mska | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘mska’

Feel Good Lane

Posted: February 27, 2019 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: #monicaonthemoon, alley, Andrew Castro, Anya Mielniczek, Bareket, Barry Luksenberg, birds, bkez, Bomi, butterfly, Chris Perez, colour, colours, cruz, deer, desko, Ed Hamer, Elly Dowson, emily may rose, faces, Feel Good Lane, flip, flower, fox, Frannie Potts, garages, lane, Leyland Adams, mska, murals, Odinamaad, Oriah Scott, paint, painting, people, psyblimation, raccoons, Rage Williams, ROAM, spud bomb, street art, streetARToronto, streetcar, Team SPUDBomb, TTC, turningwind, urban, van, zima

I’m still playing catch up as I go through photos that I took back in the fall. Late in October I went west on St. Clair to visit Feel Good Lane. The lane was officially named in 2016 in memory of Barry Lukensberg. He was a rapper, part of the 512 Crew, who was born and raised in the neighbourhood. He went by the name FeelGood. In 2014 he died in a motorcycle accident in Vietnam.

Just prior to my walk down Feel Good Lane, it had been the canvas for more than 30 street artists. This is what I saw that day. … Back before the snow!

below: The title mural, by SPUDBomb

below: by monicaonthemoon

below: by Oriah Scott

below: This is the front of the same garage in the above photo (with the streetcar). Both were painted Elly Dowson

below: Dog mural by @Dr_Roameo

below: Raccoons all over the place! A mural by Emily May Rose and Rage Williams.

below: The blue landscape is a painting by Leyland Adams

below: by Bomi (Bomino San Grantes)

below: by Cruz1

below: Butterfly face and curly hair – Frannie Potts

below: Another Cruz1 creation with a small painting by Bkez (aka Bareket) in the background

below: by Mska

below: A mural for the 512 Crew,

below: In the back, a mural by Odinamaad (turningwind). In the foreground is the work of Desko Zima

below: A face in blue and orange by Anya Mielniczek

below: On the right, a small piece by Andrew Castro

below: A fox head by Ed Hamer

below: Three pieces. Chris Perez mural on the left (blocked by a parked car), in the middle and one of a few swirls painted by Flip

below: The white chair is in front of a jellyfish and heart by Psyblimation

The project was organized by Julian Back and Kim Lesperance with the help of Team SPUDBomb. Financial support was provided by
StreetARToronto (StART). In addition, $5000 was raised from the community to help finance the project.

metamorphosis in the lane

Posted: June 28, 2018 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: alley, Anya Mielniczek, blue, braes, butterflies, caterpillars, Christine Mazzulla, cmazzulla, David Suzuki Foundation, Drippin_soul, Elicser, Felstead Park, fences, garages, Kalkidan Assefa, lane, mska, mural, mushrooms, nature, Nick Sweetman, oriah_scott, P.S, Phillip Saunders, spyone, StART, streetARToronto, tensoe, toadstools, wales

Caterpillars and butterflies is the theme of the latest laneway painting project. A year ago, Nick Sweetman led a group of street artists who painted garage doors in a lane near Garrison Creek park with pictures of butterflies. These murals appeared in blog post in June 2017

This year’s project was similar. Many of the same artists were involved again this year. They used garages, fences and gates in a lane near Felstead Park (a block south of Greenwood subway station) as their canvas. Once again, the theme was butterflies as it too was part of the David Suzuki Foundation’s butterflyways project. This time, a similar blue background was used in all the murals which has given it a more unified appearance.

The project was curated by Nick Sweetman and it had the support of Start aka StreetARToronto

below: Felstead Park, by @braes_ack

below: In the shadow of the weed are the letters CTR

below: Mural signed by Kehoe, the face of David Suzuki

below: Green and yellow toadstools by mska

below: Mural by @oriah_scott

below: butterfly among the pink and red flowers, by P.S. aka Phillip Saunders

below: A sombre dark piece (is it finished?) by @poserabm

below: Three butterflies by Serina

below: Collaboration – A monarch painted by Nick Sweetman and a wonderful rose by Wales

below: A bright and busy mural by Spyone and Tensoe

below: The hookah-smoking caterpillar from “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” is crawling across the fence. Painted by elicser

below: Red panda out on a limb, perhaps chasing the butterfly, by Ted Hamer (@The1astRonin)

below: A butterfly in the garden; the work of Anya Mielniczek

below: Two flowers, one pink and one blue, by Chris Perez

below: It looks a lot like a skull on the back of this butterfly painted by @cmazzulla aka Christine Mazzulla

below: A curled up caterpillar in pink and black, very larger than life!, by Spud.

