Posts Tagged ‘lane’

north to Humbert

Posted: August 21, 2015 in graffiti and street art
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There is a lane that runs parallel, and just to the west of, Ossington Ave.
It’s only one block long, running north from Queen St. West to Humbert Street.

In the summer of 2012 this lane was the site for “Brighten the Corners For the Love of Art” mural project.  The project involved a number of local community groups such as ProAction Cops and Kids as well as the Academy of Lions (a gym on Ossington Ave).  Twenty artists painted many of the garage doors and fences in the alley.   Some of the paintings remain, some have been defaced, and others have been painted over entirely since then.  This is what the alley looked like last week.

An alley that runs parallel to Ossington Ave., looking north with garages on both sides and a tree overhead, looking towards Humbert St.
Two birdo creatures on a brown garage door
Two spud bomb graffiti characters on a blue garage door in an alley

A large white spud character on a garage door, with big googly eyes and arms that come out from where his ears are

 

a number of colourful street art paintings on a garage door and gate in an alley

garage door painted orange and then a geometric street art painting in greys and purples painted on that

A door in an alley with two montsters painted on it. A one eyed purple monster with a long pink tongue is sitting on top of a blue monster who is trying to pinch the end of the purple monster's tongue

Close up of a graffiti piece, many colours, with a blue 3D stick figure surrounded on three sides by frame-like boards

Two garage doors with street art. On the left is a yellow lovebot and a red grominator. On the second is a large woman's face that has been scribbled on as well as a fairy-like creature. The latter two are the work of EGR.An old broken toilet is in the corner.

A purple faced man is blowing grey clouds, the alley is in the background.

A mural of big headed, big toothed creatures by broken alley on a garage door in a lane.

The creatures on the garage door above always remind me of ‘scrubbing bubbles’ from the cleaning products of the same name.

A picture of blue scrubbing bubbles from TV ad

at Humbert Street

Posted: August 20, 2015 in graffiti and street art, intersections
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Intersections – Ossington at Humbert

below:  As you walk south on Ossington Ave, approaching Humbert Street,  look up and you can see the mural ‘Further’ by Aaron Li-Hill. Fencers with their swords in motion.   It extends the length of the wall but taking a picture of it is difficult because of the high location of the wall and because of the stuff on the roof of the adjacent building.

A mural on the upper storey of a building that is partially obscured by items on the roof of the adjacent building. THe theme of the mural is further, and the word further is written many times. There are also images of fencers with their swords.
below:  On the other side of Ossington Ave there is a mural along the north wall of House of Horvath .  The mural features a man in a tobacco field presumably picking tobacco.  It seemed like a strange theme for a mural in Toronto until I realized that this is a building in which cigars are made.   Yes, cigars are made in Toronto.

Mural of a man in a white hat leaning over and picking tobacco plants in a field of tobacco.

mural of a man in a tobacco field picking tobacco on the side of Horvaths, a cigar manufacturer, on Ossington St. in TOronto.

near Dundas and Dufferin streets

Posted: August 14, 2015 in graffiti and street art
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A few things seen while walking Dundas West (and the alleys behind it) near Dufferin Street.

below:  Dundas Street West, looking east from Dufferin Street, March 2015

view of Dundas St. West, looking eastward towards downtown from the intersection with Dufferin St.

below: At the corner of Sheridan Ave and Dundas West.

building on the corner of Sheridan and Dundas is a two storey brick building. On the whole of the side wall is a large Dundas West mural featuring a large butterfly painted on it.

below: A mural by Jarus

a Jarus street art painting of a woman sleeping on a bed. She has long black hair and is wearing white clothes

On a wall that has been painted a couple of shades of red is a painting of a green head with a green and red striped head dress on

below: Solicitors will be fed to the chihuahua

sign on the door of a store that says Solicitors will be fed to the chihuahua, with a picture of a little chihuahua dog below the words

large colourful mural on the side of building, two stylized musicians, a drummer and a guitar player as well as two people dancing.

large mural of stylized people, 2 people, a drummer and a dancer

garage door with three black line drawn foxes, there is a construction site to the right of the garage
A brown car is parked in a driveway beside a door with a yellow man's face painted on the bottom half of the door. He's bald, little round ears and his eyes are closed.
blue door with faded paint and a metal grille in front of it, beside a garage door with graffiti on it including the words Idle no more. Upper storey has an exterior door that goes nowhere

garage door with a picture on it titled Casa Nostra, a picture of a man playing a large guitar and a woman standing beside an outdoor table with food on it.

