New Dawn is the name given to the latest laneway street art mural painting project. It is a celebration of the 10th anniversary of StreetARToronto.
The alley runs parallel to Queen Street East just west of Ossington; it crosses Brookfield and Fennings streets.
Nick Sweetman painting bees at the top of the mural.
The largest mural of the project is a collaboration between five artists: Meagan Kehoe, Kreecha, Bacon, Sight, and Nick Sweetman.
below: Northeast corner of Spadina and Queen West
below: Mannequins on orange
below: Queen Street westbound approaching Bathurst
below: It’s always nice to see that there’s at least one Lovebot still hanging out in Graffiti Alley.
below: On the door, a jumblefacefoto collage
below: Reach out and touch someone
below: Open your eyes
below: Are you smiling? Are you happy?
below: Southeast corner, Queen & Niagara
below: Same intersection slightly later in the morning and from a slightly different angle
below: Windigo Army piece
below: A little orange character pasted to a pole; the work of kode_dipz aka Kyara Cabrera Fong
below: Because of the construction of a new condo at Richmond and Augusta there has been scaffolding in a section of Graffiti Alley. The other day some of it was being dismantled. This woman is more visible now but some of the bars remain.
below: Life©️ one eyed red daisy supersized
below: Part of UBER5000’s Toronto mural.
below: By luvs – a woman and her dog, with duplicate vision
below: A properly worn mask…..
What is creepier? Dolls or mannequins?
below: Poetaia wants to know what you’re up to, wink, wink.
below: Peeling paper makes the gold words difficult to read
below: There’s a yellow eye and possibly a blue one too?
The recent closure of Queen Street West for streetcar track work provided an opportunity to take a few photos without traffic or parked cars in the way. Straight documentation and not much more. But that way, when you next walk Queen West and it’s wall to wall new condo development you can check back here and say, “I remember when”….
below: On the northeast corner of Queen West and Augusta – The Wool House, Drinks & Deli, and One Stop Shop
below: Queen and Augusta – Java Hut on one corner and an empty KFC on the northwest.
below: Looking west from Augusta
below: working on the TTC streetcar tracks just east of Portland
below: Black and red mural on the outside of Wendys at Denison Ave
below: Queen Street West, north side, at the end of Portland Street.
below: Walking westward away from Portland
below: Looking west from Tecumseth and Palmerston
below: Daisies and bees as Queen West approaches Euclid
below: at Euclid
below: Looking back eastward to Euclid
below: Reflections of Queen West in the window of John Fluevog shoe store
below: North side, at Bathurst. The construction ends and traffic resumes.
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.
There are two murals at Queen West and Denison.
On the northeast corner is a purple and black abstract painting by @onedaycreates and @mostlyletters (aka Jesse Watson). This replaces the green octopus that was painted here when the ground floor of the building housed the Hideout bar.
below: The back of the building
On the northwest corner is a mural of a path through birch trees in autumn that was painted by Jim Bravo. This replaces an older mural of a TTC streetcar (the one that included a woman pushing a stroller and a boy walking a dog).
I happened to visit Artscape Youngplace this afternoon just after their latest hallway gallery exhibits were hung. Showing on both the second and third floors are images produced by the graduating class from Etobicoke School of the Arts contemporary photography course. I tried to find information about the exhibit online but nothing about it was mentioned on the Artscape Youngplace website or on the Etobicoke School of the Arts website. If you know of something that has appeared online since this afternoon (29th April) or something that I missed, please let me know.
This is a selection of the pictures on display. Not all of the labels were up yet and some I didn’t get a clear picture of so my apologies to the photographers whose images that I haven’t credited here. Also, there was no criteria for selecting these images over the many others also being exhibited.
below: The finishing touches
below: By Owen Herlin. “The Last Week of Summer” on top and “Making Memories” on the bottom.
MIDDLE: Why’d you bring me here and then leave. Friends that aren’t mine. Contacts I don’t have. It’s all good but my time is too valuable right now and a lot of these interactions aren’t ( a lot not all). // writing with words in my head, overlaying over crowded memories that aren’t mine. “I want more out of life than this”!
LEFT: “Summer. It’s the start of this again, songs that will remind me of these moments above all others again. :
below: In the middle, a photograph by Tomoka Taki. It is flanked by two images by Julia Kerrigan called “Unnatural 1” and “Unnatural 2”. The opening sentence in the description of Taki’s work is: “I attempt to bridge a gap in communication between myself and older generations within my family.”
below: By Meredith Tudor-Doonan
below: by Kaya Joubert Johnson
below: by Ethan Wilder, “Why complicate the physical world when I can do so in an imaginary one?”
Last weekend
This weekend
I hope that you all had a great weekend! It was fabulous to be out and about enjoying the warm weather – everyone is happier when the sun shines and the snow melts! The following pictures were taken today when I was out walking along Queen West, people watching as I went.
below: Street artist SKAM and his graffiti tag. The original was painted in 2012 and had not been tagged over or messed up too much. Some of the paint was peeling so it was time for a make over.
below: Part of the latest Uber5000 mural is reflected in the window as SKAM paints.
below: Trinity Bellwoods Park (This is also where the ‘believe’ in yellow is woven into the chainlink fence – photo above).
below: The albino squirrel of Trinity Bellwoods Park – he’s up here somewhere!
below: Found him!
below: Reaching for a coffee
below: Walking the dog!
below: It wasn’t a happy day for everyone.
below: Smoking room
below: Supporting the locals. It’s also play-off time of the year and this year both the Toronto Raptors and the Toronto Maple Leafs are still in the playoffs in their respective sports.