below: By Dezed, a butterly, mushrooms, and a bit of water

below: Reaching out to the butterfly, giving the butterfly a helping hand, painted by @drippin_soul (Kalkidan Assefa)

below: On the right, Emma, the property owner’s dog who died recently. Nick Sweetman painted the dog while @mr_tensoe2 painted the dog’s name

strong, smart, united

Posted: July 21, 2017 in alleys, graffiti and street art
Tags: abstract, auralast, carolannapilado, chiefladybird, chiefladybug, child, controlartdelete, cvbinns, Elicser, emily may rose, eyes, faces, flower, hello kirsten, Jieun June Kim, Monica on the moon, mother, motorcycle, mska, muisca, murals, strong smart united, tbonez, toes, toest, urban ninja squadron, women

Written in big bold letters – STRONG SMART UNITED

Those three words are what you see first as you walk down Lansdowne just north of Queen Street. This striking wall is the beginning of a group of murals and street art paintings that now adorn some of the walls and doors in an alley on the north side of Queen Street West. The paintings were done last weekend by a group of women artists. The walls had been primed previously by four high school students (and organized by the Toronto Police Services).

below: Shapes and colours by controlartdelete (aka Rachel Wilmshurst)

below: Emily May Roses’s women

below: Abstract houses and greenery by Jieun June Kim

below: Two kneeling women and a long necked bird with wings spread by Caitlin Taguibao

below: Monica on the Moon, “Over the mountains under the stars”

below: A colourful mural by _muisca_ (aka Daniela Rocha)

below: Unfortunately, this one has already been defaced, including the signature.

below: Desert woman theme, by mska

below: Geometric shapes, colours, and patterns, by hellokirsten (aka Kirsten McCrea)

below: Left – by originalsmilez (aka Julieta Arias).
But on the right, help! I don’t know (do you?)

below: Looks a bit like a brightly coloured Picasso – the work of huntoland (aka Renato Hunto)

below: My apologies but this another one where I don’t know who the artist is

below: … and this one as well I’m afraid

below: A elicser figure outside the door. Elicser is definitely male – was this mural already here?

below: Shades of pink with blue lips, by toest (aka Sarah Gilmore).

below: On a seriously cracked wall there is now a pink flower inside a green triangle surounded by a circle, by CVBinns (aka Courtney Binns)

below: Long flowing hair and with eyes closed, a mural by carolannapilado

below: A collaborative effort between auralast (aka Monique Aura) and chiefladybird (aka Ogimaa Kwe Bnes) – mother and child with the city beyond.

below: Also in the lane there are two urban ninja squadron paste ups by Tbonez

below: Looking east along the alley. The first road is Macdonell Avenue. Lansdowne is in the distance.

This project was supported by the StreetARToronto program, Toronto Police Services and the Drake Hotel. I talked briefly with a policewoman who was in the alley at the same time that I was – there is hope that the lane to the east of Lansdowne can be painted in the future.

Before then, a second all women street art jam and mural will be happening in Little India (1460 Gerrard Street East) at the end of August. The street art jam will be on the weekend of August 26th and 27th and will showcase the Woman in the Walls mural being painted at that time.

#womenpaintTO

butterfly ways

Posted: June 20, 2017 in alleys, graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: #cruz1art, @anyamielniczek, @smugugly, alley. lane, blackburn, braes, butterfly, caterpillar, colours, cruz1, David Suzuki, faces, garage doors, Garrison Creek park, hibiscus, horus, J. McKie, Jeff Blackburn, mska, nature, NEDO, Nick Sweetman, paint, park, possum, snake, Snowy, spray paint, street art, streetARToronto, tuffytats, wales, water lily, xyz

Garrison Creek park is a small strip of green between the railway tracks an alley of garages. Many of the garage doors were painted last weekend with murals all on the theme of butterflies. There are about 30 paintings and they are the work of a number of different street artists. The project was curated by Nick Sweetman and it is part of the David Suzuki Foundation’s Butterflyway project; StreetARToronto was also involved.

