below: “Protect your energy”
below:A raccoon in pinks and purples, by Jeff Blackburn
below: by Nick Sweetman – two ebony jewelwings, a male and female along with a partially submerged frog with its tongue ready for action. Jewelwings are a species of damselfly.
below: GETSO (or Getsofacto)
below: A larger than life grinning Cheshire Cat by Christina Mazzulla.
below: Some people by Elicser Elliott hanging out in a doorway.
below: Love in the alley
Photos taken January 2023
There is a large construction project underway adjacent to the Ashbridges Bay water treatment facility between Lakeshore Blvd and Eastern Ave. The whole site is surrounded by plywood hoardings. In mid-September, Wallnoize 2020 took over the area and painted water themed murals on a large portion of the hoardings. More than ninety artists participated in this project, all coordinated by Cruz1.
Let’s take a walk around the site, starting by walking east on Eastern Avenue towards Coxwell, south across the park, and then back along Lakeshore. I suggest that you’re sitting down since I tried to cover all the murals and it might take a while!
below: Painted by Danielle Hyde
below: Trina Moyan‘s horse has a mane like many brightly coloured feathers. “‘Water Spirit Horse’ – Nehiyaw Mistatim (Plains Cree horse).“
below: Portrait of a street artist in pink and white by Keitha Keeshig Tobias
below: by Siezswift
below: ‘Nibi Manitous’ by Cedareve. The water spirits are are shapeshifting between human and animal.
below: “You are Loved” in a heart dripping with water in the center of a mural that is the product of the combined efforts of Shawna Howe and Monique Aura. Rainbows and dancing stars.
below: A head in the water by Shina
below: Bird and flowers by Jennifer, her first solo piece
below: This picture of a bald man snorkeling was painted by still_hungry
below: He looks like he’s made of water and he looks like he’s on a skateboard. Painted by 3tr_t
below: Floating away, floating with the fish in a pink bathing suit. Painted by Ghazaleh
below: by Francis Pratt, the poolboy cares apparently
below: Branislav Dordevic‘s mural suggests keeping an eye on the water and ice, warm and cold.
below: Water being poured into three tall clear glasses because we’re all thirsty for clean water, a mural by Julia Antohi
below: A green god with his trident – either Neptune the Roman god of the sea or Poseidon his Greek counterpart, by tongbokes
below: After the green god, is a more somber toned mural with the words, 1752, Mi’kmaq Nation, Take care of the water.
below: A mermaid in a jar by Yasaman Mehrsa. Has she been captured? Is she in a protective bubble? Do mermaids live in glass houses?
below: Surfer dude by broguymanz and a green throw-up on purple by Lukas Byra
below: “Be Like Water” by Adrian Hayles and what could be blue sea serpent, or a blue Chinese dragon, by Avril Wu
below: A mermaid of another sort, with skulls and burning candles, brought to life by Oriah Scott.
below: Bomi (aka bomitosangrantes) painted the lines and white dots that cover this corner
below: It’s not that easy to see, but the grey letters that look like stones in water along a rocky shore were painted by Getso. In the foreground is what looks like a mountain of flowing water (by bareket)
below: This pink striped octopus with stars in its eyes is the work of Jieun June Kim. Did you know that October 8th was World Octopus Day?
below: Like the words say, Kizmet the original Toronto raccoon, Radcliff is his name. I don’t think he’s going after the cranes even though that’s what it looks like. Swimming away from Radcliff is a Sedna, a curving woman by Angela Aulia.
below: A KERZ throw-up to the left of the BUBZ wildstyle with the tam-wearing duck with a bottle of water on top
below: A “Clew” throw-up by Clewin77
below: Three colourful fish swimming in the waves by Poonam Sharma
below: Blackbird flying along with the moon in different phases is the work of Natalie Very B. On the right, the wildstyle text-based mural was painted by spud1
below: A watery wildstyle by Trevor Goodwin (aka Horus)
below: The white eyes are a bit disconcerting – awake? asleep?- but otherwise she’s colourful. Kizmet32 again.
below: Burner on the left and Poser on the right
below: The happy grinning lobster with a fish on each arm is Gentle Giant aka big_doz261. The other mural is by onerzeus
below: A little fish nears the blue head at the end of the CRUZ tag in this Cruz1 mural.
below: by Rusty (aka gutter_crew_guru), If anyone would like to attempt an interpretation, I’d love to hear from you. There’s a lot of detail in the mural that is fascinating yet creepy. Happy Halloween!
below: A collaborative effort between Rowell Soller and @tenneshaskyers
below: A very realistic looking creature in the water painted by Cesar Ar.
below: Mural by Julie Amlin
below: The work of invader.zima
below: Horizontal stripes of fish and water in a basket, or woven onto fabric, by Dakota Brant beside a Octo-Godess-Sea-Witch Lady by Katrina Canendo
below: A vintage scuba diver among the weeds, by silestyle161
below: Two whales swimming in the ocean, an orca on the left by Ren Lonechild of Red Urban Nation. The whale on the right was painted by Camila Wong and she describes it on instagram as “Inspired from the Great Hokusai artwork, expressive waves with colourful brushstrokes and whale represent overcoming challenges in your life“.
