It’s Pride weekend here in Toronto with its many activities including the usual parades. Yesterday was the Dyke March.
below: As in previous year, the motorcyclists led the parade.
Posts Tagged ‘kids’
with pink tutus and boas
Posted: June 12, 2017 in events, peopleTags: #divastoronto, #runlikeadiva, 5k, Cherry St., couples, event, fund raiser, girls, half marathon, kids, men, Port Lands, Portlands, road, run, runners, street, sunglasses, support, volunteers, women
Run Like a Diva,
5 km run and a half marathon in the Port Lands.
below: Pink tutus were given to all those who registered to participate in the event.
1700 people ran the 5K event and almost as many (I think) ran the half marathon.
The original plan was to hold this event on the Toronto Islands but with this spring’s flooding, the run was moved to the mainland. It was a charity event in support of Rethink Breast Cancer.
below: It was great to see a few men joining the fun, complete with their pink outfits.
below: Near the end of the event, participants were given pink boas and shiny tiaras to wear with their tutus.
below: Coming to the end!
#runlikeadiva | #divastoronto
sunny days
Posted: June 4, 2017 in general Toronto, peopleTags: art, covfefe, dogs, duckman, Eaton Centre, kids, mannequins, men, painting, people, performance, plants, sale, show, sidewalk, singing, spring, walking, women
This morning’s blog post is a mixed up mashed up collection of some of the pictures that I have taken in the past few days. The theme running through the post is “sunny days and people making the most of it.” It seems like an appropriate subject for a grey morning!
below: #duckman, one of the many ‘performers’ outside the Eaton Centre on Yonge Street.
below: The beginnings of a new mural on Queen Street West.
below: This weekend was the annual Riverdale ArtWalk at Jimmie Simpson Park and Community Center.
below: Dancing to the drums of Venice and Kevin who are playing as past of an event to raise money to fight sickle cell disease.
below: Four singers – they’ve just finished performing on the stage at Yonge Dundas Square as part of the DesiFEST celebrations.
below: A sign of the times.
below: It wasn’t just the people who were dressed for summer.
below: Gardening season has begun! The vacant lot beside Nick Sweetman’s mural has been turned into a Garden Centre.
below: With their backs to the windows … but it looks like they’re dressed for summer
water bound and rising high
Posted: May 29, 2017 in galleries, people, public art, waterfrontTags: couple, downtown, duck, hug, Kajama, kids, lake, Lake Ontario, mother, people, scooter, water, waterfront
The water levels in Lake Ontario are higher than normal this spring – some beaches are under water and a large percent of the Toronto Islands are flooded. In front of the Power Plant Art Gallery the water level is even with with the concrete walkway… but not high enough to deter people from enjoying the waterfront this past weekend.
It seems appropriate that the artwork on the exterior wall (facing the lake) of the Power Plant features an image of water – white crested waves on a large lake. The piece is “Bound, Hupfield 2017” by Maria Hupfield; it is 19 feet high and 31 feet wide. The central image is a seascape painted by the artist’s mother, Peggy Miller, many years ago. It is being wrapped (unwrapped?) with grey felt-like material.
Is it a treasured artwork that is being readied for storage?
Is it a painful memory that is being covered up to be forgotten?
Is it a family heirloom that is being brought out for someone to admire?
If you are interested in more information about Maria Hupfield, check the CONTACT website.
“Objects contain meanings beyond their materiality, meanings that we bring to them or receive from them. Objects are the result of an action, entail a trace of a human gesture, and trigger reactions and memories. They have the potential to be read collectively or personally. In her artistic practice, Maria Hupfield reveals the interrelational potential triggered by objects between humans or cultural environments.”
pillow fight 2017
Posted: April 3, 2017 in events, peopleTags: boys, crowd, event, fight, fun, girls, hot dog, International pillow fight day, kids, laughter, men, nathan phillips square, outdoor, people, pillow fight, pillows, shark, smiles, women
April 1st was International Pillow Fight day and like previous years, a group gathered at Nathan Phillips Square armed with pillows and ready for a fight. Swinging, ducking and hitting as well as laughing and smiling, ensued.
below: Superman made an appearance
below: A well deserved rest after a fight well fought.
