Posts Tagged ‘scrawl’

silliness and more, in their words

Posted: July 15, 2024 in graffiti and street art
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
2

This post is a small collection of “text only” graffiti that I have seen over the past few months.  They come from no particular place in the city.  The authors, except one, are anonymous.  Some are silly, others are poignant.  Not all of them make sense.  No matter what the sentiment, someone took the time and (very little?) effort to make their thoughts known.

below: “Wake up and smell the corruption!”

graffiti, words

below: “I love her tho” along with “We’re probably gonna break up in 3 days”.  Ah, life.
graffiti, words

below: “Was I ever not crazy”, maybe a rhetorical question?

graffiti, words
below: “In your pants” is not a good place to P.

graffiti, words, altered no parking sign with text in your pants, i.e. no peeing in your pants

below: “Sorcery not science runs your world.” I’m curious as to whether the writer is expressing their opinion as in “I think sorcery…” or if they are expressing a complaint as in “You think sorcery…”.

Someone’s reply is: “I am interested in your thoughts on how sorcery interacts with the urban planning process”

Which leads to: “Exhibit A: the streets of Washington D.C”

Totally makes sense, right?  LOL

graffiti, words about sorcery and science on a blue and white development notice sign for masaryk cowan community centre

below: “I’m nosey because I care.” and “If only you could know me but maybe we’re meant 2 be lonely.”  All around a bright red symbol for female, or in Egyptian hieroglyphs, an ankh, the symbol for life.

graffiti, words along with red female symbol, about loneliness and being nosey because I care

below: “If you read this, God bless you my friend”

graffiti, words

below: “How many times I’ve to tell you God loves you, so smile.”

graffiti, words

below: “free the white girls Let them eat cake”

graffiti, words

below: Conversation (monologue?) on a vent goes something like this:
“U know when it feels exactly like drowning?
Yeah I do
I almost did almost drowning
[purple] was interesting and fun
I Don’t Recommend
will not try again”

graffiti, words

below: “Anti-graffiti graffiti crew”

graffiti, words, anti-graffiti graffiti crew

below: “Stay true to yourself and you will attract the greatest things the world has to offer”
graffiti, words painted in an alley, Stay true to yourself and you will attract the greatest things the world has to offer

below: A poem on a pole. Although it mentions Gaza, it would also apply to Kiev, or Kharkiv, or a little farther back in time, Aleppo.

graffiti, words, a poem by Refaat Alareer about dying in Gaza, making a kite

If I Must Die
by Refaat Alareer
If I must die,
you must live,
to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth and some strings. 
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking
heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad
who left in a blaze
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself –
sees the kite, my kite you made,
flying up
above
and thinks for a moment
an angel is there
bringing back love
If I must die
let it bring hope
let it be a tale

***

Previous posts with many words:

paper words in the alley (2019)
positive words are never wrong! (2018) and
protests. advertisements. words (2021)

sort of Queen West

Posted: January 15, 2017 in alleys, graffiti and street art, stores
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

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.

a birdo mural on a garage door of a woman in grey tones with a round red mouth in the shape of an O. she is holding her hand up near her face and a bird is sitting on it. The background of the mural is red and greenish triangles.

below: Another birdo nearby

birdo mural on the side of a building, a red high heel shoe, a brown circle, a grey head plus the colourful geometric shapes often found in a birdo mural, in reds and turquoise

below: Only remnants remain.  Was it a stikman?  Or was it something else?

a tiny bit of a stikman is left on a post that is covered with spray paint.

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.

in front of a store that seels T-shirts, a blue T-shirt based on the famous Obama Hope poster, but this time the portrait is of a Maple Leaf player with the word hope below.

below: Of course normal is boring. What I need is a t-shirt that says “rather be walking”

Two t-shhirts in a store window, a grey woman's t-shirt with the words Normal is Boring on the front and a black t-shirt with the words rather be in bed.

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.

a wall in Graffiti Alley, layers of different artist's work, some uber 5000, some elicser, plus a grey ton picture of two men wearing caps with the words son of soul king reign written underneath them.

below: Stickers on a box

stickers on a small metal box on a brightly coloured wall. almost the whole box is covered, a lovebot heart, a pink cat, a blue octopus, a shark, plus some stickers that are ads for music or records.

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.

in an alley, a white car is parked between a blue car and a mural painting of a blue car. There is also a mural of three people with the words summertime in the city.

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.

a street art painting on the back of a building in an alley, a surreal piece with a cube with one side as a face, two creatures are floating out of the top of the cube - they are tethered to each other. The bottom creature is half in the cube and the surface of the cube looks like liquid.

below: Your words of advice for today.

a street art piece in an alley that is purple background with with a dripping brownish circle with two eyes and the words don't forget to drink water. The alley is also in the picture with parts of a couple of other murals visible

below: Fake. as in Fake news. Fake people. Fake money.  Fake graffiti artist?

the man from the monopoly game is painted on a wall. Someone has sprayed a white x through his face and written the word fake on his top hat.

