Posts Tagged ‘hand’

Go Go Gadget

Posted: September 19, 2018 in graffiti and street art, locations
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There’s a new mural in one of the Kensington alleys!  It was painted recently by Dave Setrakian.  It is also too long, and the alley too narrow, to get a good picture of the whole mural.

 

mural by Dave Setrakian in a Kensing alley

below: A parrot, an airplane and some Italian.

part of a mural in a narrow alley in Kensington by Dave Setrakian, a parrot on a perch and an airplane, some passport stamps

below: An Immigration Canada stamp from the 29th of May 1986 beside an Italian flag just out of reach.

part of a mural in a narrow alley in Kensington by Dave Setrakian, a parrot on a perch and an airplane, a hand holding a small flag, a blue passport stamp from Lester Pearson airport with the date 1986.05.29

below: Inspector Gadget appears on TV – a kids’ cartoon produced in the 1980’s.

part of a mural in a narrow alley in Kensington by Dave Setrakian, a parrot on a perch and an airplane, a television set showing Ispector Gadget, a cartoon character from a 1990's kids program

below: A little yellow car with an Armenian flag in the back passenger window.

part of a mural in a narrow alley in Kensington by Dave Setrakian, a parrot on a perch and an airplane, a large yellow car

below: A large palm tree grows here, along with a Kuwaiti passport stamp and Kuwaiti flag

part of a mural in a narrow alley in Kensington by Dave Setrakian, a parrot on a perch and an airplane, a palm tree and a flag

part of a mural in a narrow alley in Kensington by Dave Setrakian, a parrot on a perch and an airplane, a blue and white scooter, motorbike, is parked beside the mural

more from Graffiti Alley

Posted: November 28, 2017 in alleys, graffiti and street art
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It’s taken a few days, but here is the last (of three) of the blog posts featuring photos that I took this past weekend when I walked Graffiti Alley.

below: Levar Burton is my father, or at least that’s what’s written on the wrist.

mural in Graffiti Alley - a large blue hand the size of a door, with watch on wrist and words Levar Burton

below: Swimming with the octopi?  Or else she’s landed in hot water?  An other worldly mural by Planette.

mural in Graffiti Alley - by planette, a womanwearing face mask and helmet and in water up to arm pits, tentacles coming out of the water in front of her.

below: Mural by earth crusher,

mural in Graffiti Alley by earth crusher - man in black suit, white shirt and black tie, small rectangle machine head and a smart phone in each hand

below: How can it be evil if there is a cupcake and an ice cream cone? I think that Choo Choo the cat from Hanna Barbera’s Top Cat.

mural in Graffiti Alley - Choo Choo the cartoon pink cat from Hanna Barbera Top Cats,with white t-shirt on, Mike Myers evil character from movie, a cupcake and an ice cream cone

below: Huckleberry Hound seems to have reason to fear the cops.

mural in Graffiti Alley - cartoon dog in blue on door, with words run cops!

below: But everything is A OK with this guy!

cartoon character with pyramid shaped body, small black arms and large white hands, open mouth with red tongue = mural in Graffiti Alley

below: The hamburger probably isn’t coming out of the garbage bin! It doesn’t look like she’s too impressed with it though,.

below: @kyleghostkeeper, another tattoo artist. Red eyes, eyebrows, and lips but turquoise hair.

large woman's face, blue hair, re lips, over done make up

below: A stencil and a sticker.  Another @stick_tags  “Are you living your dream?” sticker.

stencil graffiti of a person in white coat

below: There’s a lot going on here – all small and not all noticed the first time in part because of the mess.  The cat, a small man screaming, and the words “just a pawn” written a few times.

graffiti in a doorway. stencil cat, words that say just a pawn, stencil small man screaming

graffiti words on a wall in Graffiti Alley, bad man no take no selfie

There are always words written on walls.  Sometimes funny, sometimes profane, and sometimes just weird.  Today, we have comments about selfies and queer witches.   Both made me smile.

graffiti words stencilled on a wall that say Queer witches for a better tomorrow

mural in Graffiti Alley - person wearing gas mask and holding a spray paint can in outreached hand

The next two blog posts are also from Graffiti Alley.

women in the walls

Posted: September 4, 2017 in alleys, graffiti and street art
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Women in the Walls was/is a mural project where most of the painting was done on the last weekend in August. Twenty women participated to create murals in the alley behind the north side of Gerrard Street East near Craven, Rhodes and Woodfield. One van and one car were also painted.

below: Courtney Binns and Kerry Marie (kairo) work on their murals.

two women painting a mural, one mural each, one on the back of a building in an alley and the other on the side of the same building.

