abstract | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘abstract’

sunlight and shadows on a winter morning

Posted: March 6, 2017 in abstract, reflections, shadows, windows and walls
Tags: abstract, balconies, blue sky, buildings, downtown, exterior, grass, half house, light, lines, outside, patterns, peaked roof, posts, reflected light, reflectionsonies, shadow, trees, winter

Early Saturday morning was cold but beautiful –
brilliant blue overhead with the sun still low in the sky.

below: Striped grass

below: This is the Bell building from the Simcoe Street side. The blue glass, vertical lines in the concrete, blue sky and strong tree shapes made for an interesting few minutes while I experimented with different angles and views.

below: The ghostly look of reflected light

below: A single pole and its shadow, alone on a wall.

below: Three reflected windows reserved for the president.

below: A half house, a fun find. Once this was a semi-divided house where the shared wall created the peak at the front of the house. With its partner gone, the remaining house looks incomplete.

below: A tree in silhouette seems to dance in front of the other buildings.

below: Phantom balconies, mirages on the concrete.

when leaves were green.

Posted: December 20, 2016 in alleys, graffiti and street art
Tags: abstract, birds, black bird, colourful, colours, deer, garage doors, humming bird, manik, Pascal Paquette, Perly Family Lane, red flowers, stencil, street art, swallows, swirls, throw-up

As the year draws to a close many people like to look back and remember the year that was. Me, I go through files and although I find memories, I also find partially finished blog posts. I find ideas that I started to explore but there’s never enough time in a day to do everything you want. If only I could stop the clocks for a while and catch up!

This is one of the blog posts that didn’t see the light of day earlier in the year. These pictures were taken back in June, back when the leaves were green and people were wearing shorts. This is the street art on the garage doors of Perly Family Lane.

below: … as well as one little stencil black bird high on a pole.

below: An intricate stenciled painting of deer among the trees, plants, and flowers with a humming bird hovering overhead and three swallows flying past.

below: A colourful door by Manik I think.

below: The rest of the photos are paintings by Pascal Paquette.
They are abstract swirls and blobs of colour.

I suspect that there will be a few more posts like this as I try to clear out the backlog that has accumulated over the year. Thanks for taking the time to look at my blog…. and please come back and see what happens as we move into a new year!

dull rhymes

Posted: December 17, 2016 in galleries
Tags: abstract, barcodes, Canadian, Clint Roenisch Gallery, contemporary art, David Armstrong Six, Kristan Horton, labels, mirror image, patterns, repeat, sculpture

If By Dull Rhymes
an exhibit by David Armstrong Six and Kristan Horton
Clint Roenisch Gallery, St. Helens Ave

Dull rhymes may not be the best title as there was nothing dull about the exhibit.

This exhibit features two Canadian-born artists. The sculptures that you see are by David Armstrong Six. They are playful mashups of broken and cast off pieces and many resemble the human form in one way or another. You can imagine them dancing around the room when the lights are off and everyone’s gone home. For now, their dance is frozen in time as they await tonight’s revelry. The two works on the wall are by Kristan Horton.

below: Close up of one of the panels. Details. Eye catching. Mesmerizing. Geometric Patterns. Each section is made with a single part of a piece of packaging that has been manipulated (rotated, flipped, etc) to make a repeating pattern.

below: Here you can see the barcode from a box of something. The number 2729 appears with the barcode – sometimes it in the ‘correct’ orientation and sometimes it’s the mirror image.

This is only a sample of the works on display. There is a lot more information on by Kristan Horton‘s website. I haven’t found a website for David Armstrong Six, but there are images of some of his other work online if you are interested.

The exhibit is only on until the 17th of December.

back to Wilson station

Posted: December 7, 2016 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: abstract, Allen Expressway, brunosmoky, colours, concrete, face, fingers, hands, patterns, pillars, shalak, sidewalk, smoky, street, subway, TTC, urban, Wilson Ave., Wilson subway station

Back in mid October I blogged about the new murals on the south side Wilson Ave as it passes under the Allen Expressway (where Wilson subway station is).

below: Looking across Wilson Avenue to part of the mural on the south side.

