Posts Tagged ‘paste up’

wall blobs

Posted: May 18, 2019 in graffiti and street art
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I’ve called them blobs for lack of a better word. It’s almost as if someone’s conceptual art project was released into the wild.

three black and white photo paste ups that look like ameobas or primitive life forms on a concrete wall, outdoors,

below: These two blobs look a like amoebas, or other single cell life forms. Can’t you picture them swimming in a pool of muddy water?

two black and white photo paste ups that look like ameobas or primitive life forms on a concrete wall, outdoors,

below: There is definitely a “life form” quality to them. With a little imagination, the middle one looks like a chicken embryo inside an egg. In fact, all three could be embryonic.

three black and white photo paste ups that look like ameobas or primitive life forms on a concrete wall, outdoors,

below: Now the life forms have evolved a bit and developed tentacles or little stringy bits like a jellyfish has. They seem to be interacting.

seven black and white photo paste ups that look like ameobas or primitive life forms on a concrete wall, outdoors,

Have fun with them!
I found them on a wall on Runnymede Road just south of the CPR tracks at St. Clair.

UPDATE: These blobs are water photograms produced by ‘J’ . A photogram is an image made without a camera; objects (in this case, water) are placed directly on light sensitive paper. When a light is shone onto the objects, different shades of grey are produced depending on how much light reaches that paper surface. The more light, the blacker that area of the image becomes. White areas are produced by objects that allow no light to pass through.

today’s advice?

Posted: May 17, 2019 in graffiti and street art
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“Stop at nothing to get a head”

stencil on a wall that has been spray painted a pale blue, black ink, man holding a tall stick on the top of which is a head, words that say, stop at nothing to get a head

But be careful…. that head could become some body’s dinner!

a small paste up on a utililty pole, blue stencil of the monopoly guy's head, top hat and X's for eyes, under his head are the words eat the rich

mademoiselle alley

Posted: September 16, 2016 in graffiti and street art
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On a hydro pole in Graffiti Alley, facing more to the nearest wall than to the alley, I discovered an intriguing collage. It was made of a series of pictures, old-style coloured pictures of women who look like they’d be more comfortable in the 1940’s and 1950’s….they’re straight out of vintage magazines.

an old fashioned type drawing in colour of a woman with short brown hair and a red v neck dress, from the waist up, eyes closed, face looking slightly downwards, on paper on a pole in a lane.

below:  A signature on the bottom of the artwork, Mademoiselle Berthelot.  She’s a street artist from Paris who recently left her mark in Toronto.

an old fashioned type drawing in colour of a woman, back of head mostly, flowers woven into her hair, signature of the artist, mademoiselle berthelot

Stylish women, like this one with long white gloves, surrounded by circles (bubbles?).  Circles made with splotches of paint and blue striped circles made with rubber stamps.

an old fashioned type drawing in colour of a woman in a low cut scoop neck dress, hands on her hips

If you look closely, there are pairs of birds sitting together on top of sealed envelopes.

an old fashioned type drawing in colour of a woman's head, mostly only the back showing, some small flowers braided into her hair.

an old fashioned type drawing in colour of a woman in a low cut yellow dress
So far, this is the only piece I’ve seen by Mademoiselle Berthelot.  Are there more in Toronto?

 

aging faces in Kensington

Posted: September 1, 2016 in graffiti and street art, locations
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Wood cracks.  Metal rusts. Paint fades and paint peels, its just what happens to paint when its exposed to the elements.  Street art painted on a surface suffers the same fate.  Nothing lasts forever and sometimes a mural’s life span is quite short.  Sometimes other factors come into play – street art is defaced or altered in some way.  Tags cover it; words get written on it.  That too is the nature of street art.

black stencil of a woman's head and hands. Also an old paper paste up of a person that is badly torn around the edges. A very simple face has been drawn above it in pink

below: I love what the weather has done to this woman’s face.  Aging with grace and dignity.  The texture of the old wood adds an element of depth and character to her as well.

street art painting of part of a woman's face on a wooden fence, old and faded and the wood is starting to crack

below:  One slat replaced.   I’m sure it wasn’t the artist’s intent, but the gaps in the wood look like bars in a cage, or those metal bars you often see on windows.

street art painting of part of a woman's face, in blues, on a wood fence, vertical pieces of wood with slight gaps between the wood

below: Broken chin, but still watching the world pass by on Baldwin Street.

anser face on an old wood gate that is wearing out, broken across the bottom. bikes parked to the left of the gate

below: Yelling at the bushes.

a very colourful and stylized face painted on a wall, large open mouth, looks like fiendish laughter, showing off large white teeth. A large green weed, or small shrub, has started growing in front of it.

below: Eyes are mysterious things.  I have never been able to draw them properly and I am in awe of those who can.  Even more so if the eyes communicate something, some emotion or expression.

