paste ups | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘paste ups’

the smaller stuff too

Posted: January 16, 2026 in alleys, graffiti and street art
Tags: April Showers Art, broke canvas, Cartoon Car slaps, catchoo, Cecil Tian, Clem Crevetz, Colin Green, D7606, Frances Sousa, graffiti, Graffiti Alley, heart, painting, paste ups, poser, rat, rat race, rider waitress, sentient cookie, slaps, spray paint, stickers, stikman, street art, T-bonez, Tamm Shinzo, trp613, urban art, urban ninja squardon, visual noise

…in Graffiti Alley

My previous post was also about a walk down a section of Graffiti Alley (Spadina to Portland). This post is from the same walk – because there were so many images that I wanted to share, I decided to divide the fun into two parts. This second part takes a closer look at some of the smaller pieces.

below: Peeling paper hands…. A 33wallflower33 group of three women in their dashing outfits … and a charming man with devil’s horns and red glasses.

below: Although it’s getting more difficult to see, there’s a Poser rabbit by the door. The door is disappearing behind a layer or two of paper and paint.

below: There is a little pink stikman on the light above the door.

below: Once upon a time this skinny little guy was pink but ooops, a layer of paint and now he’s prematurely grey.

below: In her face – another stikman

below: Last stikman for today… sometimes you find them tucked away in hard to see places.

below: Party line? Four hands phone.

below: A bleeding heart, a pansy flower, and a woman with a red hat and big ear rings.

below: Polly wants a cracker before she takes over the world, or at least that’s what she told me.

below: A young woman with blue lipstick and jagged pink make up on her cheeks. A spiked collar is around her neck. Make of it what you will.

below: Another young woman, this time she’s a little softer (at least in appearance) – drawn by Catchoo.

below: Multiple Sailor dudes (trp613) in two varieties hanging out with a happy little catchoo critter and its smiley daisy balloon.

below: “Save me”!

below: It looks like catchoo has been busy.

below: More of that wall.

below: Darth Vader makes an appearance too. Who’s that man peeking through the hole?

below: One flower sprouts a bald person while the other produces a sunny orb. That black octopus doesn’t look very happy – perhaps in this winter weather it needs more than just a woolly toque.

below: There are those women again!

below: Dogma slaps standing tall in his puffy jacket and bright red mitts.

below: Riding a D7606 crayon – T-bonez always finds new adventures.

below: A collaboration between Tamm Shinzo and April Showers Art produced this little round piece – sitting on top of the clouds with the moon shining over her shoulder.

below: Cryptid Supremacy – a rat with a very long tail

below: More rats, this time “the rat race is rigged”. Also another skull (skulls are very popular!), this time by Broke Canvas (aka Colin Green) on yellow. And third, is it a rainbow or a very sad face? – slap by Rider Waitress (aka Frances Sousa)

below: While we’re dealing with rats – Squee! They are all fleeing from an NYC trash can. Don’t litter!

below: Another small collection – Catchoo shows up on a soy sauce bottle while a Sentient Cookie (aka Cecil Tian) character gets taped to the wall… remember that banana?! And last, in the top left corner, a Cartoon Car Slaps.

below: Juice box time. By Clem Crevetz

between West Lodge and Lansdowne

Posted: April 12, 2025 in alleys, graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: alley, alleys, bricks, cactus, Carol Ann Apilado, garages, graffiti, hello kirsten, lane, lanes, murals, paste ups, red rose, stencils, street art, T-bonez, urban ninja squadron

Running west off of West Lodge Ave., there is an alley behind Queen Street West on the north side. The upper part of this long, low building was painted blue a number of years ago. Since then it has been tagged and used as a place to put graffiti.

below: T-bonez from Urban Ninja Squadron practises yoga positions.

below: A bright red door that has unfortunately been scrawled on. Beside it is a black figure that seems to be diving backwards while holding a bunch of colourful balloons.

below: Once it was a pink cat with green whiskers

below: Holding tight to that red rose.

Continuing west towards Lansdowne ….

below: Faces in the alley, with a bit too much gold

below: Chubby cheeks and big fat lips…. and how many eyes?

below: Faces, many faces with their eyes closed and their hair swirling around. Mural painted by Carol Ann Apilado

below: “Tell me its all going to be okay? Not sure if I can do that buddy…..

below: Patterns and shapes on fence, by Hello Kirsten

below: Enough! Although once upon a time it said more than that…..

