Posts Tagged ‘Dupont’

On the side of Fat Pasha Restaurant at the corner of Howland and Dupont there is a large mural of ten local Annex residents painted by Troy Lovegates.

whole Troy Lovegates mural, faces of 10 Annex residents both male and female

part of Troy Lovegates mural, faces

part of Troy Lovegates mural, two faces of young men in a variety of colours

Troy Lovegates mural, faces by the side door, including a younger person

Troy Lovegates mural, faces by a red door with word kitchen over the top of it, blue face of a woman, also an upper storey window

Troy Lovegates mural, faces by a red door, and two upper level windows, a line of light green garbage cans beside wall, two bikes,

The other day I headed towards Dupont and Dundas West because I heard about a mural that I didn’t recall having seen.  Here it is … and more.

below: The most westerly part of the mural is on the north side of Dundas West where Old Weston Road and Annette Street meet.

mural on a wall beside a busy street

mural with a bird, chicakdee or sparrow beside a large orange tiger lily

mural, large painting of a tiger lily and a sparrow

 

It continues along the side of the railway underpass on Dupont (it’s a confusing tangle of streets here!)

car stopped in traffic under railway bridge, driver is looking at the mural that is painted under the underpass

….and on the stairwell up to the West Toronto Railpath.

part of a mural, a robin and an orange rose, outside, beside a staircase

colourful mural outside beside a staircase, large flowers and leaves including an orange maple leaf

It was a gorgeous day so I walked around a bit more, of course!

below: On Dundas West

street art of a young person writing on the wall with red letters that say it's just a phase

below: A row of houses with wonderful facades.  You don’t many like that anymore! .. at least not on houses.

older two storey row houses with facades that extend above the roof line,

below: These fooled me at first.  Interesting black and white photos looking grubby and worn… with a small McDonalds logo on the bottom right.   The photo on the bottom left also has a few words in small print that give away the fact this is a McDonalds promotion.  I don’t think I’ve seen any like these elsewhere – or have I missed something?

4 large black and white photos of people eating hamburgers, that is actually a mcdonalds ad

below: The large black metal staircase at the end of the footbridge over the tracks at Wallace Ave are gone.  The replacement stairs are dull and bland.  This change was meant to accommodate new development on Wallace.

new stairs at the end of a footbridge over the train tracks at Wallace street in Toronto, beside the West Toronto Railpath

below: Railpath window reflections.

reflections of the sky in a window

below: Also on the West Toronto Railpath, someone has hung this colourful ‘curtain’ on the fence in order to add a splash of colour to a sitting area.  Once upon a time there were more chairs here.  And a table if I remember correctly.

fabric hanging from a rope beside a footpath, large green cylinder stoarge unit behind it.

below: One of two chalkboards installed by crazydames where people have written notes to cyclists imploring them to slow down and use their bells.  I totally agree!  Just before I came upon this, a man on an electric bike came up behind me, silently and fast.

large chalkboard on an orange brick wall with notes to tell cyclists to slow down and ring their bells.

below: This little gnome still stands by the entrance to a convenience store.  This guarden gnome has been here (Bloor West) for a few years.

a small gnome painted on the wall beside a door to a convenience store. The door is open and people are walking past

below: Reduce, reuse, recycle – here the R used is reuse.   Truck and tractor parts and other bits and pieces craftily arranged and put to use on the outside of the Farmhouse Tavern.  It should look better in a couple of months!

planters on an exterior wall, made of truck and tractor parts

below: A fairy in a garden of mushrooms.

a mural of a fairy, woman, with wings, holding something in her hand and looking upwards, in a garden with large mushrooms,

graffiti on a black wall, white bird like head on pick square

One last look at part of that mural!

mural with flowers, shadows in front

part of a mural, large light purple flower with yellow center and dark pink at inner most part of petals

 

Just before Dupont Street ends at Dundas West, it passes under a set of railway tracks…
and of course another underpass means another mural.

