animals | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘animals’

Allan Garden hoardings

Posted: April 19, 2015 in graffiti and street art, public art
Tags: Allan Gardens, animals, Anishnawbe, beaver, community, deer, First Nations, graffiti, heads, indigenous communities, long hair, men, moon, mural, rocks, stars, street art, turtle, woman

UPDATED: Construction here has finished and the hoardings have been removed. These murals no longer exist.

A couple of years ago, the city started a project to replace the water mains that run under Gerrard Street. As part of that project, a section of Allan Gardens was dug up to provide access to the underground mains. The site was barricaded by wood hoardings. These hoardings have since been covered by a large mural titled ‘Nindinawemaaganidok / All My Relations’. Twenty one artists contributed to the painting of the mural.

The north side of the wall:

Four themes appear in this mural, Community, Water, Anishnawbe Teachings and History of the Land. Animals such as buffalo, deer, wolves, turtles, and beaver are common motifs.

The east side of the wall:

below: Sky Woman

South side (along Gerrard Street):

West side:

If construction goes according to plan, the hoardings should come down by the end of May 2015. As to whether or not this deadline will be met is anyone’s guess.

The artists: Tannis Nielsen, Phil Cote, Natasha Naveau, Rosary Spence, Gwen Lane, Angela Malley, Judy Rheume, Gary M. Johnston, Amanda Murray, Rebecca Baird, Cotee Harper, Graham Curry, Briana Stone, Lyndsey Lickers-Nyle Johnston, Isaac Weber, Honey Smith, Shelby Rain McDonald, Paula Gonzalez-Ossa, Kalmplex, Adrion Corey Charles, Ron Razor and Steven Henderson.

Link to more information (as well as a video) about this project

another Kensington alley

Posted: March 30, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: 2012, ACS murals, alley, animals, Borden St., boy, bulls, College St., colorful, colours, DAH, faces, garage doors, graffiti, hi def, lane, lexr, Max and the wild things, men, painted, street art, suniti, tags, Toronto, Where the wild things are, women

Borden Street becomes an alley south of College Street. It runs along the east side of Kensington Community School, then makes a turn and runs part way along the south side of the school. All of the garage doors have been painted with pictures and murals.

below: The most northerly garage door has a sign that indicates that the murals were a gift to the children of Kensington Community School from the Kensington Market Action Committee. They were painted by a number of different artists.

north end of an alley with garage doors on the right, white chain link fence on the left. The garage doors are covered with street art and graffiti.

North end of the alley, looking towards College Street.

below: Hey and Hello, by J. Stanton

below: A painting by lexr in 2012, Hey Markusiel.
The sign on the gate refers to the Yinka Dene Alliance, a coalition of six First Nations groups from northern British Columbia who organized to stop the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline being built through their territory.

below: Street art piece by Cam Novak

below: Max and the Wild Things by ACS Murals (Annex Creative Services Murals)

below: Another ACS mural

below: The next four pictures are from a mural that covers a couple of garages. From left to right.

Garrison Creek mural

Posted: March 27, 2015 in graffiti and street art, public art
Tags: animals, Cecil Harbourfront Centre, city, community, fox, frog, Garrison Creek, graffiti, graffiti transformation project, King St. West, mural, painted, street art, Toronto, turtle, urban, youth

Quickly, before the leaves grow back and obscure the mural!

The Garrison Creek mural is on King St. West at Sudbury Ave.,
close to the railway overpass.

A mural is painted on a retaining wall at the bottom of a small hill that separates some row houses and the street. Many small trees are in front of the mural but it is winter time so there are no leaves on the trees. The mural is a stylized creek that flows through hills with some animals standing beside it - fox, frog, turtle and beaver.

