While meandering down Croft Street today I discovered a new mural by Bruno Smoky on a garage. A large reddish face of a man – Neptune, the God of the Sea? It also makes me think of the book, ‘The Old Man and the Sea’.
Two very large swim nearby.
bruno smoky on Croft St.
Posted: April 12, 2018 in graffiti and street artTags: Bruno Smoky, Croft St., face, fish, mural, old man, street art, swimming
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spring, stikmen and smiley hearts
Posted: April 9, 2018 in alleys, graffiti and street artTags: cat, flowers, girl, guitar player, love, mural, screaming, signs, spring, stikman, stores, uber5000, windows, woman, Woodstock, yellow birdies
It’s early April and we’re all tired of winter but it lingers on. How are you coping? Yes, you!
below: Is this wishful thinking? or maybe just a little too optimistic?
below: Spring is in the air? They forgot the question mark. Is the cat reacting to the disconnect between the sign and the reality? … or maybe its expression is because it’s just realized that it’s sitting beside a book about Justin Trudeau?
These were the only signs of spring that I saw yesterday as I walked although I noticed that someone was trying to cheer things up. Not sure how long these have been sitting outside. They’re looking a little weather worn and grubby. Hope may be wearing a bit thin?
below: Elsewhere yellow birdies were playing hockey.
Spring was elusive but what I did spot were a couple of stikmen that I don’t remember seeing before. I also noticed more smiley hearts popping up in unexpected places again. First, some of the hearts…
below: Cool Woodstock makes an appearance too (a yellow birdie of a different kind). I don’t think she’s too happy to have a bird sitting on her head.
below: The guitar player is now playing with heart.
And the stikmen….
below: Instead of wooden, this stikman is a drawing in a frame.
below: Is that a little orange head of a stikman in the bent frame?
….. and then back inside for some warmth!
I will leave you with one last look at a window full of yellow chicks and Easter bunnies, hope for spring (Hope springs eternal? Hopes of spring are eternal?).
Fitting this in
Posted: March 25, 2018 in graffiti and street artTags: brick wall, chair, custom made, don't worry, fitting in, outside, table, words
I’ll just leave this here. Just one photo today.
Queen Street East, more record keeping
Posted: March 23, 2018 in construction, history, intersections, old buildingsTags: architecture, brick, condos, development, development notice, empty, historic, Moss Park, old, Queen St. East, stores
Just after I wrote the previous blog post about some of the buildings on Yonge Street that are in the middle of an area being redeveloped, I walked across Queen Street East. I noticed that there were a lot of similar three storey buildings here to those around the corner on Yonge. Toronto must have been a booming city in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s when these stores and warehouses were built.
below: What I also noticed is how many of the storefronts are empty. This is the northeast corner of Queen and Mutual.
What I don’t have is a photo of the northwest corner – it is about to be developed, or at least there is a plan to develop it, into a 29 storey glass tower. Urban Toronto called this location, “a spot that currently feels disconnected from the rest of the City. ” … maybe because the Moss Park neighbourhood is on the lower part of the socioeconomic spectrum? Urban Toronto is a website that is, their words, “populated by the tastemakers, condo aficionados, buyers, builders and realtors”. I try to stay neutral in the pro/con condo development argument but it irks me to read things like, “Redefining the urban experience” and variations thereof over and over and over again to describe mediocrity.
