as I walk Toronto

north and south, blue and green

Posted: July 20, 2016 in galleries
Tags: AGO, arctic, art, Art Gallery of Ontario, artists, blue, Caribbean, cold, greens, group of seven, Hurvic Anderson, ice, ice bergs, Jamaica, Lawren Harris, leaves, mountains, painters, people, snow, Trinidad, tropics, welcome

A comparison of sorts. Two painters from two different time periods. One looked north and the other looks south. The north with its barren cold and blue in comparison to the south and its lush greenness. A famous anglo Canadian painter who went searching for simplicity and a relatively new British painter with Jamaican roots who explores complexities.

Lawren Harris and Hurvin Anderson. You should know which is which!

I didn’t purposely set out to compare them. I saw the ‘The Idea of North’ exhibit that features the Steve Martin paintings of Lawren Harris first. As much as I like the Group of Seven, Harris’s minimalist snow and ice paintings have never been my favorite. Still, it was an interesting collection to see. After I finished there, I headed up to the contemporary art floors. The fifth floor is still closed (new installation opening later this week) but I discovered that the fourth floor is devoted to the works of Hurvin Anderson. As I walked around the Anderson installation I kept thinking of similarities and differences between him and Lawren Harris.

below: Mountains in Snow: Rocky Mountain Paintings VII, 1929. One of the many famous Lawren Harris snow and ice paintings. Light, reflected light, shadows, and contrasts. The elements reduced to their simplest form. The landscape itself is almost secondary. Or the landscape is the medium, not the message.

below: The large painting on the right is ‘Pic Island’ painted about 1924. Pic Island is an unpopulated island along the north shore of Lake Superior. Today the island is part of Neys Provincial Park.

below: Two of Hurvin Anderson’s paintings from his Caribbean landscape collection. On the left is ‘Beaded Curtain – Red Apples’, 2010.

below: ‘Constructed View’, 2010. Anderson’s Caribbean paintings have grilles incorporated into them. These are the security features prevalent on houses and businesses in the Caribbean (and elsewhere in the world), metal fixtures over windows and doors to keep out the unwanted. They contain what’s inside. They are a barrier. They intrude on the landscape and cut it up. Again, the landscape is almost secondary. The message, or emotion, is more important. [aside – There is a grille in the painting above (right) but it’s more subtle.]

Lawren Harris painted his famous mountain pictures in the late 1920’s. In 1930 he visited Baffin Island and a few paintings resulted from that trip. I learned that although I associate Harris with icebergs and arctic scenery, most of his snow and ice paintings were from the north shore of Lake Superior or from the mountains around Banff Alberta.

The repetoire of both painters is not limited to landscapes. Harris painted many houses and street scenes from downtown Toronto including houses and streets that were demolished years ago. The examples of Anderson’s non-landscape work were interiors. Both men used bold colours but Anderson tends to show more detail in his paintings.

below: ‘Welcome: Carib’ The Welcome sign of the bar in juxtaposition with the red metal work covering the window. The picture beckons to us but keeps us out.

below: One of the paintings from Anderson’s Barbershop collection, ‘Flat Top’ 2008.

below: A selection of colourful Toronto houses in winter painted by Harris in the 1920s.

In the 1930’s Lawren Harris’s personal life went awry. The words on the wall at the AGO says that he divorced, remarried and moved to the states. That’s a bit of spin. He didn’t divorce his wife because that would be messy, apparently. Instead in 1934 he just married the wife of an old friend. And of course that turned messy and the new couple left for the USA for a few years before eventually settling in Vancouver BC. Harris’s post-1934 work is very abstract and was never as successful as his earlier paintings.

below: You can see the influence of the mountain paintings in this, ‘Painting No. 4’, about 1939, painted when he was a member of the Transcendental Painting Group. This was a collective of artists in New Mexico that Harris help to found.

below: Since I have no idea where the art of Hurvin Anderson is headed, I will leave you with one more of his present paintings (I’m not sure those two ideas actually go together!). ‘Foska Foska’, the interior of a shop behind yellow bars and black mesh.

