reflections | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘reflections’

we’ll start with ravens and flamingos

Posted: February 22, 2017 in alleys, graffiti and street art, old buildings
Tags: alley, alphabet, artist, black birds, boy, Bruno Smoky, buildings, College Street, cowboys, creatures, crows, dogs, Dufferin Grove, faces, fiya, flamingos, graffiti, J Bizzel, Johnathan Ball, junk, Katia Engell, lane, mud, mural, painting, park, people, ravens, reflections, Runt, shalak, spray paint, stores, street art, sunshine, trees, truck, water, witches, woman, words

below: I doubt she’s saying that she loves the sunshine THIS MUCH! but I’d like to think she is. That’s certainly what was going through my head for most of the weekend so I’m going to pretend that she agrees with me!… especially since I am writing this as the rain falls outside my window.

But back to those ravens and flamingos that I promised you…..

below: But not everyone’s happy. Witches brewing with ravens and crows nearby. There always seems to be symbolism associated with these large black birds so I went searching for information. Ravens and crows are found throughout most of the northern hemisphere so many diverse cultures have their own mythologies surrounding these birds. The best summary I found was this, “On the negative side, Raven represents the profane, the devil, evil spirits, the trickster and thief, war and destruction, death and doom, the void. Yet in many cultures Raven also represents deep magic, the mystery of the unknown, death and transformation, creation, healing, wisdom, protection, and prophecy. ” (source) We don’t know exactly what Fiya Bruxa, Shalak, and Bruno had in mind when they painted this mural but I doubt that it was something positive – those witches look rather angry and nasty.

below: From the vengeful looking faces above to these hopelessly romantic flamingos is just a matter of a few steps along College Street. They’re the center part of a larger mural by Katia Engell.

There are 4 flamingos altogether and they are in between two other murals.
In the picture below you can just see the yellow of an alphabet mural by runt

below: Too many things in the way makes for an awkward photo but you can still see enough of it to play the game of what creature goes with what letter! R is for robot dog? Z is for zlithering thingy with rings?

below: J is for jumping purple blob? C is for coughing-up- dinnersaurus?
And look, an alley to explore……

Wait! Before going down the alley I want to take a few steps backwards. Remember that I mentioned that the flamingos were between two murals? This is what is on the other side…..

below: Three cowboys in a mural signed by J Bizzel 4 Shizzel.
The one with his shirt off is the one under the air conditioner.

below: This strange but happy fellow was waiting in the alley.

below: If you look closely at this painting, you will notice that the wavy lines continue behind the bars of the railing and that there is only a small distance between the railing and the wall. That was not a simple paint job.

below: ‘Such a fool’ and someone to agree with it.

below: I’m not too sure what to say about this one. Vermut? or Vermouth? Too much vermouth and you take your clothes off, versmut? Bad joke.

That’s the end of our little tour.
Find a sunny spot and pull up a chair and rest your feet for a few minutes.

Tomorrow there will be puddles to go splashing through…
but that’s a story for another day.

Flotsam and Jetsam and others

Posted: February 21, 2017 in people, public art, waterfront
Tags: art, beach, blue, bottles, boys, chairs, clear, Collective Memory, empties, evergreens, families, flotsam, Flotsam and Jetsam, girls, interactive, jetsam, kids, Lake Ontario, lifeguard stations, messages, North, notches, ovals, paper, pine, plastic, recycling, reflections, reflective, reusing, studio PERCH, The Beacon, The Illusory, trees, University of Waterloo, water, Waterfront BIA, waterfrontTO, winter stations, wood

Two empty chairs sitting in the sun. This photo is only a half truth; it suggests that the beach was sunny but empty yesterday when I took the photo. Sunny yes, empty no.

