Posts Tagged ‘omen’

Dew Lang Lane and area

Posted: May 18, 2025 in alleys, graffiti and street art, locations
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Back in 2012, the city approved the naming of an alley… Dew Lang Lane.  You can find this lane just north of the Danforth near Donlands.  Prior to the legal change,  “Dew Lang” had been used as the unofficial name by local residents.  The name comes from parts of the two streets Dewhurst (Dew) and Langford (Lang) that the lane runs between.

a man walks through an alley, and parking lot

below: Omen514’s fist bump

mural of a fist bump on a garage, with a basketball hoop above it, alley,

below: “Turn the lights off and look to the sky”  by Jerry Rugg (aka Birdo) & Wales.

mural in alley,woman wearing sunglasses, text that says

alley scene, 2 murals, a wood fence, and the back of a brick house

below: Spud1 left his mark here along with the advice, “Live, Love, Paint”.

spud mural on a garage in an alley, with text, live, love, paint,

below: Signs of spring that can’t be held back

lilac bush over the top of a wood fence in a lane, full of pink blossoms, peak bloom

ivy covered pole and wires, no parking sign partially covered with vines too

truck parked in a lane, unloading from the back, lane has very tall tree, some fences and garages too,

below: In a very tight spot but bursting out.

a mature tree with large tree trunk wedged between the sides of two garages

below:  One of the latest trends in urban living is the laneway house.   They are popping up all over the place and this area is no exception.

black box shaped house, new infill housing in an alley

below: Another trend, this one in home renovations, is building upwards.  Adding a third floor or a rooftop deck is now common (and is often more noticeable from the back).

newly renovated house as seen from the alley behind, big new windows, and a new upper level

below: The repurposing of church buildings is another trend (albeit a bit older than the above two).  In this case, Temple Baptist Church, opened 1925, is now residential.   A small plaque in one corner of the building serves as a reminder of its original function.  From the application for heritage status for the building:  “Temple Baptist Church is a fine example of a revival of the Georgian Classical Style adapted for Post-Reformation churches in 18th century England.”  Not many Toronto churches were built in this style.

Temple Baptist Church, now condos

below: The central window with its leaded coloured glass and Credit Valley stone trim around the windows.

central window, with leaded coloured glass, of the old Temple Baptist Church, now condos, brick building from 1925.

old brick wall in alley, covered with graffiti in bright colours, yellow, blue and green

mural of a man bending down, lower part has been covered with a tag
two garage doors with urban art, on right is a strange looking woman with her tongue partially stuck out
mural in an alley, girl with pearl necklace and white wings

below: A beckoning summer scene, Muskoka chairs on the dock.  Have a seat and watch the sunlight play on the water.

mural of two muskoka chairs on a dock by the lake

below: Old black line drawings on old white garage.

black line drawings on old white garage
close up of black line drawing graffiti on white garage, with green vine growing over it

looking through chainlink fence to vacant lot with remains of construction site on it

looking through chainlink fence to construction site with wheelbarrow as well as black and orange cones, orange plastic rolled up

below: The new west entrance to Donlands subway station opens onto Dewhurst.

entrance to Donlands subway station, low brown building with glass front and sides

below: Inside

interior of new west entrance to Donlands subway station, white walls, wood accents, a window

interior of new west entrance to Donlands station, from landing in stairwell between street level and subway level, two women walking

sticker graffiti on a pole, a faded blue robot and a pink pigeon head

below: A second pigeon…. this one wear a cheerful bright red cap as he struts around

sticker graffiti on rusted metal, a pigeon wearing a bright red cap, standing,

stylized orange flower petals on a red wall, mural, around a window,

Studio District

Posted: May 27, 2018 in general Toronto, graffiti and street art, history, locations
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Eastern Avenue, the Studio District apparently. This is east of Broadview.

