Posts Tagged ‘urban ninja squardon’

the smaller stuff too

Posted: January 16, 2026 in alleys, graffiti and street art
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…in Graffiti Alley

My previous post was also about a walk down a section of Graffiti Alley (Spadina to Portland).   This post is from the same walk –  because there were so many  images that I wanted to share, I decided to divide the fun into two parts.  This second part takes a closer look at some of the smaller pieces.

graffiti stickers covering signs at the entrance to graffiti alley where there is lots of street art in the background

below: Peeling paper hands….  A 33wallflower33 group of three women in their dashing outfits … and a charming man with devil’s horns and red glasses.

paper paste up graffiti on a door

below: Although it’s getting more difficult to see, there’s a Poser rabbit by the door.  The door is disappearing behind a layer or two of paper and paint.

a door covered with graffiti, with more street art paint on the walls beside it

below: There is a little pink stikman on the light above the door.

pink stikman graffiti on a light over a door in an alley

below: Once upon a time this skinny little guy was pink but ooops, a layer of paint and now he’s prematurely grey.

white stikman graffiti on a white wall behind metal bars

below: In her face – another stikman

small red stikman on yellow paint with a woman's face at the bottom layer

below: Last stikman for today… sometimes you find them tucked away in hard to see places.

green and black stikman hiding behind a hook with a black strap on it

below: Party line?  Four hands phone.

old phone booth but with 4 receivers, all covered with paint and graffiti

below:  A bleeding heart, a pansy flower, and a woman with a red hat and big ear rings.

small graffiti in graffiti alley, a red painted heart, paper paste ups of a pansy flower and a person's head

below: Polly wants a cracker before she takes over the world, or at least that’s what she told me.

paper paste up graffiti, one is a green bird with text that says bird takeover

below: A young woman with blue lipstick and jagged pink make up on her cheeks.  A spiked collar is around her neck.  Make of it what you will.

graffiti, woman with blue lips and spikey black hair, beside word peace stenciled twice in paint

below: Another young woman,  this time she’s a little softer (at least in appearance) – drawn by Catchoo.

below: Multiple Sailor dudes (trp613) in two varieties hanging out with a happy little catchoo critter and its smiley daisy balloon.

lots of paper pasteup graffiti in graffiti alley, one is a catchoo character holding a daisy shaped balloon

below: “Save me”!

paper pasteup graffiti in graffiti alley, including a blue floppy disc with text that says save me, by catchoo

below:  It looks like catchoo has been busy.

graffiti on a wall in graffiti alley

below: More of that wall.

lots of slaps, graffiti on a wall in graffiti alley

below: Darth Vader makes an appearance too.  Who’s that man peeking through the hole?

orange skull, graffiti on a wall in graffiti alley, also Darth Vader,

urban ninja squadron and others, graffiti on a wall in graffiti alley

below: One flower sprouts a bald person while the other produces a sunny orb.  That black octopus doesn’t look very happy – perhaps in this winter weather it needs more than just a woolly toque.

paint graffiti in graffiti alley, black octopus wearing a red toque

below: There are those women again!

33wallflower33 sticker of three flapper women

below: Dogma slaps standing tall in his puffy jacket and bright red mitts.

2 slaps graffiti on a wall already covered with street art paint. One is a dog, standing on two feet and dressed in human clothes - or perhaps it is a man with a dogs head

below: Riding a D7606 crayon – T-bonez always finds new adventures.

paste up graffiti high on a wall, t-bonez, from urban ninja squadron is riding a large orange crayon with D 7606 (name of another artist) on it,

collection of stickers, graffiti alley,

below: A collaboration between Tamm Shinzo and April Showers Art produced this little round piece – sitting on top of the clouds with the moon shining over her shoulder.

