Here are a few photos of spring in the city that I collected as I walked in the past few weeks.
below: Spring time … when all the bugs and insects come out!
below: As do the trees…. including this massive pink magnolia in full bloom.
below: Flowers on a grave
There are two new colourful murals on Mt Pleasant. The first, all pretty in pink, is on the northeast corner of Mt Pleasant and Manor Rd. It happens to be the location of a new Piano Piano restaurant that hasn’t opened yet. This is the second Piano Piano location and the first, on Harbord St., is also painted pink with large flowers (sorry but I don’t have a picture of it).
These flowers were painted by street artist Bacon aka Alexander Bacon.
Just down the street there is another flower mural. This time its blue flowers, chicory, and it too was painted by Bacon.
Yesterday was not the first time that I walked the Milky Way; I have blogged about it a few times, mostly recently two years ago in July 2017. What surprised me most this time was just how little has changed. A lot of murals and paintings were done in 2013 and they are still there.
below: The two horses at the west end of the alley
below: A one eyed monster, melting ice cream cone figure with big black boots.
below: A star that has lost its shine.
below: Unused and overgrown
below: Someone’s not pleased.
below: Kaos in the alley.
below: Dinosaur riding.
below: Rafiki from ‘The Lion King’ still guards the door but his words may be lost to time.
below: This mural was ‘defaced’ (although the faces weren’t touched LOL) shortly after it was painted. The black letters on the middle woman have been there since at least 2017.
below: This was the only street art piece painted in 2019 that I saw.
below: Not the best seat in the house.
Just south of St. Clair West, Runnymede Road runs under the CP train tracks. In the summer of 2017 the wall on the west side of the underpass a mural was painted by Christopher Ross (aka GAWD). It is a collection of animals, mostly in shades of pink and blue – dragonfly, pigs, birds, and more. Most of the animals are in pairs.
At one end of the mural, this little engine sits on a tree stump.
From autumn to winter, from old to new.
below: It’s a sculpture! It’s a piece of playground equipment! Two very large bronze hands and a red rope lattice between the hands has been installed in Berczy Park. It was designed by Toronto artist Luis Jacob. In the background is the “dog fountain”.
below: Berczy Park from the other side. The water in the fountain has been turned off for the winter. It’s a bit too cold to hang out in the park these days but the dogs are still patiently and quietly waiting beside the fountain.
below: The lower part of “Flatiron Mural” by Derek Besant, 1980 on the west wall of the Gooderham building, overlooking Berczy Park .
below: On the other side of the Gooderham building, near Church Street, the old-style lamps have been decorated for the Christmas season.
below: More signs that maybe Christmas is coming… eventually. Christmas decorations are now available at most grocery stores.
It’s weird to be getting into the Christmas spirit already… in mid-November when there are still a few leaves on the trees…
below: And lots of leaves on the ground.
below: St. James Cathedral from the park (sculpture garden) across the street. Autumn, and the views are no longer blocked by greenery.
below: In that sculpture garden there’s a new installation.
below: “Pigro” by Tony Romano. Pigro is Italian for “lazy”, as in lazily reclining in the park. By the looks of it, there are lights on the sculpture so it might be interesting to check this out after dark (i.e. after 4 p.m.!)
below: Around the corner, on King Street, the omnipresent construction/renovation.
below: The Tom Jones restaurant still stands alone although construction has been creeping closer and closer.
below: The pale purple wall with the mural and Henry Fielding quote are also still in place although the paint is peeling badly in some spots. (this is the east side of the Tom Jones restaurant building).
below: The backs of the buildings on King Street that are being redeveloped.
below: Transitions, old, new, and in between.
below: And the last look at the construction, sort of… you can just see bits of the reddish scaffolding across King Street
Yesterday started damp and grey but then flipped to bright and sunny. Almost spring-like even. So off to the beach I went.
Well, not that kind of beach. It does look warm though doesn’t it? Yesterday it was more like this:
below: Looking towards Lake Ontario from Kew Beach Ave. Lots of trees and lots of what looks like grass but is more like mud. Squish, squish as I walked gingerly across the water logged ground, trying to keep my shoes clean.
