Posts Tagged ‘faces’

a few guys hanging out

Posted: February 11, 2015 in general Toronto
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A few guys that I encountered the other day.

black and white paper graffiti of a man in grey pants, white shirt, and tie. He has two black and white faces instead of hands. Someone has scrawled words on the hands.
A deflated inflatable Santa Claus is hanging from a hydro pole in an alley beside a garage door with a graffiti man on it.

A large pinkish man's face, with big blue eys, and large hands

close up of man's face painted on a garage door. You can see one ear, the nose and the mouth.

Street art painting of two men's heads. Both have beards. One is wearing a black crown and the other has a red hat and a red & black plaid shirt on

 

around the corner

Posted: February 9, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations
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I walked around the corner and down a small dead end lane and this is what I saw.

near St. Clair West

garages and gates in fences in a snow covered lane. Two of the doors have been painted in geometric designs.

On a brownish grey wall, some white paint has been applied to provide a backgound for some black line drawings of faces. There are four faces.

A mural on a wall of two polar bears - an adult and a young cub. It looks like they are walking on the snow.

Close up of the mural of two polar bears. in this picture, the whole cub is visible but only the nose of the adult bear is seen. The picture is signed J. Mora 2010

 

Irene Ave

Posted: January 16, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations
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Irene Ave. is a short street that runs behind the north side of Bloor Street West between Carling and Shaw streets, just east of Ossington Avenue.  Irene Avenue Parkette takes up most of the south side of Irene Avenue.  There is an alley that runs between the park and the back of the stores on Bloor West.

The Christie Ossington Neighbourhood Centre, through the Graffiti Arts portion of their LOFT program, has sponsored a number of murals in this alley.

This is what it looked like on a cold afternoon last week.

laneway in winter, some snow and ice on the ground. Three cars parked. A mural on the side of a two storey building. Reddish rust coloured background with two faces, one woman and one man.

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The next picture was taken in June of 2012.
The mural is still there but I couldn’t take a proper photo of it last week as there was a car parked too close.

A mural of Teetnage mutant ninja turtles painted on a garage door.

When I walked around the block to check out the fronts of these buildings, this is what I found

Street art mural by elicser of three men on a bench. One is smoking a cigarette, one is reading and one is holding a lunch box in his hands.

A mural by Elicser and to the right the LOFT Youth Centre for Social Enterprise and Innovation.

Islington heritage murals

Posted: December 10, 2014 in graffiti and street art, history, locations
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Along Dundas St. West between Islington and Kipling there are a series of more than twenty murals that depict scenes from the history of the area. 

In 1793, Simcoe’s Queen’s Rangers cut a route through the forest for Dundas Street.  It was meant to serve both as a military route in case of war with the U.S. and as a route to increase settlement in the area.   Settlement of what became the village of Islington began a few years later with the arrival of the Johnston family in 1808.

The first mural was a picture of the Methodist church painted on plywood.  It no longer exists.

mural 2 – The Way We Were, part 1 by John Kuna, 2005.
Looking east along Dundas St. towards Cordova Ave in 1912.  It includes Hopkins store and the Methodist church.

large mural on the side of a building that shows people in old fashioned clothes walking down a street. A man in a horse drawn wagon is coming down the street.

part of a large mural on the side of a building that shows people in old fashioned clothes walking down a street. A man in a horse drawn wagon is coming down the street.

mural 3 – They Way We Were part 2, 1912, by John Kuna, 2006.
Because of the car that was parked next to it, I don’t have a good photo of the whole mural.

a mural showing a group of men in clothing from the 1930s shoveling in the dirt.

part of a mural, a man leading a horse out of the stables, the Islington Hotel behind. Two ladies are standing on the balcony of the second floor of the hotel. A man is reclining on a chair on the front porch of the hotel.

mural 4 – Timeline: Islington Then and Now, by John Kuna, 2006.
Showing Dunn’s store (NE corner of Dundas & Burnhamthorpe Cres) as well as the flowering catalpa trees that used to line the street (on the right in the picture)

part of a mural depicting the main street of town as it was in the 40s and as it was in 2006. cars, street, people shopping,

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mural 5 — Honouring Islington’s Volunteer Fire Brigade, by John Kuna, 2007. 
Islington had its first motorized fire truck in 1931.  In the 1940s and 1950s the volunteer firefighters would use water from the Mimico creek to flood part of Central Park, on the west side of the creek, to create a skating rink.

looking across the street at a mural on the side of white brick building, a winter scene, some people are skating, lots of bright red jackets, there is also an old fashioned fire engine with firefighters sitting in it. At the right edge of the picture is a small wood hut with a sign that says Refreshments on it.

close up of a mural showing people skating on a frozen pond in the winter. In the foreground is a traffic sign that says no trucks, also blue street signs for Cabot St. and Dundas Street West

mural 6 – Riding the Radials, by John Kuna, 2007.
From 1917 to 1931 the old Guelph Radial Line (or Toronto Suburban Railway) ran close by this site.  It was an electric rail line between Toronto and Guelph.