a woman sprays paint, light blue, onto the background of a mural that she's painting, blue, green and pinks that merge together with no defined lines or edges

street art painting of a fuzzy orange fox, lying on the ground by C V Binns

a woman is in the beginning stages of painting a mural portrait of a woman outside

below: Princess Nokia

portrait of a woman on a wall, a mural by kairo, long dark hair, a blue bow on the top of her head, some blocks of the concrete block wall are painted in shades of pink

below: Caitlin Taguiboa paints her mural starting with the black and white background that will turn into ripples and reflections on water.

woman spraing black on a black and white mural, standing beside a ladder, on a garage door in an alleyy paint

pink white and orange flowers by a black pool with with and pink reflections and ripples

below: Kim adds some blue to the background of her mural.

a woman is painting a street art mural

on a garage door, a painting by Kim, blue background, close up of two yellow women pilots in a green airplane

below: The deer mural was preserved (it’s been on this wall for a number of years).  You can just see the faint outlines of a salamander that @mmnador is creating.  That’s Kim working on her pilots (astronauts?) in the background.

two women painting murals, Kim is in the background painting on a garage door while another woman is outlining a picture of a chameleon on a wall

a dark purple salamander in a street art painting on a background of orange, yellow, and light blue polygonal shapes with 3 to 5 straight sides on a wall with a tree to the left

below: Rolling on the pink, background that is.  Anya Mielniczek’s latest mural is a woman’s face in shades of pink and green.

woman rolling paint to make pink background on a mural

street art mural of a woman's face in greens and blues on one side, moving to pink on the other, lots of black hair. red lips, yellow eyes

partially finished mural on black background in an alley, green stripes near the bottom, blue circles beside brown squiggles, milk x weed

below: Painting a tribute to Smokey the cat, by Stacey Kinder.

a woman is crouching beside a wall where she is painting a picture of a blue cat, on the wall beside her is a large black section that has just been painted in preparation for another mural

a woman with long blond hair, Stacey Kinder, is painting a picture of a blue cat on a wall,

finished mural of Smokey the blue cat, with a sunflower behind his head,

below: Up close to the central portion of a mural painted by Chief Ladybird and Auralast.

detail of center of mural of an indigenous woman with long braided hair and feathers

below:  The words in the stripes are “One Voice”.  There is a blue and a pink stripe that didn’t make it into the photo, on them is written “Powerful”.

part of a mural by chief ladybird and aura of an indigenous woman with a feather in her hair, in front of the sun and circles of colour, red and blue flowers on the outer layer of colour (light blue)

below: A shout out to Debbie who lent her car, Lightning, to the cause.  Here, a black stenciled dog adorns the back door panel – in memory of Harley.

side of a car that has been prepped, for painting partially painted with turquoise section and pink splotches, also a black stenciled dog, called Harley, by the back wheel,

below: Lightning is now fueled with flower power!

back of painted car, large flower and many colours in the background, a bumper sticker that says Honor Diversity

below: And the last, a van.  It was parked behind the Flying Pony while one side was painted by Erika James….

a woman is taping stencils onto the side of van. The stencils are of words, Don't worry you haven't hit your stride yet

below:  … and the other by Jieun June Kim.   When I went back later in the week to take pictures of the completed murals, the van wasn’t around.  If you see it, let me know!

a woman spray paints on the side of a van that is being covered with street art, masking tape to keep the spray paint in straight lines.

below: Hands and stylized florals

black background mural with stylized floral in bright colours, also a hand in the middle in many colours

part of a mural with magenta background, green arms reaching up from foliage and weeds at the bottom, hands open, revealing a large blue eye on each hand

This project was supported by StART program at StreetARToronto as well as Cultural Hotspot 2017.  The latter is a summer-long initiative whose aim is to encourage art, community, and culture in the east end of the city.

below: Monstawall by Monica Wickeler (aka monicaonthemoon), one of the principal organizers of the weekend.

small street art mural of many stylized abstract goofy faces in bright colours, on a wall. a car is parked in front of it and some is reflected in the windshield

Sonya remade and rejuvenated

Posted: August 28, 2017 in graffiti and street art, locations
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Close to Kensington market is a small park called Sonya Parkette.  Two of the sides of the park are walls.  A few years ago the walls were painted with historical murals that were subsequently tagged over.   More recently, the park has undergone some renovations including new murals on the walls.