Back in the winter of 2015, I discovered the first “Winter Stations” event on a day when the temperature was -20C. There weren’t many people there that year! In contrast, yesterday was a beautiful and unseasonably warm February Sunday. Temperatures hit the double digits and lots of people come out to take advantage of the weather. It was also the first weekend of the 2017 version of ‘Winter Stations’. Although the installations officially opened today, all but one of them were completed and ready for the public yesterday.

below: One of the installations is “North” which was designed by studio PERCH in Montreal. Yes, it’s Christmas trees hung upside down. They are prickling to walk between. This year there seems to be a recycling and reusing theme in a lot of the installations. At least I hope these trees weren’t cut down specifically for this project.

below: Another installation is “Collective Memory” designed by Mario Garcia (Barcelona Spain) and Andrea Govi (Milan Italy). People are encouraged to leave messages in the bottles.

below: Paper is provided as are the bottles. The walls are constructed of horizontal empty plastic water bottles with the openings all on the inside of the structure.

below: The sun shining through the plastic bottles makes for some interesting effects.

below: Like most of the installations, “Collective Memory” encloses a lifeguard station.

below: The installation that wasn’t ready yet is “The Beacon” designed by Joao Araujo Sousa and Joanna Correia Silva (Porto Portugal).

The installation in the background in the above photograph is “BuoyBuoyBuoy” designed by Dionisios Vriniotis, Rob Shostak, Dakota Wares-Tani, and Julie Forand (Toronto Canada).

below: One of many photo ops!

below: Notched ovals made of wood and clear plastic were used to build this installation. The wood pieces were either painted white or covered with silvery reflective material.

below: More reflections, this time in “The Illusory” designed by a group from Humber College School of Media Studies & IT, School of Applied Technology.

below: Someone has already written on (scratched?) the surface.

below: “The Illusory” in front, “Flotsam and “Jetsam” behind, and lots of people in between.

below: “Flotsam and Jetsam” was designed by a team from the University of Waterloo. It consists of cubes made of wire cages. The cages on the bottom are filled with empty plastic bottles of different colours and shapes.

***

The Winter Stations will remain until the 27th of March.

back on the streets again

Posted: February 16, 2017 in general Toronto, history, memorials, old buildings, people, windows and walls
Tags: alphabet, banner, beams, Bettys, brick wall, cars, coca cola sign, construction, Dieu et mon droit, doors, Full Circle, ghost outline, graffiti, homeless, James Beaty, King St., letters, lights, lion, magnet, motto, Pacific Junction Hotel, people, Peter von Tiesenhausen, puddle, reflections, relief sculpture, snow, snowman, statue, stencil, streets, trees, windows, words

Another reason why I haven’t posted recently? I’ve been sick. Icky sick; can’t get out of bed sick. This morning was the first time that I’ve walked Toronto streets in many, many days.

It was a beautiful blue sky morning but I made a mistake and stopped for coffee first. Clouds rolled in and we were back to greyness by the end of the first mug. Argh. Maybe back inside for a secong mug?

In the end I’m glad I got my momentum back. I walked streets I’ve walked many times before but I walked it with a long lens in hand. I started searching for details that I’ve missed before as well as shots that are easier (and sneakier!) with a lens zoomed out to the max.

In no particular order….

below: The front of Betty’s on King street. These magnets have been here for a while now although their numbers may have magnified. In hindsight, I should have gone over and written something like, “Hi my name is Joe and I’m the Prime Minister of Canada”.

below: The bright colours of this exposed wall caught my eye. It’s been revealed because of the demolition of a building at Victoria and Lombard and I suspect that it will get covered up again in the near future.

below: This is a closer view of the men in the photo above. I hadn’t purposely taken their picture but I like the portrait look of the picture. A kind of Mike Rowe’s ‘Dirty Jobs’ image comes to mind.

below: Banner for the Pacific Junction Hotel.

below: Drink Coca-cola

below: Sitting together in silence. Black and white. Alive and not alive.
Both aren’t moving and both don’t see me.

below: I have always been intrigued by these vertical windows at St. James Cathedral, especially with the winter trees in front of them. I’ve taken pictures here before but none have been satisfactory. This one is certainly not perfect but the sense of scale that the woman provides is a big help.

below: These two small ionic-ish columns help support an archway over the door.

below: A bit of a rant. At one point did it become acceptable for people to be sleeping on the sidewalks? How did we learn to walk past? When someone walks past a person sleeping in the middle of the sidewalk, what thoughts go through their head? Is there a solution? Or is so normal now that we don’t consider it a problem? This man was right in the middle, there was no easy way to avoid him, but avoid him we did.

below: Trying to cross King Street.

below: An exposed support beam, two wood planks on end sandwiched between steel I beams.

below: High on a brick wall he suffers in anguish as the pigeons keep pooping on him.

below: A bit of a cliche. Walking the dogs in the park on a winter day.

below: The Christmas lights are still wrapped around the trees in St. James Park.

