Posts Tagged ‘stencils’

A few days ago I posted a series of photos of some of the graffiti and street art that I saw in Graffiti Alley between Portland and Spadina.   This post is a continuation of that one as it consists of the photos that I took on the same day but in a different section of the alley, between Portland and Niagara streets.

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - a very large grominator on the second storey, beside a door that goes nowhere

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - a large two headed grominator above a garage door, and a birdo creature on the door.

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto -  on a concrete wall, a birdo creature with a mouse head, a blue waffle body and pink and turquoise striped curvy body with long legs.  It is holding a green oval shape in its front paws.

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - a wooden gate, double doors, so that when the doors are closed a stylized face is the result.  It has mirror symmetry.

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - three large scowling men's heads in blue above a garage door that has swirls in pinks and purples.

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - black line drawing on white of a young man standing on the left and a young girl sitting on the right

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - a stencil that looks like a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon, both characters are sitting on a tree branch, Hobbes is stretched out and sleeping, Calvin is sitting.  THe words 'There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - a large blue socket puppet with bulging eyes and a big black marker in its mouth.

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto -  Two buildings in the picture.  In the foreground is a one storey garage with a large totund stylized guitar player sitting on the ground with one knee up.  Behind him you can see another painting of a guitar player but this one is a bit more realistic.

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - A basquiat crown on a cartoonish face on a door

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - a sylized blue woman from the waist up.  Puffy curly hair.  She's been scribbled on including a heart on her chest.

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - Back wall of a store, large woman's face on part of the wall

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - the side of a concrete garage, small tree in front of it.  To the left of the tree is a man's head and hand.  In his hand is a lollipop but with it shaped like the symbol for Shell Oil.  Beside it are the words Rich Kid Lollipop.  To the right of the tree is a little blue figure with a pink basquiat type crown

a small collage by clowntearz, a sad face, rainbow, clouds,

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - a collage like piece of street art on a garage door by clowntearz.  Googley eys, cannabis leaves, happy faces, zigzags, green  alien faces, red ooze

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - a tag in browns and turquoise

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - on a wall at the bottom of the stairs, a mulitfaced person by elicser with a woman standing beside him with her arms stretched towards him.  The words 'Kill'em with niceness' are written between the couple

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - blue lettering, G P C

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - a very large chocolate sundae, complete with whipped cream and a cherry, on a blue garage door

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - a woman's face in profile, seems to be looking at a large ice cream sundae.

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - BRDL, Penguin looking worried, dollar bills are flying out of his pockets and into a (real) vent of the building.  He's wearing a blue tophat.  Word bubble says

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - A large white man's face on a garage door, with a pile of broken boards in front of it.  The man is supposed to be Kim Jong of North Korea

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto -  the upper part of a topless woman with curly pink and turquoise hair.  Running vertically beside her are the words 'I got out of bed for this'  and below her is the words 'or leave'

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - a lovebot of hearts playing card sticker on a metal pole beside a sticker of a woman's head with curly black hair and big earrings in the shape of a cross

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - brightly coloured painting in many colours and shapes

yipyaps sticker on a metal pole in an alley

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - angular shaped tag in blues

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - words scawled on a garage door,

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - an orange tag on rusty red background, painted across a wide doorway

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto -

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - Charlie Brown in the bottom right corner of a garage.  In green are the words Be WHo You Are

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - on a wood fence, someone was scrawled the words

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - a colourful tag on a white garage door.  The number 710 is above the door.

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - two stickers on a pole.  A small skull and cross bones and a large one that is a black and white creature with website liarliar.etsy.com on it.

graffiti and street art in Graffiti Alley in Toronto - five stickers on white, also a big orange X.  One sticker is a knuts frog with its tongue stuck out.

Croft Street is not a street, but it’s more than a lane.

It runs between Harbord Street and College Street, just west of Bathurst Street.  Although there are many different interesting things to be seen when you walk along this street, I have chosen to focus on the street art for this blog post.   The following is a selection of what I saw.

large piece of street art on a couple of garage doors.

surveying the scene

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a large piece of street art on a garage door.

a closer look

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large piece of street art on a garage door, in purples and greys.  Above the garage door is a rusted metal wall.

paint and rust

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Blue garage door with the words can't sleep so I write written on it.   There is also a stick figure drawing of a girl with a can of spray paint in her handof a girl

can’t sleep so I write

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mural showing two red brick houses, a small grey apartment building and a green street sign that says Harbord St.