If you don’t like pictures of butterfly murals, I suggest that you skip this post because I’m sharing photos of a lot of the garage doors! In no particular order here they are:

mural of an orange and blue snake loosely tied in a knot around a purple tree, blue butterfly hovers in front of snake's face, mural by Cruz 1

Artist: Cruz1

Three black line drawings of a butterfly, with details and shadowing, very realistic looking, on a fence

Artist: unknown (by me)

Artist: blackburn

many whimsical butterflies and caterpillars

Artist: J. McKie

pink water lily painted on a black background

Artist: C Mazzulla

a mural on a garage door in an alley, part of butterflyways project - a possum and a butterfly by wales

Artist: wales

Artist: 2US & XYZ (not positive about that)

a mural on a garage door in an alley, part of butterfly ways project - very stylized abstract picture of a butterfly and a flower

Artist: XYZ & MAC

a mural on a garage door in an alley, part of butterflyways project - two adjacent garage doors, the left one is by mska and is a brown butterfly and mushrooms. on the right is an hibiscus flower by horus taffytats

Artist: (left) mska, (right) horus, tuffytats

a mural on a garage door in an alley, part of butterflyways project - two adjacent garage doors, the left one is a monarch butterfly landing on pink flowers, on the right is a riot of blues and greens

Artist: (left) braes, (right) C. Perez

a mural on a garage door in an alley, part of butterflyways project - a pink and purple butterfly that looks like a face, with daisies

Artist: @anyamielniczek

a mural on a garage door in an alley, part of butterflyways project - a black butterfly with orange and blue highlights, on a green leaf

Artist: P.S

a mural on a garage door in an alley, part of butterflyways project - two adjacent garage doors, the left one is painted on a light green fence and is a flower in pale oranges and beiges. On the right is a purple butterfly

Artists: unknown (by me)

a mural on a garage door in an alley, part of butterflyways project - a red butterfly with a bright light in the center of it.

Artist: NEDO

a mural by smugugly on a garage door in an alley, part of butterflyways project - a red, black and bluish butterfly

Artist: @smugugly

a mural on a garage door in an alley, part of butterflyways project - two adjacent garage doors, the left one is a stylized (cubist) butterfly in blues and purples. On the right is a Nick Sweetman yellow butterfly with black details as well as a white Scottie dog that looks like Tintin's dog Snowy

Artist: (left) FIP or FYP? , (right) Sweetman

a mural on a garage door in an alley, part of butterflyways project - two adjacent garage doors, the left one is painted by braes and is a portrait of David Suzuki. On the right is a blue mural by C. Perez

Artist: (left) braes & wales, (right) C. Perez

Leaside has murals!

Posted: August 20, 2016 in graffiti and street art
Tags: #dudemanart, ACK crew, alley, art, cruz1 art, ctr, dragon, dudeman, Eglinton East, Elicser, fence, flowers, garage doors, go big or go home, horus, lane, Leaside, Mediah, Mediah IAH, minus two, mska, murals, owl, paint, peru, phil, possum, prodigal son, public art, raccoon, sofe, sparr, spray paint, spud, sweetman, tuffytats, wales, wall expressions, walls

Today’s story begins back in 2007 when elicsr painted this mural behind a store that fronts on Eglinton East.

It depicts the bible story of the prodigal son. A very brief summary of the story – A wealthy king had two sons.

The younger son took his half of his father’s money, left home, and squandered the money. He fell into hard times. He realized that he would be better off as a servant in his father’s household than living in penury on his own.

So he returned home to repent. His father celebrated the return of the son and forgave him and his prodigal ways.

Fast forward to August 2016 when the alley became a canvas for 46 street artists and their Wall Expressions project, Go Big or Go Home. I walked the alley on Thursday and this is what I saw.
[Warning: a lot of the street art is text or abstractions which may not be your cup of tea. ]

below: Girl power skull with pig tails by dudeman.

below: Under the weather vane, a newer garage door painted with a mural by Mediah IAH aka Evond Blake.

below: Black and white owl on a branch by mska

below: SPUD bombs and swirls on the back of Eco Cleaners.

below: And another SPUD creation on the other side of the lane.
A few skulls seemed to have snuck into the painting!

below: ‘Mars Attacks’ by the ACK crew, wales, miles, noser, braes and tensoe.

below: Garbage bins lined up in front of a horus/tuffytats rose in blue and red.

below: A swirly wavy mix of colours brighten up a wooden fence.