below: Two mis-matched windows side by side. Old brick, rusty metal.

below: Above 10 Toronto Street is this royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom. The unicorn represents Scotland and in the royal coat of arms for Scotland, the lion and the unicorn are reversed. You’ll also noticed that the unicorn is chained. Apparently this is because in legend, the unicorn is a dangerous beast. I’m not sure what this says about Scotland! The words on the banner below the lion and the unicorn say “Dieu et Mon Droit” (= God and My Right). The words around the middle circle say “Honi soit qui mal y pense”. This is the motto of the Order of the Garter and it translates to ‘shame upon him who thinks evil of it’.

below: This is the building that used to house Starbucks on King Street near George Brown College. Many months (more than a year) ago there was a fire in the building and Starbucks closed down. The windows and doors were boarded up and then nothing happened. That looks like the makings of scaffolding lying on the sidewalk so maybe some renovation work is about to begin.

below: A ghost building outline.

below: An octopus runs up the stairs. Or would it slither?

below: Passing by the five faceless naked men who silently and stoically watch over the intersection of Queen and Victoria. A sculpture “Full Circle” by Peter von Tiesenhausen.

below: I also met James Beaty this morning. He too stands silently but he is tucked away in a dull and quiet corner so he doesn’t get much to look at. The original James Beaty was born in Ireland 1798 and came to Canada as young man. He was a leather merchant, he established the newspaper ‘Toronto Leader’ in 1852, and in 1867 he became a federal politician.

below: Any idea what this might be? Dancing figure?

below: It was a puddle jumping, slushy kind of day. I’m sure that there are lots more of those ahead!

below: There are always more paths to walk and more chances to see what’s around around the next corner and through the gate!

Honest Ed’s waves goodbye

Posted: December 15, 2016 in landmarks, locations
Tags: alley, bargains, Bathurst station, closing down sale, clothing, Ed Mirvish, empty, for sale, Honest Eds, items, lipstick, Matthew Monteith, mirrors, mural, payphone, reflections, signs, streetcars, subway, The Theatre, TTC, walls

Someone has redone the signs in Bathurst subway station….
now they look like they belong at Honest Eds store!

… and when I came up to street level I discovered that the station has been decorated with Honest Eds type ‘adverts’ complete with awful puns

…. including word play based on subway station names such as “Turnstiles, now museum, soon you won’t”. Groan. Smile.

below: The main entrance to the station now looks like an Honest Eds window.

below: They aren’t too easy to read in this picture, but the two signs on the left are, first, “Bacon & Eglinton $3.25” and second, “There aren’t any snakes on our tracks, St. Patrick banished them”. Were you expecting better? [laughing]

Nearby is the real Honest Ed’s store, a landmark for many years. Eighteen months ago, I posted some pictures of the store and at the end of that post I mentioned that the store was scheduled to close at the end of 2016. Well, the end of 2016 is drawing nigh and Honest Ed’s is slowly winding down. The decorating of Bathurst Station is part of the good-bye process.

At the moment, the interior of the store is a shadow of its former self. It is still in business but the goods are getting scarce. There are definitely still bargains to be had. I have a new hat that I bought there today, red polar fleece, that set me back 50 cents… plus tax.

below: Ed Mirvish and a crowd of shoppers back in the day.
The picture still hangs in one of the many corners of the store.

below: Photo taken from the walkway between the two buildings that make up Honest Ed’s store. Looking south.

below: From the same vantage point, but looking north. From here I spotted a new mural.

below: The mural is a large scale photo montage of people passing by the Bloor Street windows of Honest Ed’s. It catches the reflections of both the window contents and the life on the street. It is “The Theatre” and it is the creation of Matthew Monteith.

luminato mirrors

Posted: June 25, 2016 in events, people
Tags: 3D, anaglyphic, cameras, colours, hearn generating station, lights, luminato, mirror ball, mirrors, people, reflections, selfies, soderberg-mills

The 10th annual Luminato festival is being held inside the old Hearn Generating Station in the Portlands. There are many theatrical, musical and visual events and the location itself is worthy of many, many photos. Rather than try to cover everything in one blog post, I’ve chosen to focus on mirrors and reflections to begin with. First, there is the giant ‘disco ball’ that keeps light circulating around the massive interior of the Hearn and second, an installation by Jordan Soderberg Mills features three interesting and entertaining mirrors.

