Posts Tagged ‘environment’

30th street mural

Posted: February 9, 2019 in graffiti and street art
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Back in November, before I went away, a friend and I ventured out to Long Branch because we had heard that there was a new Nick Sweetman mural on 30th street. Just north of Lakeshore Blvd., 30th street passes under the railway tracks.  This is where the new mural is.  It’s a collaboration with fellow artist Phil Cote and it’s nearly 500 feet long.

below: North of the railway tracks

a large section of the mural by Nick Sweetman on 30th street as it passes under the railway tracks

Photos of the mural, in no particular order:

part of a Nick Sweetman mural on 30th street, close up of the face of a creature with white whickers and a blue nose

a butterfly

part of a Nick Sweetman mural on 30th street, large butterfly

some turtles

part of a Nick Sweetman mural on 30th street, a large turtle and a smaller turtle, by the railing along side the sidewalk

two birds in flight – all of a redwing blackbird and part of a cardinal

a red wing black bird in flight and the back part of a cardinal, part of a mural

a bee on two orange flowers

a bee, on two large orange flowers, Nick Sweetman mural

some fish

part of a Nick Sweetman mural on 30th street, a yellowish fish with blue fins

part of a Nick Sweetman mural on 30th street, a purple fish with yellow speckles and fins

a fox, a duck with duckling, and a purple owl

part of a Nick Sweetman mural on 30th street, a fox, a duck with yellow duckling and a purple owl

a cute furry animal

part of a Nick Sweetman mural on 30th street, a small furry animal bside a plant with pink flowers, as well as a person standing on the sidewalk and taking a picture of the mural

… and hiding under the tracks in a place where it’s difficult to take a picture is this large moose (elk?).

part of a Nick Sweetman mural on 30th street, a moose or elk with large antlers

part of a Nick Sweetman mural on 30th street - plants, with a real tree growing in front of it

 

making peace, on display

Posted: May 31, 2017 in events, locations, public art
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‘Making Peace’ is a traveling exhibit that is being shown in Toronto at the moment.  It was produced by the International Peace Bureau (IPB) and was first shown in in 2010 as a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 1910 Nobel Peace Prize that was awarded to IPB.  It’s purpose is to promote peace as well as educate and inform.

It can be seen until the end of June on Front Street East in the Canary District (by Corktown Commons, east of the Distillery District).    In Toronto, the exhibit involves short four-sided pillars that line the sidewalk and each side of every pillar has a photo with a description or a quote from a famous person.  There is also a temporary gallery in an indoor space ‘loaned’ to the exhibit by one of the developers in the Canary District.

below: A painting in progress by Ford Medina showing Nelson Mandela in five colours.  These colours carry over into the outdoor exhibit and each colour represents the five main elements that IPB considers necessary for peace:
1. disarmament and nonviolence (purple)
2. conflict prevention and resolution (red)
3. economic and social justice (orange)
4. human rights, law and democracy (blue)
5. environment and sustainable development (green)

indoor temporary gallery for the Making Peace exhibit, a painter is in the midst of creating a large painting of five copies of a picture of Nelson Mandela, each copy is in a different colour, purple, red, orange, blue and green,

below: The display extends into Corktown Commons.  Here the pillars are green as this is the section for the fifth element named above, the environment.

outdoor exhibit, Corktown Commons, short pillars with 4 sides, each side has a picture and a description, the background colour is green which represents the environment and sustainability.

below:  Photo by Ribeiro Antonio.  The words that accompany this photo are: ” On 25 September 2015, the 193 countries of the UN agreed to an historic plan of action, entitled ‘Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’.  This plan contains 17 goals with 169 targets covering a broad range of sustainable development issues.  These include ending poverty and hunger, improving health education, making cities more sustainable, combating climate change, and protecting oceans and forests.”  If you are interested in this, there is more information on the UN website.

