Posts Tagged ‘concrete’

The Milky Way  from Dufferin to Elm Grove.

Once upon a time this alley led to a dairy.  Story has it that milk was often spilt along the way.

graffiti picture on a brick wall of a horse's head, a wagon wheel and spilt milk pouring from a large container.

At the west end of the Milky Way is a mural of two horses (one shown here), a wagon wheel, and an overturned milk can.

 

There is also quite a bit of graffiti in the alley.

a line of graffiti little green guys that look sort of like aliens with stick arms and legs and big black eyes.

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large pink graffiti tag letters on either side of a black door in an alley
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Large orange and yellow graffiti letters that say It's Like A Jungle Sometimes.  There is a door on the right side and on the door is a large black and white picture of a woman from the waist up.  She is bare chested with little pink hearts covering her nipples.

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Large bright orange and blue tag on a wood fence

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close up of a stencil graffiti of 2 cherries.  Beside the cherries is the letter R in blue.  Both are on concrete with a crack in it

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Three large pinkish alien like creatures on a corrugated metal fence.  Some ivy is hanging over the fence

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Graffiti on a wall with a window in the corner.  The picture is of a person singing into a microphone.  The words I want your skulls are above the person's head.

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graffiti face between two colourful tags.  Part of a window is the picture and there is a small Eiffel Tower on the window sill. .

Graffiti fishes and shark swimming on a wall.  Some weeds are growing up in front of them them and it looks like seaweed.  Two old Vote Spud signs are on a railing in this picture as well.
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A silly face with big teeth with the word crush under it, graffiti on a wall in the alley.  Green garbage bins in front of the wall.

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mural on a wall of a young woman with a large blue scarf handing money to a cartoon rabbit

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pink, brown, and light blue tag on a wall.

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Ghost Dick are the words in the graffiti and they are accompanied by a white drawing of a ghost walking to the left with it's arms in front

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A corrugated metal wall that is partially obscured by vines.  Under the vines is a green graffiti tag.  There is also a door in the wall with the number 55 on it.  It is someone's home.  There is also a mailbox.

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An old wood & glass door that has been painted over with graffiti.  A green and white sign saying Entrance is above the door.  Graffiti is on both sides of the door.

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Part of a street art painting in blues and purples.  It looks very geometric in design.  Some weeds are growing up in front of it.

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wispy space alien with a blue substance coming from its body and spreading into a purple and red tag

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I am beginning to wonder how many bridges there are in Toronto!  Yesterday I walked under three that I hadn’t been under before.  These are the photos from one of those bridges – Bathurst Street over Cedarvale Park, just north of St. Clair Ave.

 

three large colourful tags and one grey scale picture of a man squatting and smoking a cigarette,Bathurst St. over Cedarvale Park, graffiti under the bridge

chillin’ & smokin’

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shades of pink close up of part of a tag,Bathurst St. over Cedarvale Park, graffiti under the bridge

pink!

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flower face in black, grey and white, on the side of a support pillar, Bathurst St. over Cedarvale Park,graffiti under the bridge

a happy flower growing on the concrete

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tags around a down spout, Bathurst St. over Cedarvale Park, graffiti under the bridge

tags around the down spout

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bright blue words 'Look Mom' on pink and black, Bathurst St. over Cedarvale Parkgraffiti under the bridge

Look Mom!

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tags and a few small pictures on a large concrete support at one end of theBathurst St. over Cedarvale Park,graffiti under the bridge

an assortment of tags at the end of the bridge

 

In case you are curious, here is a list of bridges in Toronto:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bridges_in_Toronto

 

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From a vantage point over Nathan Phillips Square, we looked down on the people as they passed by.   It was late in the afternoon so the shadows were long.    Although we were looking for interesting characters, we were also creating compositions with people, concrete lines,  and shadows as elements.

 

Three photographs are shooting from behind a low concrete wall.  One has his camera aimed downwards towards the people walking below.  The others have their cameras aimed farther out.

hunting shadows

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A group of people walking across Nathan Phillips square.  They are walking on crete and the afternoon shadows are long.

caught some!