A mural showing the front of an old electric train car with the conductor sitting in front. Two boys are hanging out the doors, one on each side of the train car.

mural 7 – Briarly, Gone but not Forgotten, by John Kune, 2007.
Briarly, also known as Gunn House was built in 1840s. From 1870 to 1985 it was owned by the Montgomery family and their descendents.

mural 7 - Briarly, Gone but not Forgotten, by John Kune, 2007. Briarly, also known as Gunn House was built in 1840s. From 1870 to 1985 it was owned by the Montgomery family and their descendents.

A woman and a girl in long light blue dresses are walking in front of a house. The woman is carrying a blue parasol. There is a white picket fence and flowering shrubs in the foreground of the picture.

mural 9 – Harold G. Shipp’s Firt High Flier, by John Kuna, 2008.
The story behind this mural: “In 1944 Harold Shipp convinced a Lancaster bomber pilot who ferried supplies from Toronto to England during the war, to fly over the school’s football field and drop hundreds of leaflets, a few of which could be traded for tickets to the school dance. Unfortunately, a rogue wind scattered the leaflets across the Chinese market gardens near Montgomery’s Inn. In the ensuing mayhem, excited football fans frantic to secure a winning ticket, stormed the field and trampled the carefully tended cabbages”

mural showing men playing football in the 1920s, with a low flying airplane overhead.

mural showing men playing football in the 1920s, with a low flying airplane overhead, as seen from an angle - form this perspective you can see that the mural is actually two pictures.

mural 10 – Portraits from our Past by Sarah Collard, 2008.
Inspired by pictures taken in the early 1900’s. “These include: Apple Packers at Bigham family orchards, Rathburn and Martingrove ~1917; Sunday Afternoon, a scene showing the family of famous Islington photographer Walter Moorhouse on their veranda at 34 MacPherson Ave. (now Aberfoyle); Islington’s First Car, a 1917 Chevrolet owned by the Appleby family; and the Village Shoemaker, Mr. Nelson in the 20th century.”

mural in 4 parts, 1 on the left, 1 on the right and 2 in the center. The left depicts a man selling apples, the right depicts a cobbler fixing shoes. In the center: bottom, a family in old fashioned car. Center top - a family sitting in a livingroom including a man in a rocking chair

mural 11 – Mimico Creek in Fall, ca 1920, by John Kuna, 2008.
Looking north towards the Dundas Street bridge.

A large mural of a creek. On the left back are two painters with their easels set up beside the river. On the right bank are two boys and a man

Gordon’s Dairy, by John Kuna, 2008.

A mural on the front of the Islington Senior's Centre showing dairy carts.

mural 13 – The Old Swimming Hole by June Kuna, 2009.
Swimmers at the mill pond.

large mural of people swimming in a creek in bathing costumes from the 1920s

closer view of part of the mural of people swimming in a creek. In this part of the picture, kids are climbing on a water wheel. The mural is reflected in the window of the store next to it.

mural 14 – The Pub with no Beer, by June Kuna, 2009. 
A scene from the Prohibition Era in the late 1920’s.   Men collecting empty pop bottles from outside the Islington Hotel.

mural showing men loading an old flat bed truck with crates of empty pop bottles, 1920s

Fox and Fiddle bar, a two storey brick building,

mural 15, Faith of Our Fathers, part 2, by John Kuna

mural showing the building of a chirch

mural 16 – The Manse Committee by John Kuna 2010

mural on the side of a two storey white brick building. The picture looks like the outer wall has been removed to reveal a family house from the early 1900s. A cook is working in the kitchen,

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The Prodigy, by John Kuna, 2011
A satellite branch of the Royal Conservatory of Music was located in this building from the 1950s through the 1980s.

mural depicting a boy playing a piano in front of an audience. A man is helping to turn the pages of the music.

mural 19 –  Aftermath by John Kuna, 2011.
After Hurricane Hazel on 15 Oct 1854, most of Islington Golf Course and the low lying areas around Mimico Creek were flooded.

large painting of men in boats, helicopter overhead

mural 20 – Ontario Gothic, by John Kuna, 2011

A mural of a man and a woman standing outside a two stroey farm house. A white car is parked in front of the mural and it blocks the bottom right of the picture.

mural 21 – Toboggan Hill, by John Kuna, 2011

large vertical mural depicting a hill in winter. Bare trees, kids on tobaggons.

Close up of the bottom part of a mural whowing kids on old fashioned wooden sleds, or toboggans.

