Posts Tagged ‘birdo’

anatomy lesson, and more

Posted: May 31, 2016 in graffiti and street art
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Today’s blog starts with an anatomy lesson as illustrated by vampz on a wall in Graffiti Alley – the arterial and venous blood flow of the head and neck.

street art painting of a larger than life, realistic depiction of the blood supply to the human head. Skull with eyeball, teeth, some neck muscles as well as arterial and venous blood vessels. In profile.

I walked the alleys behind Queen St West today to see if there was anything new.  The biggest new pieces were the above head and a new birdo creation, pictured below.  A realistic looking blue jay and a floating pink gem.

a garage decorated with a mural by birdo, of a realistic blue jay and a pink cut gem floating in front of the bird.

  below: The back part of the blue jay is on the side wall of the garage
which produces an interesting 3D effect.

a garage decorated with a mural by birdo, of a realistic blue jay and a pink cut gem floating in front of the bird. The front part of the bird is on the garage door and the back part of the bird is on the side wall.

below: This tribute to the basketball Raptors and their appearance in the 2016 Eastern Conference Finals is also a new addition.  DeRozan is pictured on the left and my apologies for not knowing the player on the right.  Unfortunately, it was too close to garbage day and the bins were overflowing so I couldn’t move them out of the way.  Next time.

streetart mural in tribute to Toronto Raptors basketball team and their presence in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2016. The heads of two black basketball players on a red and purple background.

below: And unfortunately, garbage was an issue today.

a bin of garbage plus a pile of garbage bags in front of a street art piece, a face and a tag in green and red, signed hangman, detroit.

below: The face isn’t new to the alley, but the words are.
Written by a woman with priorities!

Pretty female working retail falls in love with guys who need bail
the sweet smell of lust or love
you mean well, but money can get her a new car and clean nails.
The Lady”

number 669 in lime green letters above a stylized woman's face with yellow hair and a blue top. Someone has written words on the brick wall beside the painting.

below: Love Department featuring Phoebe.
You can find more of her on instagram @phoebenewyork

A little paper paste up of a large headed girl with black hair and a large red heart on her head. on a pink background with the words Love Department. Stuck on a garage door painted in pink and blue shapes

below: Even a simple smile will do most of the time.

under the rusted metal of a wire grill over a window, on a wall that was painted in black and orange street art, there is a small white line drawing of a girl's head

below: Cloud Monet and the woman in white, or Who you lookin’ at Mr. Fish?

small vertical drawing of a woman, drawn in white, wearing a long form fitting dress, standing, on brown, tied to a wall with a mural laready painted on it.

a painted piece of street art has been partially covered with many vertical lines in black marker, producing an interesting pattern over the colours below.

Three hinges have been bent forward so they are flat, multicoloured graffiti behind them, words written on the hinges except for the bottom one which has a question mark on it.

below: A couple of stikmans.  No anatomical realism here!

a little wooden stikman with only one leg on a green concrete block wall, with white stencilled daisies above him, street art in an alley

a very pale blue stikman on a very pale blue window and wall.

below: A bit of mystery.  I’m not sure if it’s a stikman or if it’s a newcomer to the alley

orange coloured stikman, double, foot to foot, in a pink wall with foam insulation on both sides of him

below: Pull up a seat and rest a bit, we’re almost done.

cast off furniture in a lane, two chairs, a TV, a small yellow set of drawers, a mop,

below: The final words on today’s walk.  Someone’s not happy!

graffiti wods on a red and white wall, "Graffiti Sucks"

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.

north to Humbert

Posted: August 21, 2015 in graffiti and street art
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There is a lane that runs parallel, and just to the west of, Ossington Ave.
It’s only one block long, running north from Queen St. West to Humbert Street.

In the summer of 2012 this lane was the site for “Brighten the Corners For the Love of Art” mural project.  The project involved a number of local community groups such as ProAction Cops and Kids as well as the Academy of Lions (a gym on Ossington Ave).  Twenty artists painted many of the garage doors and fences in the alley.   Some of the paintings remain, some have been defaced, and others have been painted over entirely since then.  This is what the alley looked like last week.

