Posts Tagged ‘painted’

oldies on Camden Street

Posted: August 16, 2016 in graffiti and street art, locations
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Well, not really Camden Street, but an alley that runs perpendicular to the street….  If the lane has a name I don’t know what it is.  Google maps doesn’t even include it.  It’s a very short alley that runs both north and south from Camden street and it doesn’t go anywhere.  Both sections were painted with murals 9 or 10 years ago.   Amazingly, they have survived.

Let’s start with the south side of Camden Street.

below: Mural Project, “The walls won’t know what hit them”.  The mural was painted in 2006 youth from the   Harbourfront and Cecil Community Centres as part of the City of Toronto’s Graffiti Transformation Project.

part of a mural in an alley, yellow background, blue pistol with the word mural in large red capital letters, flag at the end of the barrel that says , white hand holding the grip with finger on the trigger.
below: The mural is painted in a quasi cartoon style.

blog_art_or_vandalism_mural

below: She’s upset and she’s expressing her hurt and anger with spray paint seems to be the start of the story.

part of a mural in an alley, a woman with bright yellow hair is spray paint out of a can with a word bubble that says "He crossed me first"

below: My knowledge of slang is limited, and this is 10 years old but this sheezy is cool.  It’s probably as simple as “this sure is cool”, i.e. spray painting graffiti is cool.

This seezy is off the heezy are the words in a word bubble coming out of the mouth of a man painted in a mural, short black hair, wearing a red shirt, and spraying a can of pink spray paint,

below: Oh no! I always laugh when I hear this expression these days… is there anywhere in Toronto where property values are going down? Okay, okay, so it’s part of the story – she’s complaining that someone has sprayed graffiti somewhere nearby, the vandalism part of the story.   The angry young woman or the “sheezy heezy” guy above have been busy in her neighbourhood.

street art, picture of woman with orange hair, wearing white gloves, hands on sides of head, words saying "On no, my property value went down"

below:  As you can see, a couple of things were in the way as I was taking pictures.   I am not sure exactly how the plot of the mural progresses from here because I couldn’t see the whole thing.  There are gaps in the story line.   A few missing pages so to speak.

looking down one wall of an alley, a mural is painted on it, in the foreground is a woman in profile (she's looking down the lane), very yellow hair. Two cars are parked in front of the mural

below: Flesh tones as dots in the face of woman who plays an unknown role in this story – the mystery woman?

part of a woman's face, painted in dots, bright red lipstick, brown hair, looking at the viewer

below:  I suspect that this is the “We’ve got to get rid of the graffiti” part of the story.  Is it improper to make comments about Rob Ford and his anti-graffiti program here?  I don’t want to insult the mural or the project behind it because I think that the Graffiti Transformation Project is an excellent program.

scene in a mural, a football helmet wearing head, with words I wish my school had an art program, also two men talking about how it's time to take out the trash

below:  If there was a mural on the other side of the alley, it’s long gone.

a red car is backed into an alley, and is parked there, along the wall beside the car is a lot of graffiti spray painted and written on the wall. There is a stair case in the back part of the wall.

A short walk across Camden Street to the other half of the alley….

below: You can see the taller buildings on Richmond Street West but you can’t get there from here.
And like most downtown alleys, garbage bins are a dominant feature.

looking down a dead end alley, lots of blue rubbish bins that are slightly overflowing, tall buildings on either side. The back of a two stroey building straight ahead with taller buildings behind

below: At the entrance to the alley.  There are words under the window by the sunflowers that say that this painting is also the work of the Harbourfront/Cecil Community Centre’s Graffiti Transformation Project, 2007.

wall of an alley with a long window with worn painting around it of flowers and sunflowers

below: A very low window with green arrows

a low window, close to the ground, with a green arrow painted around it.

orange geometric street art, with the words 'stay alive' written in orange beside it

two old windows with rusted and bent metal grille on the windows, a street art painting of a woman in profile with eyes closed is between the windows, White hair

below: And last, I’ll end with a weather comment because we’ve all been talking (complaining?) about it these days – someone’s a bit overdressed for this August weather although it doesn’t seem to bother him.  Maybe he knows something we don’t.   Or maybe it’s just wishful thinking.

street art on a grey brick wall, head of a young man in a fur lined hood of a parka

Stay cool!

phlegm’s progress

Posted: August 5, 2016 in graffiti and street art, locations, public art
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British mural artist Phlegm has been painting a large mural on the side of 1 St. Clair West.   The first time I saw it, was on the 14th of July when it looked liked this:

below: The white background of the mural was painted first.

a street in Toronto, St. Clair Ave., with an older nine storey building with concrete facing, on the side, above the level of the stores beside it, is the outline of the start of a mural. All painted white, a seated figure.

