We’re getting outside to enjoy the summer while still maintaining some distance as the COVID numbers drop… a few of the restrictions have been lifted and life is little less constrained. Patios are filling up again and a larger selection of stores are open. The following photos were taken downtown on a sunny day a week or so ago…. as I re-learn how to take candid shots of people!
below: Older street art in an alley behind the north side of Queen Street West
below: Although it was painted in 2015, Greg Mike‘s message of “Stay positive” still applies.
below: Elicser‘s mural of a woman with a bald eagle fling over the city.
below: Keep calm and meow on!
below: The birch forest painting by Jim Bravo is still at Queen West and Denison.
below: Also remaining, is the remnants of this stikman although he is now covered with a fresh coat of paint.
below: Truth phone in Graffiti Alley, by Mike Salisbury
below: A ROC bird character in collaboration with kone
below: A tribute to frontline workers in Rush Lane. Treaty 13 between the British government and the Mississauga of New Credit is also known as the Toronto Purchase.
below: Pink panther
below: Stickers and slap on metal – zonr, feelings boi, and peru143
below: Two more stickers. Daughtcalm on the right and Obey, aka Shepard Fairy, on the left.
below: There is an “Obey Eye” mural on the side of a store on Queen West (near Portland) that was painted in 2014. It is on the upper level and in a small side alley. The words in the mural say OBEY never trust your own eyes always believe what you are told.
below: Part of the Black Lives Matter tribute murals that were painted back in June. Zianna Oliphant was the girl from Charlotte North Carolina who spoke for black rights at a council meeting after a fatal shooting of a black man by Charlotte police. Also, note the altered yellow sign that now says “Watch for Injustice”.
below: A green Lambourghini and it’s photoshoot.
This year’s theme at the Yorkville IceFest was “Awesome 80’s” and the feature ice sculptures were all things 80’s.
below: Fabulous red heart embedded in the ice! The ice made the red shine. Needless to say, these two women weren’t the only ones who did this!
below: Leftover red balls from Christmas added to the festivities.
below: Posing with the rock ’em sock ’em robots (Cool hat too!)
below: A younger version of Elton John made an appearance at the Ice Fest
below: Posing with Garfield the cat
below: Walking on air, but so cool with the leg warmers on.
below: Driving the De Lorean
below: Most of the sculptures came already made and were set up on Saturday morning. Starting at noon, several artists began carving some sculptures – partially as a demonstration of their craft and partially as a contest for best sculpture.
below: Because it was a cold day, some time was spent warming up inside the nearby art galleries. I saw this little ski guy stuck in the snow outside Loch Gallery. Does it look like he’s shivering too? (artwork by Patrick Amiot).
below: Another wonderful creation by Patrick Amiot. I’m not sure that a hockey player (especially a Leaf?!?) should look frightened?
below: He may be blue but he’s smiling.
below: Preening and posing or just walking past. Saturday afternoon in Graffiti Alley.
below: It comes with words, a quote from Al Capone: “You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun, then you can with a kind word alone”. A mural by Madmaxxoner
below: A series of urban ninja squadron stickers on a pole
below: A grey face on a door, part of a mural by elicser
below: Square face with a four pointed crown, drawn on orange
below: So we meet alley drinking in fact(?) at 2 pm on a Teusday (sic Tuesday) it’s cool(?) and I have a half size bottle of wine some of us are in love and some us can’t be. We break off spinning in all directions and haven’t stopped since. And on top of it all is a paranoid sticker in his pink briefs. Make of it what you will.
below: Posing at the end of the alley
below: Set-up for a selfie
below: More of someone else’s selfie, this one in the partial darkness.
below: Smoke break
below: An uber5000 painting of blue cat painting a yellow birdie with a predatory camera bearing down on them.
below: We are all human by Kaun
below: More sharpie words, this time about the atomic power of prayer. Oh dear, I googled it and it’s a thing.
below: Paper paste-up telling us to eat more or proclaiming the presence of eatmore?
The theme of this year’s Icefest was ‘Hollywood North’.
Shooting on location at Yorkville Village Park on Cumberland Ave
during the weekend of 9th and 10th February
Featuring: Lots of ice sculptures (over 70,000 pounds of the stuff!)
In the Director’s chair
Starring
and a cast of thousands.
Somewhere on instagram there is probably a dog….
It says, “Say cheese”, so of course we do!
An Oscar winning performance!
