Posts Tagged ‘mural’

under Adelaide and Richmond

Posted: November 13, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
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Both Adelaide St. East and Richmond St. East pass over King Street as they converge into Eastern Avenue.  Recently the concrete supports that help hold up these overpasses have been painted in bright, bold pictures.  The murals are entitled ‘Frozen Memories’ and they were designed and painted by street artist Shalak Attack with help from Bruno Smoky and Fiya Bruxa.

 All four pillars of the overpasses are in view.

Each pillar has a large face on the side that faces King Street and a picture that depicts something representative of Corktown on the other sides. 

Paintings on the large T shaped concrete supports of the overpass, in the foreground is the face of a man with the eyes on the upper horizontal portion of the support and his mouth on the lower part.

These murals are a part of the StreetARToronto Underpass Program or “StART UP.” 

Paintings on the large T shaped concrete supports of the overpass, a man passes by on the sidewalk while in the foreground is a support painted with street scenes. Houses and streetcar tracks.

Enoch Turner established Toronto’s first free school in the Corktown area in 1848. 

Paintings on the large T shaped concrete supports of the overpass, a young girl in a pink top sitting at a table and writing in a notebook. The word love is written on one of the pages.

painting of the Enoch Turner school on one of the pillars supporting Adelaide St. East in Toronto. Other Corktown houses are also painted here on the lower part of the pillar.

  Two of the main industries in Corktown were bricks and beer.   One pillar pays homage to the people who worked in these industries, including this bricklayer.

Paintings on the large T shaped concrete supports of the overpass, a man portrayed in blue tones, wearing an old fashioned hard hat and holding a trowel.

Mural on concrete pillar of a blue brick layer surrounded by symbols of industry such as factories, gears, beer bottles, bricks. There is a parking lot surrounding the concrete support so there are cars parked in front of the pillar.

This mural is a another tribute to the early days of Corktown.   Sailing ships, maps and compasses are for the immigrants that came here.   The first church built in Corktown was Little Trinity in 1843.   It’s stained glass window is shown here.

Paintings on the large T shaped concrete supports of the overpass, three supports are in the picture. The one in the foreground has marine scenes - two sailing ships, a large turtle, and waves. The two supports in the background are those with faces, one man and one woman.

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Paintings on the large T shaped concrete supports of the overpass, a large multicoloured woman's face is on the concrete support that is across the street. A chain link ffence and yellow fire hydrant are in the foreground.

Ultra Church

Posted: October 17, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
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A mural near Church and Wellesley

A picture of most of the mural. There are many colourful characters on a wall that is about 8 feet long. The mural is close to 20 feet long.

Most of the mural.

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detail from mural - three people, black woman, white woman with blond hair and glittery ear rings and necklace, and a man in the right hand corner
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detail from mural - group of people in flamboyant clothes lounging around

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detail from mural - close up of woman with white hair and long eye lashes. She is wearing blue and silver sparkly er rings .

detail on mural - man in cowboy hat with a red & white striped guitar, amongst other people
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detail from mural - a bearded man in a pink dress, a woman in purple and two people sharing the same red & white polka dot dress
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detail from mural - a very pink woman in fish net top and wearing a sparkly pink eye mask
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detail from mural - close up of woman with black and white striped top, glittering neacklace and ear rings.

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detail of mural - two women, one in black low cut dress and silver sparkly crown and the other in a bejeweled black dress and white fur boa. .

woman with long arms and hands, wearing 2 bracelets as well as necklace and long droopy ear rings.

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detail from mural - chicken pecking at some nuts (corn?) on the ground beside legs wearing yellow high heel shoes
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A picture of a man in drag - blue dress as well as long hair and horns on head, is behind a real tree

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sign painted beside the mural that says "Ultra Church 50 VIP part people 1948 to 2014"

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walking the Milky Way

Posted: October 1, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
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The Milky Way  from Dufferin to Elm Grove.

Once upon a time this alley led to a dairy.  Story has it that milk was often spilt along the way.

graffiti picture on a brick wall of a horse's head, a wagon wheel and spilt milk pouring from a large container.

At the west end of the Milky Way is a mural of two horses (one shown here), a wagon wheel, and an overturned milk can.

 

There is also quite a bit of graffiti in the alley.

a line of graffiti little green guys that look sort of like aliens with stick arms and legs and big black eyes.

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large pink graffiti tag letters on either side of a black door in an alley
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Large orange and yellow graffiti letters that say It's Like A Jungle Sometimes. There is a door on the right side and on the door is a large black and white picture of a woman from the waist up. She is bare chested with little pink hearts covering her nipples.

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Large bright orange and blue tag on a wood fence

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close up of a stencil graffiti of 2 cherries. Beside the cherries is the letter R in blue. Both are on concrete with a crack in it

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Three large pinkish alien like creatures on a corrugated metal fence. Some ivy is hanging over the fence

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Graffiti on a wall with a window in the corner. The picture is of a person singing into a microphone. The words I want your skulls are above the person's head.

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graffiti face between two colourful tags. Part of a window is the picture and there is a small Eiffel Tower on the window sill. .

