lane | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘lane’

St. Enochs Square

Posted: July 10, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: black and white cat, boy, brick wall, cat, city, dandelions, downtown, EGR, EGRart, Elicser Elliott, lane, mural, painted wall, people, rejuvenation, Shuter, St. Enochs Square, street art, Toronto, urban

St. Enochs Square, between Massey Hall and the back of the stores facing Yonge St., just south of Shuter St.

This mural was painted about a year ago as part of a project to rejuvenate this alley. It was a collaboration between EGR and Elicser Elliott.

entrance to laneway, red brick building on the left (Massey Hall), mural painted on the wall on the right. Mural shows a woman & a boy blowing the seeds from white puffy dandelions.

entrance to St. Enochs Sq. on Shuter St.

A woman is holding an infant and a small child. Another child is clinging to her. A man is to her right and a girl is to her left. The infant is ugly and may not really be an infant but instead be a little roly poly old man... or a hybrid of the two

left side of the mural

a large black and white cat is looking at the viewer. It is wearing a little crown. Beside the cat is a boy in a blue and white striped shirt who is blowing the seeds off a puffy white dandelion.

blowing dandelions

panorama of the mural

Bulwer Street

Posted: June 10, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: alley, bird, Bulwer, car windows, chain link, city, concrete walls, downtown, eyes, face, fish, graffiti, lane, photos, reflections, stickers, street art, tags, teeth, Toronto, urban, wall, weeds, yellow bird

Bulwer Street is a short street that runs parallel to, and one block north of, Queen Street West. It is only one block long, running east from Spadina Ave to Soho St.

graffiti on a brick wall on Bulwer St., the angle of the photograph makes it look like there is a large chain link fence in front of the wall.

children behind the fence

graffiti on a brick wall on Bulwer St., children including a larger than life sized boy wearing an orange T-shirt

children playing in the parking lot

white eyes

detail of graffiti on a brick wall on Bulwer St., a large brown hand is holding miniature size city buildings in blues and purples

he’s got the whole city in his hands

rooftop reflections

reflections of a mural in the windows and side panels of a black car

mirrored in the glass

facing the alley

sticker of half of a man's face (cut vertically)

only half the man he used to be

picture of people in blues and reds beside a nondescript grey door at the back of a small parking lot (or driveway)

the back door

bright blue, pink and orange tag on lime green background

tag – suniti? BA Kings?

parts of three tags on a wall

A concrete wall with tags on the lower part. There are hydro wires in front of the top part of the wall, and they are casting shadows on the wall

wired tags on concrete

large paper stencil of the top part of a woman is still there although parts of it have worn away

worn away but clinging on

Uber 500’s little yellow bird shows up on this street too

little fish, big teethfish

graffiti on a brick wall on Bulwer St., with the CN tower behind in the distance

one of the many, many, views of the CN tower

*****

stuck on behind Bathurst

Posted: June 9, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: alley, bathurst st., black and white, brick wall, calzone, decolonize, dog, Dundas, eye, graffiti, lane, line drawings, mug shot, paper, phinite, photos, red eye, scribbled, stickers, strawberry, street art, tags, tongue, Toronto, window

There is an alley that runs behind Bathurst, on the west side. Most of these photos were taken in that alley. All of the photos are of sticker, or paper, graffiti that I saw when I walked that alley a week or so ago.

A window space in a brick wall that was covered over a long time ago. Now there are tags and stickers covering the space as well as graffiti on the walls around the space.

It used to be a window, now it is an ever changing canvas.

black and white line drawing that looks like something you'd create with spirograph

spirograph on the metal pole.

four stickers on a wall. One is a mask that looks either African or BC First Nations. One is a hairy dog like creature with a long tongue that is licking a red strawberry with legs. One has the word 'decolonize' on it along with a picture of a group of men. The last sticker is just the word 'phi-nite' with a symbol.

strawberry man gets licked by dog, a mask looks at you, decolonize and phi-nite, all in a small space

two stickers on a tag & scribble covered space. One sticker is a silhouette of a man on a skateboard. He has large wings coming out of his back. Ths other sticker is a greenish colour geometric design within a greyish white circle.

have wings, will skateboard

a purple and white sticker that has been defaced by the tag 'calzone'. Beside it is a sticker that says 'decolonize history' with a mug shot of a man.

calzone tag unfortunately scribbled on top.

five stickers on the back of a metal sign.