round paper paste up on a utility pole in Graffiti Alley,

below: Cryptid Supremacy – a rat with a very long tail

pink background with drawing of a rat sitting on a bench, long tail, words: cryptid supremacy

below: More rats, this time “the rat race is rigged”.  Also another skull (skulls are very popular!), this time by Broke Canvas (aka Colin Green) on yellow.   And third, is it a rainbow or a very sad face?  – slap by Rider Waitress (aka Frances Sousa)

graffiti on a wall, a black rat with words the rat race is rigged, a yellow square with a drawing of a skull by broke canvas, and last a rainbow with two flowers that looks like a sad face, by rider waitress

below: While we’re dealing with rats – Squee!  They are all fleeing from an NYC trash can.  Don’t litter!

a sticker on a wall in graffiti alley, mice fleeing from a trash can, squeee

below: Another small collection – Catchoo shows up on a soy sauce bottle while a Sentient Cookie (aka Cecil Tian) character gets taped to the wall… remember that banana?!   And last, in the top left corner, a Cartoon Car Slaps.

catchoo soya sauce bottle, sentient cookie paste up and a cartoon slaps slap, garffiti on a wall in graffiti alley

below: Juice box time. By Clem Crevetz

sticker on metal pipes in graffiti alley, man sitting, with juice box in his hands

small green fish sticker beside a lock on a door

small graffiti painting, black line drawing of a face, with very pointy chin, on white background

elicser elliott painting of a woman in rabbit ears, drinking a can of pop

graffiti where is my $$

alley graffiti stickers, blepser and nervo
pasteup little character in white suit, probably marcel morceau, the mime artist

elle was here, written on sidewalk in pink

abandoned site, Baldwin & Spadina

Posted: January 18, 2025 in graffiti and street art
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There once was a building on the southwest corner of Spadina Ave and Baldwin.  That building is long gone but the hoardings around the vacant lot have become a home for graffiti.  Although advertising posters sometimes take over some of the space, there is often new graffiti too.

This is what was there in January 2025.

below: The Last Laugh by Nigel Smith.

graffiti on old hoardings at baldwin and spadina, a sign that says the last laugh, words written in red capital letters on black background

below: Paste-ups on plywood.   On the left – a City Kitty character in big pink frame glasses (and what’s that on his head?!).   Small black and white pasteups include Visual Noise with Urban Ninja Squadron.

pasteups on plywood hoardings

below: WOW! He is not dead yet.  Live!  Let Live!

three drawings on a fence, one red, one white, one blue, lines, face, and words, he is not dead yet, ugly, beauty

below: Two pieces by Bao aka (Bao Pham) who seems to like to mix cultural icons that aren’t usually associated with each other.

graffiti by Bao Pham, Trans Quebec, Beatles as storm troopers in a shield shape

below: “Fab Four Troopers” Quebec highway sign

graffiti by Bao Pham, Trans Quebec, Beatles as storm troopers in a shield shape

below: “Return of the Boom Bap Trooper”

graffiti street art by Bao Pham, storm trooper from Star Wars movies holding a ghetto blaster on his shoulder, wearing rapper jewellery

below: A woman’s portrait among the advertisements.

posters on hoardings, some advertising television programs, some HIV education website and in the middle is a graffiti street art picture of a woman with flowers in her hair

below: “Frida Moss”, A Frida Kahlo and Kate Moss mash-up, also by Bao

graffiti picture of a woman (photograph) with flowers in her hair and a cigarette in her hand

below: A green catchoo looking atch youcatchoo green rectangular face paste up

below: Ouch!  Another Urban Ninja Squadron paste-up, this one in collaboration with Dio Tha Dog.

visual noise, and urban ninja squadron black and white paste up on a pole

This post also appears in Eyes on the Streets blog

Dupont Street scenes

Posted: June 10, 2023 in construction, graffiti and street art, locations, old buildings
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part of a blue and white sign, with the words this way and an arrow pointing left

Another sunny spring day and another walk in the city.  This time we walked along Dupont with the occasional diversion to an alley or side street.  First stop?  First Last Coffee.  Always start with coffee!  In general, this blog covers Dupont between Spadina and Ossington and as usual, there may not be much order to the photos!

pictures and signs on the wall inside a coffee hop, First Last coffee, including a sign that says coffee please

below: The transparent domed Dupont subway station at the northwest corner of Spadina and Dupont

Dupont subway station, entrance on northwest corner of Dupont and Spadina, transparent structure with dome shaped curved roof

two women waiting outside Dupont subway station, red and white TTC sign,

below: Because of the redevelopment along Dupont (some buildings have been demolished but their replacements are still holes in the ground), Casa Loma can now be seen from the street.

blue sky with chain from crane (not in picture) hanging in the foreground, a large metal utility tower in the middle, and the top of Casa Loma roofline in the distance

below: Northwest corner of Dupont and Shaw

corner of an intersection that is one big construction site

below: Someone’s comment on the construction….