This post also appears on my street art blog, Eyes on the Streets.

abandoned site, Baldwin & Spadina

Posted: January 18, 2025 in graffiti and street art
Tags: Bao, Bao Pham, catchoo, Dia the Dog, ghetto blaster, Nigel Smith, paste ups, portrait, posters, slaps, stickers, storm troopers, urban ninja squardon, visual noise

There once was a building on the southwest corner of Spadina Ave and Baldwin. That building is long gone but the hoardings around the vacant lot have become a home for graffiti. Although advertising posters sometimes take over some of the space, there is often new graffiti too.

This is what was there in January 2025.

below: The Last Laugh by Nigel Smith.

graffiti on old hoardings at baldwin and spadina, a sign that says the last laugh, words written in red capital letters on black background

below: Paste-ups on plywood. On the left – a City Kitty character in big pink frame glasses (and what’s that on his head?!). Small black and white pasteups include Visual Noise with Urban Ninja Squadron.

pasteups on plywood hoardings

below: WOW! He is not dead yet. Live! Let Live!

three drawings on a fence, one red, one white, one blue, lines, face, and words, he is not dead yet, ugly, beauty

below: Two pieces by Bao aka (Bao Pham) who seems to like to mix cultural icons that aren’t usually associated with each other.

graffiti by Bao Pham, Trans Quebec, Beatles as storm troopers in a shield shape

below: “Fab Four Troopers” Quebec highway sign

graffiti by Bao Pham, Trans Quebec, Beatles as storm troopers in a shield shape

below: “Return of the Boom Bap Trooper”

graffiti street art by Bao Pham, storm trooper from Star Wars movies holding a ghetto blaster on his shoulder, wearing rapper jewellery

below: A woman’s portrait among the advertisements.

posters on hoardings, some advertising television programs, some HIV education website and in the middle is a graffiti street art picture of a woman with flowers in her hair

below: “Frida Moss”, A Frida Kahlo and Kate Moss mash-up, also by Bao

graffiti picture of a woman (photograph) with flowers in her hair and a cigarette in her hand

below: A green catchoo looking atch you catchoo green rectangular face paste up

below: Ouch! Another Urban Ninja Squadron paste-up, this one in collaboration with Dio Tha Dog.

visual noise, and urban ninja squadron black and white paste up on a pole

This post also appears in Eyes on the Streets blog

Dr. Adams was here

Posted: December 7, 2024 in graffiti and street art, history
Tags: 33wallflower33, Bay St., graffiti, paper, paste ups, plywood, posters, redevelopment, windows

Dr. John Gennings Curtis Adams left a small mark on the city just over a hundred years ago.

a Heritage Toronto plaque on the sidewalk outside an old three storey brick building that is boarded up and covered with graffiti. Plaque tells about Dr. Adams who was a dentist in the late 1800s.

Dr. John G.C. Adams (1839-1922) Dr. John G.C. Adams is regarded as the father of public health dentistry in Canada. His Methodist faith inspired him to become Canada’s first resident dental missionary. He funded and operated the first free dental hospital on the continent in 1872, primarily treating poverty-stricken children and their mothers. Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children opened three years later and, in 1883, Dr. Adams became its first dentist of record.
In the building here, Dr. Adams operated Christ’s Mission Hall and Dental Institute from 1897 until 1899 when the City closed it for non-payment of taxes. A champion of preventative health through education, Dr. Adams advocated for dental check-ups in public schools and dental treatment for underprivileged children. His recommendations were finally realized in 1911 with the beginning of dental check-ups in Toronto schools. Canada’s first publicly funded free dental clinic opened two years later.

Although Adams had a mission here, it was only for a few years and he lost possession because he didn’t pay his taxes. So I am not sure why the plaque is here (to bolster the heritage designation of the building?). It’s earlier history is just as interesting, if not more so. Before Adams, it had been a coffee shop run by The Toronto Coffee Association Coffee House – off on a tangent for a moment. the Coffee Houses of the 1880s and 1890s were in response to Prohibition laws and many were run by the Temperance League. I found a thorough, well-written history of these coffee houses as well as Bay Street at the time at Scenes from Toronto

If you have passed by the intersection of Bay and Elm (just north of Dundas), you may have noticed the building on the southwest corner. It’s been derelict for quite a few years now. It has become a small canvas for some graffiti artists; although it gets ‘cleaned up’ every once in awhile, traces remain. Dr. Adams wouldn’t recognize it… nor would he approve of it!

below: Two faced

below: Like a repeating pattern on wallpaper or fabric, columns of men with the same hair cut and facial features. An army of clones.

below: Mexican Jesus

below: 33wallflower33

This building, 55 Elm, is at the east end of a row of bay & gable houses from the late 1800s. All of them are empty and boarded up, awaiting the usual fate of such properties in this city. The image below is a screenshot of the row of houses that was included in the 2021 City of Toronto report (pdf) that designated the row as heritage properties. The study was prompted by the possible tear down of one of the houses in 2019. In other words, these have been empty for a long time.

