spotlight
On Dundas West near Beverley Street
‘The rose is without why’ by Boris Achour.
This is a short poem written by Johannes Scheffler aka Angelus Silesius, in the 17th century. The words are written with fluorescent lights and is more than 300 feet long. It was bright enough to light up the square.
upper level, Nathan Phillips Square
Nathan Phillips Square
Nathan Phillips Square
On the left – ‘Forever Bicycles’ sculpture by Ai Weiwei lit in pink and purple. There are 3144 bicycles.
On the right – ‘Crash Cars’ by Alain Declercq consists of two driverless cars.
posing
These metallic figures were not part of Nuit Blanche. They are part of a sculpture close to the Court House on University Ave., just north of Queen St. West.
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St. Andrews Bendale
Posted: October 4, 2013 in historyTags: cemetery, church, history, McCowan, memorials, old, photographs, photos, Presbyterian, Scarborough, St. Andrews, Thomson, tombstones, Toronto, West Highland Creek
St. Andrews Bendale, Presbyterian church and cemetery, are located in a quiet corner of Scarborough, east of McCowan Avenue and north of Lawrence Avenue. The property backs onto Thomson Memorial Park which in turn follows the West Highland Creek.
The acre of land for the church was donated by David Thomson and the original wood church was built here in 1818. It was the first Presbyterian church built in what is now Toronto. David Thomson had arrived in the area from Scotland in 1796 at which time he was granted 400 acres of land. David was soon followed by his brothers Andrew Thomson and Archibald Thomson who settled nearby. The area became known as the Thomson Settlement.
Thomson burial plot. The inscription across the top reads “1796 – To their honor who redeemed this township from the wilderness – 1921”
The three plaques (stones) are for David Thomson, Mary Thomson and Hellen Thomson.On the left: “In Memory of David Thomas of Westerkirk Dumfries-shire Scotland who was the First Settler in Scarborough where his was the first land cleared. He had arrived in Upper Canada in 1796 and died on the 22nd June 1834, aged ?, leaving his wife, eleven children and 53 grandchildren.”
Center: “In Memory of Mary Thomson, Mother of Scarborough, who died the 8th of Nov 18–? aged 80 years….”
On the right is the stone for Hellen Thomson. It is very worn and is difficult to read.
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Robert Rae and his wife Agnes Hamilton
“natives of Lesmahago Scotland who came to Scarboro in 1832. Three weeks after their arrival, in his 29th year, he was killed by a falling tree :: his wife survived him 46 years, dying in 1878 – in her (86?)th year.”To the left of the Rae/Hamilton memorial is a smaller tombstone for Margaret Rae (d. 1860), wife of Amos Thomson.
To the right of the Rae/Hamilton memorial is a tombstone for James McCowan and Margaret Porteous. This couple also came from Lesmahago Lanarkshire Scotland and they too were one of the pioneering families of Scarborough.
There are a large number of other old Scarborough families represented in this cemetery – Gibson, Muir, Young and Stobo to name a few.
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uber Pizza Pizza
Posted: October 4, 2013 in graffiti and street art, UncategorizedTags: chickens, intersection, Kingston Rd., mural, octopus, pizza pizza, street art, Toronto, uber, uber5000, urban
I had seen pictures of the mural painted earlier this year by Uber 5000 on the Pizza Pizza outlet at Victoria Park & Kingston Road. Yesterday I found myself in that neighbourhood so I stopped to take a couple of photos too. The afternoon sun made for some strong shadows along the west side of the building.
on the northeast corner of Kingston Road and Victoria Park Avenue
When I was looking online to find out more information about this mural, I discovered that Uber 5000 has a blog too. If you are interested in his work, take a look at his website.
up in the trees on a sunny day
Chickens chilling out on the west side of the building.
A very happy octopus covers most of the north side of the building – great pairing of the air vents and octopus tentacles.
happily playing in the water
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as I walk Toronto 