eyes, street art, staring straight ahead. part of a large face painted on a wall in green tones.

below: I have always been intrigued by this face.  A photo of the original painting hangs on one of my walls.   I still find her mesmerizing.  Those blue eyes still stare at the world.  Is she looking through a veil?  Or is she able to see through all the nonsense that the world throws at her?

street art painting of part of a woman's face by anser, on olive green backgound, partially painted over and with words written in front of it.

below: A devilish child is still in good shape.

two bright orange stencils of faces. one is a laughing child with devil horns and the other is a woman's head.

street art painting of part of a woman's face, in purple . eyes closed, looking down, with hew lock and key on the door that she's painted on, wearing a necklace

street art painting of part of a woman's face, bright red hair, greenish face, blue background, eyes closed,

white line drawing on a rusty metal door of a woman's face, slightly open mouth with lots of teeth, curly hair

part of a mural on a wall showing two Easter Island type heads

below: “Without money we’d all be rich”.  That’s the kerb (curb) that runs along the bottom of the picture.  Her whole face was not there in the first place.

street art painting of part of a woman's face, on a wall, in greens and purples, she is looking to the left

below: And animal faces too!

part of a Uber 5000 mural, a dog with a tiny blue hat and a yellow birdie on a bicycle

anatomy lesson, and more

Posted: May 31, 2016 in graffiti and street art
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Today’s blog starts with an anatomy lesson as illustrated by vampz on a wall in Graffiti Alley – the arterial and venous blood flow of the head and neck.

street art painting of a larger than life, realistic depiction of the blood supply to the human head. Skull with eyeball, teeth, some neck muscles as well as arterial and venous blood vessels. In profile.

I walked the alleys behind Queen St West today to see if there was anything new.  The biggest new pieces were the above head and a new birdo creation, pictured below.  A realistic looking blue jay and a floating pink gem.

a garage decorated with a mural by birdo, of a realistic blue jay and a pink cut gem floating in front of the bird.

  below: The back part of the blue jay is on the side wall of the garage
which produces an interesting 3D effect.

a garage decorated with a mural by birdo, of a realistic blue jay and a pink cut gem floating in front of the bird. The front part of the bird is on the garage door and the back part of the bird is on the side wall.

below: This tribute to the basketball Raptors and their appearance in the 2016 Eastern Conference Finals is also a new addition.  DeRozan is pictured on the left and my apologies for not knowing the player on the right.  Unfortunately, it was too close to garbage day and the bins were overflowing so I couldn’t move them out of the way.  Next time.

streetart mural in tribute to Toronto Raptors basketball team and their presence in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2016. The heads of two black basketball players on a red and purple background.

below: And unfortunately, garbage was an issue today.

a bin of garbage plus a pile of garbage bags in front of a street art piece, a face and a tag in green and red, signed hangman, detroit.

below: The face isn’t new to the alley, but the words are.
Written by a woman with priorities!

Pretty female working retail falls in love with guys who need bail
the sweet smell of lust or love
you mean well, but money can get her a new car and clean nails.
The Lady”

number 669 in lime green letters above a stylized woman's face with yellow hair and a blue top. Someone has written words on the brick wall beside the painting.

below: Love Department featuring Phoebe.
You can find more of her on instagram @phoebenewyork

A little paper paste up of a large headed girl with black hair and a large red heart on her head. on a pink background with the words Love Department. Stuck on a garage door painted in pink and blue shapes

below: Even a simple smile will do most of the time.

under the rusted metal of a wire grill over a window, on a wall that was painted in black and orange street art, there is a small white line drawing of a girl's head

below: Cloud Monet and the woman in white, or Who you lookin’ at Mr. Fish?

small vertical drawing of a woman, drawn in white, wearing a long form fitting dress, standing, on brown, tied to a wall with a mural laready painted on it.

a painted piece of street art has been partially covered with many vertical lines in black marker, producing an interesting pattern over the colours below.

Three hinges have been bent forward so they are flat, multicoloured graffiti behind them, words written on the hinges except for the bottom one which has a question mark on it.

below: A couple of stikmans.  No anatomical realism here!

a little wooden stikman with only one leg on a green concrete block wall, with white stencilled daisies above him, street art in an alley

a very pale blue stikman on a very pale blue window and wall.

below: A bit of mystery.  I’m not sure if it’s a stikman or if it’s a newcomer to the alley

orange coloured stikman, double, foot to foot, in a pink wall with foam insulation on both sides of him

below: Pull up a seat and rest a bit, we’re almost done.

cast off furniture in a lane, two chairs, a TV, a small yellow set of drawers, a mop,

below: The final words on today’s walk.  Someone’s not happy!

graffiti wods on a red and white wall, "Graffiti Sucks"

Dysturb

Posted: May 9, 2016 in events, graffiti and street art
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Spread around Kensington and Chinatown are 20 large black and white photos taken by a number of freelance photojournalists who are part of a group called #Dysturb.   One of their goals is to present photojournalism in new ways, including as street art, with the aim of engaging people and encouraging discussion of global issues.   The images are part of an exhibit for the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival.

