faces on Howland

Posted: May 31, 2023 in graffiti and street art
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On the side of Fat Pasha Restaurant at the corner of Howland and Dupont there is a large mural of ten local Annex residents painted by Troy Lovegates.

whole Troy Lovegates mural, faces of 10 Annex residents both male and female

part of Troy Lovegates mural, faces

part of Troy Lovegates mural, two faces of young men in a variety of colours

Troy Lovegates mural, faces by the side door, including a younger person

Troy Lovegates mural, faces by a red door with word kitchen over the top of it, blue face of a woman, also an upper storey window

Troy Lovegates mural, faces by a red door, and two upper level windows, a line of light green garbage cans beside wall, two bikes,

Changes at Broadview and Eastern

Posted: May 27, 2023 in graffiti and street art, locations
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This row of old two storey row houses has been vacant for years. Recently the developer that owns the properties provided a couple of Toronto artists the opportunity paint the exterior.  This is the result.

large street art painting by nick sweetman and luvs aka moises on a row of empty houses at Broadview and Eastern

If you look carefully, you can see that Nick Sweetman and Luvs (aka Moises) have painted the word CHANGE across the front of the buildings.   As a theme for a mural on a redevelopment site in a city bursting at the seams with such sites, change seems very appropriate.

below: I’ve played with the colours a bit to highlight some of the letters.  You should be able to see C, H, and A across this image.

part of a street art mural with the word change written in gold and yellow on a multi coloured background, on old houses with boarded up windows

But the mural is more than colour and letters.  There are three animals featured here – pigeon, raccoon, and coyote  – all of which have adapted to changes and now thrive in urban environments.

below: A blue pigeon

street art mural of a large blue pigeon on the side of an empty old house

below: A pinkish marroonish reddish raccoon

a large street art raccoon on an old house, part of a mural by nick sweetman and luvs moises

below: A coyote with a dead leaf and new buds.

large mural with a coyote face, a large dead orange leaf,

Funding provided by Streetcar Developments

a row of old brick houses with boarded up windows has been covered with a large mural

upper window of an old vacant house now covered in many colours, mural

below: The houses to the north….

row of houses on the east side of Broadview near Eastern, two story, peaked roof,

poster on a boarded up window that says so far so good

Photos taken 25 May 2023

“Feels Like Home”

Posted: May 27, 2023 in events, galleries, public art
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… an art project by Sunday School,  a creative agency formed in Toronto in 2017 by Josef Adamu.  At the moment there are billboards at a few locations around the city including here at Dundas and Lansdowne where there are 3 images.

billboards above a vacant lot. The boards feature 3 large images by Sunday School. On the far left is a reclining woman with arm supporting head. In the center is a billboard with two images. Someone is brushing the hair of a young black woman in one photo. In the other, a person is sitting in a small orange car, viewed from the drivers side of the vehicle.

close up of images on billboards. two images. Someone is brushing the hair of a young black woman in one photo. In the other, a person is sitting in a small orange car, viewed from the drivers side of the vehicle.

Other photos by the group are on display at the Art Gallery of Ontario.  Two examples are:

below: “Jump Ball” is an ongoing project that explores the relationship between basketball and the African Diasporic communities.  Home is not restricted to private spaces, it is also found in unity. Here, in “Jump Ball: Toronto (2019)”,  you can see carefully composed pairings of young men in vibrant Ghanaian Kente cloth or a Senegalese boubou on the basketball court (what is identity?  how does basketball bring young men together?).  These were photographed by O’shane Howard.

photographs on a gallery wall, two in colour, and a group shot in black and white. the coloured photos are of young black men in traditional african clothing on a basketball court

below: Another series of pictures is “Ten Toes Down”, photographed by Kreshonna Keane.  This series features a ballet dancer in her home – a Black dancer in a field that is almost exclusively white.  Home is not just a building.  Home is the body; home is self expression.

two photographs on a gallery wall. on the left a black woman, a ballet dancer, sits on her floor surrounded by pairs of ballet shoes or slippers. the other picture is shoes and books

below: This image by Carlos Idun-Tawiah can also be seen in a parking lot by 80 Spadina Ave (see above, at Lansdowne & Dundas).

image of a young black woman

Sunday School website

Sunday School’s Instagram page

Cowboys and Indians

Posted: May 26, 2023 in events, general Toronto, public art
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below: At 460 King West (at intersection with Spadina) there is a mural on the wall and a poster in the Pattison advertising space. Both are part of the CONTACT Photography Festival.

view from parking lot on Spadina, large image on wall of adjacent building

a contact photography festival image, as a large mural, by Jake Kimble showing the artist as a young boy dressed up as a cowboy with large text added to photo that says I was told that the peace was mine to keep

Jake Kimble is a Chipewyan (Dëne Sųłıné) from Treaty 8 Territory in the Northwest Territories. The original photograph is of Kimble at age 6 or 7 and it was taken by his mother. In it he is wearing a cowboy at and apparently he was on his way to the Calgary Stampede.

