Posts Tagged ‘bird’

between Pape and Donlands

Posted: August 8, 2016 in graffiti and street art, locations
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I decided to head to Pape and Danforth on Friday, on a very hot & humid afternoon.   The Danforth was just beginning to get ready for the Taste of the Danforth weekend festival.  I stopped for a bottle of water and tried to find a bit of shade while I figured out where to walk.  The street was still quiet.  The day was hot and humid and no one was moving quickly.   Not many photos to be had there.   Instead, I decided to walk a few of the alleys north of the Danforth between Pape and Donlands.

trucks parked on the street, a small ferris wheel being set up pon a street, stores, barricades

below: No famous graffiti artist has left their mark in your neighbourhood? No problem, make your own!
A collection of icons with even the bricks painted into the picture.

copies of famous street art painted on a garage door. Brick background has been painted on too. Mona Lisa, Campbell soup cans, the woman lifting the corner of the wall to sweep things under it. Einstein holding a placard that says love is the answer. A little dog by Albert Einstein's feet.

below: Three garage doors with street art including one by spud.

three garages in an alley, each with street art painted on their doors.

below: Cruz1art (aka Angel Carillo) and a girl power pink skull by dudeman

a low concrete building in an alley with street art by Cruz 1 art, one says girl power. Large pink skull, basketball hoop in the foreground.

below: “Turn the lights off and look to the sky”

street art in an alley of a woman with long hair, wearing sunglasses, a tag beside it.

below: I’m used to seeing ‘No Trespassing’ or ‘Keep Out’ signs but not so many ‘Keep Off’.

an old rusted sign that says 'keep off' attached tot he top of a chainlink fence, in between two garages in an alley

below: A happy Uber5000 birdie knitting away, a close knit street art painting.

an uber 5000 art piece on a garage door, yellow uber birdie is knitting something with blue wool. the words say "close knit"

below: Another creature by Cruz1

blue animal creature painted on a garage door, green shrub growing in front of part of it, art by cruz 1 in an alley

below: Two more painted garage doors, very linear, very stylized and abstracted.

two single car garages in an alley, both with street art paintings on them, also the back of the houses behind them in the lane.

below: A play on the word ‘cool’.  Snowy words and a penguin with sunglasses.  Unfortunately it didn’t make me feel cooler but only slightly nostalgic for winter.  Only slightly!

street art mural on a garage door in a lane, a penguin standing upright wearing sunglasses. The words, written in large blue letters with snow on them, What's cooler than sum glasses on?

below: On the left is “destroy and rebuild” and on the right is “We are 1, [illegible] mi gente siempre”.  The last bit is Spanish and translates to “My people forever”

two garages in an alley with art on their doors, on the left is an abstract in blue and orange with the words destroy and rebuild. On the right is a woman's face. She's slightly blue. Words written beside her are: we are 1, mi gente siempre

below: I think there was a point to this picture, but I’m not sure what it is.

the top of two pieces of wood in a picket fence type gate, pointed tops, wood,

below:  Since this stretch of the Danforth has been “Greektown” for as long as I can remember, it makes sense to find street art in Greek.  In this case, Greek love.

garage door painted bright blue, with the Greek word for love written on it in large letters

below: A slight chuckle, the next garage door is the translation.

garage door painted with a large cursive lettering word love in pinks on blue

below:  Insert a little rant about horrid TTC concrete fences here.  At least someone has found a way to brighten one of them up.   This one is right beside the entrance to Donlands subway station.

concrete fence with paint drip art on it

A few more pictures….

garage door in a laneway covered with streetart painting

geometric street art on a garage door, pink, grey and black

below: A survivor. A lone white rose amongst dead roses.  May you all survive the heat of summer!

one white rose growing against a fence in an alley , with lots of dead roses around it.

 

 

 

a flock of birdos

Posted: May 17, 2016 in graffiti and street art
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This blog post is about a flock of birdos, meaning that I found a lot of alley garages decorated with paintings by street artist birdo.  Or maybe ‘a menagerie of birdos’ would be a more accurate description as most of the pictures were of different animals such as elephant, cat, dog, coyote, and mouse along with a number of different birds.