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A group of three people walking across Nathan Phillips square.  They are walking on crete and the afternoon shadows are long.

on the diagonal

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Most of the picture is of shadows on the concrete below.  There are partial shadows of the arches over the fountain at nathan phillips square.  There are also 4 people (or parts of the people) and the long shadows that they cast.

walking over the shadow arches

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A group of young people walking across Nathan Phillips square.  They are walking on concrete.  Five guys and two girls.  Both girls are in short black dresses with black sandals.

with matching little black dresses

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A man is sitting at a table outside, on Nathan Phillips Square, late afternoon, with long shadows making patterns on the concrete

Some shadows kept still so they were easier to capture.

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photo of the railing that is made of many vertical white bars.  The railing is not straight.  There are many shadows in the picture, and many patterns, linear and diagonal, made by the white bars and the shadows.

a multitude of lines and their linear shadows

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Not all involved shadows.  Sometimes, just people in the shadow.

A group of people are either sitting on a bench, or standing beside it, in Nathan Phillips Square, beside the fountain pool

Resting by the fountain.

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Two women are walking on the concrete squares

walking between the lines

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I ventured north today, north of the 401….. to Havenbrook Park which is just far enough north to access the bridge under the 401 just east of Leslie Street.  I went there because I had heard that some interesting graffiti could be found under the bridge.  As you can see, someone beat me to it.  It’s all gone, all cleaned up.

There is a small, and boring, amount of graffiti across the river and up the hill.   If I also wanted to climb the fence, I could access a bit more graffiti.  My cane was handy for managing the incline down to the river but that was the limit of my adventuring for today.

concrete supports, part of the bridge over the Don River

Having said that, there was this one piece of graffiti:

a stencil graffiti in black and white of a woman's face.

The graffiti had been cleaned up and so had the surroundings.  It was probably the cleanest of the bridges that I have been under in Toronto.  I saw rocks, dirt, water, paw prints and not much else.

paw prints in the mud

 

blog_reflections

 

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Fourth Annual Art Spin Exhibition,
Tower Automotive Building, 158 Sterling Rd.,
Aug 29 – Sept 1, 2013

18 artists, one old vacant heritage industrial building.

Interesting lighting.  Interesting use of the space.  Interesting relationships between the installations and their surroundings.

I have not included photos of all the art in the exhibit.  My apologies to the artists whose work I haven’t shown.

looking at 'Sound the Alarm' by Caroline Larsen' with the video installation 'I,I,I,I' in the foreground

looking at ‘Sound the Alarm’ by Caroline Larsen’ with the video installation ‘I,I,I,I’ in the foreground

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'We Are Happy' by Michael Toke.  Like a visit to the dentist's office.

‘We Are Happy’ by Michael Toke. Like a visit to the dentist’s office.

a group of people looking at a piece of art.  They are in a large open space that once was a factory.  Concrete and brick walls.

The painting on the wall to the left is ‘Exit Enter’ by Celia Neubauer.

'Sterling Caer Observer' by Noel Middleton

‘Sterling Caer Observer’ by Noel Middleton

A sculpture that is composed of three tall vertical pieces of shiny metal.  A yellowish brick wall is in the background.

‘Untitled’ by Jinny Yu. Three shaped pieces of metal by brick wall.

 

artist:  Mary Grisey

art installation in front of an old green door.  There is a lot of frayed rope.

Art installation with a lot of rope, especially frayed rope.

‘Floating in the Eye of the Storm’ by Lois Schklar.

  wire sculpture

Wire sculpture in the foreground with an oil painting in the background

part of a wire sculpture including a star

part of a wire sculpture showing a little gold trinket in the shape of a hand

‘Stillnessence Vivarium’ by John Oswald. 

This installation lent itself to a many interpretations.

projection of life sized picture of a group of people

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life sized projection of a group of people, male and female, young and old,

more information about Art Spin  http://www.artspin.ca

a wall, part concrete and part tile.

The video installation ‘Melting Bricks’ was in small room where it was shown fairly high up on the wall. It was the only source of light in the room. I focused on the relationship between the room and the light when I was taking pictures of it. (my apologies to the artist as I seem to have forgotten his/her name).

 

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