When I was there last, the murals on the north side were not completed. The other day I remembered that I hadn’t seen the finished work, so I took the subway back to Wilson station to see what the pillars on the north side look like. There is more light on the north side as there are entrances to the subway along the sidewalk here. There is also more pedestrian traffic.

This side was also painted by shalak and smoky (as was the south side).

below: In the center by one of the well-lit subway entrances.

below: Looking east along Wilson Avenue.

below: A little street artist with his can of spray paint has been left in a corner.
He’s not easily spotted.

Coxwell tiles

Posted: November 11, 2016 in locations, public art
Tags: abstract, animals, art, beaver, bee, colorful, colourful, Coxwell, designs, mosaics, mural, public art, reflective, seed pod, seeds, shiny, sreetARToronto, StART, subway station, tile, TTC, yellow

Coxwell subway station is still in the midst of its renovations and upgrades. As part of the project, the wall on the west and south sides of the station have been painted a bright yellow. This yellow was then the canvas for a large number of mosaic creations.

below: The new mosaic mural covers the wall alongside the pathway that leads from Coxwell station to the Danforth. The murals painted on the side of the Sunset Grill restaurant, on the opposite wall of the path, were there previously.

below: A beaver made from bits and pieces – with round eye and two large teeth.

below: At the corners of the mural are seed pods that have released their seeds to the wind.

below: The south side of the subway station is adjacent to a Green P parking lot on Danforth. Along this wall, a quote by Agnes MacPhail has been added below the mural. “We meet all life’s greatest tests alone”. Agnes MacPhail (1890-1954) was the first woman to be elected to the Canadian House of Commons where she served from 1921 to 1940. After her time in federal politics, she represented the provincial riding of York East in the Ontario Legislature. In 1951 she was responsible for Ontario’s first equal pay legislation.

below: West side of the wall, looking towards Strathmore Blvd.

below: A mosiac bee amongst the flowers…

below: … and a real bee sitting beside a mosaic red rose.

below: Two mosaic pieces, a circle with the names of the artists and a semi-circle rainbow with the names of those who contributed to the creation of the mural. The transcription of the words is given below.

Lead Artist: Cristina Delago,
With Boloebi Charles Okah, Bronwen Parker, Holly-Jo Horner, Jing Tian, Karen Roberts, Melanie Billark, Robin Hesse, Sarvenaz Rayati, Shae Stamp, Shashann Miguel-Tash, Skyy Marriot, Somayeh Nasiri, Victor Fraser, Will Spratley.

Special Thanks: Woodgreen Community Services, Dulux Painter, Tomasz Majcherczyn, Cathy & Barry Joslin, Cercan Tile, Jacqui Strachan, City Councillor Janet Davis, Jeff Billiard, John & Ed at Danforth Brewery, Mark Wrogemann, Clara Lou, Eleanor Ryan, James & Cooper, John Kenneth & Cherie Daly, Lowe’s, Maisie Fuss, Melanie Morris, Michelle Yeung, S. Dimitrakpoulos, The Vogls, The Zeelie-Varga Family, Wyatt & Teagan, as well as Laurie, Chantal and Gavin

Croft Street facelift

Posted: September 8, 2016 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: abstract, alley, altered stop sign, animals, birdo, cement blocks, clean, colours, cows, Croft St., ears, flowers, fox, garage door, garages, graffiti, greenery, ivy, lane, laneway, monsters, murals, outdoors, paw prints, planters, plants, rabbit, rust, spray paint, street art, unicorns, watering cans, yellow duckies

It’s after Labour Day but it’s still hot enough to be July. I tried to walk for a while today but I didn’t last. Air conditioning is my best friend this afternoon. But all was not lost. Even though I was only out for a short time, I walked along Croft Street and discovered that the south end (south of Vankoughnet) has been cleaned up and repainted. If you don’t know Croft Street, it’s a street in name only. It’s more like an alley in that it’s narrow with a lot of garages on it….but it’s also a lane that now has a number of residences on it. I guess you could call it a hybrid, a little bit alley and a little bit street.