The Idea of North – until 18 September

Hurvin Anderson – until 21 August

#HarrisAGO | #HurvinAndersonAGO

Festival of India parade

Posted: July 18, 2016 in events
Tags: chanting, chariot, clapping, colours, crowd, dancing, families, festival, India, kids, men, parade, people, pulling, ropes, sarees, Toronto, walking, women, Yonge St.

Many people walked and danced, clapped and chanted, as they paraded down Yonge Street on Saturday to start the annual Festival of India weekend.

The parade is similar to an annual procession (Ratha Yatra) that has occurred for centuries in the city of Puri, India as part of a Hindu festival associated with the god Jagannath. Here in Toronto, as in Puri, three chariots constructed to look like temples are pulled through the streets in a procession from one temple to another. Each chariot carries a richly decorated representation of a god, first is Jagannatha (another name for Krishna or God) and then his brother Baladeva and his sister Subhadra. The chariots are pulled by people and the procession symbolizes the pulling of the Lord into our hearts.

In Puri, this Ratha-Yatra procession continues to attract over a million people every year. In Toronto, the numbers aren’t quite that high!

Queen, Soho, Bulwer

Posted: July 14, 2016 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: Bulwer St., David Suzuki, Elicser, elliott, fish, Franco Fasoli, hug me, JAZ, Kevin Ledo, kids, Love Letter to the Great Lakes, marty mcfly, murals, stikman, tree

It’s good to see the ‘Hug Me!’ tree is still on Queen Street!

If you look closely in the background of the above photo, you can spot the reason I was exploring this section of Queen St West (near Soho St). Along the wall by the parking lot is a new mural.

below: Floating man, floating down the river with an photo from the past clutched in his hand. “Tona as Marty McFly Disappearing Photos” by Elicser Elliott. It is another of the Love Letter to the Great Lakes project murals.

There were two other Love Letter murals that I came here to find.

below: If you look up as you walk along Queen Street West you might catch a glimpse of this mural by JAZ (Franco Fasoli). Arms, or tentacles, seem to be reaching out of the water and strangling the fish.

below: The third mural is around the corner from the other two, on Bulwer Street. It’s a large portrait of David Suzuki painted by Kevin Ledo. The blue shapes on the right are outlines of fish (atlantic salmon apparently) but I cut their tails off when I took the picture.

below: I haven’t walked along Bulwer St for a while so it was nice to see that this (unsigned?) mural is still there even though someone has spray painted some words on it.

below: One last little find on Bulwer, a circuit board stikman

Other posts about the Love Letter to the Great Lakes project murals:

#seawallsTO | #pangeaseed | #loveletterprojects

at the mouth of the Don

Posted: July 13, 2016 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: animals, bents, DOn River, ERG, Erica Balon, faces, fish, fox, hand, Janus, Kirsten McCrea, kwest, Love Letter to the Great Lakes, MC Baldassari, mouse, PA system, paint, people, rabbit, raccoon, Rajni Perera, ramps, river, seawalls, spray paint, topless, underpass, women

Today I walked the southern part of the Lower Don River trail. It’s not the most relaxing place to walk even though the path follows the river. I have a habit of absentmindedly meandering and I didn’t want to meander right into a cyclist on the narrow shared path. There was constant background noise from the cars and trucks on the nearby Don Valley Parkway but it was the GO trains that made the most noise as they rumbled right beside me. Yes, you are correct, it’s not my favorite place to walk. But I also knew that there was a reward near the end of the trail.

Near the ‘mouth of the Don River’ (in reality, where the Don River turns into the Keating Channel), there are some new murals on the bents supporting the ramps between the DVP and the Gardiner Expressway. They are part of the Love Letter to the Great Lakes project. A previous blog post, love letters in paint, concerned the murals from this project that were painted near Ossington and Queen West.

below: If you approach the area from the north, this is the first bent that you see. All sides of it have been painted by Kirsten McCrea. If you are driving south on the Don Valley Parkway and you exit to the Gardiner westbound, you drive right over this, and the next few, bents. In case you haven’t guessed, a bent is that concrete support thingy holding up the road.

below: The other side of the McCrea mural is in the background, behind the bent that has been painted by PA System (Patrick Thompson and Alexa Hatanaka). Amongst the swirly watery shapes there is a face near the top. Extra bit: The guy on the bike stopped to take a photo too.