“I was told that peace was mine to keep.” On the CONTACT webpage that describes this installation, this text is “the statement of a promise unfulfilled or a burden to bear. The phrase implies both that peace was his, and its opposite—that he was to be the peacekeeper”.

there’s always something at Yonge & Dundas!

Posted: May 24, 2023 in locations, people
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TTC streetcars on Dundas at Yonge street

two men talking, one holding a large white banner with blue chinese writing on it. Some English words, Heaven will soon eliminate the CCP, secret china .com and epoch times,

small group watching a street performer at yonge and dundas, one black man is holding a guitar, a woman with a phone, another man putting a coin into a can

four men standing on the sidewalk watching a street performer

sign on Comics Cafe, store now closed, with C in Cafe missing, a picture of superman

a woman in a red jacket stands in the doorway of a double decker tour bus as a man walks past

woman in short shorts and fuzzy brown slippers waits for a bus

man yelling in Japanese, wearing black outfit and a head band with large red dot on it, beside sign that says

people looking at comic books tht are lined up on a cloth on the sidewalk, for sale

man standing on sidewalk with dog on a leash, looking at his phone

a garbageman in orange t shirt and large black bag walks past intersection of Yonge and Dundas, cyclist waiting for the traffic light to change

two young women smiling as they watch street performer

a woman wearing a blue dress and a hat walks past a store window with many reflections

two men talking together, one has a long white beard and white hair

an older black man is sticking his hand in a fountain at Yonge and Dundas

Power Plant happenings

Posted: May 21, 2023 in galleries
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May 2023 edition

woman sitting in a chair in an art gallery

below:  “In the Comfort of Embers” by Amartey Golding. Photography, video, objects, all in a darkened red space.

Amartey Golding installation at the Power Plant art gallery, red lights,

photograph on red wall, person helping to light a cigarette for man in a hoodie

below: “Drink from the River” by Brenda Draney – a collection of her paintings.

woman in an art gallery looking at some paintings

painting by Brenda Draney of two women at a table

below: A lime green webbed folding lawn chair on a red surface dominates this picture and overpowers the large negative space.

painting on a wall in a gallery, a man in white cap sitting beside a green lawn chair on a red table

below: “Decoded” by Joi T. Arcand.  The walls are covered by this blue and pink striped design.  Using the pink plastic hearts, one can look at the wall  and see things differently – can you find the words, can you decode the message?

pink heart shaped plastic beside a wall of blue and pink stripes

below: Black and white photographs by Anique Jordan both inside the gallery. “Glitches”, a woman on a bed holding two large chunks of watermelon.

black and white photo by Anique Jordan, woman sitting on a bed with half a watermelon, black and white

below:  … and on the exterior south wall.  “These Times 2019” by Anique Jordan

large black and white photograph on an exterior wall, black woman lying on bed with back to the camera, in white t shirt and black and white patterned shorts

two people sitting on a bench by the waterfront, beside boat with a lifeboat

Just outside the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery is Ontario Square.  There is another art installation there – Double Pendulum by Maggie Groat.  Photos of that display are in a previous blog post (Double Pendulum, 19 May)

Double Pendulum

Posted: May 19, 2023 in events, public art
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There are now three large images on display at Ontario Square (on Queens Quay near the foot of York Street).   Collectively, they are  “Double Pendulum” by Maggie Groat who has constructed them as wheatpaste collages.  They are part of this year’s CONTACT Photography Festival.

Cubic concrete structure at Ontario Square, two sides visible, each with a large image by Maggie Groat, part of Double Pendulum

below: Butterflies constructed from other shapes and objects. Does this show the interconnectedness of all things, as in the “Butterfly Effect”?

abstract image by Maggie Groat with sections of things put together to make butterfly shapes,

large image by Maggie Groat, abstract with a lot of semi circles and yellow daisies

turning green…

Posted: May 15, 2023 in graffiti and street art, nature
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… with touches of pinks and other colours.  Spring time!

Here are a few photos of spring in the city that I collected as I walked in the past few weeks.