Billy and friends

black ink on brown paper graffiti of a woman's head & shoulders

brown girl on the wall

two stickers on a wall. One is the head of a blue cat. The other is a lacey looking circular design.

blue cat with lace

Someone has placed a red & white circular sticker over the iris of an eye that is part of a black and white eye graffiti picture

red eye

*****

a little alley

Posted: May 22, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: alley, chainlink fence, coffee, couple, doorway, face, Kensington, lane, mailbox, male nude, man, mosaic, people, stickers, tags, tiles, Toronto, woman

A little dead end alley in Kensington and the graffiti I found there.

Looking through a chain link fence towards a short laneway. There is graffiti on the walls of the buildings that back onto the alley

A chain link fence at the end of the alley.

Street art piece of a semi clad woman and a male nude, reaching for each other. They are larger than life, and higher up on a wall.

I love the way that the faces are incomplete compared to rest of the anatomy.

A graffiti piece of a black hooded figure. Someone has tagged over part of it in large white letters. The next person has put an orange line through the white tags and then added the words Fuck You learn some respect

The seemingly endless battle between graffiti artists and those who wantonly tag over their work.

A collection of small tiles that have been painted over by a larger piece of street art

squares pieced together

Multicoloured graffiti that covers a door as well as the wall.

hidden doorway

black outline picture of a tea cup and saucer, with steam rising from it, on top of green and purple graffiti

steaming

Doorway covered with stickers and scribbles

chaos with stickers and scribbles

Graffiti of a pinkish face with bared teeth. CHainlink fence on the left of the photo.

grimacing skull by the fence

windows and other bits

Posted: December 4, 2013 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: alley, bird, brick, construction, fish piss, graffiti, lane, lovebot, metal, photos, red brick, Richmond Street, rust, street art, Toronto, windows, yellow brick

A few things that I saw today as I walked from Richmond and Spadina, southwestward to King and Shaw. A beautiful sunny Tuesday afternoon.

An old metal sign saying No Authorized Parking has rusted badly. It is on a yellow brick building. Beside it is a blue coloured metal screen covering a window.

rusted and authorized

A graffiti painting of a blue and white bird on a grey concrete block wall. It is painted to look like it's perched on the top corner of a window.

Happily perched above it all with a birds eye view of Richmond Street West.

the backs of a few lowrise brick buildings. One of the buildings is painted an olive green coloutr. There is graffiti above one of the buildings, of 2 dog heads, one of which has a cigarette in its mouth.

Smoking on the roof.

Stop Rob Ford at the western end of a one way Richmond street.

A brick wall that is painted a pinkish colour. There is an old window with the lower half barred. A light is mounted on the wall to the right of the window. The wall is dirty.

window and light, Palace Hotel, at King and Strachan.

A red brick wall with an old door that has been bricked over. A large new window has been added. You can see the lights on inside.

Afternoon light.

A paper sticker showing three beer bottle shaped bottles with labels that say fish piss.

fish piss in the alley

Three small windows arranged vertically beside a rusted metal grille covering an air vent. Black and white splotches have been painted around the window.

Black and white and speckled all over. This was one in a series of five or six windows of various sizes along the same wall. The black and white painting gave the wall an interesting look although I am not sure of pictures of the individual windows are all that interesting!

gold coloured poster on a dirty light grey garage door. The poster says 2013 Lovebot Loveinvasion. It has a picture of a light grey robot on it, with a red heart.

The alley I was walking down turned, but as I turned the corner I realized that I had come to a dead end. I spotted this poster on one of the garage doors that was there. According to the man standing inside one of the other garages, lots of people end up doing U-turns in front of his garage – including cars that come zooming around the corner, only to have to hit their brakes.

A sticker of a black hearted, square headed, yellow robot on a blue dumpster.

for more information about the lovebots, http://lovebot.com/about

This photo was taken while standing in a parking lot near the southeast corner of Adelaide and Bathurst streets.

The graffiti across the lower part of the building is by homebase. Their website: http://www.homebasetoronto.com

Barbara Barrett lane

Posted: November 10, 2013 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: alley, Barbara Barrett, birds, eyes, graffiti, hands, Harbord village, head, lane, photos, posr, rabbit, rubiks cube, street art, Toronto, tree

Barbara Barrett lane is located in Harbord village. It runs east-west and is immediately south of Bloor Street West between Borden Street and Brunswick Avenue.

