Posts Tagged ‘Flips’

Edna and more

Posted: January 9, 2026 in alleys, graffiti and street art, locations, transportation
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TTC streetcar pulling out f Dundas West station and onto street, intersection of Bloor and Dundas West

It had been a grey and slightly damp morning when I was out walking.  As I headed to the subway to go home, the clouds cleared and the sun came out.  So I kept walking north of Dundas West station.  Edna Avenue is the street that runs parallel to Bloor immediately north of the station.

below: Edna Avenue, looking east towards Dundas Street West.

edna avenue, residential street with tall condo at the end, looking east towards Dundas St.,

below:  Edna seems to have a Guardian watching over her.

mannequin or sculpture of a person in a helmet, sitting on the front porch of a house,

below:  There is an alley that runs north from Edna and the sunshine beckoned.

start of an alley that runs north from Edna Avenue, houses, garages, blue sky,

below: T-shirt sale at the One Stop Shop!

truck parked beside building, graffiti on back of truck

below: The sun sets and rises eternally, apparently.

old garage with corrugated metal wall, graffiti on metal that says the sun sets and rises eternally

below: A little Catchoo daisy sticker caught my eye.

cathcoo daisy sticker on a post in an alley

below:  There was also a 33wallflower33 paste-up with a few little catchoo stickers on her gorgeous white outfit.

33 wallflower 33 pasteup of woman in a white coat with furry collar

below: Faded bricks like faded jeans.  They are a little rough around the edges too.

faded blue paint on old brick wall, some bricks cracking and crumbling

below: Chairs, backyard chairs.

laneway views, back of house, two old turquoise metal chairs against house, leaves (autumn) on the ground, small satellite dish on roof,

below: Backyard picnic tables too.

view from lane, backyard with picnic tables, apartment building in the background, sunny day, leaves on ground

looking north up an alley with garages, tree with no leaves, november weather,

 

below: Raccoons on the roof!  Mural by Mel Coleman.

mural in a backyard by alywyz murals, black raccoons on top of a house, with window, greenery beside the house,

below: More backyards – or at least, backs of houses

back of 2 houses, alley view

garage door with blue, teal, and green leafy background and word chill in white cursive

below: Another chair

small table and chair outside, agains beige wall, shadows, autumn leaves on ground, sunny day, alley view

below: Cassette tape (remember those?!) and supersized pencil.  If you had tapes, you always had a pencil handy, just in case!  Back in 2020, this mural was fairly new.   You can check out “faceless in an alley” if you want to see the whole mural before the one wall was defaced.

street art painting on the side of a white garage in an alley, line drawing in black of a person sitting on a bench wearing baseball cap, body is a cassette tape

below: Another ghost from the past – a ghetto blaster proudly carried on his shoulder

part of a street art mural on a garage in an alley, white man with ghetto blaster on his shoulder

below: The mural is an Ex-Vandals piece, or at least references them.  On the left in this image are the words Dino Nod – he was one of the founding members of the Ex-Vandal crew (formed in 1971 in Brooklyn NY).

street art on the side of a garage in an alley, also a small window jutting out from roof, wood,

street art painting, grey dog pumping biceps to show off hi muscles, bulge in muscle

below: Red and green men too.

old wood garage covered with street art murals
garage door with street art, red man with arms folded, maroon man, blue and teal background,

below:  A couple of blocks north of Edna is Glenlake, and here we are looking east towards Dundas.

large tree, vacant lot, on Glenlake, looking east towards Dundas West

below:  Glenlake and Dundas.   When I was double checking Google maps for the names of these streets, I discovered that this used to be a store that sold flowers and other things.  Where there is no grass beside the building, was once a fenced in area with plants for sale.

southwest corner of Glenlake and Dundas, old brick store with large window, looking across Dundas to older industrial or warehouse buildings, brick

below: Just north of the Glenlake/Dundas intersection is the large bridge over the railway tracks that connects Dundas to the West Toronto Railpath.

bridge over the train tracks that connect west toronto railpath with dundas street west, graffiti covered

below: The concrete supports for the bridge were painted with nature scenes many years ago. The weeds have grown up and the artwork has faded.