below: Three Nick Sweetman green moray eels looking at SADAR‘s (aka blazeworks) mechanical octopus.
below: Two murals made with text. FATHOM on the left and the creative efforts of RUN (Red Urban Nation) Artist Collective
below: Ashbridges water treatment facility with the wall.
below: Looking in the other direction.
below: Calligraphy by Kreecha (right) and a painting by Art Child (left)
below: Two figures nose to nose with their reflections in the moonlight, by Julii McMillan. The nail polish matches the blues of the water.
below: Victoria Day painted the very pink woman with grey hair who is surrounded by lily pads and little green dinosaurs? eels? To the right is Clean Water text by SKAM
below: A lovely orange octopus by Spyone beside a man partially submerged in the water, Rise Up by James (aka mistersoy)
A white boat with many portholes sails past, while on the right, by Andrea Rodriguez (aka Andrea Cataro) a pink dolphin and a grey walrus swimming underwater.
below: Abstract and sort of geometric, in teal and purple, by David Baron
below: A wonderful woman with turquoise dreadlocks in a turquoise sea under a pink octopus wearing a tophat. This mural was painted by Désiré Betty
below: A blue, purple, and white sea monster by Andre Castro looks towards red and purple text by mr_tensoe2
below: By dat_dude_stu
below: Something other-worldly by fongkikid
below: By mr. Water
below: Swirls by Flip surround a slightly greenish woman with hair that merge into the waves. The woman’s face was painted by @gosiakomorski One Love – Don’t let hate win.
below: Luvs crocodile with crocs floating in the water to the right of a small elfin(?) woman with long pink hair by @monicavcao
below: At the end of the painted section of the hoardings is this old green car, “little deuce coupe” surrounded by skulls, a dudeman ‘trademark’ of sorts.
Over the span of just a few years I have watched as street art went from questionable legality to mainstream; now it’s jumped to very trendy. From vilified to Yorkvillified?
below: This large mural was created by Kazakhstan born, Montreal-based, Ola Volo.
below: Close up of part of the mural by Whatisadam
below: Mathieu Bories, also known as Mateo, works on the woman’s blue and yellow head scarf.
below: This OK is coming unstuck, peeling off the wall. This mural was painted by Ben Johnston whose work often features text that looks 3D
below: This staircase, with artwork by Getso, is going to turn into a instagram hotspot. Her shoes may be famous already! Actually, I took a quick look through a few possible hastags while writing this post but so far there haven’t been too many images of people posing here.
below: Across the back wall, above the upper level, is a long mural by Mr. Brainwash that is supposed to look like a wall of graffiti
below: Up on the scaffolding working on Mickey Mouse and his orange ears, is Xray aka Brian Lanier.
below: I think that it says love, a mural by Peru143
below: The streaks and splotches of colour are part of the wall that was painted by Risk. It is also the space surrounding the entrance to the Taglialatella Gallery. It was this gallery, along with INK Entertainment, that brought together the artists to paint the murals and many of them have pieces for sale in the gallery. I appreciate that the gallery is supporting street art and that artists can make money from their work but there is a heavy presence of commercialism around this enclave of murals that makes me uncomfortable.
…murals that is.
On Euclid Avenue just south of College there is a lane that runs towards Palmerston Avenue. I am not sure if it has a name (Paese Lane is the extension of this lane on the other side of Euclid). As you can see, there are now some murals in this lane.
below: Pinks and blues combined in a mural by Getso
below: An unfinished mural by Adrian Hayles
below: A portrait of Greta Thunberg by Meaghan Claire Kehoe.
below: A dark haired woman in a blue head scarf with a purple conehead flower by drippin_soul aka Kalkidan Assefa
below: Raccoons have taken over this part of the alley! A mural by Emily May Rose
below: (across the lane from the ones above) This little green guy is up to no good! Great ready for an explosion! Perhaps life’s a blast?
Laneway mural project organized by KJ Bit Collective
Late in November, work was started on a new mural in Graffiti Alley
below: Working on the facial details
below: The work in progress.
It is a memorial (and tribute) to Mike “Wunder” Kennedy who was active in Toronto’s street art community. He was the one who coordinated the painting of the large murals around Broadview and Gerrard that featured the seven new wonders of the world. You can find pictures of these murals in a blog post from September 2016 .
below: Mike’s portrait when it was partially finished.
The mural was painted by Getso, Sight, Arms, Wales, Tenso2, Braes, and CTRJ
below: The finished portrait.
I like to think that Mike would be happy with the results.
Cranes and construction hoardings, not much new there.
below: On Dundas East, as part of the ongoing Regent Park revitalization project, there is another crane over another construction site. The hoardings around this project feature paintings by two street artists, birdo and getso.
below: These pictures were taken back in September. The hoardings are in a covered pedestrian walkway so they are in a shaded area. The railings make it unsafe to stand in the street to take close up photos, or at least I didn’t feel too safe the morning I was there.
as I walk Toronto 