To be fair, this 88 Queen West project is redeveloping a parking lot. Why is it a parking lot? Because in the 1950’s a parking lot was more important that the buildings, including Cooke’s Presbyterian Church (1857), that originally stood there. Perhaps we get what we deserve.
below: Richard Bigley (1853-1933) started off as a woodworker but soon switched to selling stoves. He sold the ‘Happy Thought’ line of stoves. He holds two US patents, one for a water heater and one for a sectional water heater. The building was converted into loft apartments, one loft per floor, back in the late 1990’s.
below: Two views at the corner of Queen East and Jarvis. You can just see the Moss Park Armoury building on the right side of this picture. This Canadian Forces facility was built in 1960’s and it takes up a large chunk of land. Development rising in the north…
below: … and development rising in the west.
below: At Ontario Street, the street sign says, Old Town Toronto. In 1797 the city limits were moved north to Queen Street (then called Lot Street). Ontario Street was one of the most easterly streets at that time. And, oh yes, the city was still York. It officially became Toronto in 1834.
below: Posters on a boarded up window – once it was a barber shop? Posters on Queen East for events on Queen West.
below: A blue and white Development Notice. I still haven’t found out how many of these there are hanging around the city. My best guess is ‘hundreds’.
At the risk of another anti-development rant, I just want to say a couple of things about the above photo. The development here involves the closure of two public lanes, McFarrens Lane and Brigden Place. There will be pedestrian access (public access on private land) between Queen and Richmond, between two large buildings with three towers built above them – 39, 39, and 49 storeys high.
From a City of Toronto report written in April 2016…”City Planning staff is not in support of the proposal in its current form, as the proposal not only represent over development, but also fails to recognize the existing built-form character and scale of the King-Parliament Secondary Plan Area by departing from the existing warehouse and main street typology where the site is located.”
I am not sure what the status of the project is at the moment, but the developer has a website for this project, Queen & Sherbourne, that describes it exactly as the original proposal – Three glass towers on two boring bland base buildings. It’s yet another development that looks flashy from above but is blah ick at street level.
below: The northwest corner of Queen and Sherbourne
below: Bright and cheerful.
below: 310 Queen East at the corner of Queen and Berkeley.
below: Moving slightly east to the corner of Queen and Parliament (NE). That looks like a solid old bank building on the corner.
below: 354 and 356 Queen Street East
below: 380, 382, and 384 Queen Street West.
below: Wherever you walk there is construction. Some of it good, some of it poor. That’s Toronto these days.
a record of changes
Posted: March 20, 2018 in galleries, history, landmarks, locations, old buildingsTags: architecture, Avard Woolaver, changes, demolished, development, downtown, drug store, empty, Ford Drugs, gallery, George Richardson's mens wear, history, photography, rosticceria, Ryerson, School of Image Arts, street scene, the Zanzibar tavern, Toronto, XTC clothing, Yonge St.
The other day I discovered that there is a small gallery on the 3rd floor of Ryerson’s School of Image Arts. If you want to find it too, it’s in a building that it’s in is attached at the ground floor level to the Ryerson Image Centre on Gould Street. At the moment, there is a small exhibit of photos by Avard Woolaver.
below: The photos are ones that Woolaver took in Toronto in the late 70s and early 80s.
below: This photo is one of Woolaver’s – it is looking towards the northwest corner of Spadina and Queen Street West. For those of us who lived in Toronto at the time, it’s a bit of nostalgia. Somethings are very familiar – the older TTC buses, the car styles, and a lot of the architecture, for example. This photo in particular lends itself nicely to the game of ‘Spot the Differences’….. compare this with
below: …..this. Here is the same intersection, at a similar angle, last week. The large brick building is still there but without a billboard. The poles are no longer wood but they are covered in posters and remnants of posters – so no change there. The street signs have been updated and there is now a streetcar lane in the middle. All in all, I was surprised how little had actually changed in 30ish years.
below: I found this photo online (originally from the Toronto City Archives, 1950?) but before we can play another round of ‘Spot the Differences’, we have to identify these buildings? Any ideas?
below: Here is the same location in the 1980’s (not a photo from the exhibit). Not too many changes. The building that housed George Richards Men’s shop, 361 Yonge Street, was replaced by a dull and boring two storey brick building but the other changes were just to the facades and the owners/tenants. The tavern is still a tavern and the drug store is still a drug store. The large brown building on the top right that you can only see part of is Ryerson College. Unfortunately the Wrigleys ghost sign on the taller building on the left has been covered.