The goal? To check out this year’s warming stations art installations. Lots of others had the same idea as it turns out. Some kids, some dogs, but that’s okay.
below: Interacting with “Nest” both on the outside…..
below: …. and on the inside. Like all the other warming stations, this one is built around a lifeguard station.
below: The structure is covered with netting-like fabric on the inside and webbing on the outside. It was designed by a team from Ryerson University – Adrian Chiu, Arnel Espanol, and Henry Mai.
below: A sign of the times, a pink pussy hat makes its appearance as “Pussy Hut”
below: “What’s all the fuss about?”
below: A large square made of many pieces of hanging red fabric, anchored at the bottom with plywood. This is “Obstacle” by Kien Pham.
below: “Revolution” by a design team from OCAD university. It consists of 36 vertical red poles with conical metal pieces that twirl. You can look through them or speak through them, or just walk amongst the red poles.
below: Red!
below: “Rising Up” by University of Guelph, School of Environmental Design and Rural Development. The design was inspired by the topography of the Don Valley.
below: Ooops! One has blown over and collapsed already (it was quite windy). Ironically it was called “Wind Station” (designed by Paul van den Berg and Joyce de Grauw). When it was first constructed, it was in the shape of a nuclear cooling tower and you could go inside. The little plastic windmills continue to blow in the wind.
below: Not everyone was looking at the warming stations.
below: This is ‘Make Some Noise’, designed by Alexander Greiss and Jorel Heid. Apparently it is based on based on the intonarumori, an invention of the Italian futurist Luigi Rusollo in 1914. An intonarumori generates noise. Rusollo envisioned noise music replacing traditional forms of music but he was not successful and none of his contraptions survived.
below: This is one side of the box. The red is a handle that can be turned thus generating noise. I don’t think that it was working. Each side had a handle and a black speaker.
Stay warm!
There are four exhibitions at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery at the moment.
One of the exhibits is “A Wall is just a Wall” by Kapwani Kiwanga. Here, a hallway has been transformed with pink and blue lights. If you walk down this hall, you’ll find an entranceway to another section of the gallery with more of Kiwanga’s work. The gist of the thought behind her exhibit is the affect that architecture and design (such as colour) has on the behaviour of those exposed to it. It’s a bit disconcerting to walk through the lights – they affect your perception of space and make you feel a bit dizzy. Or at least that’s what happened to me!
Another hall. Another exhibit. This time, an installation by Latifa Echakhch called “Cross Fade”. You can see it in the Fleck Clerestory which is the long, high hallway that runs down the middle of the building. For the installation, the walls were painted light blue with white cloud shapes. Chunks of the outer layer of plaster were then removed and pieces left on the floor. The sky is falling! I can just see Chicken Little running around. The sky is falling! But in this case, he’d be right.
When I first saw the installation, I only saw the lower portion and I assumed that it was a neglected wall. It looks like many of the walls you find in lanes and alleys. To me it represented the cycle of building and decay that plays out all around us. I struggle with the idea that painting it to look like the sky changes how the piece should be perceived. Are we supposed to be upset that the sky is broken and lying on the ground? Is the use of the normal (plaster falling off a neglected wall) to try to show the abnormal (the sky falling apart) on purpose? If so, to what purpose?
below: Looking up towards the skylights. It is more apparent from this angle that the walls are painted to look like the sky. By the way, cross fade is the technique in sound or movie editing where a picture or sound gradually appears at the same time as another disappears.
From the online description of the exhibit: “…. Cross Fade evokes the remains of an action that has already taken place. Echakhch’s wall painting of the sky appears to be falling apart. Fragments of the sky still exist intact on the upper sections of the walls, out of reach, reminding us of its beauty. However, large parts of the sky lie on the ground, creating a peculiar feeling that something beyond our control is either happening or has just happened. The technique employed here references the classical fresco, a second skin that usually leads the viewer into a painted world, a trompe-l’œil, rendering the two-dimensionality of the wall invisible. On the contrary, Echakhch’s work shatters this illusion, rooting us in the present, which like a cross fade, is caught between the past and the future.”