These photographs were are all taken in alleys behind the south part of Dovercourt Road (between Queen and Sudbury streets).  The majority of the paintings that I saw were result of birdo’s work but there were examples of  and I have included them in this post too.

 below: Two birdo birds with eggs, with a slice of mushroom and pepperoni pizza by Shalak.

Three garages in an alley, with trees growing between them. The first two have garage doors with birdo murals on them and the third has a pizza street art painting by Shalak

street art mural on a garage door in an alley by birdo - a large bird with blue head and orange beak sitting in a nest looking down at a large white egg

street art mural on a garage door in an alley by birdo - a parrot holding a large blue egg

An old wood garage in an alley that is painted by Shalak, a slice of pizza with pepperoni pieces flying off it (or onto it!)

a person is sitting on a kerb in an alley, beside a wall with a large mural by birdo of an elephant and a mouse

street art mural on a wall in an alley by birdo - an elephant with a green head

below: Howling at the moon, with a cactus and a scorpion too.

street art mural on a garage door in an alley by birdo - a coyote howling at the moon in the desert with a large cactus in the picture as well as a scorpion. words: birdo homes spud

below: Blue dog, pink lava lamp

street art mural on a garage door in an alley by birdo - a blue dog beside a pink lava lamp on a table. words: birdo dmc, phil pans tense

street art mural on a garage door in an alley by birdo - a four legged animal looks to be growling at something

street art mural on a garage door in an alley by birdo - a large multicoloured cat. words: tense phil pans

below:  A rooted turtle and cool owl with sparkly shades

street art mural on a garage door in an alley by birdo - a lavendar turtle and an owl with blue eyes and orange beak

street art mural on a garage door in an alley by birdo - a creature with a green and purple body and head that looks like a parrot

street art mural on a wall in an alley, a girls face, two little brown pigtails, 2 hearts and a turtle head

an old mattress leans against an old brick wall that has two pieces of graffiti on it. One is a blue and yellow egg shape with a blue arm and hand sticking out of a crack in it. The words "It's alive" are written beside it. The other is a small blue creature like shape

On a gararge door in a laneway, painted like the Canadian flag except there is a pineapple in the middle instead of a maple leaf. On the right hand side red stripe are the words "have a nice day"

A mural by bruno smoky on the side of a white container. It is a purple faced creature with blue tag like shapes around it.

below: “Just a robot that doesn’t like technology”

a lovebot on a silver garage door with the words "Just a robot that doesn't like technology, I'd rather be free"- signed Tasha

number 66 in a lane, garage door, door and walls covered with circles and triangles in different colours.

A door covered with a very abstract face painting and another graffiti face beside the door.

air horns and others

Posted: November 1, 2015 in graffiti and street art
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behind Dupont, near Bartlett

below: This wall has been covered with graffiti for a number of years now.
photo taken July 2015

a wall covered with graffiti, a large bald man's head, a red and white elephant, a lovebot, a black line drawn bird saying I love air horns

below: The same wall in August 2012

a wall covered with graffiti, a large bald man's head, a red and white elephant, a man in purple, a black line drawn bird saying I love air horns

below: Close ups from this past summer

graffiti of a greenish man's face, closed eyes, laughing with mouth open, beside him is a greyish white elephant outlined in red with long tusks and trunk

a lovebot the robot wheatpaste on a door of a building that is covered with other graffiti and street art

below: Farther along the tracks.  Note the small bicycle on the rusted metal drum.
It too has been here for at least a couple of years.

