art | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘art’

Silhouettes on the door

Posted: October 9, 2023 in construction, graffiti and street art, locations, transportation
Tags: apartment buildings, art, condos, graffiti, Helen Porter Lane, houses, Kenwood, laneway, laneway housing, paper, paste ups, Raglan Road, redevelopment, residential, robin, St. Clair, TTC, urban ninja squadron, Vaughan Road, visual noise

I heard about these silhouettes that have painted on the plywood used to board up the doors and windows of five empty houses so I went to see them for myself. They are on Raglan Road which is close to St. Clair and Bathurst.

“Took a walk and passed your house late last night
All the shades were pulled and drawn way down tight
From within, the dim light cast two silhouettes on the shade
Oh, what a lovely couple they made”

I am not sure how long these houses have been empty but there is graffiti in the back too.

As I was in the neighbourhood, what else is there to see here? Anything new? Back in 2015 I posted a few pictures from the St. Clair and Vaughan Road area (see Intersections). This time I stayed within the northwest quadrant of that intersection. Like most places, somethings have changed while other things remain the same.

Back to early October 2023 … many other houses were empty and boarded up

… and many other houses have already been demolished.

In the above picture you can see that this area has some older smaller apartment buildings. Raglan Road runs parallel to Vaughan Road, home to many mid-sized older buildings.

below: Linked buildings

Once it was the Happy Family Restaurant. Now someone (a happy family?) lives there.

…. other businesses are boarded up. This was the Dutch Dreams Ice Cream shop before they moved farther south on Vaughan Road. While it sits empty it is a space for graffti. Dutch Dreams had moved out before December 2015.

below: Just wait – Not sure what we’re waiting for but I see an alpha and an omega on a death moth?

below: Peeling and faded. Sailor dude and some colourful designs.

below: Elaborate probably female form with gown and hat beside a not so elaborate wine bottle. The label on the bottle says Lutte Libre Bruht.

below: They’ve been here a while – Urban Ninja Squadron’s T-Bonez in various poses including dressed as Robin, the Boy Wonder.

below: Give Love and be a Hero

In the summer of 2020 there was fire in the adjacent building that impacted the old Dutch Dreams building too. That was three years ago. It is a pity that empty buildings sit for so long especially since nothing good comes of it.

More people – Street musicians playing on the sidewalk.

As I walked around the neighbourhood I noticed a mix of architectural styles and building sizes.

From single family….

Through midsized apartments like the older ones shown above as well as some newer ones….

… To massive apartment buildings

below: Southwest corner of St. Clair and Vaughan Road

below: The bright yellow building of Hercules Automotive and Tire Service in an alley behind St. Clair. The top of St. Alphonsus R C church can be seen above it.

below: Walking westward on St. Clair approaching Wychwood Ave with yet another vacant lot.

below: St. Clair Avenue Baptist Church, on this site since November 1924.

below: Beside St. Alphonsus RC Church at Vaughan Road and St. Clair.

below: Kenwood

below: A Jack Layton quote: “Love is better than hate; Hope is better than fear.”

hand written poem story on board, hanging next to a garage with paintings of birds in a tree

“AND people stayed home and read books and listened and rested.
… and learned new ways and stopped and listened more deeply
… and people began to think differently. And people healed
… AND when the danger ended and people found themselves, they grieved for the dead … and made new choices … and dreamed new visions… and created new ways of living… and healed the earth as they were healed.”

below: “My Blue World – I know a place where the world is still where time and space have no hold” Painting by Elly Dawson 2020. Poem by Lanna M.

below: A large Canadian flag hangs over the Toronto skyline.

Also in Helen Porter Lane, someone has taken advantage of the space here to build new housing.

The orange sign on the streetcar stop says that the 512 St. Clair streetcar stopped running early in September 2023 and will be out of service until summer 2024. The whole line from Yonge to Gunns Loop

below: Westbound TTC buses on St. Clair

While we’re on the subject of the TTC, one very dirty bus shelter!

Stop – Take a Breath

boom town

Posted: July 22, 2023 in locations, public art
Tags: art, blue, boom town, booms, eyes, Gardiner, Lakeshore, reflections, the bentway, Waterfront BIA, waterfront reconnect, York St.

