Posts Tagged ‘speed’

Sometimes I find myself in unfamiliar territory and so it was last week when I went to investigate some alleys where I’d heard that new murals had been painted.   My previous post, Around Wadsworth Park, was part of the same walk; there was just so much to see that I split my photos into two groups.  In general, the last post was north of Davenport Avenue while this post features Davenport and the streets & alleys to the south.

below: More raccoons by Emily May Rose, this time they are being watched over by a big white rat. Quite the dumpster fire!

mural in an alley by Emily May Rose of raccoons and a big white rat. One raccoon is setting fire to a dumpster

preparing for a sidewalk sale, including a sign that says amenity closed because of covid 19

below: A large mural by Birdo beside Charles Sauriol school

large birdo mural on the side of a building, street art

the side of a house is covered with street art, 2 or 3 murals on both upper and lower storeys

below: A man reaching out a multicoloured hand to a woman by Phillip Saunders covers the back part of the house

murals on the side of a house, a man and a woman with black curly hair

below: A brown octopus and bright coloured tiger playing together – a collaboration between Luvs and June Kim.

mural of a tiger on the side of a house

below: Baby birds with beaks uplifted in a mural by Bruno Smoky and Clandestinos

mural by Bruno Smoky and Clandestinos on a wood fence in an alley, baby birds in a nest with their beaks open waiting for parents to feed them

below: Blue jay and tomato face, rowdyradrat and Chris Perez

street art on a wood fence in a lane

murals on a wood fence in a lane, tomato, blue jay

below: Taking cover under umbrellas on a rainy day in a mural by Elicser Elliott

mural by elicser elliott on a garage door in an alley, people under umbrellas in the rain, pink background

below: Someone has extra time lying around, but without the coffee

leaning against a lime green dumpster is the time part of an old coffee time donut shop sign

a motorcycle parked in a backyard with lots of weeds and junk

small house with brown picket fence in front, second story with mansard roof on one part of house only

street art painting of a nuthatch bird on a wood pole

below: Mural in a lane, signature says June, Bacon, and Erika.

mural in a lane, nuthatch, flowers by Bacon, and a bright cat by June Kim

below: Part of another June Kim feline

a June Kim mural of a tiger or cat, feline, on a brick wall in an alley

below: A man walks down the alley, between a mural on the right and Quick Recording Studios on the left.

an older man with a cane and a plaid jacket walks down an alley, back to the camera

below: In the window of the Art Academy of Canada, Davenport Ave.

paintings in a window, with window reflections, of Art Academy of Canada

below: A.J.’s So Fresh Coin Laundry, also on Davenport

buildings on Davenport Ave., two storey, one is A.J.'s So Fresh Coin Laundry

below: A multi-lingual thank you to essential workers on Davenport – obrigado, gracias, merci, and grazie!

a mural on a brick wall on the side of a building on Davenport, a thank you to essential workers during covid, thank you written in many languages

below: Boney Santa’s lost a lot of weight recently… he’s probably tired of all the weight gain jokes and comments though…..

large skeleton outside in front yard with Santa hat and red scarf, holding a plastic candle light, other Christmas decorations on porch of house

below: More Emily May Roses’s mischievous raccoons and their cans of spray paint.

emily may rose mural on the side of a dark grey building, raccoons playing around a white cube van, with orange spray paint

below: Anya Mielniczek’s woman’s face looks down the lane.

mural by Anya Mielniczek of a girls's head in pinks and oranges down a lane, rest of mural blocked by fence

below: A closer look of the mural reveals another woman’s head on the far side along with people mixing together in the central portion painted by Raoul

orange and pink woman's head by Anya Mielniczek along with a picture of

below: HeldbyHuda mural

street art mural on a garage door by artist with instagram handle heldbyhuda

below: Patterns of circles and semi-circles on a gate by Stephanie Bellefleur

street art on a wood gate across the back of a garage, patterns of circles and semi circles

below: Another gate, but half of this one has been removed.

car parked behind a house, gate across back of yard is partially closed and a mural can be seen on it, other part of gate is open so other part of mural is blocked

below: A Nick Sweetman painting of a large Cuckoo wasp feeding on a yellow flower

mural by Nick Sweetman on a garage door in an alley, a large blue green bee on a yellow flower

below: by Victoria Day

garage door mural by Victoria Day, stylized yellow and green flowers on a blue green gradient background

garages in a laneway in Toronto, some garage doors have murals and street art painted on them

below: Sections of citrus fruit in glass bowls, by Steam

Steam, the artist, painted a mural on a garage door of citrus fruit sections in glass bowls

below: A pink and purple butterfly by Dani Coghlan

pink and purple butterfly mural on a garage door

below: A floral wallpaper-like design by Tara Dorey

floral wallpaper like design on a garage door by Tara Dorey

jumble of chairs and other objects on a lawn, behind a chainlink fence

in an alley, two old garages with a crooked gate with peeling dark green paint, house in the background

below: A collaboration between Diana Lynn VanderMeulen and Tebby G.