Fishing in Mimico Creek, by John Kuna, 2012,
with Riding the Radials seen in the background.

includes largemouth bass, rainbow trout, pumpkinseed sunfish

The Faces of Islington, by John Kuna, 2013

The Faces of Islington, by John Kuna, 2013

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the mural with no sign

mural of a group golfing in clothes typical of the 1940s

 more information – village of Islington murals website

Parma Court

Posted: December 8, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
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Amnesty International Toronto Organization is a group that works in the to raise public awareness of human rights issues. One of the projects that it supports is ‘Project: Urban Canvas’.  This project involves 30 murals.   One mural for each of the articles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), a United Nations

Urban Canvas was begun in 2008 which was the 60th anniversary of the UDHR. Not all of the murals are complete yet.  Two of those that are finished are located on Parma Court near Victoria Park and O’Connor.

One celebrates Article 19 which states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

A large mural on a red brick building, painted to celebrate the United Nations Universal Declaration of HUman Rights. This one includes the words strength, love, respect, unity. It shows a 5 people engaged in various activities. painted by Michael Reyes as well as  Fozi, Humera, and Sabeehah

part of a mural showing a boy and girl holding hands as they run. Also, in the top right corner is a black man with a microphone. The words 'love' and 'freedom' are also written on the mural.

Part of a mural showing a black man's face. The words strength and respect are written there. Also 4 white stars, and the words "hoping after the stress everything is okay."

The words say “hoping after the stress everything is okay.”

 

The other mural celebrates Article 3 of the UDHR. 
“Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.”

mural illustrating article 3, it shows people

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website for Amnesty International Toronto Organization Urban Canvas project

This project is also supported by the Working Women Community Centre,  the United Way, and the city of Toronto.

 Other murals in this project on this blog:

at Warden station

Posted: November 28, 2014 in graffiti and street art, history, locations
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Another new pair of murals painted under a bridge.
This time, they’re close to Warden subway station.

Beside a four lane road, a sign pointing to Warden station passenger drop off. In the background is a bridge over the road.

Warden subway station is on the southeast corner of Warden and St. Clair. Just east of that intersection the subway passes over St. Clair.

 

The north side of the underpass

The north side of the underpass is dedicated to the woman who worked filling fuses for the General Engineering Company (Canada) Ltd., a  WW2 munitions plant that was located nearby.   More about the history of GECO.

full length of a mural on the side of an underpass. Historical picture of women who worked in a munitions factory during the second world war. From the shoulders up. They are in white clothing and their heads are covered in white hats.

mural under subway bridge, showing woman munitions workers from the era of world war 2. They are wearing white tops and white hair coverings.

The south side of the underpass

The south side portrays the establishment of Scarborough Junction in 1873.  This was when a second rail line and commercial hub was built in the area.

street art mural showing two large heads, a man and a woman, in black and white. Very realistic looking.

part of mural under subway bridge, large red cursive letters that say Scarborough Junction. A picture of an old Scarborough post office as well as a wood building that was a general store.

Scarborough post office and Everest & Sons’ General store. The latter was built in 1873 in Scarborough Junction.

a woman is walking past part of mural under subway bridge, large red cursive letters that say Scarborough Junction. A picture of an old Scarborough post office and two very much larger than life people (man and woman) looking east.

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The murals were painted by Montreal-based street artist Omen.    They are also the result of a collaboration between the city-led art program StreetARToronto, not-for-profit arts organization Mural Routes,  local historians and city councillor Michelle Berardinetti.

under the tracks at Bathurst

Posted: November 28, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
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Murals painted by Elicser in 2014, under the railway bridge on Bathurst St., just north of Dupont.

It is difficult to do justice to the paintings with a camera because of the structure of the bridge.   The following images are ones that I took yesterday.  Yes, there are many!

part of a mural beside the walkway under a railway bridge - taken from across the street, The picture is of 4 people who seem to be looking at the camera.

part of a mural beside the walkway under a railway bridge - a man on a red bike who is cycling towards a woman with outstretched arms

part of a mural beside the walkway under a railway bridge - a woman sitting cross legged on the ground beside a miniature city

mural under a bridge

part of a mural beside the walkway under a railway bridge - a man's hand reaching towards a miniature city. roads, houses, tall buildings and hydro wires

part of a mural beside the walkway under a railway bridge - a man with a football helmet on and green triangles in his hand

A man in a blue winter coat is walking under a bridge, beside a mural that is painted on the wall of the bridge.

part of a mural beside the walkway under a railway bridge - a pair of legs with sneakers on flying past a man's head.

part of a mural beside the walkway under a railway bridge - a man with a red baseball cap on backwards

A man sitting on a bench who is looking down into a bag that is on the ground. A face in profile is beside him

part of a mural beside the walkway under a railway bridge - Two large people in the mural. A woman is walking past on the sidewalk. The picture is taken from across the street so bridge supports are also in the picture.

part of a mural beside the walkway under a railway bridge - the triangular part of the wall of the bridge at the end, showing a woman in yellow coat and hat.

woman holding baby, man behind her making rabbit ears with his fingers

rusty metal railway bridge over a city street. There is a mural painted on the wall beside the walkway on the far side of the bridge.

mural street art painting of a man's face. He has a moustache. He is looking at the camera

 

Dupont and Spadina

Posted: November 27, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
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A short walk around Dupont and Spadina.