Something to smile about!

He’s happy to be hanging out under the Gardiner with a friend….

while another of the gang lurks nearby, keeping an eye on the situation….

Together they are part of “Boom Town”, a temporary creative intervention to brighten the day of passers by. A colourful contrast to the Lakeshore and the Gardiner above it, brought to life by the people at the bentway as well as the Waterfront BIA.

around the Distillery, June 2023 version

Posted: July 6, 2023 in locations, old buildings, people, public art
Tags: 6ix Art Outdoor, art, Balzacs, construction, cranes, Distillery District, heart, millstone, people, pride, sculpture, Terran McNeely, trees

below: The sparrows around Balzacs Coffee shop are as brazen as ever. If you decide to lure them away by throwing crumbs elsewhere, the pigeons will join in the fun.

below: East entrance to the Distillery, on Cherry Street. I suspect that everyone who visits the Distillery takes this photo.

below: Part of a display of some of the products produce by the Gooderham and Worts distillery over the years. The distillery complex built by Gooderham and Worts started producing spirits in 1862. At one time it was the largest employer in Toronto. It also once produce half the spirits made in Canada.

below: There are now many old photos of the Gooderham and Worts distillery from years past scattered around the Distillery District. This one is ” The Office Entrance”. The door is still there, as are many other features seen in the photo.

below: Approaching Parliament, with the large heart painted in rainbow colours for Pride month (June).

below: Home is Toronto

below: Old millstone from the windmill that pre-dates the dsitillery.

large stone, round with hole in middle, plaque attached, old millstone from the distillery, made in 1832

“This millstone brought from England on the schooner ‘Kingston’ to the town of York 1832 was used for grinding grain in the historic windmill of Gooderham & Worts. The windmill stood 52 feet southwest by south of this point. It was the eastern limit of the famous ‘Old Windmill Line” on which the original plan of the city of Toronto was based.”

below: Note on the bakery door – Please make sure that the pigeon doesn’t come in with you! Patty the pigeon wasn’t there the time that I went in.

below: The line of painted head and torsos is back. The shapes are all the same but each has bee painted by a different artist. They are part of the ‘6ix Art Outdoor’ exhibit.

below: Two of the sculptures still under wraps. This is at 6least the second time that they have been on display. They were lined up in same place last August. If you want more information about them, I blogged about the 6ix Art Outdoor last year. (follow link).

below: The inflatable couches are there because through July there are night time showings of various movies, Italian movies for the most part I think.

below: Painting by Terran McNeely for Pride 2023.

below: Development notice sign on Mill Street.

below: One of the buildings on Distillery Lane is being refurbished. Yellow crane is for new development on Parliament.

below: There is now a hole on Parliament!

below: … a very big hole!

below: And I’ll end this post with a sigh…. some people

Double Pendulum

Posted: May 19, 2023 in events, public art
Tags: art, butterflies, CONTACT, Contact photography festival, Double Pendulum, Maggie Groat, murals, Ontario Square, symmetry

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.

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

Parkdale Provincial Park

Posted: January 8, 2023 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: art, Brock Ave., fence, history, horses, LCBO, Ontario Parks, parkdale, protest, rangers, redevelopment, signs, social, supportive housing, UNESCO, vacant lot

notes here

There’s a new provincial park in Toronto!

… but sadly it’s just a vacant lot

The city has owned the land for a few years and has already torn down the LCBO that used to be here. The plan is to build supportive housing for those in need. So far nothing else has happened – has the project stalled?

sign on a metal construction fence around a vacant lot with title 40 homes 2023, description of fight to build affordable housing

“We are in a housing crisis.
Parkdale needs permanent supportive housing.
Three years ago in December 2019, the City of Toronto purchased 11 Brock (this site) from the Province, with a purpose to redevelop it as affordable rental homes for some of Toronto’s most vulnerable people.
In December 2022, Municipal Councillor Gord Perks’s office shared that it will be funded by the Rapid Housing Initiative, a Federal program. But bids for a non-profit haven’t started and plans aren’t yet made. Why? NP Remind Councillor Gord Perks, Federal MP Arif Virani, and each other that we remember the human right to housing.”