photo source BuzzBuzzNews online
below: Fast forward another 30 years. The Zanzibar is all bright lights and dazzle while the building that housed the drug store is now for sale. Ryerson is now a University and has expanded out to Yonge Street – that’s the large blue building in case you are not familiar with the area.
below: If you pull back a bit, and look just a bit farther north on that stretch of Yonge Street, you’ll see that there are many empty buildings
below: … including what was until recently the XTC clothing company. It looks like it has gone through a number of ‘renovations’, not all of which were good. Some traces of its original brick facade can be seen at the top but at street level it is (was?) a mess.
There is a plan to build a 98 storey mixed-use building on this site including just over 900 residential units ranging in size from 520 to 2000 square feet. It will be the tallest residential building in Canada. In the promotional material for YSL Residences, as they will be called, is this: “The epitome of luxury living, designed to elevate the fortunate few who will call it home.”
below: Back to Ryerson, also on the 3rd floor of the School of Image Arts, there was a small series of photographs like this one hanging on the wall in the hallway. There was no sign as to the name of the artist that I could find either on the wall or online. I quite like the technique and the resulting image. Two ideas melded into one. Two time frames in one frame. Two artistic styles combined to create another.
If you are interested in Woolaver’s work, you can find more on his blog.
rich and poor in black and white
Posted: March 17, 2018 in galleriesTags: 1980s, Avard Woolaver, galleries, Jim Goldberg, locations, people, photography, portraits, Queen St. West, RIC, Rich and Poor, Ryerson Image Centre, Spadina, street scenes, Toronto, vintage
There are a few exhibits showing at the Ryerson Image Centre at the moment but the one that I want to highlight today is “Rich and Poor” by Jim Goldberg. Goldberg took portraits of people in the San Francisco area in their home environments between 1977 and 1985. They are divided into two sections, “rich” and “poor”.
below: Each portrait is accompanied by a comment from the person being portrayed, in their own handwriting. This woman, Nell, provides the wonderful quote: “If you want to stunt your growth, be rich.”
below: The pictures are fascinating, and the words reveal more details of the subjects. “My wife is acceptable”. The poor woman. In the picture she is off to the side and almost disappears into the background as she looks at the floor. I thought of the words ‘abject’ and ‘woeful’ when I first saw her but I think that maybe the best word to describe the look on her face is ‘blank’.
below: Whether you’re rich or poor, or more likely some where in between, what you say about yourself if you were the subject?
This show continues until April 8th
faces of P.S, Augusta alley
Posted: March 16, 2018 in graffiti and street art, locationsTags: Augusta ave., bright, colourful, colurs, faces, Kensington, murals, P.S, people, purple, red, street art
As you walk down Augusta Ave., you may spot this familiar face:
It, like all the others in this blog post, is signed P.S (& this is the signature of Phillip Saunders). The background in the one above looks very much like the work of J. Chiale.
below: A very red face and the traces of a moustache.
below: More stylized and almost abstract, very purple too. The door with its circuit board and honeycomb patterns says no entry.
below: A couple at the end of the alley. Love is golden.
making voices heard
Posted: March 15, 2018 in events, peopleTags: #lethimwrite, abortion, banners, China, dalai lama, debate, Dundas Square, East Turkistan, flags, free Tibet, Panchen lama, people, placards, protest, Shokjang, signs, Tibet, Uyghurs, Xinjiang province, Yonge St.
Twice this week I have come off the subway at Dundas station, and twice I have come to the surface to the sound of protest chants.
The first time it was a Free Tibet march as it proceeded up Yonge street.
below: “Don’t forget Mr. Lingsta Tseten Dorjee, activist for non-violence. It’s been 5 years since we lost Lingsta Tseten Dorjee”. The banner then goes on to list Dorjee’s five demands including the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet.
below: More protesters with signs and placards. “Free Shokjang now”. Shokjang is the pen name of a Tibetan blogger who was detained by the Chinese authorities in March of 2015.