below: The other side of the PA System bent. A large fish fits perfectly in the upper portion while a hand reaches up from the vertical part.

below: The work of MC Baldassari who is currently from Montreal.

below: The other side of the above bent. It looks like the woman has come through the pillar.

below: A woman with a mouse in her hand and a flower in her hair kneels beside the foxes,
a mural painted by EGR (Erica Balon). In the background you can see a much taller bent that has been painted blue. This bent is on a different ramp, the ramp that you would find yourself on if you were driving east on the Gardiner and then exiting to the DVP. It has been painted by Jason Botkin and it includes the word Wonscotanach. Apparently that was the First Nations name for the river before John Graves Simcoe came along in 1790 and decided to call it the Don River.

below: There are more animals on the other sides, along with a city lit up in the night in the background of the mural. Raccoon, rabbit and a pink butterfly fluttering past.

below: Rajni Perera‘s mural features red and yellow women walking or standing in the water.

below: Looking back

below: A collaborative effort by Jarus and Kwest beside the Don Valley trail, just north of the other murals.

below: And one last photo before leaving the area… a quick note sprayed on a concrete support.

passing faces

Posted: July 12, 2016 in graffiti and street art
Tags: black men, collage, colours, crayon, eyes, faces, highlights, hoardings, instagram, looking at the camera, men, mural, outlined, outlines, paste, street art

I was walking along Queen Street West near Shaw St when pieces of paper on the wood construction hoardings around one of the buildings caught my eye. The installation is no longer intact, but the pieces are still compelling. The mural consisted of many faces of black men. Even though some of the faces are peeling away, they still look like they are looking at you (or the camera). Apparently there is another similar mural a bit farther west (by 1050 Queen St. West) but with black and white outlines and highlights instead of red, blue, yellow and green.

It may be cheating a bit, but the next picture is from a screen shot of a photo from the artist’s (lavishbat, #oluseye) instagram account. It shows the whole piece as it was originally.

love letters in paint

Posted: July 11, 2016 in events, graffiti and street art
Tags: alley, birdo, boat, Cara To, caratoes, Cinzah, DOn River, En Masse, environment, lake, lebonar, love letters to the Great Lakes, mrcinzah, murals, Olivier Bonnard, Ossington, pangeaseed, peru, peru143, public art, Queen West, seawalls, sens, sermob, ship, street art, water

From June 20th to 25th, many street artists brought their talents to paint murals with the Great Lakes as their theme. It was part of Pangeaseed Foundation’s Seawalls for Oceans. Pangeaseed’s mission is to use science, art and creativity to “inspire positive change around pressing ocean environmental issues”. This campaign originally focused on oceans but they have now branched out to increase awareness of the issues involving out fresh water lakes and rivers as well. One of their methods is to support and encourage the painting of murals – Seawalls have been painted in Miami, San Diego, Napier New Zealand, Cozumel Mexico and many other cities around the world… and now in Toronto too.

One of the locations chosen for the murals was around Ossington and Queen where they join a number of murals that were already there.

below: The S.S. One Love sails high above an alley, painted by Peru143

below: Painted in mostly shades of grey, a mural by Caratoes (aka Cara To), a street artist based in Hong Kong.

below: A large water bird swims along the surface and watches the people passing by.
Painted by Jon Todd.

As you can see from the above photo, there are three round images painted on the south wall of the old Self Storage building.

below: Closest to the street, a mural by Sermob

below: In the middle and tying the three circles together is a mural of entwined fish by Miguel Valinas from Mexico.

below: A sleepy baby otter in its parents’ arms, painted by Sens, also from Mexico

below: A mural on a bright yellow wall – a shark and a dinosaur amongst geometric shapes that are characteristic of birdo’s work. There is also another animal head beside it. This was a collaboration between birdo, tens2, fuel, kostyn, phil and barney and it pre-dates the Love Letters to the Great Lakes murals.

below: From bright colours, to black and white – birdo’s collaboration with En Masse. A mural with the words “RIP Don Valley River”

below: It’s a rather dark lament about the state of the Don River.

