boat | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘boat’

Saturday at the beach

Posted: September 29, 2020 in people, waterfront
Tags: bikes, boardwalk, boat, car, family, kids, Lake Ontario, Leuty, Mclaren, paddle, picnic, reading, sand, swim, volleyball, walk, water, Woodbine Beach

… even though it was the end of September!

below: Up, up, and away… not! The woman in the middle doesn’t seem to interested. Perhaps she’s too busy taking advantage of an unexpected opportunity to sun bathe on the beach one more time.

below: Walking past Leuty Lifeguard Station.

below: He decided to stay and relax a little while people watching.

below: … and (almost) last, a wedding party in the park… finding ways to have celebrations in the summer of Covid-19.

below: That’s one way of getting to the beach!

the colours of Chihuly

Posted: August 9, 2016 in galleries
Tags: aquatic, art, birch logs, boat, Chihuly, colours, garden, glass, light, neon, people, persians, red, reflection, ROM, Royal Ontario Museum, sculpture, shapes, tubes, tumbleweeds, underwater

The word Chihuly in the title refers to Dale Chihuly, an American artist who has been working in glass since the mid 1960’s. At the moment there is a special exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) of some of the sculptural work produced by him and his team.

I’ve now wandered through this exhibit three times. The first time, I found it a bit overwhelming and I wasn’t sure how to photograph it. The second time I went I just looked. Yesterday I went back with my camera and tried again. I’m reasonably happy with the photos but I know that I have only captured a small part of the art. Perhaps it is enough to enable you to imagine more of it, or to refresh your memory if you have already seen the exhibit.

below: Admirers looking at “Persian Ceiling”, 2012 . Large cushions were provided for those who wanted to lie down to get a view of the ceiling in its entirety. Of course, looking at the sections up close was also fascinating. All the different shapes and colours overlap and produce new colours and textures.

below: Section of the “Persian Ceiling” installation.

The round slight scalloped glass shapes that look a bit like flowers are called Persians. At least that’s the name that Chihuly has given them as described in this quote that appears on the wall just outside the room. “I just liked the name Persians. It conjured up sort of Near-Eastern, Byzantine, Far East, Venice, all the trades, smells, sense… I don’t know, it was an exotic name to me, so I just called them Persians.”

below: A ray swims amongst the waves of colour.

below: “Red Reeds”. I thought of candles when I first saw this piece, red candles in a birch bark candle holder. Then the young girl standing beside me announced that it was a campfire and I changed my mind. I think she’s right. Marshmallows anyone?

The red tubes are hollow glass. Metal rods have been inserted into the birch logs and the glass tubes sit over these rods. You can see the darker sections at the bottom of the tubes where the metal rods are.

below: “Blue and Purple Boat, 2006”. Back in 1995 Chihuly floated some glass pieces on a river in Finland. Local teenagers collected the pieces in their wooden boats and this provided the inspiration for a number of installations featuring glass in boats. This is one of two on display at the ROM. It is on a reflective surface, like a calm river.

below: “Sapphire Neon Tumbleweeds” constructed from factory made neon tubes that have been heated and bent into organic shapes. The lighting is magenta in real life but blue in my photos.

below: The next few photos are of a large and elaborate installation called “Laguna Torcello”, named after a lagoon island in Venice. It is a garden of fantasy in glass. Parts seem to be aquatic, growing under water.

As an aside, I suspect that the logistics and cost of transporting and installing these pieces is not minor. Like the red tubes above, this garden is made of hollow glass pieces that are arranged on, and supported by, rods. The whole thing sits on a flat, dark, and reflective surface which adds another dimension to the artwork.

The exhibit continues until the end of 2016.

Dale Chihuly website

love letters in paint

Posted: July 11, 2016 in events, graffiti and street art
Tags: alley, birdo, boat, Cara To, caratoes, Cinzah, DOn River, En Masse, environment, lake, lebonar, love letters to the Great Lakes, mrcinzah, murals, Olivier Bonnard, Ossington, pangeaseed, peru, peru143, public art, Queen West, seawalls, sens, sermob, ship, street art, water

From June 20th to 25th, many street artists brought their talents to paint murals with the Great Lakes as their theme. It was part of Pangeaseed Foundation’s Seawalls for Oceans. Pangeaseed’s mission is to use science, art and creativity to “inspire positive change around pressing ocean environmental issues”. This campaign originally focused on oceans but they have now branched out to increase awareness of the issues involving out fresh water lakes and rivers as well. One of their methods is to support and encourage the painting of murals – Seawalls have been painted in Miami, San Diego, Napier New Zealand, Cozumel Mexico and many other cities around the world… and now in Toronto too.

One of the locations chosen for the murals was around Ossington and Queen where they join a number of murals that were already there.

below: The S.S. One Love sails high above an alley, painted by Peru143

below: Painted in mostly shades of grey, a mural by Caratoes (aka Cara To), a street artist based in Hong Kong.

below: A large water bird swims along the surface and watches the people passing by.
Painted by Jon Todd.

