Posts Tagged ‘Stacey Kinder’

from Mirvish Village to Koreatown

Posted: November 5, 2026 in general Toronto
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October 2026 turned into a wonderful month for walking!  Today’s blog post is the result of one of those walks, on a day where the only clouds I saw were on this man’s sweater!

back of man"s neck and shoulders, he is wearing a light blue sweater with white clouds on it

below: This is Bloor and Bathurst.  Those tall buildings in the background are ALL part of Mirvish Village, the new development that replaced Honest Eds store (and empire).

TTC streetcar southbound on Bathurst as it is about to cross Bloor, with new Mirvish village condos in the background

below: In the beginning, there were two buildings that refused to sell out to the developers.  One has since fallen and is completely gutted – the facade is covered with yellow bracing which means that it is being saved.  I am going to say that saving it is a very good thing because the street level of the rest of the development is awful.  It is bleak – boring and unimaginative.

2 older brick buildings squashed into a newer development at Mirvish Village. One of the buildings is now behind yellow scaffolding

below: Interior of the building above as seen from the back.

interior of gutted building that has facade being retained during redevelopment

below: What you are looking at here is a small street of retail spaces between two tall buildings between Markham Street and Bathurst.  In this picture, Bloor Street stores are in the background.    Right now most of these spaces are empty and the signs are just for show.  A bit of confusion because you can’t tell what is a real store!!  The “It Takes a Village” sign (top left) is typical of an approach that the developers have taken – bringing in ideas and icons from Honest Eds.

Mirvish Village retail street, narrow, between two taller buildings, with a lot of small signs on both sides

below: Another example of the Honest Eds theme – “Still Honest.  Still Here.  Still Yours.”  Still cringe.

signs above retail spaces in Mirvish Village, one sign says Still honest, still here, still yours.

below: A familiar sign from long ago.  But at one point I began to wonder why.  One one level it’s nice for the developers to acknowledge the history of the location but at the same time the large amount of depressing grey swamps the brightness of the Honest Eds sign.

below: Facing Markham Street

glass covered building, Mirvish Village, facing Markham Street

below: Markham Street may redeem the development. Renovations are still underway…

renovated victorian houses on Markham street

below: …. but there is now a small park and Blackbird Baking Company seems to be thriving.

blackbird baking company in a renovated victorian house, painted white

I had hoped to make a whole blog post about Mirvish Village but maybe it’s just too soon. Maybe all it needs is more time and more people.
So….  Instead of more Mirvish Village, let’s continue walking west on Bloor… right into Koreatown.

below: … But wait, a little diversion for a plaque near Bathurst and Lennox

historic plaque for Contrast Community Newspaper

CONTRAST Contrast newspaper – the “eyes, ears, and voice of Canada’s Black community” – was published at 28 Lennox Street for 22 years.   Founded by Alfred Hamilton in 1969, Contrast covered stories about Black life in Toronto including the arts, community life, as well as racism, discriminatory policing, and other issues facing Toronto’s Black communities.  The first issue of Contrast covered the Sir. George Williams affair in Montreal. Major stories included the deaths of Albert Johnson in 1979 and Lester Donaldson in 1988.  Both were shot by Toronto police…. “

Back to Koreatown….

below:  Imoogi Dragon Mural – The Imoogi (“Great Lizard”) is a hornless ocean dragon or sea serpent.  According to Korean legends,  Imoogi is a dragon in training who needs to survive 1000 years to convert into a fully grown dragon. In some variations of the legend, the sun god transforms human girls into Imoogi on her 17th birthday.  You can tell which girls because they are marked with the sign of a serpent on their shoulder.  The mural was designed and painted by: Allan Bender, John Nobrega, and  Stacey Kinder in 2019.

Imoogi Dragon mural on Bloor in Koreatown, near Clinton

below: “Imagine your Korea” / Korea Town Mural (in two images).  It was commissioned by the Korea Tourism Organization and the Consulate General of Korea and features several South Korean landmarks and cultural elements.

part of a mural about Korea, people in traditional dress

part of a mural about Korea, with traditional korean style building

below: Bloor and Manning Ave

stores and business on Bloor West, in Koreatown

stores and business on Bloor West, in Koreatown including Mapo Korean BBQ, Yummy Restaurant and GG karaoke

people on the sidewalk walking past Yummy Korean restaurant

below:: The most photographed fruit market along Bloor West if not in the entire city – Bloor Fruit Market