below: Kick out the jams

black and white street art on a garage door that is partially obscured by trash bins and wooden structure. The art is geometric shapes and includes the words Kick out the Jams

mural behind a small tree on a red brick wall, spiral of DNA, medical symbols, butterfly

black stencil of a man's head on a white brick wall

a cityscape, two bunnies and a chicken

Posted: August 11, 2015 in graffiti and street art
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Murals and street art seen in a nameless alley in Kensington Market area,
near Kensington Ave and St Andrew Street.
It’s the alley that Mona Lisa watches over the entrance to.

a mural on a wall in an alley, a city scene (no people) in grey tones. A man is sitting on the stairs beside the mural and a green car is parked there too

wide angle shot of a mural on a wall in an alley, city buildings in grey tones covers the lower floor of a two storey building.
close up of a portion of the grey cityscape mural

a wall in a lane, a large red chicken head painting is on the right and it seems to be looking down the lane. A woman is standing in the lane

street art painting of a large brown chicken with a red face. The signature on the painting says Jonny Cakes
a yellow poser bunny on a wall in an alley beside a door that is covered with tags including oreks

looking down the alley, wide angle shot, poser bunny mural on the right side, red tag graffiti on the left. At the end of the alley a man stands with his dog, a woman with a white umbrella is passing by

a poser bunny street art painting at the corner of a building is in the foreground, people on Kensington Ave are in the background

revisiting an alley

Posted: August 9, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations
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I was sorting through older photos recently when I discovered some of street art and graffiti that I saw in an alley near Trinity Bellwoods Park.  The photos were taken in February so there is lots of snow in them.  I thought that it would be silly to write a blog post in August using cold and snowy photos so I went back the other day to retake the pictures.

A painting by street artist birdo of a red and blue striped horse like creature with its neck bent downwards so that it looks like it is eating the weeds that are growing between the cracks in the lane. It is on a garage door, tops of houses can be seen in the background, above the garage

The alley is at the north end of Trinity Bellwoods Park, running behind Dundas West between Montrose and Grace.  The east end of the alley turns north to exit at Dundas West.

a fence that runs down the right side of an alley has been covered with street art

below: This guy, and his chess issues, is at the corner where the alley meets Dundas West.

a low concrete fence is painted with graffiti street art, a green snarling green raccoon creature is acting out against a chess piece, a castle or rook

two street art pictures that look a bit like angry birds

cruz1 street art that looks like leaves or green abstract letters on a fence
3 big round headed aliens by street artist mska, one is green, one is pink and yellow and one is yellow and orange, on a fence in an alley

close up picture of a green leafed vine growing up a street art painting in blue and red with a yellow heart
A garage door in an alley that has been painted with many brightly coloured skulls

A garage door in an alley covered with a street art painting of letters and hand grenades - spud bombs

street art on a garage door in a laneway, dog riding on top of a doghouse, sort of like Snoopy did

below: close up of the dog from the painting above, taken in February

street art of a dog wearing sunglasses and pretending to be a pilot, taken in the winter as there are icicles hanging from the roof

below:  There was one garage that had been painted between February when I first saw it and early August when I went back.  The two photos below show the garage ‘before’ and ‘after’.

The side of a garage in an alley in winter, snow on the ground, two small trees. The side of the garage is painted green and it has a black and white orak tag on it.

The side of a garage door in summer, two trees and a parked car. The side of the garage is covered with street art

below:  This Anser face was on the doors of the above garage back in February.
It has since been painted over.

A face painted on a garage door. bright blue eys, otherwise drawn with just black lines. by the artist anser

 below:  Blaze Works has painted this where the Anser face was. Always remember.

blaze works tag like graffiti street art on a garage door in an alley

other garage doors

tag like street art on a garage door in an alley

tag like street art on a garage door in an alley Diana Gordito

tag like street art on a garage door in an alley crsy fario, killa wales, lpk 66,

tag like street art on a garage door in an alley ynn doh

from Portland to Spadina

Posted: July 4, 2015 in graffiti and street art
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Another walk down Graffiti Alley between Portland and Spadina.
Some new and some not so new.