a photo of a person dressed in a large blue and green Planet Earth costume, holding the hand of a young boy as the walk on a beach towards the water

below: Blue is for human rights, law, and democracy and here you have an old black and white photograph of Sylvia Pankhurst (1882-1960), a British campaigner, apparently taken when she was in Australia speaking out on behalf of woman’s rights as part of the Suffragette movement.  The Suffragettes (or Women’s Social and Political Union or WSPU) was founded by a small group of women in 1903, including Sylvia, but during WW1 Sylvia was expelled from the WSPU because of her pacifist views and anti-war actions.  Her sister Adela shared similar views – she immigrated to Australia where campaigned against the First World War.

a vintage black and white photo that is part of an exhibit, outdoors, called Making Peace

below: Two photos.  The one on the right, of the woman holding the flower in front of the armed soldiers, was taken at a Peace March against the Vietnam War in Washington DC in 1967.  The photo on the left was taken in 2001 and is the back of a Kamajor fighter in Sierra Leone.  They played a role in the civil war that occurred in that country between 1991 and 2002.

2 sides, taken from the corner, of a box like structure, with black and white photographs on the two sides, one of the back of a man with a rifle across his shoulders and a backpack that says Lets go to school. The other photo is a woman standing up to a line of soldiers with bayonets.

below: A couple of the red pillars on Front Street with the blue sculpture, “The Water Guardians ” behind them.   The images on the closest pillar are of inside the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem as well as UN peacekeepers in Bosnia.

an outdoor art exhibit on peace, two of the structures used for mounting pictures on, with the blue sculpture on Front Street, Canaray District, in between the two boxes.

below: Closer to home, this pillar celebrates the work of the Toronto Parks and Trees Foundation.   Working with the city as well as with community groups, businesses, and individuals, they help to increase  Toronto’s tree cover.

a set of four photos about planting trees on the side of a square pillar, one of many pillars that are arranged in a line on the sidewalk.

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.”  Gandhi

below: Homeless migrant worker, China

picture of a woman sleeping underneath a picture of a woman lying on a bed, shown outdoors so there are some tree leaves in the picture

The exhibit continues until mid-September.

love letters in paint

Posted: July 11, 2016 in events, graffiti and street art
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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

large mural by Peru on the back of a two storey building, a large red ship called the S.S. One Love in the water

part of a mural by Peru, lots of blue, looks like a stylized snake

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

a two storey vertical mural by caratoes in grey tones, fish and faces on the top and an object made of black and white triangles on the bottom

Close up of the top half of a mural by caratoes in grey tones, fish and faces

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

large mural of a water fowl sitting on the water on the old white Queen West self-storage building.

viewed from the corner so you can see two sides of the building, large mural of a water fowl sitting on the water on the old white Queen West self-storage building and another mural on the other side of the building

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

round mural painted by Sermob, car parked in front of it, stylized figures on water

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

large round mural of two large fish, intricate patterns on the fish, entwined head to tail to form a circle with their bodies

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

a large round mural of a family of otters. Baby otter is sleeping in his parents' arms. by Valinas

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.

large mural by birdo, street art, on a two storey bright yellow building, a shark, and an alligator (or crocdile) head

small mural of an animal head, street art, by Fuel, Kostyn, birdo

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

black and white mural in an alley, turtle, geometric shapes, woman's face, leaves, RIP Don Valley River

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

detail of a black and white mural by birdo and en masse with sybols of death and decay.

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

a large mural of a boy standing on a small island, wearing sunglasses, and saying "Hello", painted by Hebru Brantley

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

two sides of a building with murals, one side is a large mural of a boy standing on a small island, wearing sunglasses, and saying "Hello", painted by Hebru Brantley and the other side (store front)

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.

a mural of marine animals on the side of a building, but behind a locked fence

fish mural on a white wood fence, muted tones of greens, blues and browns.

colourful mural by Peru with the letters K E S H

Other posts about this project:

  1. other murals at Queen and Ossington, seawalls and serpents
  2. murals by the Don River, at the mouth of the Don
  3.  murals at Queen, Spadina and Bulwer

 