A black and white tag on red background, with the words happy bday nektar written in the corner. In front of the wall is a rusted metal oil drum with some graffiti on it in white including a very meticulously drawn small white bicycle.

graffiti and tags on the back of a building made of concrete blocks, also on two metal storage tanks that are behind the same building.

at Fairbank station

Posted: September 28, 2015 in graffiti and street art
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Fairbank station is not really a station, at least not any more; it’s the access point to the York Beltline trail at Fairbank Street.   The York Beltline trail is the western portion of the beltline trail.  It is a few blocks north of Eglinton Avenue and it runs from Times Road (west of Marlee Ave) westward to the railway tracks that run parallel to Caledonia Road.   Up until the 1990s this was a spur rail line used to service industries in the area.  There are still some small industrial buildings close to the Beltline, including some at Fairbank Street which is where I found these:

below:  Three anser faces on the far wall and a whoisrandom James Dean up close with sunglasses.

the sides of a couple of buildings covered with street art including the head and shoulders of James Dean wearing sunglasses with a beachscene, a green animal head and three anser faces.

below: Green fur and sharp teeth, a creature by blackburn

On the side of a building, a large street art painting of the head of a green animal. Open mouth, big fangs. Small ears and eyes. Bear? or maybe large bobcat?

below: by braes, or braesoner

A street art by braes of a boy in a red and white baseball hat and red shirt. The bat signal is beamed onto the wall beside him, black bat symbol in a yellow oval. The boy has a backpack full of tools.

below: by mska (left side) and paula prezende (right side)

two women painted on a purple dumpster. The one on the left is by mska and the woman has a skull mask on. The other is by paula prezende and is a woman with long red hair but with a big hole in her chest.

below: by deadboy (note raccoon on mud flap)

on the back of a truck, two white skulls with wide open mouths in profile, a raccoon and all signed by deadboy.

below: by poser and ABM Crew

Poser bunny in blue on pink and black background, painted on the back of an old truck container. Weeds growing in front and a tree to the left.

below: by Nick Sweetman

What looks to be a multicoloured underside of a very large beetle or similar creature with tiny legs, segmented body and numerous antenae. Painted by Nick Sweetman.

very bright coloured geometric street art on a garage door

graffiti on the side of an old truck container on wheels that is parked where the weeds are growing up around it. There is a large rose painted in grey tones as well as a black and white piece by The Crew
A crocdile swimming in the water with a little orange birdie sitting on his head - a street art painting on the side of concrete block wall. The croc is swimming in the water, with his mouth open wide and showing his teeth

below: By brunosmoky

a street art painting of a makeshift boat with stove pipe smoke stack, painted to look like boat is made of boards haphazardly nailed together. On the the side of a building, but with weeds growing up in front of it.

 

a row of stickers all with faces on them on a vertical pole beside a garage door that has also been painted in many bright colours.

a stenciled sign that says Citied Feed Zombies

cars on the Danforth

Posted: August 19, 2015 in events
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6th Annual Wheels on the Danforth
presented by The Crossroads of the Danforth BIA

picture taken at a car show - a boy is standing in front of a yellow car with its front hood open. It is a Pontiac Beaumont SD

As part of the event, Danforth Avenue was closed west of Warden Ave to Byng Ave for a car show. There were nine classes for the cars including Vintage cars (pre-1949) and Classic cars (1949-1979).

above: 1967 Pontiac Beaumont SD

below: 1930 Model A Ford

picture taken at a car show - front of an old green car (1930 Model A Ford), showing two round head lamps and a large metal radiator grille

picture taken at a car show - two black cars with their front hoods up showing the paintings that have been done under the hood

reflection of a blue vintage car in the hubcap of an old car, taken at a car show

picture taken at a car show - Yellow 1969 Camaro car with two black stripes down the front hood.

picture taken at a car show - detail of front of a 1951 Pontiac showing the badge with the Indian headin profile

picture taken at a car show - a Man walking his bike stops to look at two white cars from the 1970's that are on display. One of them has its front hood open. One of the cars is a Ford Mustang

picture taken at a car show - a line of cars on display with their front hoods up

picture taken at a car show - detail of the hood badge of a red car, two crossed flags, one red and one checkered

picture taken at a car show - detail of the hood ornament on a light blue 1951 Pontiac

picture taken at a car show - An old British, original mini, white, is parked in a line of other other cars at a car show.

model car, blue Mini with roof painted as a Union Jack, on the back dash of an original British mini, photo taken from outside the car.

picture taken at a car show - the metal side ornament that says Pontiac in script that is on a light blue car

picture taken at a car show - the backside of a small round rearview mirror on a light blue car

picture taken at a car show - the front corner of a red sports car showing wheel and front head lamps

picture taken at a car show - two men are talking together and looking under the hood of a black Trans Am

photo taken at a car show - hood ornament on a blue ford that is the shape of a bird with it's wings partially down, in the background is on old red truck.

part of the hood of a green and white car with the number 427 on it

V8 hood ornament made to look like an arrow on the hood of a car that has been painted yellow and orange

Underpass park

Posted: July 21, 2015 in locations, public art
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Lower River Street passes through it; Eastern Avenue passes over it.
And now the support pillars on the eastern side of the park have been painted by various street artists.