Toronto street sign that says Studio District, Eastern Avenue

This weekend is Doors Open Toronto – one of the buildings that I toured was Filmport – not very interesting actually when studios and sets are closed to the public.  I did get to see some of the rooms where the actors hang out when they’re not filming and where they have lunch.  ‘Kim’s Convenience’ is filming there at the moment.

outside a film studio building, large door labelled studio 2, closed doors, some woodworking tools and materials by the door

below: Two older buildings.  In the foreground is Consumers Gas Building, now home to Avenue Rugs.  In the background is one of two identical buildings now used by the City of Toronto.   433 Eastern Avenue is one of four sites in the city – here they house street cleaners and other city trucks, they monitor traffic, and produce street signs like the one at the top of this blog post (transportation services) – for the southeastern part of the city.   Other city departments also have offices here.

two brick buildings on a street

The next three photos are from the same mural.  It was painted in 2016 by Omen with help from Five8, Horus, and Peru.  It tells the story of city building, from the planning stages – blueprints and architectural drawings, through the construction phase to the final product.

blue mural of blueprints on the side of a building

mural of cranes and construction sites on the side of a building, painted by Omen,

mural of Toronto at night with lots of lights, CN Tower,

below: The Tasty Restaurant sign is still there although it is now missing the round coca-cola discs at each end.  Someone must have realized that they were worth something.   All the red from the sign is gone and the words have turned to rust.  Does anyone have any idea how long ago this restaurant went out of business?

old rusty sign that says Tasty Restaurant. there is a round spot on the left where a coca-cola sign used to be, windows are overgrown by shrubs beside the building

below: Another oldie but goodie, Gales Snack Bar.  More than 80 years old in fact.

gales snack bar, exterior

below: A closer look reveals a closed sign in the window.  It’s still in business but I was there too early.  On Saturdays it doesn’t open until noon so I just missed it.   Next time!

Gales snack bar, close up of window, green curtains, closed sign

details of a chainlink fence and the old plywood and metal sheeting behind it. peeling paint and rusty metal

below: What’s hiding in the grass?  A blue fish?  A pink flamingo?  A Christmas wreath?

an overgrown front yard with very tall grass and one red tulip. Front of house has a brown window box, paint peeling, with plastic flowers and other stufff in i

There are a surprising number of houses between Queen East and the Lakeshore (Eastern runs parallel to those street, in between them) in this area.  Most are old but well looked after and many of those that have seen rough times are being renovated and fixed up.

older houses, semi, ready to be renovated

two storey row houses on McGee Ave, lots of large tress, house painted orange,

below: This photo was taken from the parking lot of the old Weston bakery on Eastern Avenue.  The site is about to be developed into condos.  The Wonder Condos.  With Wonder being written like the word on the loaf of bread.  That bland white bread.

row of three storey victorian style brick houses

alley view, rear of old three storey brick buildings, apartments on top, stores below, cars parked,

below: A vacant lot waiting for its turn.

vacant lot with one small concrete structure on it, one small window in the back of it.

below: The Portlands Railway Spur, looking east from Morse Street and along Lakeshore Blvd.

railway tracks running parallel to road, traffic,

I didn’t find Babylon

green sign with a large white arrow pointing right. on the arrow is written the word babylon

below: .. but I found a bike. Did anyone lose one?  Beware of bike eating trees!

an old bike that had been left beside a tree, over the years the tree has grown around the pedals and gears of the bike

graffiti, purple background, green glob gooey ghost guy with open mouth and big teeth

a mural is a mural is a ?

Posted: December 4, 2017 in graffiti and street art, locations
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Recently I saw a blogTO article about “A massive Overwatch mural” that was being painted on King Street West.  I was curious so off I went to check it out.

below: Here is the mural.   Yes it’s big, but massive no.  When I think massive I think Phlegm’s mural at Yonge and St. Clair, or Adrian Hayles music murals near Yonge and College.   And whoa, what’s that in the bottom right corner?  This is an ad for a video game and this is a picture of Karya, one of the characters.   Under the heading of ‘you never know where things are going to lead’ – Overwatch is a multi-player team game where competitions are held and prizes won.  There is an Overwatch World Cup which was won by South Korea in both 2016 and 2017.  This year there was a Canadian team and they came second.  Yeah Canada!

mural on the side of a building with words join us overwatch. Blizzard entertainment is the sponsor. character from the game is featured.

below: Around the corner is another mural.  This one is painted onto the side of an old brick building by Omen514.  As you can see, it is part of the most recent ad campaign by Sick Kids Hospital to raise 1.3 billion dollars to rebuild the hospital starting with the building at Elm and Elizabeth streets.  The black and white of the mural matches the black and white of the video advertising.   Omen514 had help from Nick Sweetman, Earth Crusher, Poser, and Five S, all of whom are street artists as well.

mural on the side of an old building, black and white, by omen, an ad for Sick Kids hospital, 4 sick kids waiting for treatment.