When Irish feet were dancing
Posted: March 20, 2017 in events, peopleTags: bands, banners, bar, dancers, dog, faces, families, feet, flags, floats, green, hats, Irish, kids, men, music, musicians, oversized, parade, people, shamrock, silver Elvis, St. Patricks day, ties, women
St. Patricks Day Parade, 19 March 2017
Watching floats, bands, banners, flags, leprechauns, bagpipes, drums, dancers, hurlers, soccer players, dragons, shamrocks, leprechauns, crazy hats, green hats, green everything, but most of all, people.
ice
Posted: February 27, 2017 in eventsTags: #blooryorkville, #icefest17, beaver, camera, carve, chainsaw, couples, families, ice, ice sculptures, kids, lights, maple leaf, men, mountie, people, photos, pose, RCMP, sculpture, street, toys, women, words, Yorkville
This past weekend was the 5th annual Bloor Yorkville Icefest.
It’s an event that features ice sculptures in the park at Cumberland and Bellair.
The theme this year was Canada 150, as 2017 is Canada’s 150th birthday.
below: Sculptures in an enclosure (i.e. no one gets close enough to touch). The Parliament building in Ottawa is on the left with a very tall RCMP Mountie standing beside it. I’m not sure who the sculpture in the middle is supposed to represent. On the right, a large 1867, the year of Confederation, on top of a large 2017.
below: A number of artists worked on their sculptures as part of the festival. This mountie and beaver had just been completed before I arrived.
below: A large chunk of ice gets cut into smaller cubes. Each cube contains a small toy that had been frozen in the ice. For $2 you could buy an ice cube and smash it to liberate the toy.
Don’t miss the sign in the background!
below: Complete with spelling mistake. Charlottetown is spelled wrong.
Also, the term Newfie is included? Apparently it’s no longer an insult to call someone a Newfie.
below: The warm temperatures were making some of the thinner pieces more fragile than usual. The little ‘knobs’ on this replica of the Taj Mahal were barely hanging on. Luckily the temperatures dropped enough that most of the sculptures survived.
#blooryorkville | #icefest17
elicser people under the train tracks
Posted: February 25, 2017 in graffiti and street art, locations, public artTags: buildings, community garden, couple, cyclist, Elicser, GO train, kids, Monarch Park, Monica on the moon, mural, paint, parents, people, scenes, sitting, street art, train tracks, tunnel, underpass, walking
If you walk south through Monarch Park this is the view that greets you as you approach the railway underpass. Elicser has painted a large mural that extends from the park through to the Woodfield Community Rail Garden that is on the other side. As you walk through the underpass this is what you see:
It’s February so the community garden is still resting for the winter. A shed with all four sides painted by Monica on the Moon provides some colour in the meantime.
The path continues…. a slight curve and you’re on Woodfield Road and on your way again.
Flotsam and Jetsam and others
Posted: February 21, 2017 in people, public art, waterfrontTags: art, beach, blue, bottles, boys, chairs, clear, Collective Memory, empties, evergreens, families, flotsam, Flotsam and Jetsam, girls, interactive, jetsam, kids, Lake Ontario, lifeguard stations, messages, North, notches, ovals, paper, pine, plastic, recycling, reflections, reflective, reusing, studio PERCH, The Beacon, The Illusory, trees, University of Waterloo, water, Waterfront BIA, waterfrontTO, winter stations, wood
Two empty chairs sitting in the sun. This photo is only a half truth; it suggests that the beach was sunny but empty yesterday when I took the photo. Sunny yes, empty no.