handmade sign that looks like a provincial heritage plaque, description of history of Brock Avenue LCBO, now a vacant lot

11 Brock Avenue LCBO
1891-2016
Construction of this edifice began in 1889 to celebrate the annexation of the Village of Parkdale into the City of Toronto. Originally a “Barber Shoppe and Purveyor of Fine Elixirs”, it was the finest destination for the procurement of alcoholic spirits and haircuts. The Shoppe fell on hard times in 1916 with the advent of prohibition and the reduction in haircuts due to the famous poorly times Toronto head lice outbreak. Ostensibly becoming Toronto’s foremost storage facility, bootlegged moonshine was sold in a hidden speakeasy carved into a 125 cubic meter block of ice. Attracting patrons from across the city for both alcohol and ice alike, this enterprise allowed the neighbourhood to prosper and directly led to the construction of Sunnyside Beach and Amusement Park. Not coincidentally, 1927 brought the first electric household refrigerator into the market, the end of prohibition in Ontario, and the creation of the LCBO. 11 Brock became one of the first 18 LCBO stores that opened on June 1, 1927.

Getting there: 11 Brock Avenue, just north of Queen St. East

Accommodation: none (or bring your own sleeping bag)

Food & Drink: Check out Sam James bakery right across the street from the park entrance (if there was one).

6ix Art Outdoor

Posted: August 2, 2022 in events, locations
Tags: 6ix Art Outdoor, art, Distillery District, painting, people, sculpture

I came across these colourful sculptures at the Distillery District this past weekend. There are thirteen of them, all painted by different artists.

Artists:

Alex Garant,
AlfAlfA,
Caitlin Taguibao,
Clandestino Art,
David Anthony,
Fatspatrol,
Gosia Komorski,
Jacquie Comrie,
Jieun June Kim,
Natasha Kudashkina,
Peter Triantos,
Que Rock,
and Yen Linh Thai.

a touch of spring

Posted: March 12, 2022 in graffiti and street art, intersections, locations, public art, reflections
Tags: Anish Kapoor, art, Camilla Teodoro, CIBC Square, CN Tower, Compartment Earth, construction, covid vaccination, Esmaa Mohamoud, fence, hoardings, Light Stolen from the Sun, live again, Louis Agassiz, Love Park, posters, Queens Quay West, reflections, Renty, Rentyhorn, Roxy Paine, Sasha Huber, sculpture, Steve Driscoll, The Brotherhood FUBU, the power plant, traffic cones, Visoleil, windows

It seems like it’s been a long winter with more extended periods of colder temperatures as well as never ending snow. Last weekend was the first sign that maybe spring would arrive this year …. before the snow came back! Here are a few things that I saw on my walk last Sunday while out enjoying some warm sunshine.

below: A sign of the times; a sign for the coming spring.

below: There is still a large parking lot on the corner of Rees and Queens Quay. It may be the last piece of undeveloped property along this part of the waterfront.

below: Clearing away the piles of snow.

below: The skating rink beside the Power Plant is melting quickly. The designs painted on the concrete below provide a bright contrast to the towers of glass and steel nearby.

below: Same spot as above but this time looking northwest.

below: On the south wall of The Power Plant, a large image of the artist, Sasha Huber, on top of a Swiss mountain.

large picture on the outside, south, wall of the The Power Plant. A picture of the artist, Sasha Huber, planting a sign and plaque for Rentyhorn, renaming a Swiss mountain.