‘One Thousand Speculations’ is the name of the giant ball that is suspended from the ceiling. At 7.9m in diameter, it is the world’s largest mirror ball. It is the creation of Canadian artist Michel de Broin and was commissioned for the 2013 Luminato festival where it hung from a crane over David Pecaut Square. One thousand mirrors reflect the light from a spotlight on the floor and as the ball slowly turns, the lights move around the ceiling, walls, and floor of the Hearn.

below: As seen from the ground floor level.

below: Close up. The top level is quite close to the ball.

below: Someone, somewhere, has a picture of his friend ‘holding up’ the giant ball!

below: And the reverse angle, from the top looking down.
Lots of irregular shapes of light moving around the space.

The Luminato website describes the mirrors involved in the installation by Jordan Soderberg-Mills as “anaglyphic mirrors that play with physics, perception and colour”. Now you’re probably wondering what anaglyphic means. It’s a word that comes from the science of 3D pictures. There is no concise definition! It is a picture that consists of two slightly different perspectives of the same subject in contrasting colours that are superimposed on each other, producing a three-dimensional effect when viewed through two correspondingly coloured filters. Phew. In practice, it makes for a mirror that is fun to play with…. and people did play!

below: As seen from the upper level, three vertical mirrors and four circular mirrors.

up and down, old and new, at Yonge and Bloor

Posted: June 11, 2016 in locations, old buildings
Tags: Bloor, condos, construction, development, downtown, facades, glass, reflections, Yonge

Standing on the corner of Yonge & Bloor, looking south…. On one corner, a tower almost finished and on the other corner a tower another just started. 1 Bloor East and 1 Bloor West.

below: 1 Bloor East (7 photos)

below: The beginnings of an overhang at street level, NW corner of the building.

below: The podium level as seen from the SW corner of the building.

below: The full height of the building is more easily seen from farther east on Bloor Street.

below: As seen from across the street, under the protective covering over the sidewalk.

below: Once upon a time the old Stollerys store stood on the southwest corner. Today it is a construction site wrapped in hoardings covered by a mural of a forest scene. I’m not sure what they’re trying to say or who they’re trying to fool. Oh well, it looks pretty for now.

below: If you look behind the hoardings, you will see that all the buildings except one have been demolished. No hole has been dug yet so it’s going to be a while before this tower is completed. And when it’s completed it will be Toronto’s tallest condo building at 72 storeys.

Two blocks north, at Yonge & Yorkville, there is another hole in the ground.

below: The doors and windows of the old brick buildings on Yonge Street are boarded up. These buildings date from the 1860’s.

below: Peek around at the back and you’ll see that the old stores have been demolished but their facades have been saved. Again, this project is in it’s early stages and again, it’s going to be a tall one. This time, 58 storeys tall.

below: The stores have been stripped of their signs and decorations. It looks a bit desolate at the moment but it will be interesting to see just what the developers do with the facade.

below: No one can argue that the old buildings were in good shape. At least there is an effort being made to preserve the front of the buildings. Preserving some of our history is important and I think that the old architecture adds visually to the look of the street.

As I walk back down Yonge street towards Bloor, a sign catches my eye. Another development proposal sign – Toronto’s most common sign I think. This one is for a 64 storey building at Yonge and Cumberland. Anyone feeling a touch of vertigo at the moment?

get outdoors!

Posted: May 23, 2016 in abstract, nature, waterfront
Tags: blossoms, creek, fence, flowers, Lake Ontario, leaves, maple, metal, moss, new, pebbles, petals, pink, reflections, shadow, shadows, shovel, spring, tree, water, yellow

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.

lazing on a sunny afternoon

Posted: May 19, 2016 in people, public art
Tags: bench, city, downtown, high heels, legs, love, nathan phillips square, outdoors, outside, reflections, resting, shadows, spring day, sun, The Archer, Toronto 3D sign, tulips, urban, warm, window

Spring is in the air.

I’ll be lazing on a sunny
lazing on a sunny
lazing on a sunny afternoon.
(with apologies to Queen)

trees, trees, and more trees

Posted: April 28, 2016 in nature
Tags: buildings, condos, data, elm, forest, information, maple, reflections, trees, urban, windows

Have you ever noticed how many trees there are in this city?
Have you ever stopped to examine the visual relationship between trees and architecture, the patterns of leafless branches superimposed on straight man-made lines?