An alley that runs parallel to Ossington Ave., looking north with garages on both sides and a tree overhead, looking towards Humbert St.
Two birdo creatures on a brown garage door
Two spud bomb graffiti characters on a blue garage door in an alley

A large white spud character on a garage door, with big googly eyes and arms that come out from where his ears are

 

a number of colourful street art paintings on a garage door and gate in an alley

garage door painted orange and then a geometric street art painting in greys and purples painted on that

A door in an alley with two montsters painted on it. A one eyed purple monster with a long pink tongue is sitting on top of a blue monster who is trying to pinch the end of the purple monster's tongue

Close up of a graffiti piece, many colours, with a blue 3D stick figure surrounded on three sides by frame-like boards

Two garage doors with street art. On the left is a yellow lovebot and a red grominator. On the second is a large woman's face that has been scribbled on as well as a fairy-like creature. The latter two are the work of EGR.An old broken toilet is in the corner.

A purple faced man is blowing grey clouds, the alley is in the background.

A mural of big headed, big toothed creatures by broken alley on a garage door in a lane.

The creatures on the garage door above always remind me of ‘scrubbing bubbles’ from the cleaning products of the same name.

A picture of blue scrubbing bubbles from TV ad

revisiting an alley

Posted: August 9, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations
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I was sorting through older photos recently when I discovered some of street art and graffiti that I saw in an alley near Trinity Bellwoods Park.  The photos were taken in February so there is lots of snow in them.  I thought that it would be silly to write a blog post in August using cold and snowy photos so I went back the other day to retake the pictures.

A painting by street artist birdo of a red and blue striped horse like creature with its neck bent downwards so that it looks like it is eating the weeds that are growing between the cracks in the lane. It is on a garage door, tops of houses can be seen in the background, above the garage

The alley is at the north end of Trinity Bellwoods Park, running behind Dundas West between Montrose and Grace.  The east end of the alley turns north to exit at Dundas West.

a fence that runs down the right side of an alley has been covered with street art

below: This guy, and his chess issues, is at the corner where the alley meets Dundas West.

a low concrete fence is painted with graffiti street art, a green snarling green raccoon creature is acting out against a chess piece, a castle or rook

two street art pictures that look a bit like angry birds

cruz1 street art that looks like leaves or green abstract letters on a fence
3 big round headed aliens by street artist mska, one is green, one is pink and yellow and one is yellow and orange, on a fence in an alley

close up picture of a green leafed vine growing up a street art painting in blue and red with a yellow heart
A garage door in an alley that has been painted with many brightly coloured skulls

A garage door in an alley covered with a street art painting of letters and hand grenades - spud bombs

street art on a garage door in a laneway, dog riding on top of a doghouse, sort of like Snoopy did

below: close up of the dog from the painting above, taken in February

street art of a dog wearing sunglasses and pretending to be a pilot, taken in the winter as there are icicles hanging from the roof

below:  There was one garage that had been painted between February when I first saw it and early August when I went back.  The two photos below show the garage ‘before’ and ‘after’.

The side of a garage in an alley in winter, snow on the ground, two small trees. The side of the garage is painted green and it has a black and white orak tag on it.

The side of a garage door in summer, two trees and a parked car. The side of the garage is covered with street art

below:  This Anser face was on the doors of the above garage back in February.
It has since been painted over.

A face painted on a garage door. bright blue eys, otherwise drawn with just black lines. by the artist anser

 below:  Blaze Works has painted this where the Anser face was. Always remember.

blaze works tag like graffiti street art on a garage door in an alley

other garage doors

tag like street art on a garage door in an alley

tag like street art on a garage door in an alley Diana Gordito

tag like street art on a garage door in an alley crsy fario, killa wales, lpk 66,

tag like street art on a garage door in an alley ynn doh

Four men and a creature

Posted: August 5, 2015 in general Toronto
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First, the four men……

Painted on a wall at the NE corner of  Dundas West and Beatrice is this Movember mural by Elicser.
It has been there since 2013.