weeds and grasses growing up around concrete supports to a bridge that once had painting of flowers on it, now faded

below: Blobs, curls (by Flips), stars, and Spy vs Spy

graffiti on building at bottom of stairs

Dundas Street west, graffiti and street art on a building

below: Looking up the stairs (but not walking up – I’ll leave that for another day).

stairs to bridge over the railway, with graffiti on the wall

below: Instead I turn around.  This is a big part of the view that you see as you walk down the stairs – a large, striking, mural by Kizmet32 .

street art mural by kizmet, red faces with white eyes, some blue highlights, 2 faces, very large

below: I now know that these metal utility poles can be used to make “music”.  All you need is a big stick or two.

man leaning against a metal utility pole on sidewalk, a stick in each hand, bicycle lying on the ground beside, banging on pole with sticks

below: Walking back to Dundas West station to finish for the day.

people on sidewalk, walking south on Dundas towards Bloor

paste up graffiti, black ink on white paper, behind a chainlink fence beside a TTC subway station, Urban ninja squadron, visual noise,

below: Slightly off on a tangent – for those of you who follow such things, the Giraffe Building on the northeast corner of Dundas West and Bloor is still there, and still empty.

people crossing intersection of Bloor and Dundas West, giraffe building on the northwest corner, TTC streetcar in the background

close up of spray paint and splotchy graffiti in many colours on an old metal garage door

Queen West-ish

Posted: June 3, 2025 in alleys, construction, graffiti and street art, public art
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a yellow lovebot sculpture, with a red heart, on the counter at Nadege bakery

A Lovebot!  What a great way to start a day.  These two “live” at Nadege Bakery on Queen West.  The one on the left looks a little like mint ice cream with chocolate chips!  Or else the poor guy has some wickedly strange skin condition.

below: Washing the window makes for more reflections!

man washing inside of window, reflections of other people, cars, and buildings in the same window

below: The Ordinary

two signs above two adjacent stores, one on left says the ordinary, the one on the right says type.

below: And the not so ordinary

a little painting of a black bird with a long neck pecking at someone's brown hair, small painting mounted on a wood utility pole along with traffic signs, no parking

This is a “walk with friends” post.  Last Wednesday I walked with the Wednesday Walking Gang, most of whom I have known and walked with for years. Our “route” took us around the neighbourhoods to the west and south of Trinity Bellwoods Park.  We walked on streets such as Walnut, Stafford, and Shaw.

 

a woman walks down an alley towards a car parked by a garage

We saw houses, lots of houses…   some new…..

new three storey house on Stanley Terrace which is narrow street with park on the other side of the street

new addition to a house, with black cladding, older part of house is red brick

…  some old …

row houses, brick painted white house on left, then a blue house, and then brown, with a lot of green plants in the front yard.

green house with elaborately decorated front porch

…. and many in a row

a row of houses on Shaw street, mansour roofs, two storey,

… and even one with a pirate flag

front porch of a house, with a pirate flag on display

below: It’s great walking in May when spring gardens are in full bloom.   There were lots of front yards with interesting plants to look at.

an open picket gate by a front yard full of spring greenery as well as a tree with red leaves

below: Purple irises

purple irises in bloom in the front yard of a house

below: White clematis flowers

white clematis flowers growing against a grey wall

green shrub growing in front of a shiny surface wall with black paint graffiti that looks like a face

among many green plants and leaves, a small white statue of an old man, standing with two smaller people, one under each arm.

below: Geraniums in the window.

a brick house with lots of windows, pots of red geraniums are in the window

below: There’s something in the window – and it doesn’t look like flowers!

a cut out of a male body builder in just his skimpy underwear, flexing his muscles in an athletic pose,
hanging on the outside of a building in a lane, a painting of a dog, along with a Christmas wreath

below: Ready for summer?

backyard, semi divided house, patio table and chairs in the backyard along with a grey umbrella that is folded up

backyard space of a three storey brick building, with exterior metal balconies and access stair cases,

 

worker in yellow vest and hard hat controlling traffic on Shaw street because part of road is closed, rowhouses behind,

below: Utility pole replacement in progress – wow!  are those poles tall!