below: … And another mural in the same neighbourhood.  This one is on the side of the Kiin restaurant (Thai) and as you can see, the name of the restaurant is in the mural.  Again, street art but not street art.  Whatever you choose to call it, it’s much more appealing than a blank grey wall.

mural on the side of Kiin restaurant, a purple elephant standing beside a river with four boats, flowers growing beside the river.

below:  Businesses, such as Champs Food Supplies pictured here, have been using murals to draw attention to themselves for a long time.

older small building Champs Food Supplies Ltd with a large new condo behind it, red car parked beside it, mural on the side wall

below:  It is still standing even as it’s being dwarfed by the condo developments around it.

older small building Champs Food Suplies Ltd with a large new condo behind it, red car parked beside it, mural on the side wall

below: And even farther back in time – This is the MacLean building that was built in 1914 (designed by George Wallace Gouinlock).  It is at 345 Adelaide St. West, and the sign is on the east side of building.   Hugh C. MacLean publications  was founded in 1909 by Hugh Cameron MacLean.  It published mostly trade journals such as ‘Footwear in Canada’. The company was bought by the Southam family and become Southam-Macleans… and then finally Southam Business Publications in 1964.  As it turns out, there were two MacLeans brothers in the publishing business,  Hugh and brother John Bayne MacLean who founded the MacLean publishing company that would eventually become MacLean Hunter – the home of MacLeans magazine before it was swallowed up by Rogers Media.

 

old brick building on Adelaide street, parking lot beside, cars in front, up on top storey (of 6) is an old ghost sign,two in one, one for Hugh C. Macleans publications and another that is too faded to read

below: This ghost sign is actually a double.    The words ‘head office’ can be seen by the word MacLean and there is a box to the left of that.  The number 33 is on the box and obviously means something.  I haven’t been able to decipher the rest of the sign.

old ghost sign,two in one, one for Hugh C. Macleans publications and anther that is too faded to read

And then there is street art that is just that, decorations on a wall.

mral on a low wall, two orange safety markes in front,

After I took the above photos and before I had finished writing this blog post, I came across another Sick Kids fundraising murals by the same artists as the one above.

below: Looking north up Broadview at Thompson street, just north of Queen.

mural on the side of an old building, black and white, by omen, an ad for Sick Kids hospital, 4 sick kids waiting for treatment.

below: The central portion of the mural.

mural on the side of an old building, black and white, by omen, an ad for Sick Kids hospital, 4 sick kids waiting for treatment.
below: In the mural the kids are collecting pieces of lumber, pipes, and concrete blocks.   This is similar to the ad where kids are “running through city streets and alleyways, gathering building materials and running to an empty piece of land ready for construction.” (source)

mural on the side of an old building, black and white, by omen, an ad for Sick Kids hospital, 4 sick kids waiting for treatment.

at Warden station

Posted: November 28, 2014 in graffiti and street art, history, locations
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Another new pair of murals painted under a bridge.
This time, they’re close to Warden subway station.

Beside a four lane road, a sign pointing to Warden station passenger drop off. In the background is a bridge over the road.

Warden subway station is on the southeast corner of Warden and St. Clair. Just east of that intersection the subway passes over St. Clair.

 

The north side of the underpass

The north side of the underpass is dedicated to the woman who worked filling fuses for the General Engineering Company (Canada) Ltd., a  WW2 munitions plant that was located nearby.   More about the history of GECO.

full length of a mural on the side of an underpass. Historical picture of women who worked in a munitions factory during the second world war. From the shoulders up. They are in white clothing and their heads are covered in white hats.

mural under subway bridge, showing woman munitions workers from the era of world war 2. They are wearing white tops and white hair coverings.

The south side of the underpass

The south side portrays the establishment of Scarborough Junction in 1873.  This was when a second rail line and commercial hub was built in the area.

street art mural showing two large heads, a man and a woman, in black and white. Very realistic looking.

part of mural under subway bridge, large red cursive letters that say Scarborough Junction. A picture of an old Scarborough post office as well as a wood building that was a general store.

Scarborough post office and Everest & Sons’ General store. The latter was built in 1873 in Scarborough Junction.

a woman is walking past part of mural under subway bridge, large red cursive letters that say Scarborough Junction. A picture of an old Scarborough post office and two very much larger than life people (man and woman) looking east.

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The murals were painted by Montreal-based street artist Omen.    They are also the result of a collaboration between the city-led art program StreetARToronto, not-for-profit arts organization Mural Routes,  local historians and city councillor Michelle Berardinetti.