I have been watching it, checking up on it every couple of days.  At first I took photos fairly frequently because I had no idea how long it would take before the mural was finished.

below:  19th July

a verylarge mural on the side of a building is in the process of being painted. An white outline of a seated person with their knees drawn up, one leg has been painted with a design in black

As it turns out, there is a lot of detail in the mural!  It slowly took shape.

below: 21st July

a very large mural on the side of a building is in the process of being painted. An white outline of a seated person with their knees drawn up, one leg has been painted with a design in black

below: Fast forward to today…. the mural is almost finished. …
but wait!  Isn’t that the CN tower on the shoulder?

large black and white mural by phlegm of a seated person with their knees bent up, made of tiny houses and buildings and other structures

below: Hey!  It is the CN tower.  And isn’t that the Gooderham/flatiron building?  And that building with the little dome, isn’t that on Yonge street?

close up of mural made up of toronto landmarks like the cn tower and the gooderham flatiron building

below: There’s the ROM and its ‘crystal’ too!   This is the ‘bottom’ of the figure and in this photo two things become clearer.  First, the scale of the project and just how big the mural is becomes apparent.  Second, the mural is of a person coming out of the earth, being pulled out by the roots almost.  But is it a person?  Or is it a living city?

the bottom part of a mural, man in scaffolding is still working on it, black on white, pictures of buildings.

below: The head part – play ‘spot the building’!  Is that old city hall?

head part of phlegm mural

below: Scalliwags is on one of the knees along with a lot of trees.

knees part of the mural

below: And last, the feet with more roots at the heels

feet of a person in a mural made of paintings of trees and buildings, roots growing out of the heels. satelite dish in the mural and on the building beside the mural

This project is also a part of the STEPS Initiative program.

This post also appears in a blog about street art. Phelgm’s Progress.

hoardings engineered

Posted: July 6, 2016 in graffiti and street art, locations
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Construction hoardings around the site of the new new Centre for Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CEIE) at the University of Toronto have been painted with a wonderful mural.   Back in the spring I took some photos of it.

 

part of a mural on an artwall on hoardings around a construction site for a new engineering building at the University of Toronto, a rainbow W, a yellow lego block, two workmen in hard hats, a crane, a T, a red maple leaf

This artwall installation is a collaboration between U of T Engineering and graffiti artist Jason Wing (SKAM).  The mural features many things that engineers do, from the things that are unique to U of T Engineering to those that apply to engineers around the world.

part of a mural on an artwall on hoardings around a construction site for a new engineering building at the University of Toronto, older building behind, long stretch of the mural in the picture

below: Batteries, circuit boards, robots and DNA.  The robot cat is Tangy, a bingo playing robot and one of the many assistive robots developed at U of T.

part of a mural on an artwall on hoardings around a construction site for a new engineering building at the University of Toronto, a robot cat

below: Astronats in space and the Lady Godiva Memorial Band.  The band is part of the engineering school and it will be getting a new music room to practice in as part of the new building.   That symbol that looks like NY but isn’t – that’s pronounced ‘en sci’ and is the abbreviation for  U of T’s Engineering Science program.

part of a mural on an artwall on hoardings around a construction site for a new engineering building at the University of Toronto, two musicians and an astronaut floating in space

below: The Nanoleaf bulb, one of the world’s most energy efficient bulbs is shown along with wind turbines and solar cells.  Wind and solar energy are two of the many research interests of the CEIE.

part of a mural on an artwall on hoardings around a construction site for a new engineering building at the University of Toronto, a young man painted on the mural as well as a fancy LED lightbulb and two wind turbines.

below:  The Ye Olde Mighty Skule Cannon is the official mascot of U of T Engineering.   The equation coming out of the cannon is the formula used to calculate power.  Also in this part of the mural is a river and a faucet to represent the Institute for Water Innovation which is part of the CEIE.

 

part of a mural on an artwall on hoardings around a construction site for a new engineering building at the University of Toronto, an older building behind, a volleyball player on the mural as well as two students sitting on the ground and looking at a laptop

below: A TTC streetcar and a traffic light are in the artwall to represent the fact that U of T engineers partner with cities worldwide to improve transportation infrastructure.

part of a mural on an artwall on hoardings around a construction site for a new engineering building at the University of Toronto, new TTC streetcar in the mural as well as some musicians, an astronaut floating in space

a small square window cut into painted construction hoardings

Mann masks

Posted: November 5, 2015 in galleries
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I happened to walk into the Queen Mother Cafe (on Queen West) this afternoon.  They often have original artwork displayed on their walls and today was no exception.  I found some intriguing and very creative masks.

A mask in beige, black and white mounted on the wall. The nose is a wrench. The white part looks like a mask across the eyes of the mask

They are the creation of Jeff Mann, a Kingston based artist.

four metal masks mounted like on a wall. One looks a reddish dog and one looks like a skull. They are made of car parts.