large flatbed truck carrying new utility poles parked on shaw street, workmen

construction workers standing around outside, by a sign on its side that says come in, we're open

orange do not enter sign on yellow metal fence in front of a red container

below: Three hoppers (funnels?), remnants of an industrial past.

three large metal hoppers, funnel shaped, at the top at roofline of brick building, old, once an industrial use

looking in through open door of mechanic's garage, swivel chair, shelves of tools

below: Queen Street, looking east from Shaw.

people waiting to cross intersection, queen at shaw, looking east on queen, TTC streetcar coming westbound stores, and other people, truck stopped at the red light, painted side of building on northeast corner

below:  Queen West at Walnut Ave where 7-Eleven gas is on the southeast corner (and gas is 135.9/litre).  St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church is the large red brick building on the north side of Queen West.

7 Eleven gas station on the southeast corner of Queen Street West and Walnut Ave., with St. Nicholas Ukrainian RC Church across the street

below: The north end of Toronto’s Stanley Park (not quite as big as the one in Vancouver!)

a woman with two dogs on leashes, walking across a park

There were two billboards, back to back, near King and Strachan that were part of the CONTACT Photography Festival.  They both had large images from Alanna Field’s “Unveiling” series.

spadina auto service, mechanic, building, with large billboard above with image by Alanna Fields, art, for contact photo festival

image of young black men, by alanna fields, on a billboard

construction site, with billboard above, billboard has image of black man with red background

There were other portraits seen along the way….

below: An orange painting on a white garage door, by doktor karayom.  Here little people seem to be emerging from this poor person’s head.  A little foot in one ear and an exploring hand reaching into the other.  Two cheeky little faces too.  I can’t imagine that that would be comfortable!

orange paint on white garage door, a large face with other smaller heads coming out of it, doktor karayom, in an alley

below: A bit more realistic, but still with a touch of macabre – young person with four hazel eyes painted by Alex Garant.

portrait of a young boy street art mural on the side of a house, boy has four eyes, one set right above the other, also two mouths

below: Normal eyes, blue eyes, on this woman with the long brown hair. Painted by Spud1

street art mural on a garage door in an alley, a portrait of a woman with long brown hair and blue eyes, by spud1

street art mural on a garage in an alley, a portrait of a woman with long brown hair blowing a dandelion, seeds into air, by spud 1

below: There was also the face of a queen, a portrait of Queen Victoria, in a Queen West (no, not Queen Wet!) mural near Trinity Bellwoods Park by Electric Coffin and Denial (aka Daniel Bombardier).

Queen West mural featuring portrait of a queen wearing a crown

below: Four goofy faces in all the wrong colours – great whimsical silliness

urban art painting ona garage door, 4 silly goofy faces in bright wrong colours, green faces, red eyes, or big yellow eyes,

below: There are no human faces here in this Birdo (aka Jerry Rugg) mural but there is an alligator (crocodile?) with red eyes and big teeth as well as a shark lurking at the bottom.

mural by Birdo, aka Jerry Rugg, on a two storey black building, a crocdile or alligator head, and a shark along with the geometric shapes that mark his work

below: Owl in the night sky, a painting by Christina Mazzulla

street art mural of an owl, white face, orange features

below: For many years there has been a white albino squirrel that lives in or near Trinity Bellwoods park.  Here, Ted Hamer has painted it on a Bell box by the sidewalk on Shaw.

painting by Ted Hamer, of the white albino squirrel that is seen at Trinity Bellwoods park, on a metal bell box on the sidewalk

 

below: Swan

mural of a white swan on pink background by the entrance to a store on Ossington

below: A large snake is coiled up and squeezed into the confines of the fence.

street art painting of a snake with its tongue out, on a fence, with houses and backyards behind

below: Rowell Soller’s work covers the front of this garage.

front of garage in alley covered by street art painting in red, yellow and blacks, by Rowell Soller,

below: Curves by Flips

street art painting by Flips, pink and white swirls and curls, with 5 orange plastic bollards in front of it

below: One could argue that this is actually a bench.

an old dark green wood bench with graffiti on it that says this is a sign. it also has the number 3333 painted on it.

below: Urban Ninja Squadron gets together with Cosmo and away they fly!

sticker graffiti on green metal box, visual noise and urban ninja squadron collaboration with cosmo. t bonez is helping to fly a flying saucer

below: A warning sign – this area is remotely monitored…

a city of toronto street sign for Ossington Ave., by a traffic light also a poster with a picture of Jesus that says warning this area is remotely monitored.

below: Do you have any photos sitting around the house just taking up space?