This year’s Nuit Blanche was on September 28th and 29th. The night’s activities were spread over a large number of locations around the city. That was a few days ago so yes, I am a bit behind. I was laid low for a couple of days with this cold that’s been going around… or I took a few days to recover from being up until 3:30 a.m.!
below: Part of ‘Continuum: Pushing Towards the Light’ by Brandy Leary and the Anandam Dancetheatre. They made they way across the glass enclosed bridge over Queen Street between the Eaton Centre and The Bay store.
below: From behind the burlap (or tarp?) Nathan Phillips Square, from an installation ‘Radical Histories 2012-2018’ by Ibrahaim Mahama.
below: More from the same installation, this time from the “right” side. It was great for making shadow figures. Thanks to Jude for starting off the evening with me… and getting creative (silly?) too.
below: We found a photo shoot on Bay Street.
below: On Bloor Street, nothing to do with Nuit Blanche but it looked cool. Reflections and lights.
below: Eaton Centre, a quieter moment that night.
below: Checking the map. Yonge Dundas Square – the installation there was very unimpressive so I took people pics instead.
below: At Church of the Redeemer (Avenue Road and Bloor), Korean Dancers. “Star Moon Water Stone” by Ensemble Jeng Yi
below: Drummers, same venue as above.
below: ‘This Storm is You’ at the Ontario Science Centre, an installation by Zahra Saleki. Photography on the walls and stories on the floor.
below: Walk among the stories. “Every story deserves to be lit. Grab a sharpie and write yours.”
below: Smile!.. and a testament to the start of love. Two of many lit stories.
below: Saleki’s photos displayed here are abstract dance photographs in black and white. Negative images and slowing the camera to produce the blur of motion.
below: This is what you saw when you first got off the subway (is the SRT a subway?) at Scarborough Town Centre. It’s part of the ‘The Things They Carried’ Babel series. The motifs are similar to those on the installation at Yonge -Dundas Square, that oops, I don’t have a picture of.
below: At Scarborough Civic Centre, ‘Everything I Wanted to Tell You’ by Hiba Abdallah. A series of words in lights projected onto several buildings. The words changed every few seconds to tell a story or two.
below: More of the words. “People hold on so tightly to a specific narrative of this place”.
below: More projections at Scarborough Civic Centre. Sorry, not sure which installation this is.
below: Scarborough Town Centre (mall) had a mountain of inflatable globes you could walk under, or just look at. ‘Walk Among Worlds’ by Maximo Gonzalez
below: Weaving stories, ‘Interlacing’ by Community Arts Guild, at Scarborough Town Centre.
below: Watching a performance at the Scarborough Civic Centre.
below: Running through the lights.
below: Reflections, Aga Khan Museum
below: more Aga Khan
below: Showing ‘Insomnia’, a video filmed in Tehran showing simply the view out his bedroom window, by Simin Keramati, Aga Khan Museum
below: Trash at Yonge Dundas Square. Nothing to do with Nuit Blanche, just an ordinary day’s worth of garbage. It just happened to catch my eye as I was walking down the stairs to the subway.
Ending with rubbish would be a weird way to end a post, so here’s another mannequin. I saw lots of them that night too, unfazed by the activity around them, unmoved by the night’s events.
below: I’m out here every night. Nice of you to finally notice….
Happy Canada Day weekend!
The weather’s been all over the place, warm, cold, hot, cold again, back and forth…. like May weather usually is. We were fortunate to have great weather this past holiday Monday and a lot of people took advantage of the day! As I walked around, this is some of what I saw.
Another year of jack o’lanterns and giant spiders
and other creative spooky and creepy decorations. Clowns and pumpkin heads.
And even bunnies can be fearsome. Bunny with baseball bat.
It’s a time for dressing up in costumes and having fun…. for kids
…. and for adults (night time photos taken on Church street)
below: What’s scarier than Donald Trump? Three Trumps! Thrice the thrills.
Not everyone was scary – look at these cute and cuddly animals!
Smurfs!
Even Marilyn stopped for a picture.
Toronto in the summer means street festivals every weekend. One of the festivals this past weekend was the 15th annual South Asian Festival in ‘Little India’. Gerrard Street East was closed to traffic between Greenwood and Coxwell for the occasion.
below: Shopping, strolling and playing games. Try your skill at cricket or buy some jewellery or some clothing.
Like all street festivals, there was lots of food and drink available.
below: Extracting sugar cane juice.
below: Fresh baked naan, straight from the oven.
There were many photo ops provided. For instance, there were cut outs for faces in pictures of Bollywood actors.
… and a richly decorated cart (What is it’s proper name?)
and mannequins in traditional costumes.
below: There was also entertainment. In this case, a rapper in Hindi and English.
… and there was even a large elephant parked beside Victoria Whole Foods! It looks a bit tacky with the big advertising banner on its side but it was still a popular place to take selfies.
as I walk Toronto 