Graffiti fishes and shark swimming on a wall. Some weeds are growing up in front of them them and it looks like seaweed. Two old Vote Spud signs are on a railing in this picture as well.
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A silly face with big teeth with the word crush under it, graffiti on a wall in the alley. Green garbage bins in front of the wall.

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mural on a wall of a young woman with a large blue scarf handing money to a cartoon rabbit

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pink, brown, and light blue tag on a wall.

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Ghost Dick are the words in the graffiti and they are accompanied by a white drawing of a ghost walking to the left with it's arms in front

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A corrugated metal wall that is partially obscured by vines. Under the vines is a green graffiti tag. There is also a door in the wall with the number 55 on it. It is someone's home. There is also a mailbox.

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An old wood & glass door that has been painted over with graffiti. A green and white sign saying Entrance is above the door. Graffiti is on both sides of the door.

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Part of a street art painting in blues and purples. It looks very geometric in design. Some weeds are growing up in front of it.

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wispy space alien with a blue substance coming from its body and spreading into a purple and red tag

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beside 530 Richmond West

Posted: September 18, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
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There is a mural in the lane way that runs beside 530 Richmond Street West (and connects with Graffiti Alley).  It was completed earlier this summer.  It is a collaborative effort by Shalak Attack (woman’s face), Kevin Ledo (child’s face), Uber5000 (blue cat) and Bruno Smokey ( man).

A large mural on the side of a building in a lane. Three or 4 people are taking pictures of it.

A number of people were taking pictures when I was there.

part of a large mural on the side of a 2 storey building, a large multicoloured woman's face. She is wearing earrings that look like skeletons

death dangles from her ears

part of a large mural, a picture of a smiling small boy wearing a light blue cap. It is very large.

grimaces? smiles?

part of a large mural on the side of a 2 storey building

ghetto cat

part of a large mural showing the bottom part of a blue cat that is standing on two legs. Under his legs are 2 Uber chickens and one is saying Pizza. Another chicken is sitting on the cat's tail and he wants tacls. There is a clock on the cat's tummy.

I guess it’s dinner time…. pizza, tacos and beets!

part of a large mural, a very large wrinkly man's face with large eyeballs and large ears

eyes to the right

part of a large mural on the side of a 2 storey building, a small uber chicken is being held between two fingers of a very large pair of hands

chicken fingers

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alley animals

Posted: July 14, 2014 in graffiti and street art
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A selection of the graffiti animals that I have encountered in the past few weeks.

large mural on the side of two storey building of a rhino surrounded by large birds

rhino and his feathered friends, parking lot off College St.
This is only part of the mural…. more below.

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mural of many large birds in blues and greys, they all have long curved necks and large beaks

large beaks, large birds
This is only part of the mural…. more above.

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large realistic painting of a pink pig

oink, oink
A mural by ACS murals

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A white outline drawing of a dinosaur painted on a green door that is locked

guardasaurus to watch over the door

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a red and white painting of a floppy eared stylized rabbit on the side of an old garage. Other garages with tags on them are also in the photograph

posr rabbit tucked in beside a garage – hiding from those who are hunting rabbits

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large mural street art piece painted on the side of a one storey building of a beaked creature with wings

Creature with scales and a tail, Willis St., near the northwest corner of Queen and Bathurst streets.

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elephants in threes, but you can only see two of them in this pic. The elephant on the right didn't fit in the photo.

Elephants herd of three, but you can only see two of them in this picture. The elephant on the right didn’t fit in the photo…. but it looked just like the one of the left except it’s facing the other way.

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painted graffiti of a hummingbird that looks like it is coming into land, hovering near vertical

hummingbird hovering beside a garage door

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St. Enochs Square

Posted: July 10, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
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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.

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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

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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

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panorama view of the whole mural

panorama of the mural

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suitman north and south

Posted: December 6, 2013 in graffiti and street art, locations
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The suitman mural is on a railway underpass on Dupont St., just west of Lansdowne Ave.  It covers the walls on both sides of the street.

It was first painted  and funded with  $2000  received from the City of Toronto’s Clean and Beautiful program.  But after Rob Ford was elected mayor and began his “clean up” campaign, it was painted over with dull grey paint.   Rather silly considering that Joel Richardson was paid by the city to paint it in the first place.   Late in October 2011 it was replaced with a similar mural.  It took six weeks to repaint, 25 gallons of paint and 100 large cans of spray paint.

Most of the  photos taken were taken on 30 November 2013.  Some photos are from a two years previous and they are marked as such.

South Side of Dupont St.

The picture on the south side depicts business men lined up to form mathematical equation.

men in suits forming part of a mathematical equation. A multiplication sign and part of a long division sign.

The eastern part of the equation. That’s not a check mark on the right of the photo, it’s part of a long division sign.

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a line of men in suits as part of a mural

divide then multiply

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Close up

Well suited for a close up.  (Photo taken Nov 2011)

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part of the mural showing many men in suits, a yellow star and a red star.

To the east of the bridge.

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X and + towards the bridge

X and + towards the bridge.  (Photo taken November 2011)

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center part of the mural showing a man wearing a suit who is sitting in the lotus position

This photo was taken from across the street – looking through the concrete pillars that support the railway bridge.

