Two new murals have appeared in Graffiti Alley and Rush Lane, both in reaction to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Putin’s Russia. First:
UPDATE: The above mural is a group effort. The bird, a nightingale, was painted by Nick Sweetman. That link should take you to an instagram post that describes the thinking behind the mural. It also lists mr_tensoe2, SpyOne, and TwiceBorn as the collaborators.
below: … and second, a painting that has already been scribbled on.
This is another blog post about Croft Street, a short street that runs between College and Harbord streets just east of Bathurst. It has changed a lot since I first wrote about it in 2013. The corner of Croft and College Streets was home to the mural commemorating the fire of 1904 – it is long gone. In between then and now, the south end of Croft was spruced up with colourful murals and planters in 2016. These are a few pictures that I took as I walked up Croft yesterday (after dodging construction stuff and workmen at College).
below: A mural by Elicser is at the northeast corner of College and Croft.
below: Praying mantis mural
below: Croft is not immune to the construction/renovation craze that we’re in the midst of.
below: The fire station tower at College and Bellevue is now visible from Croft street.
below: Looking up Croft Street. One of the garages now has a Raptors logo and the one next to it is being renovated.
below: Some of the 2016 murals and planters are still in place.
below: Looking north across Vankoughnet Street
below: A door to nowhere
below: We are the future and we don’t want any junk mail
below: The door with the metal strapping is still there.
below: A large grominator on a brick wall
below: Morning glory flowers and vine growing up a street sign pole.
below: More flowers, red rose stenciled onto a garage door
below: Garage doors painted by Bruno Smokey and Andrea Manica
below: A fun ride in vibrant colours by dudeman
The Gardens of St. Clair is a mural project in an alley behind St. Clair West between Prescott and Blackthorn Avenues, just west of the railway tracks. There are lots of roses and other flowers as well as butterflies and birds.
below: A purple pansy and a luminescent insect with a shiny blue body. The dark green vine motif runs throughout the project.
below: Flowers inside the door too.
below: Wunder three times over.
The plaque on the wall says:
The Gardens of St. Clair
Concept by Mike (Wunder) Kennedy, 1973-2017.
Featuring work by: Bacon, Kane, Rony, Wales, Kwest, Baler, Tensoe2, Flown, Vinse, Whysper, Adore, Miles, Sight, Elwal, Emes, and Nick Sweetman
I know that this isn’t the first time that I have blogged about alley doors (previous alley post, Nov 2017) and I know that I tend to take a lot of pictures in alleys so I hope that you aren’t rolling your eyes right now. I’m not sure that I’ve found anything “wow” or anything completely new, but here we go with a little bit of rust, a splash of paint and a dose of weathered …..
below: A dead end alley with three levels of doors.
below: Lots of rusty hinges and peeling paint
below: Not an inviting place to sit and chat!
below: Something to catch an eye – a bright red door amidst the greys and browns. If you look closely, there is a bird roosting on the door.
below: Look up! And watch your step.
below: An alley with some colour in blues and greens…. and even a few straight lines.
below: Are you wondering if something’s missing? Where are all the graffiti covered doors?
Ahhh…. here we are.
below: Part of Graffiti Alley. A birdo eye peeping over a wall.
below: An eagle’s head
below: Another birdo, this time a rooster head and a ??? tail. Cock tail?
below: There really is a door under there. A very narrow door.
below: Another narrow door. This one is adorned by something purple, something that looks like a head but isn’t a head. More heads, as pasteups on either side of the door.
below: A solitary bird on a shadowy tree.
below: I think that there was once a red heart on that door.
below: Mass confusion on the wall, the door, and the window. Many people have left their mark here…
below: …. and here too. The door as a canvas that comes already framed.
below: Maybe the Pink Panther is suffering from writer’s block, pacing back and forth waiting for inspiration. Or he can’t find the doorbell? He forgot his key? No one’s home. Abandoned.
This is another Thursday Doors post inspired by Norm 2.0’s blog. You can check out Thursday Doors for links to even more doors that other people have blogged about. Take a wander over!
Can you see anything in it?
The above image, with its location icon, is just a small portion of a large mural by Jimmy Chiale. You’ll find it in the Bloorcourt neighbourhood, on the SW corner of Shaw and Bloor West to be specific. ‘Make Good’ it says.
I think that its fascinating to look at and I suspect that you would see something different in it each time you passed by. Here are a few more close up pictures of the details in the mural. Thousands of shapes all outlined in black some of which seem to make eyes, faces, and a bird’s beak.
below: …. a totem pole, an owl and a horse head….
below: … and a camera shutter and a fish?
It wouldn’t surprise me if we saw different things!
On Dundas West, just west of Dufferin, there are two lanes with large murals by clandestinos.
One is the alley to the west of the Lulu Lounge where both sides are covered with fantastic paintings by fiya, shalak, and bruno smoky as well as a few others. I blogged about it just over two years ago and here is the link to the original post, “life as the shadow of vida“. Earlier this week I took another look at it – it’s still looking great and there have been no changes so I didn’t take any photos.