It is an Art Starts project “honouring the Junction and paying homage to its industrial past rooted in the railway and celebrating its development as a diverse neighbourhood oriented community. ”  Lead artists Joshua Barndt and Jamie Bradbury along with 5 youth artists took 4 weeks to complete the mural.

mural on a concrete wall beside a sidewalk, just before the road goes under an underpass - large purple triangel, drawing of a locomotive and a couple of gears

The mural was funded by the City of Toronto’s Graffiti Transformation Program.

mural on a concrete wall beside a sidewalk, just before the road goes under an underpass, gears, plus a stylized industrial machine in black and blue

mural on a wall showing a picture of worker in a hard hat, reaching upwards, standing on a pile of bicycle wheels.

mural on the wall of an underpass, in the Junction, on Dupont, a line drawing of a railway car, with a large blue bike superimposed on top of it, a person holding a stop sign,

Cycling is used as a theme and as a way of traveling from the past to the future in the mural.

mural on the walls of an underpass, orange metal bridge, mural of cyclists riding their bikes

mural under a bridge of people riding bikes

a wall of an underpass curves as it exits the railway bridge. on the curve is the continuation of a mural that was painted on the walls of the underpass. Windmills and bikes.

mural on a curved concrete wall, beside an intersection, showing windmills with bike parked in front, and a forest with some animals in it, fox and wolf

below: The final panel in the mural, a future friendly city.

part of a mural, the word city is used to make a futuristic urban scene in blue tones. The future is friendly.

logo of two black gears side by side with the words Art Starts written across the middle of them. a small graffiti painting of a girl's head with a heart above it

The suitman mural is on a railway underpass on Dupont St., just west of Lansdowne Ave.  It covers the walls on both sides of the street.

It was first painted  and funded with  $2000  received from the City of Toronto’s Clean and Beautiful program.  But after Rob Ford was elected mayor and began his “clean up” campaign, it was painted over with dull grey paint.   Considering that Joel Richardson was paid by the city to paint it in the first place.   Late in October 2011 it was replaced with a similar mural.  It took six weeks to repaint, 25 gallons of paint and 100 large cans of spray paint.

Most of the  photos taken were taken on 30 November 2013.  Some photos are from a two years previous and they are marked as such.


South Side of Dupont St.

The picture on the south side depicts business men lined up to form mathematical equation.

men in suits forming part of a mathematical equation.  A multiplication sign and part of a long division sign.

The eastern part of the equation. That’s not a check mark on the right of the photo, it’s part of a long division sign.

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a line of men in suits as part of a mural

divide then multiply

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Close up

Well suited for a close up.  (Photo taken Nov 2011)

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part of the mural showing many men in suits, a yellow star and a red star.

To the east of the bridge.

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X and + towards the bridge

X and + towards the bridge.  (Photo taken November 2011)

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center part of the mural showing a man wearing a suit who is sitting in the lotus position

This photo was taken from across the street – looking through the concrete pillars that support the railway bridge.

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A large white percent sign, a grey star and many men in suits with yellow halos around their heads.

Immediately west of the underpass.

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part of the suitman mural taken a couple of years ago.  The letter X, the number 6, a man wearing a gas masks plus 6 men wearing black suits and ties.  They have yellow halos around their heads.

This is one of the photos that was taken two years ago. I have included it for comparison purposes as the man wearing the gas mask is no longer part of the mural. Instead, three sitting women have been added at the bottom of the letter X. The next picture shows this part of the mural as it looks now.

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part of the suitman mural - many men in suits standing in a line.   Three sitting women are in the middle.

To the west of the train tracks. Note the absence of the man with the gas mask and the addition of the three women.


North Side of Dupont St.

blog_suit_death

Photo taken November 2011.

“And do thy duty even if it be humble, rather than another’s even if it be great. To die in one’s duty is LIFE: to live in another’s is death.”  [quote from the Bhagavad Gita, a 700 verse scripture that part of the Hindi epic ‘Mahabharata’]

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a sidewalk runs along the right side of the picture.  Agains the sidewalk is a concrete wall that has been painted with a mural.  A white arrow is part of the picture.  There are also words written in black but they hard to read because of the angle of the photo

Looking back under the bridge, following the arrow.

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blog_suit_circle

Photo taken November 2011

“This at least would be the case in a society where things were left to follow their natural course, where there was perfect liberty, and where there was perfect FREE both to choose what occupation we thought proper and to change it as we thought PROPER. THE whole of the advantages and disadvantages of different employments of labour stock, must in the same neighbourhood, be either perfectly equal or continually tending to equality”  [quote from “Wealth of Nations” by Adam Smith]

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More information on this mural: http://joelrichardson.com/2011/10/

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