Construction site entrance sign that says gate 2. someone has added the word hell so that the sign now says gate to hell

below: … And another comment – he’s so happy to have a gun that he’s drooling.

black and orange construction sign with figure of man holding sign, happy face added to head and a machine gun put in his hands, altered sign

rebar sticking out the ground, construction site, as building begins to rise from the ground

shiny hoardings around a construction site reflect the bright orange signs and cones on the street beside it

a workman in a blue hardhat cleans the street between hoardings with large photos on them and orange cones blocking traffic

workman cutting pavement on dupont,

There are quite a few construction photos, maybe more than you’d like, but construction plays a large role in the scenery along Dupont these days.

workman helping a concrete truck back up into a construction site, traffic waiting,

construction reflections in a window

vacant building beside a grassy space, red brick, tagged on the side, old grey shingle roof, boarded up lower level window, construction fence around it

below: Joe’s Convenience chaos.

below: Reflections in a restaurant window

below: Dispensary of a different kind

below: Cyclists waiting for the lights to change.

a woman with a backpack walks by a window with many reflections in it

below: No energy today (all sold out?)

looking into a large warehouse interior with lots of windows, nine window panes

below: Looking at the northeast corner of Dupont and Dovercourt.  The interior of this old industrial building has been renovated and part of it is now a basketball school.

old building, three or four storeys high, made of many small panes of glass, on the northeast corner of Dupont and Dovercourt

below: View through the window

looking through a window to young men playing basketball inside

below: The billboard at Dupont and Dovercourt features an image by Maggie Groat and was part of the CONTACT Photography Festival.  More of her work is on display at Ontario Square (on the waterfront) and can be seen in a blog post, Double Pendulum, from a few weeks ago.

billboard with image by Maggie Groat, part of Scotiabank COntact photo festival, bottom part has been tagged

below: Silver Star Car Wash – I could say that it’s all washed up but considering the time that it takes for the development process – especially in a case like this where the application involves an amendment to the Official Plan and the Zoning By-law.

silver Star car wash on dupont street with a blue and white development notice in front

below:  Although it looks like a gathering of praying mantises, it’s really a symbol of a booming construction industry, boom lifts for rent.

cranes for rent, all parked outside a rental store

below: 888 Dupont (at Ossington) is one of the next buildings to be redeveloped but that is for another story on another blog post.

tall blue crane on construction site next to glass industrial warehouse building from 1921 at 888 Dupont street

below: An old rusty sign on the side of a building in an alley just off of Dupont tells us that J.F. Spencer, Sheet Metal Worker, once worked there.  old sign on the side of a building in an alley near Dupont street,

four houses on Dupont street

below: Looking along Dupont from Delaware Ave

Dupont street looking west from Delaware Ave

three two storey houses on dupont street

below: Probably the most affordable house on the street!

a small playhouse surrounded by leaves, in the side yard of a house

below: Some people have rose bushes in their front yard…

lone two storey house on Dupont, with large rose bush in front of it

below: … and some people have horses.

sculpture in a front yard of a horse up on its hind legs

below: A seaside Nova Scotia scene by Megan Oldhues.

mural on the side of a garage of a Nova Scotia waterside scene, sailboats, dock, flag,

grey car parked beside a garage with street art mural painted on it. Lots of red, orange, and yellow, blob-like characters

I’ll end this post with a few photos of the graffiti that I saw starting with this old Lovebot.

older Lovebot paste up on a grey brick wall, part of top of head has worn away

below: A pinkish red portrait of a young woman.

red stencil of a young woman's portrait

paste up graffiti on a metal pole, beside a wood pole full of old staples, black ink on paper paste up that says gewn 2020 squid

 below:  Voodoo Ninja, brought to you by Urban Ninja Squadron along with Ave Rage (or maybe it’s Average) who gets to play the victim.