These houses back onto a large parking lot. The last few photos are a quick look at remains behind.

Kensington graffiti – January 2024 edition

Posted: January 16, 2024 in graffiti and street art
Tags: 33wallflower33, Bruho, catchoo, crown, graffiti, paste ups, Rocky Zenyk, sentient cookie, slaps, stickers, T-bonez, trp613, tweety street art, Ty Pro, urban ninja squadron, visual noise

Yes, another Kensington post … to make it three in a row.

below: A group with all eyes on their phones and perhaps all connected to the cloud. But it’s a dark angry cloud, even a nuclear mushroom cloud, but nobody notices.

below: On a Kensington pole, Visual Noise, Urban Ninja Squadron‘s T-bonez dressed as the farmer’s wife standing beside a very sturdy looking Sailor Dude Farmer from Ty Pro. A luchadore from Bruho waits below, ready for a fight…. “Bruho raced to fight the fascists.”

below: T bonez, this time with Bruho in a psychadelic pink and purple haze on a mushroom.

below: Catchoo’s little blue disc says save me but perhaps that’s what Tweety Bird should be saying – does he realize that the tiger is right behind him?! That’s no ordinary puddy cat! Paste-up by tweet_streetart (aka Tweet).

below: Running ninjas , The Chosen Few

below: … and then he takes to the air.

below: Another 33wallflower33 piece this time it involves kids and a horse. I don’t want to know what the worm is up to or what might be going through it’s head (assuming worms have brains?).

below: This threesome has seen better days. On the left, in the original the woman is serving up Doug Ford’s head in a frying pan (33wallflower33).

below: There’s that worm again! T-Bonez is now standing beside a cute koala and the woman in the 33wallflower33 piece is stripping down to her panties. No frying pans or horses here!

below: “Death is just the beginning” Don’t you wonder what it’s the beginning of?

below: Sentient cookie (aka Cecil Tian) man with heavily tattooed arm, smoking… with the poor fellow below crying his eyes out, almost literally.

below: Rubber Ducky

below: There is another Sentient Cookie sticker at the top. The red in the middle is the creation of Fernando Chamarelli

below: Markus

below: Stay hydrated!

below: Golden crown on blue painted metal, Rocky Zenyk.

below: Hands holding a solid structure, home, from which nature, flowers and leaves, flourish.

below: Grey metal this time, and words say” Forsan Miseros” across the top, above what appears to be a man praying. He is surrounded by flames, beseeching the gods. The full text is “Forsan miseros meliora sequetur” and it is Latin; the internet translates it as “For those in misery, perhaps better things will follow”. Latin scholars may disagree.

below: completely covered

below: Little green paint roller army man running into battle, somewhere on the streets. More political is the “Free Palestine” sticker above it (from them from whom?).

below: Hello my new friend

Previous two Kensington street art posts:
1. blues, and more in a Kensington lane
2. Is everyone nice?

Silhouettes on the door

Posted: October 9, 2023 in construction, graffiti and street art, locations, transportation
Tags: apartment buildings, art, condos, graffiti, Helen Porter Lane, houses, Kenwood, laneway, laneway housing, paper, paste ups, Raglan Road, redevelopment, residential, robin, St. Clair, TTC, urban ninja squadron, Vaughan Road, visual noise

I heard about these silhouettes that have painted on the plywood used to board up the doors and windows of five empty houses so I went to see them for myself. They are on Raglan Road which is close to St. Clair and Bathurst.

“Took a walk and passed your house late last night
All the shades were pulled and drawn way down tight
From within, the dim light cast two silhouettes on the shade
Oh, what a lovely couple they made”

I am not sure how long these houses have been empty but there is graffiti in the back too.