uber 5000 birdie in a little space ship with a beam of light eminating from the bottom, on a red brick wall

tags and letter graffiti in blues and purples on an alley wall, with a few people walking down the alley as well

tag in reds, oranges and yellows, on green, with dark blue background

close up of a street art painting that now looks abstract, black lines on green, pink and beige
  below: Catching a glimpse of what goes on in it’s head
double doors painted in a pink, orange and red face (large face), the doors are slightly open so there is now a gap down the middle of the nose and mouth

a black and white poser bunny on a wall at the corner, around the corner is a painted arrow that is part of a graffiti painting

graffiti in an alley - 4 stickers on a metal pole. Knuts on the top, a woman in profile with the word think next, black and white drawing third and on the bottom is a green on white line drawing of a man's face

below: Batman descends on the city

A young man is spray painting part of a batman mural. The figure of batman is completed and is about 4 meters tall. A city scene is being added in the bottom corner

below: This photo was taken about 2 weeks before. The graffiti KURST and the lettering below it have been painted over. Batman has taken its place.

tags in an alley

A large bird head street art painting covers the end of a building in a lane

A white graffiti skull with the words belleding heart written underneath

a wall of a building in an alley, including the door, is cover with a red tag, a small uber 5000 bird and the remains of a greenish coloured tag.

A stylized greenish brown bull with horns is smoking a cigarette, only the head is shown. It is on a wall and beside it is a door that had a woman's face painted on it. The face has been tagged over. Dis jnt is written across the top of the door. disjoint perhaps.

  below: Dazed and confused

tag in silver and black with pink and orange highlights on a grey metal door

tags on a black wall in an alley. Between them is the word doh

messy tags and scribbles on and around a door in an alley

small graffiti piece of a giraffe standing on the ground, on concrete, in an alley

below: Insane portrait of a woman

woman's face in profile painted on a wall in an alley

  below: Another portrait of a woman, this one by Kairo

Woman's face painted by Kairo in an alley, blue background

blog_portland_spadina_knuts

  below: Making lemonade

graffiti picture of a lemon wearing sunglasses and a sun hat and holding a glass of lemonade

below: This takes the place of the mural that had “I love sandwiches” that was there for quite a while (a couple of years?).  The frame with the little figures cut into it remains.

blog_portland_spadina_love_toronto

street art painting of a dog foaming at the mouth, mad dog

Woman taking picture on a smartphone, standing beside a street art piece of a man with earphones plugged into

pieboy graffiti, large green one eyed monster

below: Poser bunnies on a garage door

poser bunny street art on a garage door

blog_portland_spadina_red_collar

life as the shadow of vida

Posted: May 22, 2015 in graffiti and street art, public art
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There is a gorgeous new mural on both side of a small lane on the west side of the Lula Lounge, Dundas Street West.  Painting by Fiya, Shalak Atack, Essencia, Smoky, Sweetman, and Sapiens.

part of a large mural - a South American woman with long braided black hair with a baby wearing a Peruvian hat on her back

part of a large mural - the head and neck of two colourful birds by the street artist fiya

part of a large mural - a man wearing a bowler hat and a striped jacket, seen from the shoulders up.

part of a large colurful mural, a large fish with a yellow and orange body and blue and green face, on a wooden fence
Part of a large colourful mural - seen through a fish eye camera lens. The word Vida is written in capital letters and under it is written Life, also in capital letters but Life is made to look like the shadow of Vida.

Part of a large colourful mural, A woman's head, she has long dark hair that is braided at the back.

part of a large mural - close up of a tiger's face
part of a large colourful mural - a tiger in the middle, eyes iamongst green leaves on the right
Part of a large colourful mural - a large wrinkly man's face with round bulging eyes

part of a large colourful mural - a hand is reaching towards a birdhouse on a stand

street scene on Dundas West, sidewalk and store fronts, with mural in the alley just showing betweenthe Lula lounge with its orange, blue and white tiled front and a store with the sign Argentina on it.

 at the end of the alley

a garage door covered with a street art piece signed by smoky, a mural in the lane beside the garage is also visible

graffiti on a door of a large grotesque man's face with open mouth and what looks like blue ribbons coming out of his mouth, the blue ribbons continue on the concrete of the lane behind the door, and go towards the garbage bins beside the door.

#losclandestinos

a fresh coat

Posted: March 31, 2015 in graffiti and street art
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Repainting a wall in Graffiti Alley

begiinning to paint, starting with the red - new graffiti tag art in the alley, red with yellow polka dots on blue background

painting new graffiti, blue and yellow next, new graffiti tag art in the alley, red with yellow polka dots on blue background

new graffiti tag art in the alley, red with yellow polka dots on blue background

new graffiti tag art in the alley, red with yellow polka dots on blue background
new graffiti tag art in the alley, red with yellow polka dots on blue background
close up of a door and doorstep that is incorporated into new graffiti tag art in the alley, red with yellow polka dots on blue background

another Kensington alley

Posted: March 30, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations
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Borden Street becomes an alley south of College Street.  It runs along the east side of Kensington Community School, then makes a turn and runs part way along the south side of the school.  All of the garage doors have been painted with pictures and murals.

below:  The most northerly garage door has a sign that indicates that the murals were a gift to the children of Kensington Community School from the Kensington Market Action Committee.  They were painted by a number of different artists.