 

picture of art (mural) on a concrete support holding up a road above a skateboard and basketball park - young man on skateboard jump in the park with many of the pillars in the photo including a large greyish blue clown face

photo of art (mural) on a concrete support holding up a road above a skateboard and basketball park - close up of a multocoloured clown face with a scary expression

picture of art (mural) on a concrete support holding up a road above a skateboard and basketball park - an elicser painting of a person in a red hoodie holding a basketball. Eyes closed, thining, hood pulled up over head

 

picture of art (mural) on a concrete support holding up a road above a skateboard and basketball park - guys on bikes in the park with many of the pillars in the photo including a large greyish blue clown face and an orange woman's face.

picture of art (mural) on a concrete support holding up a road above a skateboard and basketball park - looking from one corner of the park diagonally through the park. A creature with a white skull-like face with pinkish red mushrooms in the foreground, other pillars in the background

 

large orage woman's face by fiya painted on a concrete support that is helping to hold up a road.
picture of art (mural) on a concrete support holding up a road above a skateboard and basketball park - bottom part of a pillar with a painting of a big red set of lips, a red heart with an arrow through is as well as yellow symbols from playing card - hearts, diamond, spage and club. Signed Enjoy denial.

picture of art (mural) on a concrete support holding up a road above a skateboard and basketball park - in the foreground is a pillar with a birdo bird on it. Many other supports in the background along with a young man on a skateboard

head of a colourful birdo bird with other street art in the background

 

part of a street art painting showing two people standing on the suway holding onto the handles from the ceiling. Both are shown as muscle layer as outer layer of body, i.e. no skin. A man and a woman.

 

picture of art (mural) on a concrete support holding up a road above a skateboard and basketball park - lage eyes on one creature, a red creature with open mouth and long purple tonge, by spud, in the foreground. Other pillars in the background, as well as one young man with a skateboard

South American themed figure with head dress painted on a pillar, with other painted pillars in the background.

 

picture of art (mural) on a concrete support holding up a road above a skateboard and basketball park -

picture of art (mural) on a concrete support holding up a road above a skateboard and basketball park - large blue face of a man wearing sunglasses, in profile, in the foreground. A pillar with a tall skinny person painted on it in the background.

picture of art (mural) on a concrete support holding up a road above a skateboard and basketball park - painting of a large purple woman's face with her eyes closed

photograph of a number of pillars and supports holding up Eastern Ave as it passes over Lower River St. Pillars have been painted by street artists including a fish by birdo and lips by Enjoy Denial. Underpass park. Toronto

 

on two sides of a concrete pillar there are paintings of people. One has two nose to nose with both arms raised to the top of the pillar such that it looks like they are holding up the upper horizontal part of the concrete support. On the other side of the pillar is a man with bent head who looks like he is carrying the weight of the road above on his shoulders. There are also some figures painted on the horizontal part of the support.

street art painting of a white face, weird eyes and an open mouth

Two overpasses come together to form one, view from below, there is an urban park under the overpass on the right, with the concrete supports holding up the road covered with paintings by street artists.

You’ll find more photos of the park in the post below too

alley animals

Posted: July 14, 2014 in graffiti and street art
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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.

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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.

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large realistic painting of a pink pig

oink, oink
A mural by ACS murals

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

guardasaurus to watch over the door

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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

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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.

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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.