According to his website, Mann makes the masks mostly from car parts and shovels.  The ones here are only a sample of the collection I saw at the Queen Mother cafe.   In addition, there are pictures of more masks on Mann’s website.

close up of a mask hanging on a wall. It's made of rusty metal car parts welded together

A mask that looks like a cow. Large black and white face, a pinkish red body and four skinny spindly legs. Curly cue tail too.

at Humbert Street

Posted: August 20, 2015 in graffiti and street art, intersections
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Intersections – Ossington at Humbert

below:  As you walk south on Ossington Ave, approaching Humbert Street,  look up and you can see the mural ‘Further’ by Aaron Li-Hill. Fencers with their swords in motion.   It extends the length of the wall but taking a picture of it is difficult because of the high location of the wall and because of the stuff on the roof of the adjacent building.

A mural on the upper storey of a building that is partially obscured by items on the roof of the adjacent building. THe theme of the mural is further, and the word further is written many times. There are also images of fencers with their swords.
below:  On the other side of Ossington Ave there is a mural along the north wall of House of Horvath .  The mural features a man in a tobacco field presumably picking tobacco.  It seemed like a strange theme for a mural in Toronto until I realized that this is a building in which cigars are made.   Yes, cigars are made in Toronto.

Mural of a man in a white hat leaning over and picking tobacco plants in a field of tobacco.

mural of a man in a tobacco field picking tobacco on the side of Horvaths, a cigar manufacturer, on Ossington St. in TOronto.

Forbidden City

Posted: August 3, 2015 in graffiti and street art, public art
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Mural of the Forbidden City

A while ago I posted pictures of a large mural of The Great Wall of China in an alley off Dundas St. West.   A new mural has been painted on the other side of this alley,  a mural depicting the Forbidden City which is now in the center of Beijing China.  The Forbidden City was an imperial palace for twenty-four emperors during the Ming and Qing dynasties (about 1420 to 1912).   One could only enter the complex with the permission of the Emperor, hence the name Forbidden.

mural of the forbidden city in Beijing, painted on a wall in Toronto, showing a statue of a lion outside a building

A pair of Chinese Guardian Lions, one at each end, stand over the Forbidden City.

mural of the forbidden city in Beijing, painted on a wall in Toronto, showing a statue of a lion outside a building

The mural was painted by Blinc Studio artists,
Allan Bender, John Nobrega, Jesse McCuaig and Elaine Teguibon

painting of one of the red buildings in the Forbidden City in Beijing China, part of a mural in an alley in Chinatown

window of a Chinese restaurant with a young man sitting at a table by the window. On the exterior wall surrounding that window is a painting of a large Chinese lion statue that is part of a larger mural

Niagara Street peeps

Posted: April 8, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations
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Street art and murals
close to the intersection of Niagara Street and Graffiti Alley.

below:  A mural on the side of a house on Niagara Street.
Some of the paint is starting to peel but otherwise it is in good shape.

The side of a brick house is covered with a mural showing a woman's upper body and she has yellow and green hair. Also, there is a woman on a bike with a Toronto scene behind her including the CN Tower and a TTC subway car below her. There are lots of flowers including red roses and white lilies in the picture. The mural is signed by Robert (Reber?) Rian Cruz.

Signature at the top right seems to be Robert Rian Cruz.  Other names are written on the bottom left: doz, nose, cora, anto, wizwon, flur, and markis

Mural painting of a large woman's face. She has yellow and green hair. There are white and pink lilies in the picture too.

Part of a street art painting of a woman on a bike with a Toronto scene behind her including the CN Tower and a TTC subway car below her.

below: Make It by Aaron Li-Hill
In Graffiti Alley but visible from Queen St. West at Niagara.

mural of a fencer with sword drawn and ready. The words are "Make it". It is slightly abstracted and painted to look like there is motion in the picture.

Wheatpaste and paper graffiti on a white concrete block wall. A pair of yip yaps beside a person with an owl head and one wing instead of an arm. The second arm is normal. Also in the picture is a heatpaste black and white picture of a woman riding a bicycle away from the viewer. She is wearing polka dot shorts. Someone has also painted yellow and black bee like creatures with faces (black masks) and brown hats.

Wheatpaste and paper graffiti on a white concrete block wall. A pair of yip yaps beside a person with an owl head and one wing instead of an arm. The second arm is normal.

Square wheatpaste graffiti of a man on a bicycle on a city street. Two large pineapples have been painted on the wall too, one above the bicycle man and one to the right. The pineapples are bright colours, one is orange and yellow and the other is blue and purple.