below: Standing on an island, ‘Hello’ by Chicago-born Hebru Brantley in 2015

below: Whales, lobsters, fish and other creatures swimming amongst the seaweed, painted by street artist lebonar (aka Olivier Bonnard)

below: More marine life, but in an unfortunate spot. I’ve been to see this mural twice, and both times the fence was locked. It looks like the fish has an arm that it’s using to reach for the unsuspecting crayfish – a metaphor for invasive species and their effects on marine life and their habitats. It was painted by Cinzah Seekayem from New Zealand. You can see better pictures of it on his instagram page.

seawalls and serpents

Posted: July 11, 2016 in graffiti and street art
Tags: birdo, boat, Bruno Smoky, cage, clandestinos, colours, containers, environment, fish, fishing, Great Lakes, hook, marine, mural, Ossington, pollution, Queen West, Rebecca St., seawalls, serpent, swimming, swiss army knife, turquoise, water

This blog post is a continuation of the ‘love letters in paint’ post. I decided to give two of the larger murals a separate post.

First, there is an awesome mural painted by Bruno Smoky and Clandestinos that stretches across the back of a building on Rebecca Street (one block north of Queen St. West). It too is part of the Love Letters to the Great Lakes project.

And second, in an alley just east of Ossington, is a mural painted on bright turquoise that is hard to miss! Actually it is a series of murals that covers the back of more than one building. It is another birdo collaboration, this time with Christopher Konecki.

#seawallsTO | #loveletterprojects | #pangeaseed

same, same, but different

Posted: July 8, 2016 in locations
Tags: alley, backyards, chair, faded, fence, garage, garage doors, hole, houses, lane, paint, peeling, rust, toilet, trees, weeds, window

A week or so ago I explored a lot of little alleys and lanes in Seaton village. Once upon a time it was a village, named for John Colborne, 1st Baron Seaton, who was Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada from 1828 to 1836. The land here was originally settled and farmed by loyalists Colonel David Shank and Captain Samuel Smith. Eventually, George Crookshank acquired the property and he laid out the plans for a village here in the 1850’s; it wasn’t developed until around 1888 when the area was annexed by the City of Toronto.

Today it is the rectangular section of Toronto north of Bloor street to the CNR train tracks by Dupont and between Bathurst and Christie streets. It is part of The Annex.

When I started to write this blog post my plan was to focus on how all lanes are the same yet different. Their characteristics usually reflect the neighbourhood around them and the way the lanes are used. Every lane has a personality.

below: Vermouth Lane, one of the greenest lanes I’ve seen in Toronto. Why? Probably because there are no garages in the lane, except for the two that were beside me when I took this picture. The backyards that are on this lane are not big. There are one or two houses that have made room in their backyard for a car, but that takes up most of the space. The lane itself is also rather narrow.

below: In contrast, Col David Shank Lane (there’s that name again!) ends at a wide alley behind the stores and services on Dupont. It’s a working alley.

But that’s only stating the obvious, isn’t it?

Like the city around them, lanes are a mix of old and new, interesting and bland, plus well kept and neglected.

They are the less public side of city life.

below: As I looked for things that make alleys different, I kept finding little details like the old blue plant pot with its contrasting orange wall.

below: The textures and bright colours in the design made by aging paint on a garage door caught my eye.

below: A vegetable garden dominates the backyard.

below: A simple plant in a window in Tandy Murch Lane. Walter Tandy Murch (1907-1967) was a painter who was born and raised in the area. His mother, Louise Murch (nee Tandy), was a popular singing teacher

below: Through a hole in the wood, a glimpse of what lies beyond.

below: Abandoned plumbing fixtures lead to all kinds of jokes – outdoor plumbing

below: A once proud tree

below: A garage door that stands alone and not in a row with others.

below: Possibly a Rorschach test? A brown face is what I see. Do you?

below: And another test – can you find the paintbrush?
Not sure how it got there! Or how it’s staying there!

below: This could become a game. An “I Spy” kind of game. I spy a face.

below: Or perhaps we could play peek-a-boo?

And this is where I am going to leave you…. until another day when I walk more lanes and find more little details, more differences, to make me smile. And then we’ll play again!