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painted graffiti of a hummingbird that looks like it is coming into land, hovering near vertical

hummingbird hovering beside a garage door

*****

Bulwer Street

Posted: June 10, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
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Bulwer Street is a short street that runs parallel to, and one block north of, Queen Street West.  It is only one block long, running east from Spadina Ave to Soho St.  

graffiti on a brick wall on Bulwer St., the angle of the photograph makes it look like there is a large chain link fence in front of the wall.

children behind the fence

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graffiti on a brick wall on Bulwer St., children including a larger than life sized boy wearing an orange T-shirt

children playing in the parking lot

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graffiti on a brick wall on Bulwer St., big white eyes on a brown face looking up towards the sky. A white Hyundai is parked beside it.

white eyes

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detail of graffiti on a brick wall on Bulwer St., a large brown hand is holding miniature size city buildings in blues and purples

he’s got the whole city in his hands

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graffiti on a brick wall on Bulwer St.

rooftop reflections

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reflections of a mural in the windows and side panels of a black car

mirrored in the glass

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graffiti on a brick wall on Bulwer St.

facing the alley

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sticker of half of a man's face (cut vertically)

only half the man he used to be

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picture of people in blues and reds beside a nondescript grey door at the back of a small parking lot (or driveway)

the back door

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bright blue, pink and orange tag on lime green background

tag – suniti? BA Kings?

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parts of three tags on a wall

parts of three tags on a wall

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A concrete wall with tags on the lower part. There are hydro wires in front of the top part of the wall, and they are casting shadows on the wall

wired tags on concrete

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large paper stencil of the top part of a woman is still there although parts of it have worn away

worn away but clinging on

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Uber 500's little yellow bird shows up on this street too

Uber 500’s little yellow bird shows up on this street too

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little fish, big teeth

little fish, big teethfish

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graffiti on a brick wall on Bulwer St., with the CN tower behind in the distance

one of the many, many, views of the CN tower

*****

windows and other bits

Posted: December 4, 2013 in graffiti and street art, locations
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A few things that I saw today as I walked from Richmond and Spadina, southwestward to King and Shaw.  A beautiful sunny Tuesday afternoon.

An old metal sign saying No Authorized Parking has rusted badly. It is on a yellow brick building. Beside it is a blue coloured metal screen covering a window.

rusted and authorized

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A graffiti painting of a blue and white bird on a grey concrete block wall. It is painted to look like it's perched on the top corner of a window.

Happily perched above it all with a birds eye view of Richmond Street West.

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the backs of a few lowrise brick buildings. One of the buildings is painted an olive green coloutr. There is graffiti above one of the buildings, of 2 dog heads, one of which has a cigarette in its mouth.

Smoking on the roof.

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Stop Rob Ford at the western end of a one way Richmond street.

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A brick wall that is painted a pinkish colour. There is an old window with the lower half barred. A light is mounted on the wall to the right of the window. The wall is dirty.

window and light, Palace Hotel, at King and Strachan.

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A red brick wall with an old door that has been bricked over. A large new window has been added. You can see the lights on inside.

Afternoon light.

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A paper sticker showing three beer bottle shaped bottles with labels that say fish piss.

fish piss in the alley

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Three small windows arranged vertically beside a rusted metal grille covering an air vent. Black and white splotches have been painted around the window.

Black and white and speckled all over.  This was one in a series of five or six windows of various sizes along the same wall.  The black and white painting gave the wall an interesting look although I am not sure of pictures of the individual windows are all that interesting!

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gold coloured poster on a dirty light grey garage door. The poster says 2013 Lovebot Loveinvasion. It has a picture of a light grey robot on it, with a red heart.

The alley I was walking down turned, but as I turned the corner I realized that I had come to a dead end. I spotted this poster on one of the garage doors that was there. According to the man standing inside one of the other garages, lots of people end up doing U-turns in front of his garage – including cars that come zooming around the corner, only to have to hit their brakes.

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A sticker of a black hearted, square headed, yellow robot on a blue dumpster.

for more information about the lovebots, http://lovebot.com/about

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This photo was taken while standing in a parking lot near the southeast corner of Adelaide and Bathurst streets.

The graffiti across the lower part of the building is by homebase.  Their website: http://www.homebasetoronto.com

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