#seawallsTO | #pangeaseed | #loveletterprojects

seawalls and serpents

Posted: July 11, 2016 in graffiti and street art
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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.

part of a mural by Bruno Smoky across the back of a large building, marine life, lots of fish in blues and greens swimming in the lake as well as a small wood boat with a little white cabin on it.

part of a mural by Bruno Smoky across the back of a large building, marine life, lots of fish in blues and greens as well as a small wood boat with a little white cabin on it.

part of a mural by Bruno Smoky across the back of a large building, marine life, lots of fish in blues and greens as well as a small wood boat with a little white cabin on it.

part of a mural by Bruno Smoky across the back of a large building, marine life, lots of fish in blues and greens as well as a small wood boat with a little white cabin on it.

part of a mural by Bruno Smoky across the back of a large building, marine life, lots of fish in blues and greens as well as a small wood boat with a little white cabin on it.

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.

mural on two sides of a building in an alley, on turquoise, large swiss army knife, and a fish in a cage, reaching out with a long skinny arm, with a fishing rod

mural of a large red Swiss army knife that opens up to reveal container ships, not knife blades. The containers are falling off into the water.

mural on the back of two buildings, a fish in a cage who is fishing, and the back end of a serpent

mural on turquoise, serpent, alley birdo, konecki,Love letter to the Great Lakes

long mural of a serpent in many colours and geometric shapes by birdo that winds its way across the back of a couple of buildings

#seawallsTO | #loveletterprojects | #pangeaseed

return to Lawrence West

Posted: November 22, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations, public art
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As promised a few blog posts ago, I went back to take more photos of the now complete mural on the underpass on Lawrence Avenue just west of Caledonia.  It was painted by Essencia Art Collective (Shalak Attack, Fiyabruxa and Brunosmoky).

part of a larger mural on the side of an underpass, road and sidewalk in front of the photo, houses behind - a larger than life sized head of a tiger, an elephant, and a bird with a colourful beak

mural by Essencia Art Collective of golden pyraminds with elephants walking amongst them and eagles and macaws flying above them.

street art picture of a red and blue macaw flying over pyramids, its painted beside a set of stairs so it looks like the bird is flying up the staircase

part of a larger mural on the side of an underpass, road and sidewalk in front of the photo, houses behind - looking at an angle back at the mural, Egyptian pyramids painted beside the stairs that go from the sidewalk to the houses above. Also a painted camel with a bright patterned blanket on its back.

part of a larger mural on the side of an underpass, road and sidewalk in front of the photo, houses behind - a creature with a deer skull and antlers as head with a vulture sitting on its shoulder. Background scenery is dead land with an oil derrick on it.

part of a mural by Essencia Art Collective on Lawrence West in Toronto showing the drastic possible environmental effects of not looking after the planet - dead animals, dead oil fields, dead trees, over exploitation of the Earth

part of a mural by Essencia Art Collective on Lawrence West in Toronto showing the drastic possible environmental effects of not looking after the planet - dead forest, dead city

part of a mural by Essencia Art Collective on Lawrence West in Toronto showing the drastic possible environmental effects of not looking after the planet - a black and crumbling city with the CN Tower looking like it's about to fall down

part of a mural by Essencia Art Collective on Lawrence West in Toronto showing the drastic possible environmental effects of not looking after the planet - a person covered in a grey suit and wearing a gas mask in front of a decaying and falling down city

mural of a person praying, hands together, eyes closed, wearing a purple shawl over their head

mural with people, city life and comment on mistreatment of the environment

car driving under a bridge and past a mural painted on the walls of the underpass, two large green women's faces tilted upwards with eyes closed

street art mural of a turtle swimming by some lily pads in the water, as seen from below

a man cycles past a large mural, two very large green faces are in the foreground

part of a mural on an underpass, under the bridge, large cobs of corn and a bright dragonfly

close up of big eyes on an insect, part of a mural

looking eastward along a long horizontal mural painted beside a city street

close up of part of a mural by Essencia Art Collective of a woman with a flower in her hair and a leaf shaped ear ring, mother nature like, beside a large fox.