Leaving the hall theme behind, the last two exhibits are:
below: Part of “On Fishes, Horses and Man” by Jonathas de Andrade
below: And “The One Who Keeps on Giving” by Maria Hupfield
All exhibits continue until mid May.
Hello! “What’s up?” has become “sup?” I see.
Well, let me show you some of what’s up in Kensington these days.
It’s a much quieter place on a nippy winter morning.
below: Does anyone have an extra jacket they could lend her? Frostbite isn’t fun.
below: It’s Canadian patio weather so it can’t be that cold. Right?
below: Loose bricks become loose teeth. Some guy is trying to hide under the stairs.
below: Fathom graffiti on the foundations of an old house that has been torn down.
Hot and cold perhaps?
below: Filet of sole
below: Cool camel with his headless (mindless!?) glittery arm candy.
below: Persian stews and a pink octopus…. what’s in a Persian stew? If beef stew is beef and rabbit stew is rabbit…. well, I’ll assume that Persian stew isn’t Persians just like Irish stew isn’t Irishes.
I also liked the way that the street art on the open gate merged with the painting on the wall behind.
below: Still meditating with blinking – not distracted by the Christmas balls in front of her face.
below: I thought that this was a window ornament, like the kid you see as a door knocker. But when I zoomed in more closely, I found that is was an old curling trophy!
below: A little sparrow doing some people watching, its feathers all puffed up to keep warm.
below: A woman and a rose in black and white, by bubz
below: Outdoor office. I told you we Canadians were a hardy bunch.
below: Druid and a Christmas tree.
below: Lovebot, grominator, and a poser bunny all together by the rooftops.
below: A number of these little paste-ups (the guy in the yellow frame) by t-bonez have sprung up around downtown. This one is on Augusta.
below: Taking a snowy walk in the neighbourhood that is protected by Rocky, Colt, and Tum Tum from the 3 Ninjas movies.
below: Everyone likes Christmas! Even a stormtrooper….
below: More rooftop graffiti. This time, with new condo development behind. The old brick buildings with glass monsters popping up behind them – a very familiar site these days.
below: In keeping with the sort of PG rating of this blog, I’ll show this poster as the background!
below: The end, no exit. I’ll go no further, except…..
to say have a happy New Year and I hope that 2017 is filled with lots of opportunities to walk and explore!
Have a blast!
The Trans Rally and March, first of the Pride parades was last night (Friday).
below: If you were driving on Yonge street last night, perhaps you got stuck in traffic. Northbound cars on Yonge were stopped to allow the parade to cross from Bloor to Yonge. The parade continued in the southbound lanes which gave the stuck drivers and passengers a front row seat.
Last year it rained for the Trans March and in previous years the turn out was low. Whether it is because trans issues have been in the news a lot lately, or because the trans community is more visible, or because of other reasons, there were more people walking than usual.
below: Dave holding ‘Pulse’ a memorial artwork in honour of those who died at the Pulse nightclub Orlando. The piece was crocheted by Dave and the Craft Action Collective.
#loveislove | #lovealwayswins
Well, this May 2 4 weekend has been splendidly sunny and fabulously warm! I hope you’ve had the chance to take advantage of it, whether sitting on a patio with a cold drink and friends, or out enjoying the the greenness that has bloomed all around us. It’s been a great few days to get up close and take a good look at nature.
below: Old moss covered metal seems to reach out of Lake Ontario like claws.
below: Reflections in the Yellow Creek, Beltline trail.
below: Wet pebbles with the beginnings of green moss growing on them shine in the morning sun.
below: Greater celandine, a yellow flowering plant, blooms along the railing of Milkmans Lane.
below: New growth unfolds in the sunshine.
below: The dark pink blossoms were at their peak this week.
below: Green and brown mosses sway with the water currents along the shore of Lake Ontario.
below: The snow fences have been bundled up and put away for the summer.
as I walk Toronto 