Posts Tagged ‘shadows’

get outdoors!

Posted: May 23, 2016 in abstract, nature, waterfront
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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.

looking down at a piece of concrete at water's edge, in the concrete is a cut off hollow pole, there are pebble and water in the hole.

below: Old moss covered metal seems to reach out of Lake Ontario like claws.

old bent metal embedded in concrete but partially inderwater. Moss is growing over it and making it look green

below: Reflections in the Yellow Creek, Beltline trail.

reflections of trees and blue sky in a creek, blue water, dark brown tree trunks and mottled greens of the leaves, in a ravine, in the city

below: Wet pebbles with the beginnings of green moss growing on them shine in the morning sun.

pebbles in greys and browns in the water near the shoreline of Lake Ontario. The pebbles closest to the shore are bright green with the beginnings of moss growth

below: Greater celandine, a yellow flowering plant, blooms along the railing of Milkmans Lane.

yellow flowers in bloom in the ravine, against a railing post, with shadows cast on the wood, large green leaves

below: New growth unfolds in the sunshine.

small maple tree with lots of new red leaves that have just come out. Grey rocks blurry in the background

below: The dark pink blossoms were at their peak this week.

many pink blossoms on the branch of a tree

below: Green and brown mosses sway with the water currents along the shore of Lake Ontario.

looking in the water beside some rocks. There is moss and algae in green, yellow, rust and brown swirling in the water of Lake Ontario

the end of a shovel is in the ground, behind a chainlink fence. The sun is shining and making reflections. The reflection of the chainlink fence is on the shovel.

below: The snow fences have been bundled up and put away for the summer.

rolls of wood slat snow fences bundled away for the summer in large rolls. 4 rolls viewed from the end.

lazing on a sunny afternoon

Posted: May 19, 2016 in people, public art
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Spring is in the air. 

the word love is written in lights in capital letters in a window of a store. Reflected in the window is a group of older people sitting on benches across from the window

A young man is lying on a bench in the Toronto peace garden, the words of which are written beside him, metal inlay in the stone on the ground.

people sitting and standing in an alley, one man is on his cellphone, tall buildings on either side of the lane as well as at the end of the lane

A woman in black high heel shoes is sitting on a low stone wall outside. You can only see her from the thigh down. He legs are crossed at the ankle.

three people sitting outside, two men who are talking together and a woman who is sitting on her own, they are in a square and are surrounded by tall glass buildings, half in shadow and half in light

a young man is lying in the the O of the Toronto 3D sign. The O is orange, you can't see the man's face but you can see one red shoe and his light coloured pant leg.

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people sitting on benches amongst the tulips and birch trees of the peace garden at Nathan Phillips Square

Two people sitting at the base of Henry Moore's 'Archer' sculpture at Nathan Phillips Square. One man is eating and the other is reading.

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

a walk on Eglinton

Posted: November 23, 2015 in general Toronto, history, locations, transportation
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The plan was to start walking westward from Eglinton subway station.

below:  The first photo I took was right after I got off a bus at the station.   With the ongoing reconstruction at Eglinton, there is now easy access to the old bus bays.  There is still a fence around them, but at least they can be seen and photographed.  These bays have not been used since 2004 and the area has been fenced off and unused since then.  Now they sit empty in the shadow of the ever increasing tall buildings around them.

abandoned bus bays at Eglinton subway station in the foreground and the newer taller buildings in the area in the background

abandoned part of Eglinton subway station, behind chain link fence

below: Looking west along Eglinton Avenue after the completion of Eglinton station in 1954.  The street running north-south just beyond the bus bays is Duplex Avenue.  There is now a police station on the SE corner of that intersection.   On the NW corner you can see the brick Toronto Hydro-Electric Building with its large front ‘door’.  It is still there.

historical black and white photo, aerial, from Yonge Street looking west along Eglinton Ave showing the bus bays at Eglinton subway station, up to Duplex Ave is shown clearly.

source: City of Toronto Archives, online

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below: (taken later in the afternoon, on the way home) The intersection of Eglinton and Duplex from west side with the brick Toronto Hydro-Electric building now between glass buildings.

looking east along Eglinton Avenue towards Yonge street with Duplex Ave in the foreground. The old Toronto Hydro-Electric building is in the picture, with a newer structure with a glass front beside it. New buildings between Duplex and Yonge on the north side of Eglinton are also in the picture.