This afternoon, it was blue flags that I saw. They are the flags of East Turkistan, also known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. On a map you’ll find it as Xinjiang in the most westerly part of China, right next the the “stans” that became independent after the break up of the USSR (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, etc). The name says autonomous but there is no self-rule or self government for the Uyghurs.
For a brief time in 1949 it was an independent country but it was invaded by communist China that same year. Historically, East Turkistan is part of central Asia. The people are not Chinese but are more closely related to the Turks. The Uyghurs are the indigenous group of East Turkestan.
below: “Stop forced abortion, Freedom for East Turkistan”
below: “Islamic scholar Mohammed Salih killed in Chinese concentration camps. We want justice.” Muhammad Salih Hajim, 82, died in custody back in January, about 40 days after he, his daughter and other relatives were detained in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province. They were held without charges being laid. He was the first to translate the Quran into Uyghur.
Also today, and just around the corner… A few minutes later I ran across another protest. This one was at the corner of Gould and Victoria streets, at Ryerson University. It was a quiet, civilized affair – more like a dance than a protest.
below: Both sides of the right to abortion debate were present.
below: The anti-abortion sign would be turned, the ‘file not found’ sign would be moved in front of it, repeat every couple of minutes.
below: It seemed to be a debate or a dialogue rather than a protest even though the people involved might disagree. For such an emotional and polarizing subject they were being respectful and engaging. At least they have the right to protest…. and to counter protest.
St. Patricks day parade
Posted: March 12, 2018 in events, peopleTags: flags, GAA, Gaelic, green, Ireland, Irish, leprechaun, parade, people, shamrock, St. Patricks day, watching
The St. Patricks Day parade in Toronto is usually just a small parade – certainly not as big and crazy in places like Boston or New York City. Part of the problem might be the fact that the weather is usually cold. This year the parade was 6 days before St. Patricks Day. I’m not sure when it started or how it happened, but Toronto’s parade is on the Sunday before the actual day. At least the sun was shining this year. It may be a small parade but those who show up, either to watch or to participate, seem to have a good time. A few photos from this year’s parade:
below: Police on horseback led the parade. Here they are passing the TV cameras.
below: Carlton, the Toronto Maple Leafs mascot, was there. Once upon a time, the Maple Leafs were known as the St. Pats and they wore green uniforms.
below: 32 flags, one from each of Ireland’s 32 counties. The GAA is the Gaelic Athletic Association.
below: Five Deloreans (cars) parked by the flags for the parade, before joining it at the end. This is directly across Bloor Street from where the TV cameras were. Deloreans were made near Belfast but for only a short time in the early 1980’s (1981- 1983). About 9200 cars were produced. The Delorean company went bankrupt in December 1982.
below: Carrying Donegal County flags
below: Doug Ford, now the leader of the Ontario PC party joined the parade.
below: That’s quite the hair – he insisted that it was natural but I think it’s because of the green beer…..
below: Maybe it’s true, maybe everyone is Irish on St. Patricks day.
below: What would St. Patricks day be without a leprechaun or two?
Focus on Our Elders
Posted: March 11, 2018 in galleriesTags: 6ix clicks, artscape youngplace, Focus on Our Elders, gallery, intersections, interviews, myseum of toronto, older, people, photo documentary, portraits, seniors
On exhibit now at Artscape Youngplace is a photo documentary on seniors in Toronto called ‘Focus on Our Elders’. It is being shown in the 3rd floor gallery until the 17th of March. There are 24 panels in the exhibit, one for each participant in the project. The main feature of each panel is a portrait of the individual and it is accompanied by at least one other photo of something relevant to the participant’s life, as well as text that tells some of the stories of their lives.
With thanks to Penny for taking this picture!
The project was funded my Myseum of Toronto and is part of their 3rd annual Intersections festival.
Link to The 6ix Clicks websit