Kensington has had a problem with taggers for a while.  Often street art gets vandalized in that area.   The #Dysturb photo that was at 56 Kensington (under Mona Lisa) has already been torn down and a couple of others have been ripped.

Pictures of some of the images that are part of the exhibit are shown below.  I have included a partial transcription of the words that accompany each picture.

 

Libyan Coasts, August 1, 2015
Photo by Christophe Stramba-Badiali/Haytham

a large black and white photojournalist picture, part of CONTACT photography festival, pasted on a wall - a boat load of Libyan migrants is being rescued from their rubber dinghy.

West African migrants are seen aboard a boat, approximately 20 nautical miles off the Libyan coast, as they are about to be rescued by Medecins Sans Frontieres. The MSF-hired ship, named Argos, was patrolling the waters off Libya when it encountered one rubber dinghy carrying a total of 111 migrants including several children and infants. “

Barpak, Ghorka District, Nepal, May 9, 2015 ”
Photo by Renaud Philippe/Hans Lucas

a large black and white photojournalist picture, part of CONTACT photography festival, pasted on a wall - children playing in the wind created by a helicopter, Nepal, on a wall in an entraceway. A man is busking in front, and there are people walking past on the sidewalk

Children play in a cloud of dust and gravel thrown by an Indian army helicopter landing in Barpak Nepal.  The community is at the epicenter of the devastating earthquake that struck April 25, 2015, taking over 8000 lives.  Of Barpak’s 1400 houses, only 20 remain standing.   The rest of the town is a pile of rubble that blends into the rocky landscape.  An archway that somehow survived the quake greets visitors with a rueful ‘Welcome to Barpak’.”

Shaanxi Province, Henan, China, February 27, 2014
Photo by Sim Chi Yin/Vii

a large black and white photojournalist picture, part of CONTACT photography festival, pasted on a wall - an ill Chinese man is being comforted by his wife. The picture is on a graffiti covered wall and a black car is parked close to it.

Gold miner, He Quangui, battling silicosis, struggles to breathe while cradled in the hands of his wife Mi Shixiu.  After many attempts to stabilize his breathing, in the early hours of the next morning her tried to kill himself to end the suffering.  He contracted the irreversible disease working in illegal gold mines in China’s Henan province.   He is among some six million workers in China who have pneumoconiosis – the country’s most prevalent occupational disease.”

Cizre Turkey, October 30, 2015.
Photo by Emilien Urbano/Myop for Le Monde
NOTE: I took this picture on Friday. Today (Monday) it was gone.

large black and white photo pasted onto a boarded up storefront of European Textiles on Spadina Rd. The photo is part of #Dysturb exhibit at Contact Photography Festival. It shows a hooded man holding an automatic rifle

A militiaman from the PKK Youth wing YDG-H in Cizre Turkey.  The Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H) – the militant youth wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – are battling to defend their neighbourhoods from Turkish security forces.  The YDG-H has been acting as a paramilitary force in Cizre for the past few months and has closed off several Kurdish neighbourhoods with their armed checkpoints and patrols.

Fort McKay, Alberta, Canada, August 12, 2015
Photo by Ian Willms/Boreal Collective

a large black and white photojournalist picture, part of CONTACT photography festival, pasted on a wall - a sick boy is lying on a bed, on a wall in the entranceway to a store, sidewalk and street scene in the background

Dez, 7, plays in his bed.  Dez was born with an underdeveloped heart and has received multiple open heart surgeries.  His family and healthcare professionals in Fort McKay believe that his condition was caused by environmental pollution.   Fort McKay is an indigenous community that is surrounded by oil  sands developments.”

Kunduz City, Afghanistan, November 18, 2015.
Photo by Andrew Quilty/Oculi

a large black and white photojournalist picture, part of CONTACT photography festival, pasted on a wall - a mother (covered in a black burka) and her daughter in grief, at a gravesite. Pasted on an orange wall with an old brown leather sofa in front of it.

Najibah tries to comfort her daughter Zahara, 8, as they weep over the grave of their husband and father, Baynazar.   Baynazar, 43, was wounded by gunfire on his way home fromwork during the Taliban takeover of Kunduz in late 2015.  He was taken to the nearby Doctors Without Borders (MSF) trauma centre.  In the early hours of October 3, during his second operation, a US AC-130 aircraft attacked the hospital for more than half an hour, killing 43 MSF staff, patients and nurses.  Dozens more were wounded.

About #Dysturb

#CONTACT16

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