4 small photos tacked onto a wood utility pole with purple push pins

on a red and white, my name is sticker.. a black drawing of a face with Z shape eyes and triangle nose, lots of teeth in mouth, two ears,

below: Can you see the donuts?

large graffiti slap on cement utility pole, in pink, blue and purple

side of a Canada Post mailbox covered with graffiti stickers as well as small ads

three small graffiti stickers on the side of black mailbox

blue baseball hat in the window of a store, embroidered with the words good vibes only

Thanks everyone!

a group of people walking down an alley with garages on both sides, and taller buildings at the end

children walking past a group of photographers and giving them strange look

 

behind Ossington

Posted: April 13, 2025 in alleys, graffiti and street art
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Moooo…. Hey there good looking!…  Here’s looking at you!  This was painted by Poser.  Usually he does bunny rabbits but I think that he’s pretty good at painting cows too!

street art mural of a black and white cow looking at you, on a garage

For a number of years now, there has been a lot of street art and graffiti in an alley that runs behind the east side of Ossington starting at Queen Street and ending one block north at Humbert. Some of it is interesting; some is not. A few garages and walls look the same as they did 12 or 13 years ago so some of these photos may look similar to older photos used in this blog.

building in an alley, northeast corner of queen west and ossington, street art and graffiti on the walls

below: In the background, an untitled piece by Caratoes.  It was one of 5 murals painted in Toronto in 2016 for the “Sea Walls: Artists for Oceans” series.  In total, there were over 500 murals in 20 countries in this series.

graffiti on a wall in many colours, with a large grey tones mural in the background.

below: Six lit matches ready to go.  This crazy cat is up to something no good…

mural on a fence, a grey cat with matches in his mouth, playing with a bottle

below: An early Birdo piece, although the scroll names or street artists too.  The first street art in the alley dates from 2012 when a group of artists painted some of the garages here.

older mural by birdo, two creatures standing together on a rusty garage door in an alley

below: A pink rose between two women.

pink rose sprayed painted on green wood, beside a figure dressed in white paste up

below: Another oldie – this purple guy has been blowing a gust of wind for many years.

old graffiti on a wall

below: Vintage Spud bombs, some cheerful and some menacing.

spud bombs street art, little grey bombs with cheery faces, on a wall in an alley behind ossington avenue

below: A funny looking green creature with big white eyes and lots of skinny legs.

street art mural

below: A couple, together in the stream, in a mural by Elicser Elliott with the title “Swim”

street art mural by elicser elliott of two people, man and woman, in purple stream, title is swim

below: Geometric shapes with a touch of rainbow colour, by Peru

on a garage in an alley, painting by artist called peru,

part of a street art mural, man that looks ancient greek or roman sitting, holding a large pot, wearing a toga and sandals

below: Large pink and white swirls and curls cover a wall. Any time that you see swirls like these, think Flips because that’s sure to be the artist that painted them.

pink and white swirls and curls, mural in alley

below: Only a small portion of this moose painting by Aaron Li-Hill remains.  I don’t usually show the original works but I am going to make an exception here.  See next image.

old street art painting of a moose partially covered with pywood

below: This is what it looked like back in 2012 or 2013.

old street art mural by aaron li-hill of a moose with full antler rack, open mouth,

below: A newer Catchoo sticker.

little daisy sticker by catchoo on a metal pipe in an alley

below: A couple of faces taken from many faces around a garage.

below: Part of a Troy Lovegates mural (as are the next three images)

part of a Troy Lovegates mural in an alley behind Ossington, two merged heads with necks that come out of the same hole in the red and blue sweater that they are wearing. One face is yellow and the other face is half grey and half purple

part of a Troy Lovegates mural in an alley behind Ossington Avenue in Toronto. In the middle is a framed recessed box in the wall with 3 egg shapes in it

part of a Troy Lovegates mural in an alley behind Ossington Avenue in Toronto

part of a Troy Lovegates mural in an alley behind Ossington

below: Looking south. The closest garage on the right has a mural painted by Spud.