As you can see from the above photo, there are three round images painted on the south wall of the old Self Storage building.

below: Closest to the street, a mural by Sermob

below: In the middle and tying the three circles together is a mural of entwined fish by Miguel Valinas from Mexico.

below: A sleepy baby otter in its parents’ arms, painted by Sens, also from Mexico

below: A mural on a bright yellow wall – a shark and a dinosaur amongst geometric shapes that are characteristic of birdo’s work. There is also another animal head beside it. This was a collaboration between birdo, tens2, fuel, kostyn, phil and barney and it pre-dates the Love Letters to the Great Lakes murals.

below: From bright colours, to black and white – birdo’s collaboration with En Masse. A mural with the words “RIP Don Valley River”

below: It’s a rather dark lament about the state of the Don River.

below: Standing on an island, ‘Hello’ by Chicago-born Hebru Brantley in 2015

below: Whales, lobsters, fish and other creatures swimming amongst the seaweed, painted by street artist lebonar (aka Olivier Bonnard)

below: More marine life, but in an unfortunate spot. I’ve been to see this mural twice, and both times the fence was locked. It looks like the fish has an arm that it’s using to reach for the unsuspecting crayfish – a metaphor for invasive species and their effects on marine life and their habitats. It was painted by Cinzah Seekayem from New Zealand. You can see better pictures of it on his instagram page.

seawalls and serpents

Posted: July 11, 2016 in graffiti and street art
Tags: birdo, boat, Bruno Smoky, cage, clandestinos, colours, containers, environment, fish, fishing, Great Lakes, hook, marine, mural, Ossington, pollution, Queen West, Rebecca St., seawalls, serpent, swimming, swiss army knife, turquoise, water

This blog post is a continuation of the ‘love letters in paint’ post. I decided to give two of the larger murals a separate post.

First, there is an awesome mural painted by Bruno Smoky and Clandestinos that stretches across the back of a building on Rebecca Street (one block north of Queen St. West). It too is part of the Love Letters to the Great Lakes project.

And second, in an alley just east of Ossington, is a mural painted on bright turquoise that is hard to miss! Actually it is a series of murals that covers the back of more than one building. It is another birdo collaboration, this time with Christopher Konecki.

#seawallsTO | #loveletterprojects | #pangeaseed

at Fairbank station

Posted: September 28, 2015 in graffiti and street art
Tags: animals, anser, bird, blackburn, boat, braes, brunosmoky, bunny, creatures, croc, crocodile, deadboy, duck, faces, graffiti, mska, Nick Sweetman, overgrown, paula prezende, poser, raccoon, water, weeds, whoisrandom, women

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.

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

below: by braes, or braesoner

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

below: by deadboy (note raccoon on mud flap)

below: by poser and ABM Crew

below: by Nick Sweetman

below: By brunosmoky

it’s become a game

Posted: September 10, 2015 in landmarks
Tags: angles, boat, buildings, CN Tower, crane, downtown, King and Spadina, lights, night, people, Queen St. West, rigging, Sherbourne Common, sky, skyscrapers, street scene, Toronto, views

And the point of the game is this:

How many views of the CN Tower do you think there are?
I suspect the answer is something like “bazillions” but I am willing to try to see how many I can find.

below: From far away. Looking eastward across Lake Ontario from Humber Bay park.

Some of these views you have probably seen before… and perhaps many times before.
But, I hope that some of these views are new to you.

below: Zipline at Canada Square, part of EpicIsOn event

below: From the east, across Sherbourne Common, late afternoon

below: And from the west

below: Behind a busy intersection, King and Spadina

below: behind Queen St. West

below: The CN Tower peaks out from between the pencil supports at OCAD

This post is a continuation of another CN Tower post, Always in the way, from last year.

heritage murals – Kingston Road

Posted: November 14, 2014 in history, locations
Tags: bluffs, boat, Half Way house, heritage trail, history, inn, John Hood, Kingston Rd., Midland Ave., mural, mural routes, Ontario, painting, parking lot, Scarborough, Simcoe

The Heritage Trail murals are a series of murals depicting the history of Scarborough. The project began in 1990 and consists of 12 murals at different locations along Kingston Road (old hwy 2).

Just west of Midland Ave are two of the murals.

Half Way House painted in 1990 by John Hood at 2052 Kingston Road, the NW corner of Midland & Kingston Rd. It is a picture of the Half Way House inn (and stage coach stop) that stood at this corner. It’s name comes from the fact that it was halfway between the village of Dunbarton (now a part of Pickering) and the St. Lawrence Market in Toronto. In 1965 the building was moved to Black Creek Pioneer village.

Just farther to the west is another mural. ‘The Bluffs as Viewed by Elizabeth Simcoe c. 1793’ was painted by Risto Turunen in 1992. It is on the side of the building located at 2384 Kingston Rd, now Wong’s Martial Arts. Elizabeth Simcoe was the wife of wife of Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada.

The property beside this mural is now vacant and is enclosed by the type of blue temporary fencing that you see around many construction sites all around Toronto. If there was a building there, it has been demolished, otherwise there is no work being done there at the moment.