Bloor Fruit Market and other stores along Bloor West

below: Palmerston and Bloor

northwest corner of Palmerston and Bloor. Yuppduk restaurant

below: Clinton and Bloor

woman sitting outside on a bench beside a window display of pumpkins, northeast corner of Clinton and Bloor

brick buildings on Bloor East including Sunny Health and Green Pharmacy

below:  In the window of a store across Bloor Street from the Green Pharmacy there was a poster for Jujutsu Kaisen which is a Japanese manga series.  Except here, four characters from the series are promoting four different drinks from The Alley which is new spot for teas and coffees.

poster in store window along with reflections in that window of the stores across the street

below: Another store window, another poster, but this time it is for BTS, a Korean boy band.  Stay calm, we’ve already missed the event (it was back in August). BUT apparently BTS love corndogs (“BTS + Corndogs = Perfection”) so remember that the next time you have a corndog!  I’m not sure it matters, but BTS is short for Bangtan Sonyeondan which translates to Bulletproof Boy Scouts.

BTS, korean boy band, poster in store window with reflections, photos of members of the band eating corndogs

below: Fashion has become Fasion

sign in window that says J. Fasion, lots of jumbled stuffm also signs with korean writing

below: A French newspaper beside a sign in Korean with a few English words.   Topped with a pair of sunglasses.

looking in store window, sign in korean, with some english words (AMway, Atomi, Nuskin, and Alteration), pair of sunglasses on top of the sign and a copy of L'Express (in French) newspaper beside it

below: Neatly stored, brooms and mops – all lined up outside a restaurant.

4 mops neatly hung on a concrete block wall outside the back of a restaurant

below: Kung Fu tea isn’t just tea…. there’s Kung Fruit Tea…. or you can try a Green Tea with Cheese Milk Foam…. or even a Brown Sugar Pearl Latte.  Cheese milk foam?? – there are lots of recipes online if you want to try making your own which is essentially cream cheese with milk and/or cream.

window of kung fu tea shop

below: Looking for lunch or snack ideas?  This storefront features Katsuo Udon, Seafood Udon, or Black Beans and Noodles.  Any takers?

looking in store window, reflections, also a display of noodle in a bowl type foods, Korean, such as

below: After Udon, try some Ube!  Ube is a purple yam (like a sweet potato).   Nerd moment…  Ube is the Tagalog word for Dioscorea alata which is the Latin name for this plant. Just in case you need to know, Tagalog is from the Philippines.

sign on sidewalk advertising drinks with ube in them, purple, at Chatime cafe, reflections in the glass of the windows and doors
reflections in the window at 661 Bloor East, also pictures of food items at Korean restaurant

below: Zui Beer Bar with its large glass of Sapporo (Japanese) beer and a play on the words East & West.  “Where East  meets Bloor West”.

Zui Beer Bar, with sapporo ad on the side of the building

below: Pinks, blues, and three dimensional shapes

mural, canada goosse in flight, pink and blue geometric shapes

below: Beast Mode

street art painting on the back of a brick building, scowling blue creature (owl?) with words beast mode written beside it

looking over a fence at the end of an alley , blue exterior stairs, vines on fence, roof tops, chimneys

below: Newspaper boxes and pay phones, once upon a time they were found everywhere, now they are almost obsolete.

a bank of old defaced newspaper boxes, with graffiti, beside the box for an old Bell payphone

below: Gas mask in the alley

car parked in alley beside wall with painting of a person in a gas mask

below: Someone’s guarding the fire exit

large mural of an ape face on the door that has a red sign syaing do not block, fire exit

street art painting on the side of a store on bloor west, with large billboards above it, beside Mary Browns Chicken restaurant

small mural of a korean woman intraditinal clothing, high above, on upper storey of korean village restaurant, bloor street west

below:  As the world turns and everything changes… an abstract painting in blues now covers an older piece (by Kizmet?) on a wall that has seen many changes.

abstract picture with a lot of curved shapes, in blues, mounted on exterior wall, covering major part of a prior street art painting

below: A Private Property No parking sign has turned into a declaration of love.

graffiti, pink heart, on a faded no parking sign

below: Graffiti and a political advertisement on the back of a traffic sign. On the right –  Logan Choy was a registered mayoral candidate in the recent municipal election (Oct 26, 2026).  On the left – T-bonez has a little feathered friend, or has the bird just found a convenient place to poop?!  Below them, in blue, is Sailordude from trp613.   He’s fully tattooed but can still wear a heart on his chest.

graffiti stickers and paste up on the back of traffic sign including Mayor Logan choy poster

below: The Urban Ninja Squadron and all its friends.  Sailordude is wearing a bear costume and carrying a crossbow – maybe he’s going bear hunting?  In Koreatown?

urban ninja squadron graffiti, along with trp 613 sailor dude dressed up in bear suit and holding a crossbow

below:  Bearded Prof 416 with the CN Tower in the background and Urban Ninja Squadron in purple and orange.   I’m not sure who T-bonez’s lady friend is though.