As I was in the neighbourhood, what else is there to see here? Anything new? Back in 2015 I posted a few pictures from the St. Clair and Vaughan Road area (see Intersections). This time I stayed within the northwest quadrant of that intersection. Like most places, somethings have changed while other things remain the same.

Back to early October 2023 … many other houses were empty and boarded up

… and many other houses have already been demolished.

In the above picture you can see that this area has some older smaller apartment buildings. Raglan Road runs parallel to Vaughan Road, home to many mid-sized older buildings.

below: Linked buildings

Once it was the Happy Family Restaurant. Now someone (a happy family?) lives there.

…. other businesses are boarded up. This was the Dutch Dreams Ice Cream shop before they moved farther south on Vaughan Road. While it sits empty it is a space for graffti. Dutch Dreams had moved out before December 2015.

below: Just wait – Not sure what we’re waiting for but I see an alpha and an omega on a death moth?

below: Peeling and faded. Sailor dude and some colourful designs.

below: Elaborate probably female form with gown and hat beside a not so elaborate wine bottle. The label on the bottle says Lutte Libre Bruht.

below: They’ve been here a while – Urban Ninja Squadron’s T-Bonez in various poses including dressed as Robin, the Boy Wonder.

below: Give Love and be a Hero

In the summer of 2020 there was fire in the adjacent building that impacted the old Dutch Dreams building too. That was three years ago. It is a pity that empty buildings sit for so long especially since nothing good comes of it.

More people – Street musicians playing on the sidewalk.

As I walked around the neighbourhood I noticed a mix of architectural styles and building sizes.

From single family….

Through midsized apartments like the older ones shown above as well as some newer ones….

… To massive apartment buildings

below: Southwest corner of St. Clair and Vaughan Road

below: The bright yellow building of Hercules Automotive and Tire Service in an alley behind St. Clair. The top of St. Alphonsus R C church can be seen above it.

below: Walking westward on St. Clair approaching Wychwood Ave with yet another vacant lot.

below: St. Clair Avenue Baptist Church, on this site since November 1924.

below: Beside St. Alphonsus RC Church at Vaughan Road and St. Clair.

below: Kenwood

below: A Jack Layton quote: “Love is better than hate; Hope is better than fear.”

hand written poem story on board, hanging next to a garage with paintings of birds in a tree

“AND people stayed home and read books and listened and rested.
… and learned new ways and stopped and listened more deeply
… and people began to think differently. And people healed
… AND when the danger ended and people found themselves, they grieved for the dead … and made new choices … and dreamed new visions… and created new ways of living… and healed the earth as they were healed.”

below: “My Blue World – I know a place where the world is still where time and space have no hold” Painting by Elly Dawson 2020. Poem by Lanna M.

below: A large Canadian flag hangs over the Toronto skyline.

Also in Helen Porter Lane, someone has taken advantage of the space here to build new housing.

The orange sign on the streetcar stop says that the 512 St. Clair streetcar stopped running early in September 2023 and will be out of service until summer 2024. The whole line from Yonge to Gunns Loop

below: Westbound TTC buses on St. Clair

While we’re on the subject of the TTC, one very dirty bus shelter!

Stop – Take a Breath

farther west on Gerrard

Posted: February 4, 2023 in alleys, construction, graffiti and street art, locations, old buildings, reflections
Tags: alleys, cheese, Chris Perez, construction, garages, Gerrard St., graffiti, Homer Simpson, houses, laneway, murals, paste ups, redevelopment, residential building styles, row houses, slaps, stores, urban ninja squadron, vegetables, wheatpaste

A short while ago, I posted some pictures from Little India which is centered on Gerrard Street. If you travel farther west on Gerrard you come to what has become known as Chinatown East (as you approach Broadview).

below: Nappa, Chinese cabbage, and White radish,

below: Scenic Aqualium Co., Exotic Fish and Bonsai (yes it has an ‘L’).

below: Shoes, boots, and umbrellas.

below: Carrots and tomatoes

below: Pomegranates in boxes and forks on the wall

below: Aging price list

below: Old Lumberking ghost sign on the southwest corner of Logan and Gerrard

below: Broadview and Gerrard – looking east along Gerrard

below: Streetcar stop on the southwest corner of Broadview and Gerrard

below: Square and orange on top.

below: More stores – Jiahua Trading Company with its assortment of goods beside the Dai Kuang Wah Herb Market.

below: One Plus One Hair Salon, Tung Hing Bakery, and Sing Sing BBQ House – all adding to the eclectic mix of store fronts in the area.

below: House reflections

below: No more ‘Epoch Times’ in front of this store.

below: A get together of paper characters – The Incredible Raffa, Las Mujeres Vampiro, Life (that’s the one-eyed daisy), T-bonez got knifed in the back.

below: Peace, in red

below: White roses to heal with

below: Homer Simpson with 64 slices of cheese!

below: Santa Claus and a skeleton – covering more than one holiday at a time.