CN tower behind spring buds and new growth on trees

below: Spring time … when all the bugs and insects come out!

a large stuffed caterpillar on a deck of a house

below: As do the trees….  including this massive pink magnolia in full bloom.

a large pink magnolia tree in a front yard

a house with a large white blossom tree in the front yard

below: Flowers on a grave

York cemetery, tombstones in foreground, tall buildings of North York in the background

Ryerson university, Balzacs coffee, yellow umbrellas outside on spring day, people sitting outside, some people walking past

a man sits on a red bench on Pape Ave., East York

Pinehills cemetery, stones in the oreground, blossom trees in spring in the middle, and apartment building with blue features in the background

two houses on a street, with condo in background, spring, double car garages, white brick, black roofs, large tree in front

front yard, black metal trellis, blossom trees, one yellow tulip, fake stone front of house, stone walkway, brown wood fence, single white door for front door

a man wearing only shorts lies on a bench

back staircase of a brick building, upper apartment, with blue and pink planters on the stairs

metal box on sidewalk, bell box, painted with a monarch butterfly in a field of pale purple daisies

lots of dandelions in the grass by a sidewalk in front of a wall with street art on it, apartment building behind.

pussy willow in the foreground, tall buildings in the background

big old willow tree in spring in front of two houses

house with pale pink siding on upper floor, spring

Moving Toronto

Posted: May 12, 2023 in history, public art, transportation
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…for 100 years.  At the moment there is a selection of old TTC photos on display at Pape subway station in celebration of 100 years of Toronto Transit.

below: Already  lining the walls at Pape Station are images of Pape station itself and the surrounding neighbourhood. This is ‘Sources/Derivations’ by Allan Harding MacKay.   You can see the reflections of one of the old TTC photos in this section of MacKay’s artwork.

reflections of pape station sign, from the artwork on the walls of that station

The TTC posters are at platform level between the westbound and eastbound trains so you can look at them while waiting for a train.

below: First Pride bus, 2008

photo on display at pape subway station, from 2008, first Pride bus at Pride parade in Toronto, a woman in colourful clothes is walking in front of the bus

below: People waiting for the North Yonge bus at Eglinton station, 1950s

old photos of the TTC on display at Pape subway station, black and white photo old North Yonge bus at Eglinton station 1950s with people waiting to get on the bus. A stopped TTC subway car is behind the poster, a man in red is standing by the window

below: Waiting for the subway. “Line 1 customers ride the higher capacity Toronto Rocket (TR) subway train on its 2011 launch. By 2017, Line 1 had grown by 8.6 km.”

A subway train is stopped behind a poster at the station. on the poster is the back of a woman in a black parka with fur lined hood as she in turn is standing by a ttc subway train

below: Two posters, two eras. On the left: “A chartered TTC bus circles outside Rosedale station in 1961 as it awaits passengers.  Only one other station, Davisville, from the original 12 was a surface station.”  On the right: “Rushing to catch a Peter Witt streetcar along its Yonge Street route on a summer day in 1930.

people waiting on the platform of pape station, with posters of history of ttc on display

below: “A TTC car picks up scholars with disabilities outside their school in the 1920s.”  A couple with their COVID masks on sit in front of more images from ‘Sources/Derivations’ by artist Allan Harding MacKay.

an older Asian couple in covid masks sit on a bench at pape station platform, waiting for a train, posters of black and white old ttc photos on display between the tracks

below: “On a warm day in 1994, customers eagerly wait to board an Articulated Light Rail Vehicle streetcar along Queen Street at University Avenue.

platform level of pape subway station, woman on phone, artwork on walls by MacKay, poster of old TTC streetcar

reflections of building on Danforth ear Pape, tower with green domed roof, from the artwork on the walls of that station

Resilience at Cedarbrae

Posted: May 4, 2023 in events, public art
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“Resilience” is a photography exhibit at Cedarbrae Library.

part of exterior wall of Cedarbrae library, part window and part photography exhibit, large photos in black and white of people

It is the creation of Scarborough Made.  This is a group founded by Alex Narvaez x Sid Naidu in 2019.  It uses photography and cinematography to document positive stories about the people of Scarborough with emphasis on identity and culture.

black and white photography, a couple standing outside a building, she in white sleeveless top and white pants, he in darker clothes

four large black and white portraits on exterior wall of glass windows Cedarbrae library, Resilience for ArtworxTO

words describing a photography exhibit, outdoors, at Cedarbrae library, Resilience by the group Scarborough Made,

“Resilience:
The ability to recover from challenges or adjust easily to change.

Resilience exists all around us.

We see it in the movers and shakers, the cultural change makers and creative instigators.

We see it in our neighbourhoods, from the small businesses to our healthcare and essential workers.

Resilience is what lives in our narratives and exists within our identity.

Our resilience as a community is stronger when we stick together.  With it, we can overcome the challenges and build towards a better future.

The portraits you see as part of this public art installation represent the many faces that embody resilience. Pulling from both past and present works of Scarborough Made artists, we’ve created this exhibit for you to see and reflect on the humanity that exists within our community.

Resilience is us
Resilience is you
Resilience is Scarborough. ”

cedarbrae library in scarborough, photography display

black and white portraits on display in windows of library

       Artists

  • Alicia Reid
  • Ferdinand Orlain
  • Millicent Amurao
  • Nithursan Elamuhilan
  • Alex Narvaez x Sid Naidu
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