Close up of picture of woman riding away on a bicycle. An I love Toronto CN TOwer personification sticker is also in the picture

another Kensington alley

Posted: March 30, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations
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Borden Street becomes an alley south of College Street.  It runs along the east side of Kensington Community School, then makes a turn and runs part way along the south side of the school.  All of the garage doors have been painted with pictures and murals.

below:  The most northerly garage door has a sign that indicates that the murals were a gift to the children of Kensington Community School from the Kensington Market Action Committee.  They were painted by a number of different artists.

A large green and black beetle (or a similar insect) painted on a garage door along with words

longer view of part of an alley showing the street art covered garage doors.

Street art piece of a tag in the middle and a face on either top corner.

Graffiti on a garage door. A face is in the top right corner and she is looking down towards the ground. Stylized.

Graffiti painting of a hand holding a can of spray paint.

Garage door with a very large round fat yellow mother hen with two little chicks following behind her.

Graffiti painting on a garage door of the words "Hi Def" in rounded fat letters with colours in pinks greens and black squares.

A mural on a garage door, a wispy picture of a man, an owl and a pair of eyes

close up of a man

north end of an alley with garage doors on the right, white chain link fence on the left. The garage doors are covered with street art and graffiti.

North end of the alley, looking towards College Street.

 

below:  Hey and Hello, by J. Stanton

 A mural on a garage door, all yellow and black, stylized figures a fish, a bone, a wedge of cheese with a face, two cherries made into little figures with eyes, mouth and legs, a large sandwich with a face on the bun as well as arms and legs, also a lemon with eyes, arms and legs. personified food,,

below: A painting by lexr in 2012, Hey Markusiel.
The sign on the gate refers to the Yinka Dene Alliance, a coalition of six First Nations groups from northern British Columbia who organized to stop the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline being built through their territory.

Wooden garage door with a painting of a boy with a baseball cap on his head and a breathing mask around his neck and nose.

below: Street art piece by Cam Novak

Purple and blue abstract street art on a garage door.

below: Max and the Wild Things by ACS Murals (Annex Creative Services Murals)

Mural on a garage door of Max and the Wild Things, characters from the children's book "Where the Wild Things Are" . They are swinging from tree branches.

Close up of a Mural on a garage door of Max and the Wild Things, characters from the children's book "Where the Wild Things Are" . Two of the wild things are are swinging from tree branches.

below: Another ACS mural

mural on a garage door in an alley of a marine scene. A large grey and white shark is swimming along with a yellow and black angel fish. There is a pink starfish and some coral as well.

Graffiti tag on a garage door in an alley, green tag on blue and orange background. The tag, or word, says "sighto" or something like that.

Blue graffiti tag on pale orange background on a laneway garage door. The word 'Suniti' is written in small letters in the top left corner.

below: The next four pictures are from a mural that covers a couple of garages.  From left to right.

colourful graffiti of two bulls

multicoloured street art on a garage door of a boy reaching forward, his hand is foreshortened and is clasest to the viewer.

street art painting on a garage door in a laneway, a woman with open mouth under a row of eyes

colourful graffiti painting of a man's face surrounded by a lot of abstract shapes

Garrison Creek mural

Posted: March 27, 2015 in graffiti and street art, public art
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Quickly, before the leaves grow back and obscure the mural!

The Garrison Creek mural is on King St. West at Sudbury Ave.,
close to the railway overpass. 

A mural is painted on a retaining wall at the bottom of a small hill that separates some row houses and the street. Many small trees are in front of the mural but it is winter time so there are no leaves on the trees. The mural is a stylized creek that flows through hills with some animals standing beside it - fox, frog, turtle and beaver.

On the north side of King St. West

 

Part of a mural showing a fox standing beside a creek. A bare tree is in front of the mural

Part of a mural showing a large green turtle swimming in a creek. A tree with no leaves is in front of the mural

Part of a mural showing a large green frog sitting beside a creek. A tree with no leaves is in front of the mural

signature, or label, on the garrison creek mural

Cecil Harbourfront Community Centre, 
a Graffiti Transformation Project,
painted in 2004

the Great Wall of Chinatown

Posted: March 18, 2015 in graffiti and street art, public art
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In an alley to the southeast of Huron St. and  Dundas West is a mural of the Great Wall of China.  It is 147 feet long (almost 45 m) and 12 feet high.

large mural of the great wall of China in an alley, wide angle view with two people walking in front of it

part of large mural of the great wall of China in an alley with a telephone pole in front of it.

part large mural of the great wall of China in an alley, the street end of the alley with part of the mural, the back door of a shop on the other side of the alley is also in view

part of large mural of the great wall of China in an alley, painting of a few people walking towards a building on the great wall

the signature part of a mural, Chinatown BIA, Chinese lettering and the names of the artists.

Chinatown BIA.
Mural painted by Blinc Studios artists: Allan Bender, John Nobrega, Rick Sauve,  Brian Broders, Jesse McQuaig and Ming Lau.
Painted in the summer of 2013.

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