graffiti stickers on the back of a street sign in Koreatown, bearded prof 416, and urban ninja squadron

cyclist in front of Bloor Fruit Market

 

women in the walls

Posted: September 4, 2017 in alleys, graffiti and street art
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Women in the Walls was/is a mural project where most of the painting was done on the last weekend in August. Twenty women participated to create murals in the alley behind the north side of Gerrard Street East near Craven, Rhodes and Woodfield. One van and one car were also painted.

below: Courtney Binns and Kerry Marie (kairo) work on their murals.

two women painting a mural, one mural each, one on the back of a building in an alley and the other on the side of the same building.

a woman sprays paint, light blue, onto the background of a mural that she's painting, blue, green and pinks that merge together with no defined lines or edges

street art painting of a fuzzy orange fox, lying on the ground by C V Binns

a woman is in the beginning stages of painting a mural portrait of a woman outside

below: Princess Nokia

portrait of a woman on a wall, a mural by kairo, long dark hair, a blue bow on the top of her head, some blocks of the concrete block wall are painted in shades of pink

below: Caitlin Taguiboa paints her mural starting with the black and white background that will turn into ripples and reflections on water.

woman spraing black on a black and white mural, standing beside a ladder, on a garage door in an alleyy paint

pink white and orange flowers by a black pool with with and pink reflections and ripples

below: Kim adds some blue to the background of her mural.

a woman is painting a street art mural

on a garage door, a painting by Kim, blue background, close up of two yellow women pilots in a green airplane

below: The deer mural was preserved (it’s been on this wall for a number of years).  You can just see the faint outlines of a salamander that @mmnador is creating.  That’s Kim working on her pilots (astronauts?) in the background.

two women painting murals, Kim is in the background painting on a garage door while another woman is outlining a picture of a chameleon on a wall

a dark purple salamander in a street art painting on a background of orange, yellow, and light blue polygonal shapes with 3 to 5 straight sides on a wall with a tree to the left

below: Rolling on the pink, background that is.  Anya Mielniczek’s latest mural is a woman’s face in shades of pink and green.

woman rolling paint to make pink background on a mural

street art mural of a woman's face in greens and blues on one side, moving to pink on the other, lots of black hair. red lips, yellow eyes

partially finished mural on black background in an alley, green stripes near the bottom, blue circles beside brown squiggles, milk x weed

below: Painting a tribute to Smokey the cat, by Stacey Kinder.

a woman is crouching beside a wall where she is painting a picture of a blue cat, on the wall beside her is a large black section that has just been painted in preparation for another mural

a woman with long blond hair, Stacey Kinder, is painting a picture of a blue cat on a wall,

finished mural of Smokey the blue cat, with a sunflower behind his head,

below: Up close to the central portion of a mural painted by Chief Ladybird and Auralast.

detail of center of mural of an indigenous woman with long braided hair and feathers

below:  The words in the stripes are “One Voice”.  There is a blue and a pink stripe that didn’t make it into the photo, on them is written “Powerful”.

part of a mural by chief ladybird and aura of an indigenous woman with a feather in her hair, in front of the sun and circles of colour, red and blue flowers on the outer layer of colour (light blue)

below: A shout out to Debbie who lent her car, Lightning, to the cause.  Here, a black stenciled dog adorns the back door panel – in memory of Harley.

side of a car that has been prepped, for painting partially painted with turquoise section and pink splotches, also a black stenciled dog, called Harley, by the back wheel,

below: Lightning is now fueled with flower power!

back of painted car, large flower and many colours in the background, a bumper sticker that says Honor Diversity

below: And the last, a van.  It was parked behind the Flying Pony while one side was painted by Erika James….

a woman is taping stencils onto the side of van. The stencils are of words, Don't worry you haven't hit your stride yet

below:  … and the other by Jieun June Kim.   When I went back later in the week to take pictures of the completed murals, the van wasn’t around.  If you see it, let me know!

a woman spray paints on the side of a van that is being covered with street art, masking tape to keep the spray paint in straight lines.

below: Hands and stylized florals

black background mural with stylized floral in bright colours, also a hand in the middle in many colours

part of a mural with magenta background, green arms reaching up from foliage and weeds at the bottom, hands open, revealing a large blue eye on each hand

This project was supported by StART program at StreetARToronto as well as Cultural Hotspot 2017.  The latter is a summer-long initiative whose aim is to encourage art, community, and culture in the east end of the city.

below: Monstawall by Monica Wickeler (aka monicaonthemoon), one of the principal organizers of the weekend.

small street art mural of many stylized abstract goofy faces in bright colours, on a wall. a car is parked in front of it and some is reflected in the windshield