On the north side of King St. West

Cecil Harbourfront Community Centre,
a Graffiti Transformation Project,
painted in 2004

Regent Park hoardings

Posted: March 13, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations, public art
Tags: animals, boy, colorful, colours, community, construction site, diversity, Elicser, faces, graffiti, hands, hawk, heads, hoardings, men, mural, painting, Patch Project, people, public art, Regent Park, renewal, St. David St., street art, stylized, take flight, Toronto, women

Located at the northwest corner of Regent Park Blvd and St. David St.,
(which is south of Dundas East and east of Sackville)
painted on the wood hoardings around a construction site.

This wall was painted as part of The Patch Project
PATCH = “Public Art Through Construction Hoarding”

Unfortunately, one photo that is missing is one of the section of the wall that is a large section that says “Conquer Adversity with Diversity”, the title of this work.

More information on The Patch Project

Irene Ave

Posted: January 16, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: African, alley, animals, back, Bloorcourt, buildings, Christie Ossington Neighbourhood Centre, colourful, colours, CONC, faces, graffiti, lane, lion, Loft, loftycsei, man, motifs, murals, people, photographs, photos, street art, Toronto, tribute, urban, woman, youth

Irene Ave. is a short street that runs behind the north side of Bloor Street West between Carling and Shaw streets, just east of Ossington Avenue. Irene Avenue Parkette takes up most of the south side of Irene Avenue. There is an alley that runs between the park and the back of the stores on Bloor West.

The Christie Ossington Neighbourhood Centre, through the Graffiti Arts portion of their LOFT program, has sponsored a number of murals in this alley.

This is what it looked like on a cold afternoon last week.

The next picture was taken in June of 2012.
The mural is still there but I couldn’t take a proper photo of it last week as there was a car parked too close.

When I walked around the block to check out the fronts of these buildings, this is what I found

Street art mural by elicser of three men on a bench. One is smoking a cigarette, one is reading and one is holding a lunch box in his hands.

A mural by Elicser and to the right the LOFT Youth Centre for Social Enterprise and Innovation.

walking the Milky Way

Posted: October 1, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: aliens, animals, brick walls, cement, cherries, city, colours, concrete, doors, faces, fence, fish, ghost, ghost dick, graffiti, Jarus, letters, metal, mural, people, persue, photos, shark, street art, Toronto, urban, weeds, woman, words

The Milky Way from Dufferin to Elm Grove.

Once upon a time this alley led to a dairy. Story has it that milk was often spilt along the way.

graffiti picture on a brick wall of a horse's head, a wagon wheel and spilt milk pouring from a large container.

At the west end of the Milky Way is a mural of two horses (one shown here), a wagon wheel, and an overturned milk can.

There is also quite a bit of graffiti in the alley.

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alley animals

Posted: July 14, 2014 in graffiti and street art
Tags: alley, animals, beaks, bird, bunny, city, cranes, dinosaur, doors, downtown, elephant, garages, graffiti, hummingbird, lane, mural, pig, rhino, rhinocerous, street art, tags, Toronto, urban

A selection of the graffiti animals that I have encountered in the past few weeks.

large mural on the side of two storey building of a rhino surrounded by large birds

rhino and his feathered friends, parking lot off College St.
This is only part of the mural…. more below.

mural of many large birds in blues and greys, they all have long curved necks and large beaks

large beaks, large birds
This is only part of the mural…. more above.

oink, oink
A mural by ACS murals

A white outline drawing of a dinosaur painted on a green door that is locked

guardasaurus to watch over the door

a red and white painting of a floppy eared stylized rabbit on the side of an old garage. Other garages with tags on them are also in the photograph

posr rabbit tucked in beside a garage – hiding from those who are hunting rabbits

large mural street art piece painted on the side of a one storey building of a beaked creature with wings

Creature with scales and a tail, Willis St., near the northwest corner of Queen and Bathurst streets.

elephants in threes, but you can only see two of them in this pic. The elephant on the right didn't fit in the photo.

Elephants herd of three, but you can only see two of them in this picture. The elephant on the right didn’t fit in the photo…. but it looked just like the one of the left except it’s facing the other way.