“Rentyhorn” (2008) is part of a campaign to rename Agassizhorn, a Swiss mountain peak. Louis Agassiz (1807-1873) was a Swiss glaciologist who became convinced that Blacks were an inferior species and that he could prove it. Renty was an enslaved woman who was one of a group forcibly photographed by Agassiz in his attempt to prove his theory. There is more of this story, and more of Huber’s work, on display in the gallery.

below: Reflections and distortions in the windows of The Power Plant.

below: Queens Quay

below: “Compartment Earth” in the lobby of RBC WaterPark Place building on Queens Quay. It is 16,000 pounds of stainless steel; a sculpture by American artist Roxy Paine.

below: Work continues on the park, Love Park, that replaces the old York Street exit ramp from the Gardiner Expressway.

below: Esmaa Mohamoud‘s large image titled: ” The Brotherhood FUBU (For Us, By Us)” covers 37 x 144 feet (or 11 x 44 metres).

below: Looking up to the blue sky.

below: Part art, part health, this is “Visoleil” in the lobby of the new CIBC Square. A glowing circle of light to lift the spirits during the grey of a Toronto winter. I went on a Sunday and the doors were locked so I couldn’t get closer. Unfortunately, it’s probably gone by now as it was scheduled to be removed on 11th March.

below: Also at CIBC Square, “Light Stolen from the Sun” by Steve Driscoll. This new CIBC building on (by the new GO Station and across from Union Station) has been under construction for a few years now. It isn’t quite finished.

below: Looking through the front window you can catch a glimpse of this magnificent piece of backlit glass. Apparently there are twelve. This is something that I am definitely going to come back to see!

below: Street closed. Construction.

below: More construction, King and John.

below: Development notice on Crocodile Rock… yikes, 68 storeys proposed at Adelaide and Duncan.

below: Northeast corner of Adelaide and Duncan

below: Hoardings on Lower Simcoe street – “A Stroll Through the City” by Camilla Teodoro

below: Looking west on Front Street from Bay with Union Station, CN Tower, Royal Bank building, and the Royal York Hotel.

below: In Simcoe Park (Front Street), there is an aluminium sculpture by British artist Anish Kapoor. It was installed in 1995.

below: Outside Metro Hall, a banner promoting COVID-19 vaccination in kids.

below: Snarky graffiti – “It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.”

below: Signs on traffic construction cones

below: Protest posters and graffiti. Anti condo development & corrupt landlords. Mercury contamination of water.

blues – looking at the blues

Posted: October 26, 2021 in galleries
Tags: AGO, art, Art Gallery of Ontario, blue, Blue View, exhibition, Frugal Repast, galleries, Matthew Wong, Pablo Picasso, paintings, Picasso, the blue room, The Soup

Two exhibits at the Art Gallery of Ontario feature the colour blue. One is “Blue View” consisting of paintings created by Canadian artist Matthew Wong between 2017 and 2019. The other is an exhibit of Picasso paintings at the beginning of the 20th century especially his “blue period” 1901-1904.

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Matthew Wong (1984-2019)

below: “Starry Night”

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Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

below: Nudes painted before the Blue Period… and when Picasso was only 19 or 20 years old.

In 1901 Picasso was given access to Saint-Lazare prison-hospital in Paris where he painted many of the inmates, especially the women who were there as a result of their participation in the sex trade. They were impoverished and forgotten women living in deplorable conditions, often with young children. Picasso painted them in shades of blue and green and in his paintings sex work, motherhood and syphilis become intertwined. They can be compared to images of the Virgin Mary with an infant Jesus, a secularized Madonna.

below: “Mother and Child by Fountain”

below: “Woman and Child by the Sea”, 1902

below: “The Soup”, 1902

below: “The Blue Room”, 1901

below: “The Frugal Repast”. Not in blue but still with the theme of the working poor. This was an etching that Picasso first made in 1904. Later, in 1913, he printed 250 copies of it.

With thanks to Alice and Arlene for spending a couple of hours looking at paintings with me.

“Picasso, painting the blue period” continues until 16 Jan 2022.

Matthew Wong paintings are on display until 18 April 2022

the city’s newest beach

Posted: August 11, 2021 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: altered signs, art, beach, Bloor Collegiate Institue, Bloordale, community, graffiti, vacant lot, waterless beach

…isn’t where you think it is, nor is it what you’re expecting!

Bloordale Beach was created about a year ago at a vacant lot behind Bloor Collegiate Institute. There is no water and there are no lifeguards but there is sand; apparently it’s a UNESCO World Heritage site. Nude sunbathing seems to be allowed.