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.
a grid of grey paper paste ups has been put on top of a abstract street art painting on a wall in an alley.

below: Blowing bubbles. Looks irresistibly ready for someone to pop it!
It was painted by @wamurals aka WayneArt

on the corner of Queen West and a smaller side street, the Convenience Canada store with a small white picket fence outside of it. On the wall is a mural of a woman blowing a big pink bubble with gum and the words head candy written above her head.

below: Hidden houses. Being pushed out by the big boys.

three layers, in the background a high rise building, in the middle ground, the tops of three single family homes on Richmond Street, in the foreground, poster covered hoardings for construction on Queen Stree West.

below: Half of a lovebot in a doorway.

half of a large black lovebot painted in a doorway (one side of him). A black lovebot with yellow details and a red heart.

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.

a lovebot mural in an alley, he looks to be fighting a grominator monster

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.

high on a wall, a small 3D lovebot heart beside a light switch that is love on one side and fear on the other.

below: Lucy and trouble and a weird looking face in a messy dimly lit doorway that assaulted my nose.

in a dimly lit doorway, a lot of scribbles and graffiti including a roughly drawn face, the word Lucy and the word trouble

below: Many of the planters along Queen West have been painted including this tribute to Gord Downie.

a rectangular cement planter on Queen Street west with pine and cedar boughs in it. The sides have been painted. On the end is the head of a lion, on the side is the word courage and a picture of Gord Downie from the music group The Tragically Hip

a rectangular cement planter on Queen Street west with pine and cedar boughs in it. The sides have been painted. On the end is the roman numeral 4 and a red heart. On the side is a black cat walking on a red background.

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?

a small paste up of an astronaut floating in space, on a black wall, close to the ground.

Don’t over think it though.  Just keep your eyes open and ready for the unexpected!

aging faces in Kensington

Posted: September 1, 2016 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Wood cracks.  Metal rusts. Paint fades and paint peels, its just what happens to paint when its exposed to the elements.  Street art painted on a surface suffers the same fate.  Nothing lasts forever and sometimes a mural’s life span is quite short.  Sometimes other factors come into play – street art is defaced or altered in some way.  Tags cover it; words get written on it.  That too is the nature of street art.

black stencil of a woman's head and hands. Also an old paper paste up of a person that is badly torn around the edges. A very simple face has been drawn above it in pink

below: I love what the weather has done to this woman’s face.  Aging with grace and dignity.  The texture of the old wood adds an element of depth and character to her as well.

street art painting of part of a woman's face on a wooden fence, old and faded and the wood is starting to crack

below:  One slat replaced.   I’m sure it wasn’t the artist’s intent, but the gaps in the wood look like bars in a cage, or those metal bars you often see on windows.

street art painting of part of a woman's face, in blues, on a wood fence, vertical pieces of wood with slight gaps between the wood

below: Broken chin, but still watching the world pass by on Baldwin Street.

anser face on an old wood gate that is wearing out, broken across the bottom. bikes parked to the left of the gate

below: Yelling at the bushes.

a very colourful and stylized face painted on a wall, large open mouth, looks like fiendish laughter, showing off large white teeth. A large green weed, or small shrub, has started growing in front of it.

below: Eyes are mysterious things.  I have never been able to draw them properly and I am in awe of those who can.  Even more so if the eyes communicate something, some emotion or expression.

eyes, street art, staring straight ahead. part of a large face painted on a wall in green tones.

below: I have always been intrigued by this face.  A photo of the original painting hangs on one of my walls.   I still find her mesmerizing.  Those blue eyes still stare at the world.  Is she looking through a veil?  Or is she able to see through all the nonsense that the world throws at her?

street art painting of part of a woman's face by anser, on olive green backgound, partially painted over and with words written in front of it.

below: A devilish child is still in good shape.

two bright orange stencils of faces. one is a laughing child with devil horns and the other is a woman's head.

street art painting of part of a woman's face, in purple . eyes closed, looking down, with hew lock and key on the door that she's painted on, wearing a necklace

street art painting of part of a woman's face, bright red hair, greenish face, blue background, eyes closed,

white line drawing on a rusty metal door of a woman's face, slightly open mouth with lots of teeth, curly hair

part of a mural on a wall showing two Easter Island type heads

below: “Without money we’d all be rich”.  That’s the kerb (curb) that runs along the bottom of the picture.  Her whole face was not there in the first place.

street art painting of part of a woman's face, on a wall, in greens and purples, she is looking to the left

below: And animal faces too!

part of a Uber 5000 mural, a dog with a tiny blue hat and a yellow birdie on a bicycle