downtown | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘downtown’

facing outward from the wall

Posted: July 18, 2014 in graffiti and street art
Tags: alley, city, downtown, dude, face, faces, garage, graffiti, graffiti faces, head, lane, laneway, people, photos, spray paint, street art, tags, Toronto, urban

Graffiti faces seen in alleys and lanes recently.

A street art painting of a bust of a woman, all white, looks like white marble Greek or Roman statue, very classical looking

White bust on a wall near Bathurst subway station. She has been here for quite some time now; it’s good to see that no one has tagged over her

Large black & white & grey face of a famous black musician, probably jazz or blues but I'm not sure

musician – and my apologies because I am not sure who it is.

A small black & white & grey face made on paper, surrounded by green , yellow, blue & oranges squiggly lines

colourful face

A street art painting of a woman's face. Her eyes are closed and her head is tilted upwards

Closed eyes between the garages

Graffiti, or street art, on a blue background, of a little black and white animal with a spray paint can in his hand. Beside him is a tag in yellows and olive greens.

Love Spraying Dude, a colourful little guy

A few small trees are growing in front of an older building that has been painted white. Two brown figures have been stencilled onto the wall.

Hiding behind the trees

*****

alley animals

Posted: July 14, 2014 in graffiti and street art
Tags: alley, animals, beaks, bird, bunny, city, cranes, dinosaur, doors, downtown, elephant, garages, graffiti, hummingbird, lane, mural, pig, rhino, rhinocerous, street art, tags, Toronto, urban

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.

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.

oink, oink
A mural by ACS murals

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

guardasaurus to watch over the door

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

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.

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.

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

hummingbird hovering beside a garage door

*****

slaps in the alley

Posted: July 14, 2014 in graffiti and street art
Tags: balaclava, bandana, brown brick, city, College St., dog, downtown, graffiti, licking, persevering, phinite, photos, purple, purple flower, rabbit, slaps, socks, stickers, street art, thanks, Toronto, urban, window, woman

In a small alley running behind the south side of College St., west of Bathurst, we discovered a large number of sticker graffiti pieces.

brown brick wall with a window that has been boarded over and painted the same brown colour. In the window, and on the window frame, are a large number of sticker graffiti pieces.

once it was a window, now it is a canvas of sorts

close up of some of the stickers that are in the window. One has words on it that asks if you have thanked yourself for persevering. Another is a red lizard with the words No Pipelines written on it, and another is a dog that is licking socks.

persevering thank you very much, while the dog licks the socks

A woman wearing a light purple cloth over the lower part of her face is holding a large white sign with the letter A inside a circle on it. Beside her is a large purple flower. Both are sticker.

partially obscured with purple and purple flower

An assortment of some of the stickers. These are the ones that were on the top part of the window. A person wearing a balaclava, a black haired girl with the lower part of her face covered in black, an outline drawing of a rabbit,

I did what I could with this photo as it was taken looking upward into the shadows of the window. Strange angle too – being much taller might have helped!

A black and white sticker on a yellow pole. The words on the sticker say Rad Brad. It is weird looking two legged creature.

Rad Brad hanging out on a yellow pole

******

St. Enochs Square

Posted: July 10, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: black and white cat, boy, brick wall, cat, city, dandelions, downtown, EGR, EGRart, Elicser Elliott, lane, mural, painted wall, people, rejuvenation, Shuter, St. Enochs Square, street art, Toronto, urban

St. Enochs Square, between Massey Hall and the back of the stores facing Yonge St., just south of Shuter St.

This mural was painted about a year ago as part of a project to rejuvenate this alley. It was a collaboration between EGR and Elicser Elliott.

entrance to laneway, red brick building on the left (Massey Hall), mural painted on the wall on the right. Mural shows a woman & a boy blowing the seeds from white puffy dandelions.

entrance to St. Enochs Sq. on Shuter St.

A woman is holding an infant and a small child. Another child is clinging to her. A man is to her right and a girl is to her left. The infant is ugly and may not really be an infant but instead be a little roly poly old man... or a hybrid of the two

left side of the mural

a large black and white cat is looking at the viewer. It is wearing a little crown. Beside the cat is a boy in a blue and white striped shirt who is blowing the seeds off a puffy white dandelion.

blowing dandelions

panorama of the mural

summer in the city

Posted: July 7, 2014 in general Toronto, people
Tags: aquarium, baseball, bikes, downtown, Dundas Square, enjoying, fish, food, food trucks, Kensington, kids, people, photography, photos, Ryerson, street, streets, summer, sunny, Sweet Alibi, T-shirts, Toronto, Uncle Smokes, walking, warm, waterfront

Summer in the city – although the summer feels like it’s only just begun!

