mural | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘mural’

suitman north and south

Posted: December 6, 2013 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: Adam Smith, black and white, businessmen, Dupont, equation, gita, halos, Joel Richardson, mathematics, men, mural, railway, red, stars, street art, suitman, suits, the Junction, Toronto, underpass, yellow

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.

a line of men in suits as part of a mural

divide then multiply

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

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

To the east of the bridge.

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

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.

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

Immediately west of the underpass.

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.

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.

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’]

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.

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]

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
Tags: 1904, April 1904, Bay St., brick, buildings, Croft St., downtown, facade, fire, history, John Croft, memorial, mud, mural, old photographs, Toronto, wholesale district

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.

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

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.

Posr on Croft Street

Posted: November 5, 2013 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: brick wall, hidden doors, mailboxes, mural, photos, posr, rabbits, red and white, street art, Toronto

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.

flat black apartments at 396

uber Pizza Pizza

Posted: October 4, 2013 in graffiti and street art, Uncategorized
Tags: chickens, intersection, Kingston Rd., mural, octopus, pizza pizza, street art, Toronto, uber, uber5000, urban

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

alley detour

Posted: October 1, 2013 in graffiti and street art
Tags: CN Tower, doors, garages, graffiti, great wall of China, hi buddy, mural, my spot, poles, Toronto, words

Late last week a friend and I were walking to the Kensington area to take some pictures. We almost didn’t get there because we were distracted by a number of small alleys along the way. This is a small sample of what we saw that day.