below: Red head (and shoulders) man

below: The Men’s Salon Barber Shop now has a mska creature, complete with scissors in hand, by the back door.

below: Next to the barber shop is this mural, or at least this is part of it. The next photo….

below: … is the end of the mural. I’m not sure who painted it but the marks on this are: Mark One, BOB (or 13013) and xFLA,.

below: A mural for Loui by minus two (and others?)

below: More text and abstractions, this time by manic, roam and acuse. Loui gets another mention too.

below: In the foreground, a Nick Sweetman shrimp swims across a mural with help from peru and ctr.

below: A closer look at that shrimp

below: Another large mural with more than one photo. At one end there’s a zas possum hanging out, spray paint can in hand – possibly up to no good?

below: And at the other end there’s another animal that is usually nocturnal, a raccoon. An animal that is no stranger to Toronto!

below: Look up, way up! There’s a dog on the roof.

below: Swimmer with a bathing cap looking at you, by sparr

below: Phil wrote his name on a garage door.

below: Sofe in orange and green tiger stripes

below: Two more garage doors.

below: Bright colours stand out on the side of this garage near the entrance to the lane.

below: Rozy, from the other side.

below: someone beginning with the letter m? (m–?) and lerch.

below: Big fat P in pink by bias? at number 153

below: And last, a little snail

This project had help and support from Toronto Police (53 division), Stephensons Rental, Dominos Pizza, and StreetARToronto.

video of the event on vimeo

at Fairbank station

Posted: September 28, 2015 in graffiti and street art
Tags: animals, anser, bird, blackburn, boat, braes, brunosmoky, bunny, creatures, croc, crocodile, deadboy, duck, faces, graffiti, mska, Nick Sweetman, overgrown, paula prezende, poser, raccoon, water, weeds, whoisrandom, women

Fairbank station is not really a station, at least not any more; it’s the access point to the York Beltline trail at Fairbank Street. The York Beltline trail is the western portion of the beltline trail. It is a few blocks north of Eglinton Avenue and it runs from Times Road (west of Marlee Ave) westward to the railway tracks that run parallel to Caledonia Road. Up until the 1990s this was a spur rail line used to service industries in the area. There are still some small industrial buildings close to the Beltline, including some at Fairbank Street which is where I found these:

below: Three anser faces on the far wall and a whoisrandom James Dean up close with sunglasses.

below: Green fur and sharp teeth, a creature by blackburn

below: by braes, or braesoner

below: by mska (left side) and paula prezende (right side)

below: by deadboy (note raccoon on mud flap)

below: by poser and ABM Crew

below: by Nick Sweetman

below: By brunosmoky

where the 401 passes over the Humber River

Posted: May 29, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: 401 hwy, concrete, fiya, graffiti, grominator, Humber River, lovebot, mska, mural, Pan Am games, PanAmPath, poser, poser bunny, shalak, shrimp, smoky, spray paint, street art, tags, Toronto, under the bridge, underpass

Highway 401 passes over the Humber River just west of Weston Road. Beside the river is the Humber Recreational Trail that follows the river. Just south of the 401 there is a break in the trail because of the train tracks so a short detour via Weston Road is needed if you want to continue walking. Otherwise, the trail runs south to Lake Ontario and north to the city limits at Steeles Ave.

Just north of the 401 is Pine Point park and that is where I went to access the bridge under the 401. It is a big bridge with a lot of concrete surfaces. In other words, it is a large canvas for street art.

The most eastern wall of concrete has been painted with a mural by Shalak, Smoky and Fiya as part of the the Pan Am Path. The path is a “legacy” from the Pan Am games and will result in a trail the goes from Brampton to Pickering. Most of this path will incorporate existing trails but new sections are also being built. Anyhow, the mural consists of two women lying on a bed of flowers, one at each end of the bridge. Both are holding a white mask. In the middle is a heart and a pair of lovebirds on the branch of a tree.

Facing the above wall, and on the other side of the trail, is a wall that has recently been painted by a group of street artists. A picture is better than my attempts at translation!

The following photos are from that wall.

There are at least four more walls in this underpass. Running parallel to the trail (all the photos above) is a tunnel like part of the underpass to the west. There is no trail or river in this section, just dirt and rocks. There is some older graffiti on the walls here as well as the beginnings of newer paintings. I think that the plan is to complete these walls too. In the meantime, this is a sample of what’s there now.

And lastly, along the river edge

as I walk Toronto

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