below: After leaving Eglinton station, this caught my eye.  The glass cube-like building on the NE corner of Eglinton and Duplex reflects the afternoon sun onto the walls of the Toronto Hydro-Electric building across the street.

brick building with wavy shadows on it cast by the sun being reflected off the glass building across the street

brick building with wavy shadows on it cast by the sun being reflected off the glass building across the street

below: On Duplex, right behind this brick building is an intriguing building.  The highly textured concrete exterior and the 3D patterned wall are suggestive of the 1960s although I could be wrong.  It’s ugly yet fascinating at the same time.   Now that the leaves have fallen from the trees in front of it, the pattern of trapezoids, diamonds and rectangles is revealed…. as is the dirt and grime on the concrete.  The fact that there are no windows and doors facing the street provides a clue that this is yet another Toronto Hydro building.

Three tree with no leaves are in front of a concrete wall that is built in 3D pattern of trapezoids and rectangles. There are no windows or doors.

Somethings old

below: A sign with an old Toronto HU (Hudson) exchange phone number.  HU1 would be 481.  This number is probably from the late 1950s.  In the early days, Toronto phone numbers had only 6 digits.  In the mid 1950s a seventh digit was added and then between 1961 and 1966 the letter prefixes were phased out, replaced by numbers.

old sign on the side of an small apartment building, the Latimer Apartments, with an old Toronto phone number starting with the letters HU

below:  The Eglinton Grand, art deco building from 1936; National Historic site since 2003.

The Eglinton Grand, a cinema theatre built in art deco style in 1936.

 Somethings new

many curved and disjointed reflections of buildings in a tall glass building. Afternoon sun so there's a yellowish tint to the reflections

 And some window ‘shopping’ to do

below: Marbles wedged between glass make an excellent decorative touch.

a layer of marbles wedged into a window to look a bit like stained glass

A line of toy figurines on a window sill in the window of a restaurant

below: little Japanese wooden dolls in the window of the Sake Bar

three little Japanese wooden dolls with white hair and white kimonos standing inside a window. Reflections of the stores across the street are behind them.

below:  And even a lovebot hangs out here

a 3D concrete lovebot stands on the sidewalk beside a store as people walk by

below:  A little chuckle at this sign….

I small sign hanging over a doorway of a hot dog restaurant called Bite Me

below:  And then later I saw this.

A sign on the wall outside a store that says Bite Me More

sticker on a pole on a sidewalk. One man is kicking another, pixelated picture, with the letters X G G L on it.

Rather than wait for a bus I decided to keep walking home but unfortunately it’s that time of year when the daylight hours are just too short.   One last look at where I had just been before putting my camera away and heading home.

very late afternoon sun, as it disappears behind buildings, looking down a street, sun is reflecting off some windows, a large part of the street is in shadow, a TTC is there, with its lights on, some construction on the street, some cars,

winter trees

Posted: March 10, 2015 in general Toronto, nature
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Bare branches, snow, and sometimes blue sky –
things that usually only come together in winter.

Views that are hidden behind summer leaves are revealed in winter’s barrenness.

A very large tree in winter in front of three semi detached two stroey houses on the beach.

A street scene - row houses, some red brick and some painted in green, with two very tall trees in front of them.

Trees take on a different character when they have no leaves

An interesting shaped tree with many large branches in a snow covered alley with garages along both sides of the alley.

and they cast a different shadow.

The lower part of a tree, mostly the tree trunk, beside a pale grey fence, in the snow. The shadow on the fence shows a lot of the upper tree branches as well.

Toronto is a city of trees.  They are everywhere, and a surprising number of them are large, mature trees. 

A large tree with bare branches in front of row houses from the 19602 or 1970s. red brick with contrasting white siding, black mansard roofs. Don Mills.

An alley with a wood fence on the right and a brick building on the left. A car is parked at the end and just beyond the car is a large tree. Winter time. snow.

A view from a snow covered park. Two large trees, the one farther away is a birch tree. A black metal fence is between the park and the sidewalk. Single family houses are across the street from the park but there are large apartment buildings in the distance.

Regent park housing slated for demolition, in the snow with trees,

A tree in front of an old brick house.

When we think of trees we usually think of shade on a hot day, or maybe the joy that spring buds bring, or maybe the rustle of fallen leaves in the autumn.   The winter tree is often overlooked but they too add to the character of this city. 