The other alley is nearby but on the north side of Dundas Street. Actually, it’s hardly an alley, more like a driveway which made taking pictures of the whole mural difficult. Also, if you are traveling eastbound on Dundas, you’d miss it. Here are the pictures that I managed to take:
I started walking Graffiti Alley the other day but I didn’t stick to my plan. I meandered and wandered through other alleys as well as I generally headed west.
below: A bright, vibrant, wonderful piece by birdo in an alley north of Queen Street West.
below: Another birdo nearby
below: Only remnants remain. Was it a stikman? Or was it something else?
below: Auston Matthews already has his picture on T-shirts.
It can’t be easy having the hopes of all those Maple Leaf fans resting on your shoulders.
below: Of course normal is boring. What I need is a t-shirt that says “rather be walking”
below: This wall is not new but there is usually a car parked in front of it when I walk past. King Reign and Son of S.O.U.L. were two Toronto hip hip artists who passed away in 2016.
below: Stickers on a box
below: I love the juxtaposition of the car in the mural with the real cars parked in the alley. Also the alignment of the first two walls makes the painting look like one.
below: This is another painting that I saw in Graffiti Alley.
I think that it’s new, or at least I don’t remember seeing it before.
below: Your words of advice for today.
below: Fake. as in Fake news. Fake people. Fake money. Fake graffiti artist?
below: These grey paper paste-ups have appeared on top of a number of street art paintings in Graffiti Alley.
I’m not sure who did it or why.
below: Blowing bubbles. Looks irresistibly ready for someone to pop it!
It was painted by @wamurals aka WayneArt
below: Hidden houses. Being pushed out by the big boys.
below: Half of a lovebot in a doorway.
below: A whole lovebot mixing it up with another creature. I think it’s by grominator but I’m not sure.
I like to think of it as lovebot fighting his demons.
below: Look up, way up, to find the switch from love to fear.
Yikes!, it’s switched to fear now and it’s not going to be easy to change it.
below: Lucy and trouble and a weird looking face in a messy dimly lit doorway that assaulted my nose.
below: Many of the planters along Queen West have been painted including this tribute to Gord Downie.
below: A little astronaut floats away. But he’s not up in the air where you’d expect to find him. He’s way down low near the ground. Perhaps he’s not floating away, perhaps he’s falling back to Earth?
Don’t over think it though. Just keep your eyes open and ready for the unexpected!
Peperonata Lane runs north from Harbord Street. Most of the garage doors in the alley have been painted. Some were painted as part of a Wallnoize project in 2013.
below: Take a seat… and see what kind of street art there is here.
below: A woman feeds the chickens.
below: This mural, done in 2009, is one of the older ones in the lane.
below: A deer and a hawk
below: Elicser people and a text painting by poise.
below: Split face on a fence, by fiya
below: A poser bunny
below: Multicoloured grumpy cat by shalak and clandestinos.
below: Wrinkled man with fish in hand, by smoky
below: A garage door painted by miles.
From City of Toronto documentation on the naming of Peperonata Lane, November 2012:
On Beatrice Street just south of College there is a small parking lot. The walls of the buildings on the north and east sides have been painted with a large mural called ‘A Stroll by Garrison Creek’ .
below: On the east side of the parking lot is a painting that represents Emily Bickford and her two daughters, Beatrice and Grace. The street that the parking lot is on was named for Beatrice Bickford. The next street parallel to Beatrice is Grace, named for Grace Bickford. You might recognize the name Bickford if you are familiar with the area – Bickford Park is just south of Christie Pits. Emily Bickford was responsible for donating some of her family’s land to the city to be used for parkland.
below: You may have spotted the words Spud Bomb in the picture below. Also, you might recognize the shapes in the dress that she wears as being similar to shapes seen in a lot of street art in Toronto. They are the work of Pascal Paquette. Both Paquette and Spud1 collaborated on this mural along with artist Artchild.
below: A large chickadee dominates the mural on the north side of the parking lot.
This mural was a StreetARToronto (StART) project, with help from VIBE Arts and the Toronto Parking Authority. It was completed a couple of months ago, September 2016.
Hiding in a park, dappled by the sunlight filtering through large leafy trees, stands Peter Pan. At least the sign says that he’s Peter Pan; he looks like a boy with a flute standing on a lumpy pedestal. He’s a replica of one that resides in London’s Kensington Gardens that was sculpted by Sir George Frampton in 1912. He’s been standing near the NW corner of Avenue Road and St. Clair since 1929 when the city acquired this piece of land. At that time the College Heights Association raised the money to purchase the statue for this “children’s garden”, a statue dedicated “to the spirit of children at play”.
There are no pirates or lost boys here though, just fairies and woodland animals – rabbits, mice and squirrels. There’s even a tiny snail if you look closely enough. What looks like a nondescript lump from a distance turns out to be an interesting game of find the creatures.
Once upon a time this was Peter Pan park but now it is Glenn Gould park (he once lived nearby).
as I walk Toronto 