part of a mural painted on an underpass - the nose of a very large fox plus two tiny houses on stilts above turbulent water, night sky

part of a larger mural, a boy is sitting at the back of a large wood boat, he is fishing, the boat is in a large bubble

part of a large mural on an underpass in Toronto painted be Essencia Art Collective, an old man with white hair, beard and mustache and wearing a wool hat is holding a paper cup that has fire and steam coming out of it. A bird is sitting on his shoulder

part of a street art mural - three animals, a warthog with spikey back, a deer, and another animal with antlers and a roundish face

a large warthog animal in a street art mural

a large owl in a mural

looking along a sidewalk where there is alarge mural, a very large owl is looking at you, other animals in the background.

street art mural, metaphorical heart of the Earth is being ripped out of the water

part of a large mural with an environmental theme - a brown bear stands beside a small waterfall in the midst of a lush green place

part of a mural with an environment theme, a polar bear is standing beside a red and white ship that is frozen in the arctic ice.

arctic scenes as part of a larger street art mural on an underpass in Toronto - polar bears walking on ice, with an iceberg behind them.

arctic scenes as part of a larger street art mural on an underpass in Toronto - a person in a purple parka holding a little tree, standing in ice between two polar bears

arctic scenes as part of a larger street art mural on an underpass in Toronto - a man in a parka with a fur lined hood looks down the road towards the rest of the mural

part of a street art mural, three people bundled up in fur lined parkas in a winter scene

a little teaser

Posted: November 10, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations
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There’s a new mural being painted.  It’s not quite finished

looking down a sidewalk. A wall on the left has been painted with gold orange and brown pyramids, a lift is in the middle of the sidewalk, a busy street, Lawrence Ave, is to the right.

but it is looking impressive!

view of a mural that runs beside a sidewalk, taken from across the street

It is the work of Essenciartcollective, namely brunosmoky, shalakattack and fiyabruxa.

It started to rain quite heavily while I was there so I didn’t linger.
I’ll return soon – and by then it should be finished!  A few photos in the meantime:

part of a larger mural on an underpass in Toronto, on Lawrence West, two woman's faces in green, eyes closed, heads slightly uplifted. long green grass around them, some orange and blue plants that look like water lily pads seen from below.

part of a larger mural on an underpass in Toronto, on Lawrence West, a large owl in purples and reds with a yellow eyes. He dominated the picture. There is also a warthog and an elk (reindeer?) behind him
Parts of the mural are very apocalyptic

part of a larger mural on an underpass in Toronto, on Lawrence West, an apocalyptic view of Toronto with the CN Tower and downtown skyscrapers crumbling in a lifeless city

part of a larger mural on an underpass in Toronto, on Lawrence West, a close up of an old bearded man's face.

Pictures of the completed mural are now available!

jobs, justice and climate action

Posted: July 6, 2015 in events
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Protest, rally and march
from Queens Park to Allan Gardens,
5 July 2015

jobs, justice and climate action protest march - the lead banner of the march. It says Jobs, Justice and the Climate. It is red with white letters and is almost the full width of the street. A few drummers and dancers are in front of the banner. Many people with signs and flags are behind the banner.
jobs, justice and climate action protest march - a man is making large bubbles that float towards the front of the parade.

below:  A protester prepares to carry a large effigy of Kathleen Wynne, leader of the provincial Liberal party, with the help of some colleagues.

A couple of people are helping a woman prepare to wear a large effigy. A very large head of a woman wearing dark rimmed glasses.

below: David Suzuki being interviewed by CTV.

David Suzuki is being interviewed by a man from CTV. A few people are standing behind.

Three young women are making signs to carry in the protest march. Two are in green T-shirts. One of the signs says '73 North Americans own the same as 1/2 the continent.' Jobs, Justice and Climate protest rally and march.

A person wearing a sign that says 'Another photographer marching for #jobsjusticeclimate on his back.