What I really like about the street art here is that there is a cohesiveness to it. It’s not all the same but it all works together. Do I dare call it designer street art?

below: A couple of murals that existed previously were left untouched. On the left an oldie and on the right a new coat of paint.

below: As well as a bright and cheerful coat of paint (and the occasional white wall!), the lane has been decorated with planters made of cement blocks and old plastic barrels.

The south end of Croft Street is at College Street. There once was a mural on a wall at the corner of Croft and College that commemorated the fire of 1904. Almost three years ago I blogged about it. (3 years!) John Croft died in that fire and it was for him that the street was named. Anyhow, that mural is still there although it’s been hidden behind someone’s ugly tagging for more than a year. Today it is also behind scaffolding.

below: Part of the John Croft mural that no longer exists.

And now, because life (or, my life) is rarely linear, I’m going to jump around and look at the other end of Croft Street. North of Vankoughnet there seemed to be an animal theme in street art that I saw.

below: birdo bunny with his ears at attention.

below: The memorial to Monty the cat is still there, again for at least 3 years, but now it’s someone’s little patio. In case you are unfamiliar with this wall I have added a transcription of the poem written in Monty’s honour.

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!

below: Unicorns vs Monsters. And the winner is?

below: Three cows standing in a field…. on a wall.

below: No animal here…. but it must have been here recently and left its paw prints behind.

below: An angular fox, or rather a triangular fox

below: More animals but I’m not sure if it’s art, or if someone has a lot of watering cans they’re trying to keep organized. The bottom yellow one is probably not a pokemon, right? Of course I could be missing something – it wouldn’t be the first time!

below: Leaving the animal theme behind, mind over matter.

below: 74B likes grids. The metal stripping on the brown door has been there for at leasat three years but the coloured stripes on the garage are more recent.

below: All stories and all blog posts need an ending so I’ll stop here. The end.

tim’s cups

Posted: April 19, 2016 in abstract, general Toronto
Tags: abstract, barrels, coffee cups, cups, empty, everywhere, garbage, snow, street art, Tim Hortons, Timmies

Behold, I give you the Tim Hortons cup. Empty.

Always fresh. Toujours frais.
They even come in a number of handy sizes, usually small, medium, large, and extra large.

They are found all over town, compositional elements splashed onto the urban canvas.

Some are carefully placed little art installations. They certainly didn’t get there on their own!

And others are willfully abandoned. Often left on their own. Alone. Empty. Lidless.

Sometimes they are found in groups. Carried away and then forgotten.

Sigh. The Tims cup. The omnipresent Tims cup.

One day I got tired of trying to decide whether or not to photoshop out a coffee cup that had been discarded on a sidewalk. Maybe it would be better to take on a “if you can beat them, join them” attitude. Instead of avoiding or removing cups, I should focus on them. Make them part of the picture. The redness of the coffee cups that Tim Hortons has been using recently adds to the appeal of making them the subject matter and not the subject of scorn and cause of exasperation.

along the south wall

Posted: November 16, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: @kizmet32, @moveslow, abstract, animals, arms, Bloor West, eagle, eys, fish, geometric, graffiti, hands, letters, mural, octapus, painting, railway, spray paint, street art, tags, underpass, wallnoise, wallnoize

Back in the spring I posted pictures of the murals that were painted on the north side of the railway underpass on Bloor Street just east of Dundas Street. Since then, the walls on the south side have also been painted. Both walls were Wallnoize projects.

Stephen Andrews POV

Posted: August 13, 2015 in galleries
Tags: abstract, AGO, art, Art Gallery of Ontario, colours, contemporary art, door, geometric, large, paintings, railway crossing, signs, Union station, visual, windows

Stephen Andrews POV
an exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario

Stephen Andrews is a Toronto artist whose career began in photography and the exhibit now on at the AGO does include a few excellent 8×10 photographs. The main part of the exhibit though are approximately 20 (mostly large) paintings of his.

below: ‘X-men at Union’, 2013, oil on canvas
Construction workers at Union Station, Toronto

below: ‘After Before/After After’ oil on wood panels
The two paintings on the wall were based on landscapes by J.M.W. Turner that depicted scenes before and after the flood described in the bible (or before and after chaos). Andrews has painted his with dots in only four colours, yellow, magenta, cyan and black