Harbord street sign

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Did you know our Monty the cat? King of Croft and all that (Ask your dog.  Ask your cat) Did you give him a pet Once you had met? Or tickle his soft silken tum tum? Did he tell you his tale in articulate meow And share his affection with a rub of his brow? His loss here has left us really quite blue But remembering all of those of YOU Who knew how to share a sweet kindness true Who would pause on the way,  In midst of each day, To offer wee beastie  affectionate feastie In Memory of Monty Thank you!

Did you know our Monty the cat?
King of Croft and all that
(Ask your dog. Ask your cat)
Did you give him a pet
Once you had met?
Or tickle his soft silken tum tum?
Did he tell you his tale in articulate meow
And share his affection with a rub of his brow?
His loss here has left us really quite blue
But remembering all of those of YOU
Who knew how to share a sweet kindness true
Who would pause on the way,
In midst of each day,
To offer wee beastie
affectionate feastie
In Memory of Monty
Thank you!

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Mural painted on the side of a garage.  It has been painted to look like a red brick wall.  In the wall is a yellow window and a black cat is standing on the window sill.

painted cat on painted window sill on painted brick wall

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Mural on a garage door showing a large group of people of many different races.  There is a TTC street car in the center of the crowd.  Some people are waving flags - a Canadian flag, a German flag, and a Union Jack

on the streets of Toronto

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An old wood door and wall with faded graffiti on it.

hidden doorway

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Street art on a garage door showing large stylized fruit with faces on them.  A yellow banana, an orangish pink pear and apple and two other pieces of yellow fruit.

tutti frutti

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A graffiti picture of a boy who is wearing a black and white striped sweater.  Shown from the hips up.  His hands are on his hips.  It is on a white garage door.

with hands on hips and with added words

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brown garage door, brown front door and rusty brown mail box.  On the garage door is a piece of street art with orange and blue blobs.  The front door is decorated with a grid made of metal strips.

art at the front door

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Mural on a garage door showing a man like figure made of leaves and other greenery.  He is surrounded by, of made up of,  flowers and plants

greenery

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A stencil graffiti of a stylized face in black and white.  It is on a very red wall.

black and white and red all over

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Here I stand in silence but the patter of the rain who I was, you'll never know; my triumph

Here I stand in silence
but the patter of the rain
who I was, you’ll never know;
my triumph

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A stencil graffiti of a woman's head. She has shoulder length hair and she is staring straight ahead with a stunned look on her face.

staring eyes

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graffiti of a man's face.  The mouth is actually a mail slot in a door.

mail man

At the south end of the street, there is a large red, white and blue mural by posr.  I have not included it in this blog post because it warrants a post of its own.  It’s the next blog post, or the URL is https://mcfcrandall.wordpress.com/2013/11/05/posr-on-croft-street/

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paper people of Graffiti Alley

a paper graffiti of Bill Gates, Bill Murray and Bill Clinton on a graffiti covered door

Three Bills
This is now a recurring theme in stencil/paper graffiti. Originally, the Bills were used in response to ‘post no bills’ signs on fences surrounding construction sites.
The Bills here, from left to right, are Bill Gates, Bill Murray and Bill Clinton

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paper graffiti of ROb Ford, from the shoulders up, giving the finger.

In the fall of 2011, many of these Rob Ford stencils appeared in Graffiti Alley, amongst other places. They were the work of Toronto street artist, Deadboy. This might be the only one that remains in this alley.

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a poster with a black and white line drawing of a man's head.  He has a beard.  Beside him are words.

Leonard Cohen: “only one thing made him happy and now that it was gone everything made him happy”

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a black and white paper poster/stencil of a woman throwing her arms in the air and walking away.  It is on a grey door in a lane.  There is a broom beside the door.

“I don’t do floors”
“Clean it up yourself”

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A green and white sticker of a woman's head, stylized..

a brown and black set of posters/stencils of three heads.  Two are the same - they look like heads with big ears and they are wearing very big sunglasses.  The third looks like a woman in a helmet like the kind an astronaut might wear.

big ears and the astronaut

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I have not included all the stencils in Graffiti Alley as some have appeared in prior posts.  See https://mcfcrandall.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/walking-graffiti-alley-again/

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a stencil of large headed, no armed, creature.

alien in the alley

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With thanks to:

Georgette for her help with the three Bills

and Sally who recognized Leonard Cohen.