Back in the winter of 2015, I discovered the first “Winter Stations” event on a day when the temperature was -20C. There weren’t many people there that year! In contrast, yesterday was a beautiful and unseasonably warm February Sunday. Temperatures hit the double digits and lots of people come out to take advantage of the weather. It was also the first weekend of the 2017 version of ‘Winter Stations’. Although the installations officially opened today, all but one of them were completed and ready for the public yesterday.
below: One of the installations is “North” which was designed by studio PERCH in Montreal. Yes, it’s Christmas trees hung upside down. They are prickling to walk between. This year there seems to be a recycling and reusing theme in a lot of the installations. At least I hope these trees weren’t cut down specifically for this project.
below: Another installation is “Collective Memory” designed by Mario Garcia (Barcelona Spain) and Andrea Govi (Milan Italy). People are encouraged to leave messages in the bottles.
below: Paper is provided as are the bottles. The walls are constructed of horizontal empty plastic water bottles with the openings all on the inside of the structure.
below: The sun shining through the plastic bottles makes for some interesting effects.
below: Like most of the installations, “Collective Memory” encloses a lifeguard station.
below: The installation that wasn’t ready yet is “The Beacon” designed by Joao Araujo Sousa and Joanna Correia Silva (Porto Portugal).
The installation in the background in the above photograph is “BuoyBuoyBuoy” designed by Dionisios Vriniotis, Rob Shostak, Dakota Wares-Tani, and Julie Forand (Toronto Canada).
below: One of many photo ops!
below: Notched ovals made of wood and clear plastic were used to build this installation. The wood pieces were either painted white or covered with silvery reflective material.
below: More reflections, this time in “The Illusory” designed by a group from Humber College School of Media Studies & IT, School of Applied Technology.
below: Someone has already written on (scratched?) the surface.
below: “The Illusory” in front, “Flotsam and “Jetsam” behind, and lots of people in between.
below: “Flotsam and Jetsam” was designed by a team from the University of Waterloo. It consists of cubes made of wire cages. The cages on the bottom are filled with empty plastic bottles of different colours and shapes.
***
The Winter Stations will remain until the 27th of March.
Womens March
Posted: January 22, 2017 in events, peopleTags: boys, cars, children, community, diversity, dog, Donald Trump, families, fight like a girl, free Melania, friendship, girls, hard hat, involved, kids, love not fear, love trumps hate, march, men, nathan phillips square, people, placards, police, protest, Queens Park, rally, Shepard Fairey, sign, smiles, stars and stripes, Toronto, Trump, University Ave., walk, women, WOmens March, wrecking ball
Thousands of people (50,000?), men, women and children, rallied at Queens Park and then marched down University Avenue past the American Embassy this afternoon. This was the Womens March in Toronto, a march in response to Donald Trump’s inauguration as President of the United States. It coincided with similar events in Washington, most major cities in North America, and other cities around the world. The Toronto marchers ended their walk at Nathan Phillips Square. It was a peaceful, positive event.
It was also a family event. There were a lot of kids walking with their parents (or being pushed in strollers). Many of the kids had made their own signs to carry.
There were also many people that came as groups, whether as groups of friends or groups united in a cause.
There were a few signs using the “We The People” designs by Shepard Fairey.
Donald Trump swings happily on a wrecking ball.
I march for equality and peace.
I’d rather have a queen than a trump.
There were lots of references to nasty women!
Many people wore pink hats. These mysterious two took it a step further, pink balaclavas.
Love not fear, and a pink hard hat too!
Free Melania | #freemelania
girls are strong
Women have rights and we’re gonna use them! … with rainbows.
A loud hear us roar!
Donald Trump was at the march too, even if only in effigy.
The march stopped for a few minutes when it reached Queen Street. There was much traffic confusion and chaos (and honking of horns) at the intersection of Queen and University until the police closed all traffic on Queen Street.
Orange? No. I’m peach. Great play on words.
Make America gay again!!
And that’s only part of the crowd at Nathan Phillips Square!
“Babies against Trump. We don’t like it when people call Trump a baby – we act better than him.”
Women’s rights are human rights.
#whyImarch | #womensmarch | #nastywoman | #lovetrumpshate | #noh8
as I walk Toronto 