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A large white percent sign, a grey star and many men in suits with yellow halos around their heads.

Immediately west of the underpass.

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part of the suitman mural taken a couple of years ago. The letter X, the number 6, a man wearing a gas masks plus 6 men wearing black suits and ties. They have yellow halos around their heads.

This is one of the photos that was taken two years ago. I have included it for comparison purposes as the man wearing the gas mask is no longer part of the mural. Instead, three sitting women have been added at the bottom of the letter X. The next picture shows this part of the mural as it looks now.

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part of the suitman mural - many men in suits standing in a line. Three sitting women are in the middle.

To the west of the train tracks. Note the absence of the man with the gas mask and the addition of the three women.

North Side of Dupont St.

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Photo taken November 2011.

“And do thy duty even if it be humble, rather than another’s even if it be great. To die in one’s duty is LIFE: to live in another’s is death.”  [quote from the Bhagavad Gita, a 700 verse scripture that part of the Hindi epic ‘Mahabharata’]

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a sidewalk runs along the right side of the picture. Agains the sidewalk is a concrete wall that has been painted with a mural. A white arrow is part of the picture. There are also words written in black but they hard to read because of the angle of the photo

Looking back under the bridge, following the arrow.

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Photo taken November 2011

“This at least would be the case in a society where things were left to follow their natural course, where there was perfect liberty, and where there was perfect FREE both to choose what occupation we thought proper and to change it as we thought PROPER. THE whole of the advantages and disadvantages of different employments of labour stock, must in the same neighbourhood, be either perfectly equal or continually tending to equality”  [quote from “Wealth of Nations” by Adam Smith]

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More information on this mural: http://joelrichardson.com/2011/10/

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great fire of 1904

Posted: November 9, 2013 in history, locations
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On the 19th of April, 1904, a large section of downtown Toronto burned for nine hours.

street map of downtown Toronto showing the buildings that were affected by the fire of 1904.

Map showing the area of Toronto affected by the fire of 1904. Bay Street from the Esplanade to Miranda Street (just south of King Street) was the hardest hit.  At the time, this was called the Wholesale District of the city.

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Historical photo of Bay street after the 1904 fire in Toronto. There are people on the street. The street is all mud. There are many burned out buildings on both sides of the streets. Brick facing of two to four storey buildings is all that remains.

Aftermath, Bay street, April 1904.

In part, because the fire started in the evening, there were no fatalities. As a result of the fire, 5000 people were left without a job.   In 1904, the population of Toronto was about 200,000 so the loss of employment on this scale had an impact on the city.

a very bright and colourful mural on the back of a brick building, It shows, in reds, yellows ans oranges the burning of a couple of brick buildings, with flames coming out of the windows.

Mural painted on the back of the building on the northwest corner of College St. and Croft St.  (398 College St.), commemorating the fire of 1904.

Demolition of the ruins left by the fire took many weeks.  On the 4th of May, John Croft died while using dynomite to bring down the remains of the W.J. Gage building on Front Street.  His was the only known death associated with the fire.  What is now Croft Street was renamed in his honour.

The east side of 398 College St., at the south end of Croft St., is painted with a mural as a memorial to John Croft.

corner of a building showing parts of two murals. On the back wall is the mural depicting the fire itself. On the side wall is a memorial to John Croft.

northeast corner of the building

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1904

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Burned out brick buildings. All that remains is part of the front facade of these two to six storey buildings.

Burned out buildings, April 1904

The images of the fire’s aftermath are available online.   The originals are kept at the City of Toronto Archives, located on Spadina Road., just north of Dupont Street.

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Posr on Croft Street

Posted: November 5, 2013 in graffiti and street art, locations
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This post is a continuation of the previous post, titled Croft Street.

There is a red, white and blue mural at the south end of Croft Street.  It covers the side of a three story brick building.

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white posr rabbits on a red background

flat black apartments at 396

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white posr rabbits on red background.

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uber Pizza Pizza

Posted: October 4, 2013 in graffiti and street art, Uncategorized
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I had seen pictures of the mural painted earlier this year by Uber 5000 on the Pizza Pizza outlet at Victoria Park & Kingston Road.   Yesterday I found myself in that neighbourhood so I stopped to take a couple of photos too.  The afternoon sun made for some strong shadows along the west side of the building.

A Pizza Pizza store at the northeast corner of an intersectoin has been painted with a large, colourful mural. All possible surfaces have been painted.

on the northeast corner of Kingston Road and Victoria Park Avenue

When I was looking online to find out more information about this mural, I discovered that Uber 5000 has a blog too. If you are interested in his work, take a look at his website.

part of the mural by uber 5000 showing three uber chickens sitting on tree branches. This part of the mural is on the second storey and it includes the awning over a couple of windows.

up in the trees on a sunny day

Part of the mural. Chickens are reading newspapers.

Chickens chilling out on the west side of the building.

A giant green octopus covers most of the back of the two storey building including the heating vents.

A very happy octopus covers most of the north side of the building – great pairing of the air vents and octopus tentacles.

A giant green octopus covers most of the back of the two storey building.

happily playing in the water

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