A large gold sparkly treble clef hangs from a tree branch. A decoration in winter.

the walk

Posted: February 6, 2015 in galleries
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Seen in the ‘Genizot: Repositories of Memory’ exhibit

 by Bonnie Eisenstein,

at the Royal Ontario Museum until 8 February 2015

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“Concentrate all your strength, and compel yourself to do the loftiest deed, to endure the most difficult trial, and to survive the most arduous struggle.”

from The Walk by Robert Walser, translated from the German, Der Spaziergang written in 1917.

Villa Toronto

Posted: January 22, 2015 in events, galleries
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An art exhibit in the Great Hall at Union Station, January 16 to January 23

I’m going to out on a limb a bit here and say like most contemporary or modern art, this exhibit was combination of  some shoddily thrown together nonsense and some well executed and interesting pieces.
One of the things that caught my attention was how people reacted and/or interacted with the different parts of the exhibit.  Union Station is not an art destination.  It’s a space that people walk through on their way to somewhere else.

A view of the Great Hall of Union Station with the provincial flags along one wall, the archway over the window at the end of the room, and an art exhibit in the main part of the hall. Two woman are looking at sculptures on one side. A video screen is showing a video about the exhibit - a man sitting in a chair is what is seen in this picture.

In the above photo, the women are using a computer monitor to learn about The Legacy of Joseph Wagenbach, an installation by Iris Haussler.  In 2006 she turned a house on Robinson St. in Toronto into a ‘discovered’ home of a reclusive older man who had filled his house with over 100 sculptures that he had made.  At that time there was some controversy when people learned that there was no real Joseph Wagenbach, that his story was fiction.   There is a  Joseph Wagenbach Foundation with its own website.

A colletion of small sculptures of life like figures in grey and black.

Some of the Joseph Wagenbach sculptures.

A relief sculpture of a woman's head, on the ground. In the background are people and some of the booths of Union Station.

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A corner of a dimly lit white walled room. In the

‘Marbled Meanings’ by Navid Nuur. 
top right: ‘Broken Diamond’  made of neon, broken glass, argon neon blue light. 
center: ‘Threshold’ made of green florist foam blocks

With the above collection, I found that the light and shadows were more interesting than the green column.  I don’t know whether or not this was an intentional part of the exhibit.

Neon art piece on a wall. It is shaped like a V, it's turquoise blue in colour and it is a bit bigger than the size of a hand. It is mounted on a wall with the electrical wires visible. It is shadow.

close up of ‘Broken Diamond’

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part of a piece of art that is a pillar like structure cover with bits of colourful paper. There is also a child's drawing in pencil on an 8 by 11 piece of paper. Also a sign in blue letters that says . In the background there are a couple of people walking past.

“I’m going to use the two hundred dollar artist fee from this project to pay my phone bill and with the money left over I’ll probably buy a pack of smokes and maybe order some Chinese food.” 
Is this a statement about the value of art?  Is this a f*ck you statement – if you, or society, don’t value art why should I (as the artist) care about my work?

 

A large translucent rectangular piece of fabric hangs from the ceiling. It sort of has a face on it, yellow eyes and a small slit mouth.

Floating overhead and watching us with yellow eyes.

 

This photo was taken looking into a mirror. A man in a long black winter coat and red scarf is taking a photo of some art on a wall.

reflections

 

Four people, two are standing together while one texts, and two others are walking past. Four large square paintings (or photos?) are behind them on a white wall.

I know that art is subjective but I fail to see the appeal in large monochromatic pictures in an ugly shade of green.  They aren’t profound; they’re not making a statement; they elicit no emotion.

 

The projector is playing a loop of blank screen to a garbled soundtrack.

The projector is playing a loop of blank screen to a garbled soundtrack.

 

An art piece, a shiny silver coloured porta potty stands in the middle of the floor. A trash container (real) is behind it.

I couldn’t help but chuckle at the juxtaposition of the arty porta-potty and the real trash container behind it.  Someone tried to open the door of the potty but it was either locked or not real.  Note to artist: Why?

video art installations at an art exhibit. The large clock and departures board of the train station are seen over the top of the temporary walls of the exhibit.

blue October skies

Posted: November 2, 2014 in general Toronto
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Since most of the city woke up to snow flurries this morning, I thought I would take a quick look back over the past month.  October was a beautiful month with many clear sunny days.  The leaves on the trees turned wonderful colours this autumn and the colours lingered for a few weeks.

Blue skies, autumn colours

A man is suspended from the roof of a tall building by a rope. He has a bucket and he is washing windows. The CN Tower is close by and seems to loom in the background.