mural with two cartoon like animals, one pink and the other blue, beside a blue mountain along with some pink flowers, a mural on a garage door

below: Pink flowers by Claire Browne

mural by Claire Browne on a garage door in a n alley, pink clover flowers with green leaves on a

below: Self explanatory?

a mural with a large word that says great

below: Planta Muisca mural with an orange snake under a purple night sky.

a mural by muisca on a garage door in a lane, an orange snake in the purple night with moon and plant with large leaves

below: Birds wearing neckties and hanging out together in a mural by Rob Elliott

birds painted on a garage door, stylized, large bird wearing a long necktie and smaller birds with similar ties, all on an orange background

car parked in front of two murals on garage doors, breaking bread is one of the murals

below: Sometimes while walking in this city during Covid and various lockdowns, even this might do!

old toilet on the doorstep of an apartment beside a fish and chips store

fish and chips shop sign on a store doorstep along with a folding chair

below: Remains of a vegetable garden planted along the side of the alley. Portugal peppers once grew here.

remains of a vegetable garden in late December, sign saying Portugal peppers

below: Stop and smell the flowers

wood utility pole painted white and decorated with flowers and a sign that says stop and smell the flowers

white pole with purple flower painted on it, also some stickers, welcome, kindness

covid 19 mask caught on a dead branch in a garden

Support for the alley murals was provided by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

Unfortunately, I have missed a few of the paintings.  A complete set of photos can be found on Erika James’s Instagram page.  She was one of the organizers of the project.

 

little elf characters hanging from a tree in a front yard, green cap and shirt like holly with red pants and trim but everything made of tinsel strands

Some of the murals from this post can also be seen on by worldwide street art blog, Carleton Village murals Toronto 2021

view of the stands for watching Honda Indy in Toronto, with flags flying from the top row, but not too many people in the stands because it's early in the day

Fan Friday at the Honda Indy, Exhibition Grounds. This is the day that entrance to the Indy grounds is free, although a donation to the ‘Make a Wish Foundation’ is encouraged. It was a day of practice laps and qualifying runs for a number of races. Although I started early, in a futile attempt to beat the heat, I missed a couple of events. I arrived in time to see the first practice for the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge.

four porsche race cars on the race track at Honda Indy

porsche race car on Honda Indy track in Toronto

I have never been to a car race before and although I have watched a few Formula One races on TV, I didn’t know what to expect this morning. I knew it was going to be noisy and I was glad that I had ear plugs with me. I wandered around and checked out as many vantage points as I could.

5 Porsche racing cars in the pit lane with many people around them, at Honda Indy in Toronto

When I first arrived and had my backpack checked by security, I was told that any camera greater than 10 inches wasn’t allowed. At that time I had a small lens on my camera so there were smiles all round. When I switched to a longer lens I was a bit hesitant… but I quickly realized that my camera was no where near the biggest. I also noticed that I might have been the only woman taking pictures.

porsche race car on Honda Indy track in Toronto

below: Trying to set a record for the fastest lap? Pushing the car to its position in the pit lanes in preparation to start the qualifying laps of the Pro Mazda (one of the rungs of the Indy ladder system of races).

two men in green shirts push a race car to its position in the pit lane, Honda Indy, Toronto

below: Being towed into the pit lane to prepare for the qualifying run.

four men on a cart tow a yellow yellow race car covered with DHL ads into place before the start of a race

These weren’t ‘races’ between cars. Qualifying is done by doing laps as fast as you can – a race against the clock. There were a few cars with mechanical issues but no crashes in the time that I was there.two race cars pass by stands at Honda Indy

below: Flags and fire extinguishers

flag man watches the race at Honda Indy, flags beside him as well as fire extinguishers

below: The tire comes off and the umbrella gets held.

standing around a race car pre-race

below: The next event (and the last one that I stayed around for) was the first practice run in the Verizon Indycar Series.

two nascar type cars racing on a track at the Honda Indy, some people sitting in the stands,

below: I don’t think it’s going to stop whatever the silly sign says…. racing along Lakeshore Blvd.

a blue car races on track with is along Lakeshore, behind two layers of chainlink fence

three men of three different ages stand on a grassy hill watching race cars practice at the Honda Indy in Toronto

below: Alas, I wasn’t an official photographer, so there was an extra layer of annoying wire fence in the way.

two Honda Indy official photographers get close to the race to take pictures of a yellow race car as it comes around a corner

below: Signing autographs after doing laps.

race car driver Harrison Scott signs autographs for young admirers

drivers of racing cars signing autographs for admirers

below: Spectators only get to see a small part of the track. Large monitors like this were scattered around the site showing video of the races

large TV screen mounted on a metal post outside the back of a truck, mobile TV network setup to cover the Indy. picture on screen is of part of the racetrack.
The Indy is in Toronto for the weekend as qualifying laps and practices continue, leading up to the final races. If you are near the Exhibition Grounds you’ll hear the cars as they race around the course….especially if you’re stuck in the traffic mess caused by all the road closures!