A cyclist and his bike are sitting at the edge of Lake Ontario, behind the chain fence. It is evening and the sky is strating to turn pink

Early evening rest at the waterfront

Two food trucks are parked on the street. People are buying food, or sitting on the conrete bench (low wall) that runs parallel to the sidewalk

Ice cream, slushies, hot dogs, chips, poutine…. food trucks on Queen Street in front of City Hall.

Two people are standing behind a table that is covered with a red and white checkered table cloth. The menu is written on a chalk board in front of them. The last item on the menu is love, and it's cost is free.

Uncle Smoke gives away free love! Pulled pork with beans, corn bread and veg will cost you $10 though! Pedestrian Sunday, Kensington Market.

A man is sitting beside a stroller in the foreground. Behind him is a pool of water and then a large glass building. On the wall of the building are black and white images of some famous people including Andy Warhol, JFK, and Albert Einstein

Under the watchful eye of a few famous people – Ryerson Image Centre building.

Some people are walking towards the camera as the cross a street including a couple who are holding hands. He is wearing an orange Tshirt that says Cool story babe, Now Make me a Sandwich.

“Cool Story Babe, Now make me a sandwich.” Any replies ladies?

A girl is standing very close to one of the tanks at the aquarium, she has her hands open and on the glass.

hands on at the aquarium

Dundas Square with many people sitting on chairs, under red umbrellas, watching a band play on stage

‘Sweet Alibi’ plays at Dundas Square

A large group of people, inlcuding many kids, are walking towards Rogers Stadium for a Blue Jays baseball game. Most of them are wearing blue Blue Jays shirts.

game day, Jays fans

******

dyke march – the befores

Posted: June 29, 2014 in events, people
Tags: #dmto, #wemarch, bikes, crochet, downtown, dyke march, dykes, flags, gay, LGBT, parade, people, pink, pride, queer, rainbow, Toronto, umbrella

Getting ready, or waiting, for the Dyke March. Saturday 28th June, from Allan Gardens west to Yonge St then north to Charles St. It was a very warm and sunny day.

two lone photographers stand in a street that has no traffic. Crowds are on the sidewalks on either side. They are sitting, waiting for a parade to come past

Carlton street awaits the start of the march.

Reflection in the round side view mirror of an old school bus that has been painted pink by CUPE.

reflecting on the CUPE bus, painted in pink and flying a pink flag.

A man is wearing a rainbow flag like a cape, and he has one wrapped around his head like a headband. He is selling large and small sized rainbow flags. He is topless otherwise

I bought a flag.
Him: Oh, this is going to be put online?
Me: If it works.

Two guys are sitting on the sidewalk. One has dyed his hair yellow and he's carrying a rainbow flag. The other is resting his chin on his hands, and his elbows on his knees. He has his rainbow flag draped over his head and he looks very bored.

It was a hot day and the parade was late getting started…….

A multicoloured bracelet on a wrist. The bracelet says, Oy Vey I'm Gay.

I spoke briefly to a woman who was wearing this bracelet. One of the women she was with was wearing a sticker that said, “Eat Me, I’m Kosher” but I didn’t take a picture of it.

detail of a crocheted banner that was made for the duke march

something about gender, details of a crocheted banner that was made to be carried in the march

A good looking, very fit, man wearing just a pair of pink shorts and a pair of sandals is walking down the street.

pretty in pink

A lacy umbrella decorated with crocheted 3D breasts in different colours, probably life sized.

custom crocheted umbrella to keep the sun off…. sitting on the grass before the parade

A black helmet has two lines of pink fringe glued on the top it that make it look like a Mohawk hair cut. The helmet is sitting on the seat of a black motorcycle.

waiting to ride

Bulwer Street

Posted: June 10, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: alley, bird, Bulwer, car windows, chain link, city, concrete walls, downtown, eyes, face, fish, graffiti, lane, photos, reflections, stickers, street art, tags, teeth, Toronto, urban, wall, weeds, yellow bird

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

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

white eyes

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

rooftop reflections

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

mirrored in the glass

facing the alley

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

only half the man he used to be

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

bright blue, pink and orange tag on lime green background

tag – suniti? BA Kings?

parts of three tags on a wall

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

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

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

little fish, big teethfish

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

*****

Sonya’s Park

Posted: May 21, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: altered signs, brick, city, defaced, downtown, grass, green space, historical, houses, Kensington market, Oxford St., park, photos, pictures, playground, stickers, tags, Toronto, urban, wall

Sonya’s Park, a small green space on Oxford Street.

On the east side of the park there is a brick wall that had a number of scenes painted on it. The pictures depicted a trip to Kensington market, circa 1885. Some of the murals remain intact while others have been defaced.