 

Movember mural on the side of a two storey brick house. On the left is a man, standing, shirtless with just the top of his jeans showing. He is tattoed. Beside him is just the upper part of another man's face, from the large moustache to the top of head with thinning hair. To the right are two small men's heads, both with moustaches, painted on a wooden fence behind the house. .

Just to the east of that mural is a painting by birdo

large painting by street artist birdo on the side of a brown clapboard building. The painting is of the head of a red and blue striped creature with orange horns and lime green ears and nose.

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

from Portland to Niagara

Posted: July 10, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations
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A few days ago I posted a series of photos of some of the graffiti and street art that I saw in Graffiti Alley between Portland and Spadina.   This post is a continuation of that one as it consists of the photos that I took on the same day but in a different section of the alley, between Portland and Niagara streets.

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - a very large grominator on the second storey, beside a door that goes nowhere

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - a large two headed grominator above a garage door, and a birdo creature on the door.

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - on a concrete wall, a birdo creature with a mouse head, a blue waffle body and pink and turquoise striped curvy body with long legs. It is holding a green oval shape in its front paws.

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - a wooden gate, double doors, so that when the doors are closed a stylized face is the result. It has mirror symmetry.

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - three large scowling men's heads in blue above a garage door that has swirls in pinks and purples.

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - black line drawing on white of a young man standing on the left and a young girl sitting on the right

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - a stencil that looks like a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon, both characters are sitting on a tree branch, Hobbes is stretched out and sleeping, Calvin is sitting. THe words 'There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - a large blue socket puppet with bulging eyes and a big black marker in its mouth.

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - Two buildings in the picture. In the foreground is a one storey garage with a large totund stylized guitar player sitting on the ground with one knee up. Behind him you can see another painting of a guitar player but this one is a bit more realistic.

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - A basquiat crown on a cartoonish face on a door

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - a sylized blue woman from the waist up. Puffy curly hair. She's been scribbled on including a heart on her chest.

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - Back wall of a store, large woman's face on part of the wall

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - the side of a concrete garage, small tree in front of it. To the left of the tree is a man's head and hand. In his hand is a lollipop but with it shaped like the symbol for Shell Oil. Beside it are the words Rich Kid Lollipop. To the right of the tree is a little blue figure with a pink basquiat type crown

a small collage by clowntearz, a sad face, rainbow, clouds,

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - a collage like piece of street art on a garage door by clowntearz. Googley eys, cannabis leaves, happy faces, zigzags, green alien faces, red ooze

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - a tag in browns and turquoise

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - on a wall at the bottom of the stairs, a mulitfaced person by elicser with a woman standing beside him with her arms stretched towards him. The words 'Kill'em with niceness' are written between the couple

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - blue lettering, G P C

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - a very large chocolate sundae, complete with whipped cream and a cherry, on a blue garage door

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - a woman's face in profile, seems to be looking at a large ice cream sundae.

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - BRDL, Penguin looking worried, dollar bills are flying out of his pockets and into a (real) vent of the building. He's wearing a blue tophat. Word bubble says

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - A large white man's face on a garage door, with a pile of broken boards in front of it. The man is supposed to be Kim Jong of North Korea

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - the upper part of a topless woman with curly pink and turquoise hair. Running vertically beside her are the words 'I got out of bed for this' and below her is the words 'or leave'

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - a lovebot of hearts playing card sticker on a metal pole beside a sticker of a woman's head with curly black hair and big earrings in the shape of a cross

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - brightly coloured painting in many colours and shapes

yipyaps sticker on a metal pole in an alley

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - angular shaped tag in blues

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - words scawled on a garage door,

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - an orange tag on rusty red background, painted across a wide doorway

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto -

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - Charlie Brown in the bottom right corner of a garage. In green are the words Be WHo You Are

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - on a wood fence, someone was scrawled the words

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - a colourful tag on a white garage door. The number 710 is above the door.