alley, with garages on one side, mural on the wall of a building on the left

below: Durothethird paints peanut butter & (probably) chocolate

street art on a garage door in an alley, peanut butter,

below: Horus, “Well and good”

street art on a garage door in an alley by horus

garages covered with street art and graffiti, in alley on west side of ossington avenue in toronto, just north of queen street west

street art on a garage door in an alley pink polka dots on red

below: At the north end of the alley

buildings in alley covered with graffiti and street art

small part of a larger painting, street art, on side of garage in an alley, three fuzzy balls, each with one eye. Balls are yellow, and a red, and one blue.

weathered street art and graffiti on a wood garage in an alley

purple line drawing in spray paint of a man, with yellow wings, graffiti added to it, alley

below: Writing on black and purple

white line drawing on black line drawing of a man with glasses and a beard, mural in an alley

below: Portrait of George Sully, Canadian designer

portrait of a young black man, with a triangle behind his head, in a mural in an alley

below: Love yourself, over and over again, and in many different colours!

on a black wall in an alley, in cursive writing, the words love yourself written in many colours, many times

below: An old stikman in a frame, weathered but still there.

weathered street art paint on wood, with a tiny wood frame, inside frame is an old stikman graffiti piece

below: And lastly…  Too extraterrestrial, which someone seems to love

black wall, with graffiti, hand drawn character with words too extra terrestrial,

below: Looking north

alley behind ossington, on the west side, garages covered in street art and graffiti

garage in alley covered with paintings of bright flowers

vibes at Coxwell & Gerrard

Posted: March 14, 2024 in graffiti and street art
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This is “Vibe Mantra Scroll”, a collaboration between two Toronto artists SOWL (aka Rowell Sowell) and Flips as a shout out to hip hop culture and its global appeal.  It is on the southwest corner of Coxwell and Gerrard.

mural covering the side of the convenience store building on the southwest corner of coxwell and gerrard, many elements in the mural, mostly abstracr shapes and colours

On the back side of the same building there is another SOWL mural

back wall of building on southwest corner of coxwell and gerrard, beside many electric meters or gas meters, a mural by rowell soder

This post also appears in Eyes on the Streets

elicser on the Danforth

Posted: October 28, 2020 in graffiti and street art, locations
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One of three murals newly painted on the Danforth is one by Elicser Elliott on the southeast corner of Danforth & Donlands (once a 7-Eleven store).   Four other artists were involved in this mural which is part of ‘Destination Danforth’, a pilot project that involved a number of infrastructure improvements such as bike lanes and patios as well as creative elements such as these murals.

On the front and sides of the old 7-Eleven is this mural:

from a mural by elicser, a woman in a pink head scarf is reading a book

from a mural by elicser, a woman in a pink head scarf is reading a bookand beside it is text street art

from a mural by elicser on an old 7-Eleven building on the Danforth, a couple is looking at an open laptop together, brown skin, woman in blue head scarf

below: The swirls were painted by Flips (Swirlgod and BSC – Blurred Sight Clreared)

mural by elicser along with text tag street art

text street art in pink that looks like it is hovering over a pond

 

group of people, elicser mural

elicser mural, group of people

On the back of the building along the alley, is a mural in black, white, and shades of grey. “Enemy of Justice is Ignorance Allied with Power”

mural with words, Enemy of Justice is Ignorance allied with power. Black and white and grey

below: “No justice for Breonna Taylor” plays on the TV while a policeman in 2020 vintage riot gear stands by the door.

part of the Enemy of Justice mural, policeman standing by door, man sitting with hands over his eyes as TV is broadcasting about Breonna Taylor murder by policemen

below: The year 1955 references the day that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man in Montgomery Alabama, 1 December 1955.  It was the year that saw the birth of the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the USA.  Police uniforms sure have changed!

history part of elicser enemy of justice mural

This project was also a collaboration with the local BIA’s, StreetARToronto, and East End Arts.

Three other artists contributed to these murals:  Spyone, Nick Sweetman, Smokestack Lightning, and Maysr