The lane was recently named after Barbara Barrett who was the founder of the Toronto School of Art in 1969. The school was originally located at Sussex and Brunswick. Barbara died in 2005 in her 89th year.

Like many lanes and alleys in the area, there are a number of murals and interesting pieces of graffiti.

street art on a textured concrete wall showing stylized yellow birds sitting on a telephone wire. A boy is sitting with them.

birds on a wire

mural showing two large hands hold a Rubik's cube

solving Rubiks’s cube

A wall that is covered with a mural. There is a one way sign on the wall. It is pointing towards a window.

one way to the window

At the intersection of two alleys. Straight ahead is a building covered with a large mural with large hands and a Rubik's cube amongst other things. On the right is a one storey building with a poser tag in blues and maroons.

at the corner

Street art picture of a girl with long black hair, brown shorts and a pink top, sitting on a large swing.

girl on a swing. She is in the entranceway to the Green Room restaurant.

A stencil in black of white of three stylized faces that have big smiling mouths. They are on a yellow door.

smiling, laughing stencil faces

part of a mural on a wall. It is also a parking space for zip cars. The mural has a pale yellowish background. It has blue an dpink tags as well as a picture of a man.

zipping around

part of a mural on a wall. There is a door in the middle. Part of the mural shows a large tree with a brown trunk and multicoloured leaves.

a door in the mural

Croft Street

Posted: November 5, 2013 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: alley, Always, brick wall, cat, colours, Croft St., face, garage door, garages, graffiti, head, lane, Monty, MUHA, murals, photographs, photos, poetry, rain, rust, stencils, street art, Toronto, wood, words

Croft Street is not a street, but it’s more than a lane.

It runs between Harbord Street and College Street, just west of Bathurst Street. Although there are many different interesting things to be seen when you walk along this street, I have chosen to focus on the street art for this blog post. The following is a selection of what I saw.

large piece of street art on a couple of garage doors.

surveying the scene

a large piece of street art on a garage door.

a closer look

large piece of street art on a garage door, in purples and greys. Above the garage door is a rusted metal wall.

paint and rust

can’t sleep so I write

mural showing two red brick houses, a small grey apartment building and a green street sign that says Harbord St.

Harbord street sign

Did you know our Monty the cat?
King of Croft and all that
(Ask your dog. Ask your cat)
Did you give him a pet
Once you had met?
Or tickle his soft silken tum tum?
Did he tell you his tale in articulate meow
And share his affection with a rub of his brow?
His loss here has left us really quite blue
But remembering all of those of YOU
Who knew how to share a sweet kindness true
Who would pause on the way,
In midst of each day,
To offer wee beastie
affectionate feastie
In Memory of Monty
Thank you!

Mural painted on the side of a garage. It has been painted to look like a red brick wall. In the wall is a yellow window and a black cat is standing on the window sill.

painted cat on painted window sill on painted brick wall

Mural on a garage door showing a large group of people of many different races. There is a TTC street car in the center of the crowd. Some people are waving flags - a Canadian flag, a German flag, and a Union Jack

on the streets of Toronto

An old wood door and wall with faded graffiti on it.

hidden doorway

Street art on a garage door showing large stylized fruit with faces on them. A yellow banana, an orangish pink pear and apple and two other pieces of yellow fruit.

tutti frutti

A graffiti picture of a boy who is wearing a black and white striped sweater. Shown from the hips up. His hands are on his hips. It is on a white garage door.

with hands on hips and with added words

brown garage door, brown front door and rusty brown mail box. On the garage door is a piece of street art with orange and blue blobs. The front door is decorated with a grid made of metal strips.

art at the front door

greenery

A stencil graffiti of a stylized face in black and white. It is on a very red wall.

black and white and red all over

Here I stand in silence
but the patter of the rain
who I was, you’ll never know;
my triumph

A stencil graffiti of a woman's head. She has shoulder length hair and she is staring straight ahead with a stunned look on her face.

staring eyes

graffiti of a man's face. The mouth is actually a mail slot in a door.

mail man

At the south end of the street, there is a large red, white and blue mural by posr. I have not included it in this blog post because it warrants a post of its own. It’s the next blog post, or the URL is https://mcfcrandall.wordpress.com/2013/11/05/posr-on-croft-street/

red umbrella day

Posted: November 4, 2013 in abstract, general Toronto
Tags: alley, autumn, brick, brighten, city, damp, fence, gate, homeless Jesus, humour, lane, leaves, purple wall, rainy, red umbrella, stone, Timothy Schmalz, Toronto, urban, wet, whatsoever, whatsoever you do, wood, yellow wall

umbrella, parapluie, paraguas

red, rouge, rojo,

Grey, damp days always need a touch of colour.