‘

below: Old mural street art painting in the alley (from 2016)

below: Infill – new housing being constructed in the alley

Dundas Street runs parallel to Gerrard, just a bit to the south…. and that is where you’ll find this dog sitting outside in rain or shine.

below: The Dundas Street Public School class of 2022 left their mark on the fence with their messages of love and peace.

below: As did the the class of 2021

This blog post may be getting too long so I will start to end it here with a brief survey of the older residential architecture on Gerrard and Dundas and the streets in between (for those of you who are interested in such things).

below: A semi with a shared central peak.

below: Little diamond windows

below: Details made with contrasting colours of bricks

below: Another semi detached house with a shared central peak.

below: Flat roofed houses with blues and reds.

below: Shapes – rectangles on top, rounded windows,

below: Cameras on the corner…. and a megaphone too?

And lastly, a shout out to Lamoon Thai Cafe where I stopped for a hot drink (great Thai tea!) and to get out of the rain for a few minutes.

paste platz revisited

Posted: December 1, 2021 in graffiti and street art
Tags: Alan Williamson, Alina Chirila, Anne Milne, Bill_L47, Bruho, City Kitty, crkshnk, graffiti, Jeremy Lynch, jumblefacefoto, las mujeres vampiro, meme, Merlin Boissonneault, paper, paste, paste platz, paste ups, Rako Duarte, rudy, shock G, sketchrat, street art, tbonez, tsmoke, urban ninja squadron, visual noise, wheat paste, wheatpaste

I first posted pictures of the pasteups and posters at Charlotte and Adelaide back in September shortly after they first appeared. I walked past them the other day. There are a few that I forgot the first time and a few that are new. Being street art, they have been subject to the sufferance and whims of others – some comments are added, marks are made.

These are the photos that I took recently:

paste platz

Posted: September 24, 2021 in graffiti and street art
Tags: Alan Williamson, Alina Chirila, Anne Milne, Bill_L47, Bruho, City Kitty, crkshnk, graffiti, Jeremy Lynch, jumblefacefoto, las mujeres vampiro, meme, Merlin Boissonneault, paper, paste, paste platz, paste ups, Rako Duarte, rudy, shock G, sketchrat, street art, tbonez, tsmoke, urban ninja squadron, visual noise, wheat paste, wheatpaste

Covering the exterior walls of a small empty building on the corner of Charlotte and Adelaide West is a collection of images. This project, Paste Platz, is the work of Jeremy Lynch. He asked some instagram users (artists, graffiti artists, photographers, etc ) if they wanted to contribute images. He then printed pictures the pictures and created the scene you see below. I haven’t tried to identify which pieces were provided by which artist; instead, I have made a list of the contributors at the bottom of this post along with a link to their instagram pages. If you have been following this blog, you will recognize some of the street art. But a lot of it should be new!

Full disclosure – some of my pictures from my recent “Little Red Trike” series were included. I brought it with me for a little photoshoot.

This site was revisited, and more photos taken, late in November: paste platz revisited

Contributors

Alan Williamson

Alina Chirila

Anna

Anne Milne (aka Colouring Book)

and my instagram page too

Adelaide & Peter

Posted: July 9, 2021 in construction, locations, public art
Tags: Adelaide St., CNE swings, dancers, graffiti, hoardings, Holly CHang, images, JAYU, Johnny Wu, Leilah Dhoré, Nawang Tsomo, paste ups, Peter St., photography, Radha, Sherry Yu, skateboarder, slaps, Stephen Attong, STEPS initiative, Toronto Makes Good

below: Southeast corner of Adelaide & Peter

below: West side of Peter at Adelaide

below: Still standing – Second Empire style from the late 1850s, with a mansard roof that was added a little later. Just north of it, a 47 storey condo is being constructed.

below: On the hoardings at this construction site on Peter, is “Toronto Makes Good” a photo exhibit hosted by JAYU and The STEPS Initiative that features the work of nine young people (ages 18 – 29).