At an intersection, looking across the street to a glass dome like structure that is a subway station entrance. Beside it is a building with a tag that says Uh Oh

The northwest corner of Dupont and Spadina and the weirdness that is the subway entrance.

 

Movember mural

looking across the street to a mural to commemorate Movember. Two large men's faces, both sporting moustaches beside the word Movember written in cursive.

On the northeast corner.  Mural by Elicser

 

The men’s faces up close.

close up of mural, showing man's face with furrowed brow and black moustache.

close up of mural, showing man's face including white eyes and a green moustache.

There are also a few brightly painted garages near the intersection.

A wood picnic table is in front of a street art mural on the side of a garage door

street art mural on the side of a garage door, multicoloured shapes and lines with the words 'escape reality' written in the top right corner

A van and car parked in front of a street art mural of a face in blue, yellow and red that is surrounded with stylized food, especially candy and popcorn. The neck is an iconic red and white striped popcorn container. The picture is reflected in the windows of the van.

literally, pizza face, by Tim Skynz

street art mural of a face in blue, yellow and red that is surrounded with stylized food, especially candy and popcorn. The neck is an iconic red and white striped popcorn container. viewed from the side on quite an angle

a multicoloured tiger's face painted on a garage door

(photo from 2012) This painting is still on a garage door on Dupont. I was going to re-take the photo today but there was a vehicle parked too close to it. Painted by Studio 32, Jose Gabriel.

new faces in the alley

Posted: November 18, 2014 in graffiti and street art
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New faces in the alley, or at least they are new to me.   Seen yesterday.

looking down the alley, graffiti on the walls on both sides including a large woman's head by the artist Kairo. She has curly hair and her face is about 7 feet tall.

face graffiti - a man's face on a piece of plywood. He is balding and there is stubble on his face. He seems to be sweating too.

sticker of eyes on a white and pink face. The sticker is on a pole and there is an orange wall that is out of focus behind the pole.

A bright and wild picture of a face with long long stylized hair in reds, oranges and pinks

A girl with long dark hair and with her eyes closed. From the shoulders up with one arm and hand included in the picture. Drawn on plywood and behind bars.

sticker of a man's head with an afro hairdo.

A stylized picture of a green, turquoise and red frog face with its tongue stuck out.

and a froggie face too.

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Tower Automotive building

Posted: November 17, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
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The Tower Automotive building is on Sterling Ave. in the Junction.  This ten storey building was built in the 1920s.  Tower Automotive went bankrupt in 2005 and the building has been empty ever since.  A number of years ago there was talk of turning it into studio space but for a temporary art installation or two, nothing has been done with this heritage building.

 

Chainlink fence in front of the building.

A chainlink fence surrounds the north part of the site.

….. but part of the fence was down and nobody was working on the site, so in we went.

Some of the graffiti on the west side of the building: 

graffiti on the back of the Tower Automotive building, a tall brick building - looking along the side of the building, the head of the reclining woman is in the foreground. Construction equipment is also in the picture.

graffiti on the back of the Tower Automotive building, a tall brick building - the backside of a naked woman who is lying on the ground. Much larger than lifesize, painted by Jarus.

graffiti on the back of the Tower Automotive building, a tall brick building - a large light blue face with tags on either side of it.

graffiti on the back of the Tower Automotive building, a tall brick building - the words cant hold me back are written in black on top of yellow and turquoise.
graffiti on the back of the Tower Automotive building, a tall brick building - a woman with purple hair wearing a brown and red hat. She is holding a blue watering can. She has an anchor tattoo on her upper arm.

moving around the building

On a concrete telephone pole, a black and white drawing of a man's head. The word Others is coming out of his mouth.

on the east side of the building

wall of a building with a wheatpaste lovebot and a standard city of Toronto development proposal sign. Some tags are also on the building.

The sign says “Draft of Subdivision Proposal, 158 Sterling Rd. – Castlepoint Studio Partners Limited has made an application to subdivide the property at 158 Sterling Road into 7 blocks in order to create a mixed use development that will have building heights ranging between 2 – 17 storeys.

a large gameboy lovebot on the side of a concrete wall.
lovebot and an anser black, white and grey face on a conrete wall.
a tag over old graffiti
blue construction fence is in focus in the foreground with a construction site behind it. A tall brick building stands in the construction site.

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