A large green and black beetle (or a similar insect) painted on a garage door along with words

longer view of part of an alley showing the street art covered garage doors.

Street art piece of a tag in the middle and a face on either top corner.

Graffiti on a garage door. A face is in the top right corner and she is looking down towards the ground. Stylized.

Graffiti painting of a hand holding a can of spray paint.

Garage door with a very large round fat yellow mother hen with two little chicks following behind her.

Graffiti painting on a garage door of the words "Hi Def" in rounded fat letters with colours in pinks greens and black squares.

A mural on a garage door, a wispy picture of a man, an owl and a pair of eyes

close up of a man

north end of an alley with garage doors on the right, white chain link fence on the left. The garage doors are covered with street art and graffiti.

North end of the alley, looking towards College Street.

 

below:  Hey and Hello, by J. Stanton

 A mural on a garage door, all yellow and black, stylized figures a fish, a bone, a wedge of cheese with a face, two cherries made into little figures with eyes, mouth and legs, a large sandwich with a face on the bun as well as arms and legs, also a lemon with eyes, arms and legs. personified food,,

below: A painting by lexr in 2012, Hey Markusiel.
The sign on the gate refers to the Yinka Dene Alliance, a coalition of six First Nations groups from northern British Columbia who organized to stop the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline being built through their territory.

Wooden garage door with a painting of a boy with a baseball cap on his head and a breathing mask around his neck and nose.

below: Street art piece by Cam Novak

Purple and blue abstract street art on a garage door.

below: Max and the Wild Things by ACS Murals (Annex Creative Services Murals)

Mural on a garage door of Max and the Wild Things, characters from the children's book "Where the Wild Things Are" . They are swinging from tree branches.

Close up of a Mural on a garage door of Max and the Wild Things, characters from the children's book "Where the Wild Things Are" . Two of the wild things are are swinging from tree branches.

below: Another ACS mural

mural on a garage door in an alley of a marine scene. A large grey and white shark is swimming along with a yellow and black angel fish. There is a pink starfish and some coral as well.

Graffiti tag on a garage door in an alley, green tag on blue and orange background. The tag, or word, says "sighto" or something like that.

Blue graffiti tag on pale orange background on a laneway garage door. The word 'Suniti' is written in small letters in the top left corner.

below: The next four pictures are from a mural that covers a couple of garages.  From left to right.

colourful graffiti of two bulls

multicoloured street art on a garage door of a boy reaching forward, his hand is foreshortened and is clasest to the viewer.

street art painting on a garage door in a laneway, a woman with open mouth under a row of eyes

colourful graffiti painting of a man's face surrounded by a lot of abstract shapes

eyes in the alley

Posted: March 23, 2015 in graffiti and street art
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I went back to Graffiti Alley the other day.
When I was just east of Niagara Street I noticed these eyes looking at me.

One very realistic eye in a partial circle, in a boarded up window above head level so it looks like it's looking down at you.

A small blue Stickman sneaks into the photo too!

 

A wall with a door in the middle of it. There is a street art piece of three heads. Two very stylized men and a more realistic looking woman. Bright colours.

Three faces painted on a garage door by Jon Todd.

Close up of a stylized and slightly abstacted man's face on a wall in an alley

close up of a street piece that is very red, with one whitish grey eye. Some faint swirly white lines demark the face, or at least the upper quadrant that is visible in the picture

A sticker on a pole with green in the background. The sticker is of a man's head. He has a beard and big brown moustache and he is wearing a red toque with a label on it that says 'checo'

slightly abstacted painting of a face in white orange, yellow and brown, in 3/4 profile

Some stickers or slaps on the side of an air conditioner. One is of a frog head with its tongue out and eyes closed. The other is of a green man's face, also with his tongue out.

A garage covered with a large abstract and very colourful painting, swirls and geometric shapes, along with at least three or four eyes. Signed @jchiale

by Jimmy Chiale

Close up, and a side angle shot, of colourful graffiti on a door, door frame and wall. Bright colours, geometric shapes such as white circle around brown, pink zig zags.

…and a mouth too!

Graffiti painting of a bright red pair of lips slightly parted to see shiney white teeth. On a garage door, in an alley.

 Links for more information

Jon Todd

Jimmy Chiale

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