eyes | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘eyes’

stuck in the alley

Posted: November 25, 2017 in alleys, graffiti and street art
Tags: all my friends are awesome, alley, collage, depression, eyes, georgia, graffiti, Graffiti Alley, J isn't here, lane, octopus, pole, slaps, slole slaps, slole_slaps, soada, stickers, stick_tags, wall, words

I wouldn’t have a staring contest with this guy if I were you.

When I walked down Graffiti Alley yesterday, I discovered quite a few new things that I hadn’t seen before. There were too many for one blog post so I decided to concentrate on the little things this morning.

below: Little stickers stuck all over a piece of metal. My favorite is the “All my friends are awesome” sticker.

below: The window on this wonderful orange door was covered with stickers and spray paint. These three stickers were in the bottom corner.

below: Pasteup collages with pictures of Campbells soup labels, and old camera, and a coca cola bottle. A woman is yelling something in Russian while Lenin peaks out from behind her. Meaning? Maybe only Merz knows?

below: Soada.

below: “Do not attempt to think, or depression may occur.” Sticker by @stick_tags.

below: An octopus by Georgia and a @slole_slaps “It’s All Over” because they really are all over.

below: J isn’t here but another stick_tags wants to know if you’re living your dream. Are you? Maybe J is elsewhere, busy living their dream.

below: I told you that they were all over.

And now this blog post is all over too.

noticed

Posted: November 16, 2017 in general Toronto, graffiti and street art
Tags: bike, breathe, clock, details, eyes, for sale, gold mannequin, graffiti, hat, head, i love my bike, Kensington, little things, male, man, mannequin, Mary, notice, painting, photography, screaming, shadow, statue, sticker, the6ix, Toronto, virgin Mary, window, woman, word

A small collection of a few of the things that I’ve noticed over the past while.
Pictures of little things that haven’t found a home yet.

below: It’s not two people each riding an old fashioned bike even though that’s probably the first thing that you think of when you see it. It’s one bike with two wheels and two riders going in different directions. Going nowhere probably. Seen in the front window of Tandem Coffee on King Street East.

below: Don’t just peer out the window, get outside and be a part of the world. There’s so much to be seen!

below: Love letter to a bike.

below: The mannequins on the balcony in Kensington are now gold!

below: I’ve seen a couple of these images now. This one is a paste-up on a black metal box near Bloor & Borden. I’ve also seen another painted on hoardings around a construction site, possibly on Bathurst Street. There was a similar image on the wall of Honest Ed’s but this one has a bit more detail in it, especially the hair.

below: A small sticker, slightly creepy, almost as if the poor girl is being stalked.

below: An old clock hiding under a newer sign, forgotten. Stopped long ago.

below: It looks like Mary’s been discounted.

below: Always good advice! Painted in pink on a window that catches the afternoon sun and makes interesting shadows on the blind behind.

below: Take one ball, a stool, and paint and add some imagination – a unique garden ornament to brighten the day of passers by.

below: Decorative tiles on the front of a brick building on Yonge Street (two photos).

below: I wonder what the T stands for?

below: Keep your eyes open and you’ll be surprised too!

Today I’m going to end with the photo below. To me it encapsulates the idea that photographers can be a weird bunch. Somewhere out there someone has a close up photo of these pipes and dials. It’s probably a great picture! …. because if they hadn’t been there, I may have taken the same picture. Instead I took a picture of the photographer in action. Never stop seeing.

Never stop noticing.

Make Good, made well

Posted: September 6, 2017 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: beak, bird, Bloor West, colours, eyes, fish, horse, J. Chiale, make good, mural, shapes, Shaw St., totem pole

Can you see anything in it?

The above image, with its location icon, is just a small portion of a large mural by Jimmy Chiale. You’ll find it in the Bloorcourt neighbourhood, on the SW corner of Shaw and Bloor West to be specific. ‘Make Good’ it says.

I think that its fascinating to look at and I suspect that you would see something different in it each time you passed by. Here are a few more close up pictures of the details in the mural. Thousands of shapes all outlined in black some of which seem to make eyes, faces, and a bird’s beak.

below: …. a totem pole, an owl and a horse head….

below: … and a camera shutter and a fish?
It wouldn’t surprise me if we saw different things!

strong, smart, united

Posted: July 21, 2017 in alleys, graffiti and street art
Tags: abstract, auralast, carolannapilado, chiefladybird, chiefladybug, child, controlartdelete, cvbinns, Elicser, emily may rose, eyes, faces, flower, hello kirsten, Jieun June Kim, Monica on the moon, mother, motorcycle, mska, muisca, murals, strong smart united, tbonez, toes, toest, urban ninja squadron, women

Written in big bold letters – STRONG SMART UNITED

Those three words are what you see first as you walk down Lansdowne just north of Queen Street. This striking wall is the beginning of a group of murals and street art paintings that now adorn some of the walls and doors in an alley on the north side of Queen Street West. The paintings were done last weekend by a group of women artists. The walls had been primed previously by four high school students (and organized by the Toronto Police Services).

below: Shapes and colours by controlartdelete (aka Rachel Wilmshurst)

below: Emily May Roses’s women

below: Abstract houses and greenery by Jieun June Kim

below: Two kneeling women and a long necked bird with wings spread by Caitlin Taguibao

below: Monica on the Moon, “Over the mountains under the stars”

below: A colourful mural by _muisca_ (aka Daniela Rocha)

below: Unfortunately, this one has already been defaced, including the signature.

