Posts Tagged ‘garbage bins’

cracks in the pavement,
weeds, shrubs, trees and other green things,
windows and walls, stairs and balconies,
infill housing and new structures, rooflines,
old textures and rusty hinges,
colours, graffiti, and peeling paint.
solitude

These are a few of the photos that I took as I walked alleys and lanes north of the Danforth, shown in no particular order.

Starting with, Hey Gwan!

behind a store on the Danforth, a green compost garbage bin and a pile of 6 concrete blocks

rusty hinge on a gate in an alley

old Mercury Grand Marquis car from the early 1990s, pale yellow, parked in alley beside yellow garage

view from lane to back of red brick house, wood fence and two garages in the foreground

weeds growing in the cracks of the pavement in an alley, sewer grate too,

blue sky with a few clouds, a hydro pole with a street light on top, many wires attached to it, also a no parking sign

at the end of an alley, blue car parked behind red wood garage, houses on street facing the lane

looking down a lane towards a 2 storey house with green upper storey, row of garage, midrise brick apartment building in the background

three red chairs, outside, by a black wall with white drawing that is either angel wings or eyes,

infill housing, new residence, in alley

rear of store, 2 storeys, alley view, stairs to upper level, small balcony, wood pallets stacked beside stairs, back of billboard on the roof, pink graffiti on wall on right side, also vine growing up that wall

wood gates and greenery, behind houses, view from the alley

graffiti stickers on pole including a large eye with a pink tear drop and text that says boys don't cry....much Also a black and white sticker with crying cat and words kirby, zaku

large trees in a backyard, alley view

two black cars parked behind a building, by alley

alley view, open garage door, kids toys outside

a Tims coffee cup and a box of Heineken beer bottles, on the ground, against a wall with a mural, a pair of bare legs standing on rocks in the water

window in wall with street art that has been tagged over

exterior metal stairs run diagonally in front of a window made of glass tiles

alley view, metal exterior stairs, window in red brick building, old brick smokestack, balconies on upper level, archway over lane to exit to street

a very small window in a garage clad in fake brick shingles,

in an alley, view of back of houses, different depth of buildings, wood fence, cement block garage with red door, balcony with bright green railing,

teal coloured garage door with eyes spray painted on it

garages in alley

painting of a blur bird on pink and yellow background, on a concrete garage in alley

red brick wall with white spray paint question marks and some words written in white or black

red shovel leaning agains a concrete wall with blue graffiti

jumble of wire shapes in a gap in the fence

a laneway with wood fences, large trees, and a couple of garages

drawing with black marker on electrical boxes on outside of a building

laneway view, exterior metal stairs, garages with graffiti, trees,

text above street art says percy watters

concrete wall with street art, patched over parts of it with grey concrete

green vine growing in front of street art on garage door

paper paste -up graffiti in alley

Well, not really Camden Street, but an alley that runs perpendicular to the street….  If the lane has a name I don’t know what it is.  Google maps doesn’t even include it.  It’s a very short alley that runs both north and south from Camden street and it doesn’t go anywhere.  Both sections were painted with murals 9 or 10 years ago.   Amazingly, they have survived.

Let’s start with the south side of Camden Street.

below: Mural Project, “The walls won’t know what hit them”.  The mural was painted in 2006 youth from the   Harbourfront and Cecil Community Centres as part of the City of Toronto’s Graffiti Transformation Project.

part of a mural in an alley, yellow background, blue pistol with the word mural in large red capital letters, flag at the end of the barrel that says , white hand holding the grip with finger on the trigger.
below: The mural is painted in a quasi cartoon style.

blog_art_or_vandalism_mural

below: She’s upset and she’s expressing her hurt and anger with spray paint seems to be the start of the story.

part of a mural in an alley, a woman with bright yellow hair is spray paint out of a can with a word bubble that says "He crossed me first"

below: My knowledge of slang is limited, and this is 10 years old but this sheezy is cool.  It’s probably as simple as “this sure is cool”, i.e. spray painting graffiti is cool.

This seezy is off the heezy are the words in a word bubble coming out of the mouth of a man painted in a mural, short black hair, wearing a red shirt, and spraying a can of pink spray paint,

below: Oh no! I always laugh when I hear this expression these days… is there anywhere in Toronto where property values are going down? Okay, okay, so it’s part of the story – she’s complaining that someone has sprayed graffiti somewhere nearby, the vandalism part of the story.   The angry young woman or the “sheezy heezy” guy above have been busy in her neighbourhood.

street art, picture of woman with orange hair, wearing white gloves, hands on sides of head, words saying "On no, my property value went down"

below:  As you can see, a couple of things were in the way as I was taking pictures.   I am not sure exactly how the plot of the mural progresses from here because I couldn’t see the whole thing.  There are gaps in the story line.   A few missing pages so to speak.

looking down one wall of an alley, a mural is painted on it, in the foreground is a woman in profile (she's looking down the lane), very yellow hair. Two cars are parked in front of the mural

below: Flesh tones as dots in the face of woman who plays an unknown role in this story – the mystery woman?

part of a woman's face, painted in dots, bright red lipstick, brown hair, looking at the viewer

below:  I suspect that this is the “We’ve got to get rid of the graffiti” part of the story.  Is it improper to make comments about Rob Ford and his anti-graffiti program here?  I don’t want to insult the mural or the project behind it because I think that the Graffiti Transformation Project is an excellent program.

scene in a mural, a football helmet wearing head, with words I wish my school had an art program, also two men talking about how it's time to take out the trash

below:  If there was a mural on the other side of the alley, it’s long gone.

a red car is backed into an alley, and is parked there, along the wall beside the car is a lot of graffiti spray painted and written on the wall. There is a stair case in the back part of the wall.

A short walk across Camden Street to the other half of the alley….

below: You can see the taller buildings on Richmond Street West but you can’t get there from here.
And like most downtown alleys, garbage bins are a dominant feature.

looking down a dead end alley, lots of blue rubbish bins that are slightly overflowing, tall buildings on either side. The back of a two stroey building straight ahead with taller buildings behind

below: At the entrance to the alley.  There are words under the window by the sunflowers that say that this painting is also the work of the Harbourfront/Cecil Community Centre’s Graffiti Transformation Project, 2007.

wall of an alley with a long window with worn painting around it of flowers and sunflowers

below: A very low window with green arrows

a low window, close to the ground, with a green arrow painted around it.

orange geometric street art, with the words 'stay alive' written in orange beside it

two old windows with rusted and bent metal grille on the windows, a street art painting of a woman in profile with eyes closed is between the windows, White hair

below: And last, I’ll end with a weather comment because we’ve all been talking (complaining?) about it these days – someone’s a bit overdressed for this August weather although it doesn’t seem to bother him.  Maybe he knows something we don’t.   Or maybe it’s just wishful thinking.

street art on a grey brick wall, head of a young man in a fur lined hood of a parka

Stay cool!