Washing windows in the shadow of the CN Tower.

Two tall condo buildings. Sun is reflecting off the balconies of the condo in background. In the foreground is a balcony with a large plant. Sun is shining directly on the plant so it looks like it is in a spotlight.

Afternoon on the balcony. Condos on Blue Jays Way.

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older row houses in the background along with a tree covered in yellow and gold leaves. A large tree that has already lost its leaves is in the foreground.

Clarence Square

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Tall light grey brick apartment building with cirved bluish balconies. On one wall is the large shadow of another building with balconies.

Shadows of building on building, Roehampton Ave.

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autumn 2014

Posted: October 13, 2014 in general Toronto
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looking down an alley with old garages on either side. A tree with orange and red leaves is in the picture too.

Fall colours in a lane near Queen West and Bathurst.

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Two sunflowers on a sunflower plant with big green leaves. The sun is shining from above so the leaves look translucent.

sunny sunflowers

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Leaves in reds and purples are hanging in front of a red garage door - close up shot

autumn vine in front of a garage door

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Trees with autumn foliage in a cemetery with lots of light grey tombstones

A quiet corner of Mount Hope Cemetery in the late afternoon.

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A bicycle is leaning against a wood fence and a green wall.

parked in the alley

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close up of a few leaves and the shadows that they make on a orangish wood wall.

shadows and grain

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A front yard has autumn decorations - straw men in funny hats and patchwork clothes.

straw men in the garden

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A storefront, Bobs Garden Centre, with four rows of large potted plants, colurful flowers, for sale.

Bobs Garden Centre with pots of colourful autumn mums for sale
Their blog.

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There are two tall locust trees with small yellow leaves. Some of the leaves have already fallen and they are on the ground, and on the cars parked in the driveway.

Raining little yellow leaves in Scarborough

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fall coloured leaves at night, light is from a streetlight.

leaves under the streetlights

nuit blanche 2

Posted: October 10, 2014 in events
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Nuit Blanche – the Amazing Maze.

Some metal framework, some gauze-like fabric, and some interesting lights.

Shadows, lights, and colours to play with.

the amazing maze, made from a frame of metal bars wrapped in transparent gauze like fabric. Coloured lights shine through the maze and the colours change frequently, purples, blues, yellows and reds.
. the amazing maze, made from a frame of metal bars wrapped in transparent gauze like fabric. Coloured lights shine through the maze and the colours change frequently, purples, blues, yellows and reds.
. the amazing maze, made from a frame of metal bars wrapped in transparent gauze like fabric. Coloured lights shine through the maze and the colours change frequently, purples, blues, yellows and reds.
.the amazing maze, made from a frame of metal bars wrapped in transparent gauze like fabric. Coloured lights shine through the maze and the colours change frequently, purples, blues, yellows and reds.

 

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down on the shadowy concrete

Posted: June 6, 2014 in locations, people
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From a vantage point over Nathan Phillips Square, we looked down on the people as they passed by.   It was late in the afternoon so the shadows were long.    Although we were looking for interesting characters, we were also creating compositions with people, concrete lines,  and shadows as elements.

 

Three photographs are shooting from behind a low concrete wall. One has his camera aimed downwards towards the people walking below. The others have their cameras aimed farther out.

hunting shadows

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A group of people walking across Nathan Phillips square. They are walking on crete and the afternoon shadows are long.

caught some!

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A group of three people walking across Nathan Phillips square. They are walking on crete and the afternoon shadows are long.

on the diagonal

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Most of the picture is of shadows on the concrete below. There are partial shadows of the arches over the fountain at nathan phillips square. There are also 4 people (or parts of the people) and the long shadows that they cast.

walking over the shadow arches

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A group of young people walking across Nathan Phillips square. They are walking on concrete. Five guys and two girls. Both girls are in short black dresses with black sandals.

with matching little black dresses

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A man is sitting at a table outside, on Nathan Phillips Square, late afternoon, with long shadows making patterns on the concrete

Some shadows kept still so they were easier to capture.

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photo of the railing that is made of many vertical white bars. The railing is not straight. There are many shadows in the picture, and many patterns, linear and diagonal, made by the white bars and the shadows.

a multitude of lines and their linear shadows

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Not all involved shadows.  Sometimes, just people in the shadow.

A group of people are either sitting on a bench, or standing beside it, in Nathan Phillips Square, beside the fountain pool

Resting by the fountain.

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Two women are walking on the concrete squares

walking between the lines

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