Yesterday, as I walked from Dupont subway station to Kensington I made use of my red umbrella. It kept me dry. It brightened up a few photos!

A red umbrella is open and sitting on the wet pavement beside a grey painted wall.

Every rainy day needs a splash of colour.

A red umbrella is wedged between two poles beside a purplish brown garage door in an alley

caught in the alley

A mural on a garage door shows a girl reaching out her hand. The umbrella is placed by her hand.

When this mural was first painted, there was a downspout for the eavestrough running down the side of the wall. Her hand was painted to look like it was reaching for, or holding onto, the downspout. Because that downspout is no longer there, I decided that she needed something else to hold on to.

A red umbrella is lying on a wet sidewalk beside a large puddle. There are lots of leaves on the sidewalk as well.

left in a puddle

‘Whatsoever you do’, a sculpture by Timothy Schmalz. It is also referred to as ‘Homeless Jesus’. This installation is outside of St. Stephen-in-the Fields church on College Street. It was installed on 14 September and was originally scheduled to remain there until 6 October. According to the description of the sculpture, it is a fiberglass cast of a silent, huddled panhandler. A person that people walk by and ignore. But if you look at the outstretched hand, you will see the stigmata (the wounds of Christ).
When we first placed the umbrella over her, we worried about the appropriateness of such an action but as I took the photo, a passerby commented on how people have been known to place cheeseburgers and other food in her hand.
The statue was stolen at the end of November. More information

A close up photo of the red umbrella's reflection on the roof of a black car. There are lots of rain drops on the roof as well.

car roof reflections

A red umbrella is beside a stone and brick wall that was once painted yellow. The yellow paint has started to wear off.

red and yellow

A white line drawing of a man with a top hat (upper body only) on a dark grey wall. On the ground beside the wall is a red umbrella

top hat, umbrella…. where are my dancing shoes?

A man is crouching beside a brick wall that has been painted purple and grey. He is holding a red umbrella over his head.

Toronto siesta

A red umbrella on the ground beside a gate made of weathered wood

something old, something new

The red umbrella is wedged between the top of a chainlink gate and a wood door.

The End

Special thanks to Sasha and David who played along and made the day even better!

Also to Michael for crouching against a purple wall!

paper people

Posted: October 25, 2013 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: alley, big ears, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Bill Murray, black and white, broom, deadboy, drawings, everything made him happy, graffiti, Graffiti Alley, lane, Leonard Cohen, paper, people, photos, Rob Ford, stencils, street art, Toronto, woman

paper people of Graffiti Alley

a paper graffiti of Bill Gates, Bill Murray and Bill Clinton on a graffiti covered door

Three Bills
This is now a recurring theme in stencil/paper graffiti. Originally, the Bills were used in response to ‘post no bills’ signs on fences surrounding construction sites.
The Bills here, from left to right, are Bill Gates, Bill Murray and Bill Clinton

paper graffiti of ROb Ford, from the shoulders up, giving the finger.

In the fall of 2011, many of these Rob Ford stencils appeared in Graffiti Alley, amongst other places. They were the work of Toronto street artist, Deadboy. This might be the only one that remains in this alley.

a poster with a black and white line drawing of a man's head. He has a beard. Beside him are words.

Leonard Cohen: “only one thing made him happy and now that it was gone everything made him happy”

a black and white paper poster/stencil of a woman throwing her arms in the air and walking away. It is on a grey door in a lane. There is a broom beside the door.

“I don’t do floors”
“Clean it up yourself”

a brown and black set of posters/stencils of three heads. Two are the same - they look like heads with big ears and they are wearing very big sunglasses. The third looks like a woman in a helmet like the kind an astronaut might wear.

big ears and the astronaut

I have not included all the stencils in Graffiti Alley as some have appeared in prior posts. See https://mcfcrandall.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/walking-graffiti-alley-again/

a stencil of large headed, no armed, creature.

alien in the alley

With thanks to:

Georgette for her help with the three Bills

and Sally who recognized Leonard Cohen.

as I walk Toronto

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