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - two stickers on a pole. A small skull and cross bones and a large one that is a black and white creature with website liarliar.etsy.com on it.

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - five stickers on white, also a big orange X. One sticker is a knuts frog with its tongue stuck out.

birdo on Borden

Posted: March 25, 2015 in graffiti and street art
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Birdo street art on the side wall  of Amato Pizza,
corner of Borden and College Streets.

birdo street art on a rust coloured brick wall. Two animal like creatures in greens, blues and rusts. They are larger than life size, taking up most of the side of the building, up to the second storey level.

birdo street art, close up of multicoloured creature over a doorway. Belly and legs are visible in the photo

birdo street art on a rust coloured wall. Yellow stylized bir with wing, claw and head in the picture

animals and birdo birds in Roncey

Posted: March 18, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations
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On Queen St. West, just before it meets Roncesvalles Ave., is the Corona Restaurant and Nightclub.  Along the wall of this building are a number of pieces of street art.   Only a small section is visible from the street.

Two pieces of street art along the upper floor of a brick building. In front, closest to the street is a young woman's head. The other is a colourful stylized bird by the street artist Birdo. The words "Birdo Wales" are written in white letter between the two pieces. The Corona Restaurant with a yellow awning is on the right and James Dys Antiques and Collectibles is on the left. is on the left.

Close up of Two pieces of street art along the upper floor of a brick building. In front, closest to the street is a young woman's head. The other is a colourful stylized bird by the street artist Birdo. The words "Birdo Wales" are written in white letter between the two pieces.

If you follow the alley that runs behind Queen St., you will find more street art alongside the same building.

Destination Mammals Cabana mural,
The back part is a mural entitled ‘Destination Mammal Cabana’ by Birdo, Spudbomb and SKE1.  It was painted in 2012.

Destination Mammals Cabana mural,

Destination Mammals Cabana mural, middle part, large baboon wearing a party hat, a giraffe, a crazy looking zebra and a green turtle, street art on a wall.

Destination Mammals Cabana mural, purple ostrich, screaming baboon and a giraffe,

Destination Mammals Cabana mural, hairy creature with mouth wide open and wearing suglasses and a rhino by a beach umbrella, street art, graffiti,

Destination Mammals Cabana mural, upright yellow tiger, antelope wearing yellow and green stripe beach wear and some other hairy creature with sunglasses on.

blog_mammal_sign

On the north wall of the same building…..

metal stairs to a small landing outside a door on the second storey of a concrete brick building. The walls of the bottom floor are covered with graffiti. Immediately behind the stairs is a large blue letter Z.

If you look closely at the above picture, on the right hand side metal pole supporting the landing, is a sticker.  Below, that sticker up close.

A small yellow bird on a small sticker. It is an Uber 5000 bird, wearing glasses and holding a red book. He's on a metal pole.
three murals on alley walls

mural by birdo, red background, a man's head and an creature with an animal face and a body that looks like a blue checked sweater

a mural by birdo, a small black and grey bird that is holding a geometric shape in blue and white diamond shaped sections.

Looking west along the alley towards Roncesvalles Ave.

looking west along an alley in late winter. Street art on the walls on the left, garage doors on the right. Buildings on Roncesvalles can be seen at the end of the alley which is about a block long.

but if you walk slightly west, away from Roncesvalles, you will encounter two more pieces by Birdo.  The ‘Dreamer’ is on the same building as the Destination Mammal Cabana that is pictured above.

A street art piece painted in a small stairwell, down from alley level. The door way is the head of a woman and her arms extend over part of the stairwell walls. She is dressed in red and blue including a birdo hat.

A birdo mural on a dirty light grey wall of a stylized bird and the word "dreamer" written in large black letters.

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