For the past couple of weeks I have been keeping an eye open for such relationships while I walk. As it turns out, there are lots to be found…. and some are even interesting 🙂

Just for fun I googled “How many trees are there in Toronto?”. I got answers! One link was particularly useful: available in pdf from the City of Toronto’s website is a report titled, “Every Tree Counts: A Portrait of Toronto’s Urban Forest” (updated in 2013). It is estimated that Toronto has about 10.2 million trees and they provides a tree canopy over between 26% and 28% of the city.

There are at least 116 different tree species in the city. The 10 most common species account for close to 58% of the total. We have a lot of maple trees – Norway Maple, Sugar Maple, and Manitoba Maple were the top 3 species. Next in the list were Green Ash, White Spruce, Silver Maple, American Elm, Eastern White Cedar, Austrian Pine, and White Ash.

When Dutch elm disease devastated the city’s elm trees in the 1960s and 1970s many were replaced by Norway maples. These proved to be hardy but they were also very invasive and damaging to ravines and other natural spaces. As a result they are rarely planted on city property anymore. Still, they represent 15% of Toronto’s tree coverage.

Of the total tree population, 6.1 million (60%) trees are on private property, 3.5 million (34%) trees are in parks and ravines, and 0.6 million (6%) trees are on city streets.

Trees make a significant contribution to our life. Not only do they look nice, but they also provide benefits. They provide shade in the summer and they help improve the air quality. They help prevent erosion in our ravines and they provide habitat for insects, birds and animals. Our parks would be poorer places without trees.

One goal that the city has is to increase the canopy cover over Toronto to 30%. To this end, between 2004 and 2012 the city and its partners planted almost 100,000 trees per year. That’s almost 900,000 trees. Not all survive but progress is being made. Tree cover increased slightly (1.3%) between 1999 and 2009.

below: A map of Toronto showing the tree canopy in each neighbourhood

Take a moment to look at the trees you pass, yes, look up! Especially in the next week while the branches are still bare. Better still, look up often and watch the changes unfold as the trees bud and bloom. At this time of year the trees change quickly and before you know it the city will be transformed.

plutocrats and proletariats

Posted: April 25, 2016 in galleries
Tags: art, axe, bench, blue chip, distorted, gold, holes, mirrors, money, reflections, reflective, sculpture, symbols, torn, tree trunks, wealth

An art installation ‘Nest Egg’ by Brendan McNaughton
at the Corkin Gallery, Distillery District

The title of this blog post is taken from a description of McNaughton’s work on the Corkin gallery website, “The relationship between plutocrats and proletariats is central to his art practice.” A plutocrat is a person who is powerful because they are wealthy. Money equals power. Proletariat on the other hand is a class of people, the working class, a class without money and without power.

below: A gold axe. With its blade in a column, on a pedestal? That’s not a passive positioning of the axe, i.e. it’s not just lying around. Someone has swung it.
Axe as a symbol of the working class? Juxtapositioned with gold, a symbol of money?

below: A couple of the pieces were mirrors. But they were mirrors with a difference – slightly concave in shape, with a hint of gold, and marred by ragged shaped holes. The resulting reflections are distorted and flawed.

below: ‘Blue Chip’ a sculpture by Brendan McNaughton as viewed through one of his mirrors. The expression ‘blue chip’ has become synonymous with high quality stocks, usually ones from the New York Stock Exchange. Originally the expression meant stocks with higher prices because, if the story is correct, blue chips in poker are traditionally associated with the highest value.

below: The colour gold is very prevalent in this installation as are reflective surfaces.

below: Parts of three wrinkly gold panels. There are actually four of these reflective square panels. They are all the same size and colour but the surface patterns are slightly different. Once again, the reflections are distorted. Wealth distorts your view?

below: There was a group of what appeared to be photography students visiting the gallery at the same time that I was there. As I was standing beside this piece, looking for different and/or interesting angles and reflections, one of the students remarked on how he liked it when ordinary items were used in out of the ordinary ways. He then said that he wondered if it was …. and then he paused. I finished his sentence with the word ‘art’. He laughed and said yes, but that he was always afraid to say such things out loud. I gave him permission to ask “is it art?” as loud and as often as he wanted.

Installation ends May 1st

as I walk Toronto

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