Many of the murals are by P.S (aka Phillip Saunders).  If you are familiar with some of the graffiti and street art in the Kensington area, you will recognize the style.

multicoloured face with red text tag beside

orange face, blue eyes, short black hair, mural on a wall at Sonya Parkette in Kensington

mural, face in grey tones, on a background of water, trees, sky and clouds.

below: This mural, and the one below, are obviously by the same artist who painted the two murals of naked women in Milky Way.

mural of an orange naked woman reclining, wall is golden yellow colour

mural on a wall with green plants growing in front, mural is a blue person from the chest up, no hair. Some plants are part of the mural too.

below: A realistic painting of a sleeping man.

a man in green pants and white t-shirt is sleeping on the ground, a mural on a wall. the ground is green with small circles and semi-circles in other colours.

below: Peace and an abstract.

a mural with two parts, on the left is an abstract design with rectangles and a few curves. on the right is a realistic hand giving the peace sign

The Kensington area has a problem with taggers – many street art pieces get vandalized.  Let’s hope that these don’t suffer that fate.

at the mouth of the Don

Posted: July 13, 2016 in graffiti and street art, locations
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street art painting of a blue fish on light blue background, stylized

Today I walked the southern part of the Lower Don River trail.  It’s not the most relaxing place to walk even though the path follows the river.  I have a habit of absentmindedly meandering and I didn’t want to meander right into a cyclist on the narrow shared path.   There was constant background noise from the cars and trucks on the nearby Don Valley Parkway but it was the GO trains that made the most noise as they rumbled right beside me.  Yes, you are correct, it’s not my favorite place to walk.  But I also knew that there was a reward near the end of the trail.

Near the ‘mouth of the Don River’ (in reality, where the Don River turns into the Keating Channel), there are some new murals on the bents supporting the ramps between the DVP and the Gardiner Expressway.  They are part of the Love Letter to the Great Lakes project.   A previous blog post, love letters in paint, concerned the murals from this project that were painted near Ossington and Queen West.

below: If you approach the area from the north, this is the first bent that you see.  All sides of it have been painted by Kirsten McCrea.  If you are driving south on the Don Valley Parkway and you exit to the Gardiner westbound, you drive right over this, and the next few, bents.  In case you haven’t guessed, a bent is that concrete support thingy holding up the road.

a bent supporting an offramp has been covered in a bright mural, grass and weeds grow in front, the river is behind, a small tree also in the picture

below: The other side of the McCrea mural is in the background, behind the bent that has been painted by PA System (Patrick Thompson and Alexa Hatanaka).  Amongst the swirly watery  shapes there is a face near the top.  Extra bit: The guy on the bike stopped to take a photo too.

A swirl of colours makes a mural of faces and hands and watery things, on a bent under the Don Valley Parkway

below: The other side of the PA System bent. A large fish fits perfectly in the upper portion while a hand reaches up from the vertical part.

A very large fish is painted across the top of a bent, and a hand is on the vertical part, with finger tips pointed upwards.

below: The work of MC Baldassari who is currently from Montreal.

concrete support, or bent, under a ramp has been painted with a mural based on a large dark blue triangle

below:  The other side of the above bent.  It looks like the woman has come through the pillar.

concrete support, or bent, under a ramp has been painted with a mural based on a woman's head coming through a large dark blue triangle

below: A woman with a mouse in her hand and a flower in her hair kneels beside the foxes,
a mural painted by EGR (Erica Balon).   In the background you can see a much taller bent that has been painted blue.   This bent is on a different ramp, the ramp that you would find yourself on if you were driving east on the Gardiner and then exiting to the DVP.  It has been painted by Jason Botkin and it includes the word Wonscotanach.  Apparently that was the First Nations name for the river before John Graves Simcoe came along in 1790 and decided to call it the Don River.

A mural on a bent in an underpass, a young woman is kneeling. She is holding a mouse in one hand. Two foxes stand beside her.

below: There are more animals on the other sides, along with a city lit up in the night in the background of the mural.   Raccoon, rabbit and a pink butterfly fluttering past.

2 bents covered with murals. In the foreground, the mural is dark blue, with a pink butterfly, a rabbit, a mouse and a raccoon.

woman holding a mouse in a mural on a bent in the foreground, with another bent in the background, a mural of water and topless red women walking or standing in the water

below: Rajni Perera‘s mural features red and yellow women walking or standing in the water.

part of a mural of water and topless red women either walking or standing in the water

below: Looking back

a cyclist rides past 4 bents under the Don Valley Parkway that have been painted with murals as part of the Love Letter to the Great Lakes project.

below: A collaborative effort by Jarus and Kwest beside the Don Valley trail, just north of the other murals.

large sea creature painted on a mural on a concrete wall.

below:  And one last photo before leaving the area… a quick note sprayed on a concrete support.

rough spray painted words 'Hi Love' on a concrete support on a railing by a river.