Welcome spring!
I started walking Graffiti Alley the other day but I didn’t stick to my plan. I meandered and wandered through other alleys as well as I generally headed west.
below: A bright, vibrant, wonderful piece by birdo in an alley north of Queen Street West.
below: Another birdo nearby
below: Only remnants remain. Was it a stikman? Or was it something else?
below: Auston Matthews already has his picture on T-shirts.
It can’t be easy having the hopes of all those Maple Leaf fans resting on your shoulders.
below: Of course normal is boring. What I need is a t-shirt that says “rather be walking”
below: This wall is not new but there is usually a car parked in front of it when I walk past. King Reign and Son of S.O.U.L. were two Toronto hip hip artists who passed away in 2016.
below: Stickers on a box
below: I love the juxtaposition of the car in the mural with the real cars parked in the alley. Also the alignment of the first two walls makes the painting look like one.
below: This is another painting that I saw in Graffiti Alley.
I think that it’s new, or at least I don’t remember seeing it before.
below: Your words of advice for today.
below: Fake. as in Fake news. Fake people. Fake money. Fake graffiti artist?
below: These grey paper paste-ups have appeared on top of a number of street art paintings in Graffiti Alley.
I’m not sure who did it or why.
below: Blowing bubbles. Looks irresistibly ready for someone to pop it!
It was painted by @wamurals aka WayneArt
below: Hidden houses. Being pushed out by the big boys.
below: Half of a lovebot in a doorway.
below: A whole lovebot mixing it up with another creature. I think it’s by grominator but I’m not sure.
I like to think of it as lovebot fighting his demons.
below: Look up, way up, to find the switch from love to fear.
Yikes!, it’s switched to fear now and it’s not going to be easy to change it.
below: Lucy and trouble and a weird looking face in a messy dimly lit doorway that assaulted my nose.
below: Many of the planters along Queen West have been painted including this tribute to Gord Downie.
below: A little astronaut floats away. But he’s not up in the air where you’d expect to find him. He’s way down low near the ground. Perhaps he’s not floating away, perhaps he’s falling back to Earth?
Don’t over think it though. Just keep your eyes open and ready for the unexpected!
From June 20th to 25th, many street artists brought their talents to paint murals with the Great Lakes as their theme. It was part of Pangeaseed Foundation’s Seawalls for Oceans. Pangeaseed’s mission is to use science, art and creativity to “inspire positive change around pressing ocean environmental issues”. This campaign originally focused on oceans but they have now branched out to increase awareness of the issues involving out fresh water lakes and rivers as well. One of their methods is to support and encourage the painting of murals – Seawalls have been painted in Miami, San Diego, Napier New Zealand, Cozumel Mexico and many other cities around the world… and now in Toronto too.
One of the locations chosen for the murals was around Ossington and Queen where they join a number of murals that were already there.
below: The S.S. One Love sails high above an alley, painted by Peru143
below: Painted in mostly shades of grey, a mural by Caratoes (aka Cara To), a street artist based in Hong Kong.
below: A large water bird swims along the surface and watches the people passing by.
Painted by Jon Todd.
As you can see from the above photo, there are three round images painted on the south wall of the old Self Storage building.
below: Closest to the street, a mural by Sermob
below: In the middle and tying the three circles together is a mural of entwined fish by Miguel Valinas from Mexico.
below: A sleepy baby otter in its parents’ arms, painted by Sens, also from Mexico
below: A mural on a bright yellow wall – a shark and a dinosaur amongst geometric shapes that are characteristic of birdo’s work. There is also another animal head beside it. This was a collaboration between birdo, tens2, fuel, kostyn, phil and barney and it pre-dates the Love Letters to the Great Lakes murals.
below: From bright colours, to black and white – birdo’s collaboration with En Masse. A mural with the words “RIP Don Valley River”
below: It’s a rather dark lament about the state of the Don River.
below: Standing on an island, ‘Hello’ by Chicago-born Hebru Brantley in 2015
below: Whales, lobsters, fish and other creatures swimming amongst the seaweed, painted by street artist lebonar (aka Olivier Bonnard)
below: More marine life, but in an unfortunate spot. I’ve been to see this mural twice, and both times the fence was locked. It looks like the fish has an arm that it’s using to reach for the unsuspecting crayfish – a metaphor for invasive species and their effects on marine life and their habitats. It was painted by Cinzah Seekayem from New Zealand. You can see better pictures of it on his instagram page.
Other posts about this project:
#seawallsTO | #pangeaseed | #loveletterprojects
This blog post is a continuation of the ‘love letters in paint’ post. I decided to give two of the larger murals a separate post.
First, there is an awesome mural painted by Bruno Smoky and Clandestinos that stretches across the back of a building on Rebecca Street (one block north of Queen St. West). It too is part of the Love Letters to the Great Lakes project.
And second, in an alley just east of Ossington, is a mural painted on bright turquoise that is hard to miss! Actually it is a series of murals that covers the back of more than one building. It is another birdo collaboration, this time with Christopher Konecki.
#seawallsTO | #loveletterprojects | #pangeaseed
as I walk Toronto 