At a protest rally, two women are posing for a picture. One has a large cut out around her face that makes her face look like a large yellow flower

a groupd of young people standing beside a large yellow banner that says 'Youth marching for Climate Justice' at a protest rally in front of the Ontario parliament buildings.

below: The base of Sir John A. Macdonald’s statue provides a step up for photographers
(It looks like only some of them wanted to take my picture!)

Many photographers are standing on the base of a statue while they wait for a protest march to begin in Toronto at Queens Park

Two people with protest signs on their backs. One says 'Act like you live here' and the second says 'Stop Debating, Start acting'

A group of people at a protest rally. Somone is holding up a sign with a picture of Stephen Harper neck deep in water with the words, 'What climate change blub blub blub'

At the jobs, justice and climate action protest rally, a man wearing a hat that looks like an owl head. He's carrying a sign that says 'Give a hoot'
  below:  ‘Protect Turtle Island’ signs waiting for the march to begin.  North America is referred to as Turtle Island by many Native tribes, Native rights activists, and environmental groups.

A large parachute shaped piece of fabric in bright orange and white lies flat on the ground. In it are three signs waiting for people to begin marching in the jobs, justice and climate change march. The signs say 'Protect Turtle Island'

A group of people holding a large red banner that says 'Canadian Unitarians for social justice'

Three women at a protest rally.

A young girl in a bright red Tshirt runs in front of some protesters, one of whom is holding a sign that says Hope.

At the jobs, justice and climate action protest rally, four people hold a banner that says 'TTC riders, a voice for ttc riders' and it has a picture of a street car on it as well.

below:  $15 now refers to raising the minimum wage to $15/hour

jobs, justice and climate action protest march - a man is holding a sign that says $15 Now. It is white with red letters. It stands out because most of the signs around him are all bright red.

jobs, justice and climate action protest march - a group of people at Queens Park, the back of the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald can be seen. One woman is holding a sign that says Jobs Justice Climate. Another person holds up a picture of Pope Francis. They are all getting ready to march down University Ave.

below: After the rally at Queens Park, protesters marched south on University Ave.
and then east on Dundas St.

policemen on bikes block the street as they direct a march through city streets

jobs, justice and climate action protest march - some of the people marching, a white haired man is holding an orange flag that says Socialistworld.net Some people are walking their bikes.

A man is walking in a protest march while holding one end of a banner. He is wearing a large yellow chicken head and a T shirt that says 'this is what a vegan looks like'

two women are walking in the jobs, justice and climate action march in Toronto and both are carrying signs. One has a large peace symbol and the words 'vegan for life' and the the other sign says 'animal agriculture is responsible for 91 percent of amazon rainforest destruction

A number of women in a protest march, each is holding a different coloured sign and each has a different letter - together they spell 'yes we can'. Each women is also wearing a coloured box that matches the colour of her sign and each box represents a differ aspect of social policy such as gender equality, primary education, poverty eradication, healthcare,

A diverse group of people walk in a protest march in Toronto

A man in a red shirt pumps his fist in the air as he walks in a protest march

A man is holding up a protest sign with Prime Minister Stephen Harper's head on three monkeys along with the worsd, Hear no science, speak no science, see no science.

Marchers on the jobs, justice and climate action protest march who are carrying a large orange banner that says We have solutions.

 

Two middle aged men walking a in protest. One of them has a sign that says 'radicalized by Harper'

A large number of people walking in a protest march carrying signs and banners

A man wearing a green party T-shirt is carry a large sign that says 'carbon tax yes'. There are other green party supporters with him as they walk in a protest march in Toronto

jobs, justice and climate action protest march on University Ave showing many people walking. Two are holding large white signs with orange letters. One says Let hope prevail. The other says There is no Planet B.

jobs, justice and climate action protest march - a young woman in a head scarf holds a red and white sign, the woman behind her is wearing a floppy hat and there is a sign that says Be Brave in large capital letters above her head.