below: Desert woman theme, by mska

below: Geometric shapes, colours, and patterns, by hellokirsten (aka Kirsten McCrea)

below: Left – by originalsmilez (aka Julieta Arias).
But on the right, help! I don’t know (do you?)

below: Looks a bit like a brightly coloured Picasso – the work of huntoland (aka Renato Hunto)

below: My apologies but this another one where I don’t know who the artist is

below: … and this one as well I’m afraid

below: A elicser figure outside the door. Elicser is definitely male – was this mural already here?

below: Shades of pink with blue lips, by toest (aka Sarah Gilmore).

below: On a seriously cracked wall there is now a pink flower inside a green triangle surounded by a circle, by CVBinns (aka Courtney Binns)

below: Long flowing hair and with eyes closed, a mural by carolannapilado

below: A collaborative effort between auralast (aka Monique Aura) and chiefladybird (aka Ogimaa Kwe Bnes) – mother and child with the city beyond.

below: Also in the lane there are two urban ninja squadron paste ups by Tbonez

below: Looking east along the alley. The first road is Macdonell Avenue. Lansdowne is in the distance.

This project was supported by the StreetARToronto program, Toronto Police Services and the Drake Hotel. I talked briefly with a policewoman who was in the alley at the same time that I was – there is hope that the lane to the east of Lansdowne can be painted in the future.

Before then, a second all women street art jam and mural will be happening in Little India (1460 Gerrard Street East) at the end of August. The street art jam will be on the weekend of August 26th and 27th and will showcase the Woman in the Walls mural being painted at that time.

#womenpaintTO

aging faces in Kensington

Posted: September 1, 2016 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: alley, anser, boy, defaced, dog, eyes, faces, fence, gate, graffiti, hinge, Kensington, lane, lock, men, metal, mural, old, painted, paste up, peeling, rust, scrawl, spray paint, stencil, street art, tags, uber5000, wall, weathered, woman, wood

Wood cracks. Metal rusts. Paint fades and paint peels, its just what happens to paint when its exposed to the elements. Street art painted on a surface suffers the same fate. Nothing lasts forever and sometimes a mural’s life span is quite short. Sometimes other factors come into play – street art is defaced or altered in some way. Tags cover it; words get written on it. That too is the nature of street art.

below: I love what the weather has done to this woman’s face. Aging with grace and dignity. The texture of the old wood adds an element of depth and character to her as well.

below: One slat replaced. I’m sure it wasn’t the artist’s intent, but the gaps in the wood look like bars in a cage, or those metal bars you often see on windows.

below: Broken chin, but still watching the world pass by on Baldwin Street.

below: Yelling at the bushes.

below: Eyes are mysterious things. I have never been able to draw them properly and I am in awe of those who can. Even more so if the eyes communicate something, some emotion or expression.

below: I have always been intrigued by this face. A photo of the original painting hangs on one of my walls. I still find her mesmerizing. Those blue eyes still stare at the world. Is she looking through a veil? Or is she able to see through all the nonsense that the world throws at her?

below: A devilish child is still in good shape.

below: “Without money we’d all be rich”. That’s the kerb (curb) that runs along the bottom of the picture. Her whole face was not there in the first place.

below: And animal faces too!

passing faces

Posted: July 12, 2016 in graffiti and street art
Tags: black men, collage, colours, crayon, eyes, faces, highlights, hoardings, instagram, looking at the camera, men, mural, outlined, outlines, paste, street art

I was walking along Queen Street West near Shaw St when pieces of paper on the wood construction hoardings around one of the buildings caught my eye. The installation is no longer intact, but the pieces are still compelling. The mural consisted of many faces of black men. Even though some of the faces are peeling away, they still look like they are looking at you (or the camera). Apparently there is another similar mural a bit farther west (by 1050 Queen St. West) but with black and white outlines and highlights instead of red, blue, yellow and green.

It may be cheating a bit, but the next picture is from a screen shot of a photo from the artist’s (lavishbat, #oluseye) instagram account. It shows the whole piece as it was originally.

eyes open, watching for spring

Posted: April 3, 2016 in graffiti and street art
Tags: alley, eyes, faces, garage door, graffiti, Graffiti Alley, grey, Jarus, lane, laneway, men, people, spring, street art, wall, windows, women

Faces in the alley, Graffiti Alley

As March turns into April and winter sort of turns into spring.

below: Looks like someone has already started his spring cleaning.

below: He says, “See you in hell”.
She thinks, “I’m already there. You should try living beside this smelly thing.”

below: Jarus has painted a young man

below: It seems that even Lovebot needs to eat… Not sure about the purple hamburger bun though!

north of Nassau

Posted: September 5, 2015 in graffiti and street art
Tags: alley, anser, buildings, bunnies, city, doors, downtown, eyes, garages, graffiti, Kensington, lane, poser, scribbles, Spadina, street art, tags, Toronto, trees, urban, walls, weeds, windows

Nassau Street that is, just south of College and just west of Spadina. There is an alley that runs north from Nassau directly behind Spadina. A dead end lane runs perpendicular to it, behind the houses on Nassau Street. Like most alleys in Toronto, there is street art there. Some old, some new, and unfortunately some scribbled over. All in all, this lane is looking a little worn.