The End

hoardings engineered

Posted: July 6, 2016 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: artwall, astronaut, computer, DNA, engineers, hoardings, Jason Wing, lightbulb, mural, Nanoleaf, painted, power, robot cat, science, University of Toronto, water, windmill

Construction hoardings around the site of the new new Centre for Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CEIE) at the University of Toronto have been painted with a wonderful mural. Back in the spring I took some photos of it.

This artwall installation is a collaboration between U of T Engineering and graffiti artist Jason Wing (SKAM). The mural features many things that engineers do, from the things that are unique to U of T Engineering to those that apply to engineers around the world.

below: Batteries, circuit boards, robots and DNA. The robot cat is Tangy, a bingo playing robot and one of the many assistive robots developed at U of T.

below: Astronats in space and the Lady Godiva Memorial Band. The band is part of the engineering school and it will be getting a new music room to practice in as part of the new building. That symbol that looks like NY but isn’t – that’s pronounced ‘en sci’ and is the abbreviation for U of T’s Engineering Science program.

below: The Nanoleaf bulb, one of the world’s most energy efficient bulbs is shown along with wind turbines and solar cells. Wind and solar energy are two of the many research interests of the CEIE.

below: The Ye Olde Mighty Skule Cannon is the official mascot of U of T Engineering. The equation coming out of the cannon is the formula used to calculate power. Also in this part of the mural is a river and a faucet to represent the Institute for Water Innovation which is part of the CEIE.

below: A TTC streetcar and a traffic light are in the artwall to represent the fact that U of T engineers partner with cities worldwide to improve transportation infrastructure.

pride parade 2016

Posted: July 5, 2016 in events, people
Tags: #firstpride, #proudbecause, #ShareLove, bare, bubbles, community, costumes, dress up, feathers, friendship, glitter, happy, hearts, hugs, kisses, LGBTQ, men, naked, nude, parade, people, pride, smiles, topless, wigs, wings, women

Or rather, pre-Pride parade. The parade route is usually very crowded and this year I decided not walk it. Instead, I mingled with the parade participants who gathered on Bloor Street in preparation for the event. What you’ll find in this blog posts are a lot of pictures of people, people laughing and smiling and enjoying the day. I hope I have captured some of the energy and spirit of the occasion.

below: A temporary rainbow LOVE sign

below: The orange guy from the fruit group!

below: One of the floats parked on Rosedale Valley Road. Toronto in balloons, ready and waiting for the parade to start. The calm before the storm.

below: When I first approached this group, the man in the middle had a rainbow flag in front of him. As I took the picture he flung the flag to his back and hammed it up for the camera. Thanks!

below: These boots are made for walking, but that bike sure looks great!

below: Apparently, wearing large amounts of feathers on your back is quite warm. Not so good on a hot day!

below: The solution – water of course. Super soakers and the spraying of water is a big part of the pride parade.

below: The three coloured Transgender Pride flag – the stereotype colours of light blue for baby boys and light pink for baby girls with a white stripe in the middle for those who identify as neither.

below: #ShareLove wash the hashtag used by Telus and the people on their float. I love the glitter and the purple hearts!

below: Puppets from Kids Help Phone Line make an appearance at the parade with a little help from some friends. The one T-shirt reads “Tell us about your #firstpride”

below: Well, what can I say? It’s Pride.

below: Nonchalantly blowing bubbles. Someone looks unimpressed.

below: I managed to find the saddest person on Bloor Street.

below: Thanks to these two women who showed off their T-shirts for the camera. #ProudBecause was Fido’s campaign for Pride. Each person on the team had a T-shirt like this, and each person had filled in the white rectangles with their personal messages.

below: Spectators waiting. One is keeping cool.

below: The Liberals had a large presence, most of them in red T-shirts. They congregated on Asquith Green early on and there were many in the staging area on Bloor Street. As the world knows, Justin Trudeau walked in the parade with Toronto Mayor John Tory and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne. As an aside, I may be the only person who didn’t get a photo of Trudeau!

When the parade started, I left Bloor Street, heading south on Ted Rogers Way then back towards the Hayden Street entrance to Bloor subway station. Somewhere along that route (and I can’t remember exactly where) I saw a small group of PC/Tories with their signs walking towards the parade.