4 paste ups on a box, all black on white. One is an urban ninja squadron collaboration with ave rage, and three are inky blotty drawings

 

old window in an old brick bilding, with street art that is peeling around the bottom part of the window

scrawled graffiti, happy face

pink rose on a large rose bush

until next time…. stay focused! … if possible….

small blue car parked on Dupont, with Ontario licence plate that says unfocused

Richmond East and thereabouts

Posted: November 11, 2021 in construction, graffiti and street art, history, old buildings
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Starting at King and Berkeley and walking a little bit north and a bit farther west.

below: This wall, at King and Berkeley, used to have a large painting of a black chair on it.  Now it has two boys on the run with an Afghan flag.

tall white building with graffiti of two boys running with Afghan flag

below: It was painted by Mahyar Amiri a few months ago in an effort to raise awareness of the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan.

white building with graffiti street art of two young boys running. one is carrying an afghan flag, Afghanistan, the other is carrying a tire or similar shaped item, with the words not art written on it

below: In front of the Alumni Theatre on Berkeley Street.

painting on metal street box in front of Alumni theater on Berkeley street, beside laneway with another black and white mural on side of building

below: Also on Berkeley Street, the old Christie Brown stables are now the lower floors of a condo building.

95 Berkeley Street, old brick building that houses Christie Smith bakery stables, now the lower part of a condo development

historic plaque for Christie, Brown and company stables at 95 Berkeley street

“This building was once a stable that housed horses and wagons for one of Canada’s largest biscuit manufacturers. From here, Christie, Brown & Co delivered baked goods prepared at its Adelaide Street factory across Toronto.”
  “Designed by the architectural firm of Sproatt & Rolph, the building’s Beaux-Arts Classical style was popular at the turn of the 20th century for its appearance of stability and grandeur.  With elements such as the contrasting stone trim and arcade windows, it was built to reflect the appearance of the nearby Christie factory.  The state-of-the-art stable included two floors of wagon storage with a purpose-made elevator, stalls in the back for the care of sick horses, and a central horse shower underneath a large skylight. “
“Founded by Scottish-born businessman William Christie (1829-1900), Christie Brown & Co manufactured over 400 types of baked goods at its peak.  In 1928, Nabisco acquired the company. The stable was later used as a garage, seed plant, and film production office.  It is now part of a residential complex. “

below: Christie Brown biscuit factory on Adelaide street in 1902. The building still exists and is part of George Brown College.  It takes up the whole block between George and Frederick streets.

old colour photo of Christie Brown cookie factory on Adelaide street, brick building with windows with curved tops

below: This neighbourhood advertises itself as “Old Town, since 1793”.

Toronto city street sign for Worts Lane, turquoise banner advertising the fact that this is part of Old Town, since 1793

below: But a lot of it is starting to look shiney and new (what? a new parking lot in downtown Toronto?)

new condos on Richmond Street east, with new staples store and a just paved new parking lot

below: A copy of a late 1890’s lithographic poster advertising bicycles from Fernand Clement & Cie Cycles Paris. The original artist was Jean de Paléologue (1860-1942). This version is a large mural on Worts Lane.

fernand clement and cie mural of woman on a bicycle with large moon, night time scene

below: Mother of God of Prousa Greek Orthodox Church on Richmond East

Mother of God Prousa Greek Orthodox church on Richmond Eat, small simple stucco building with central wood door and small cross on roof peak

below: Old and not so old.  The taller grey building is the Chapter House for the Greek Orthodox church that is immediately to the east.

two adjacent houses on Richmond Street, half of old black house remains, other half has been renovated to three storey building

one way street sign in front of a window of a brick building painted blue

below: Apparently everything ends here on Ontario Street

car parked in front of old brick building on Ontario street, with graffiti words on wall that says all ends here

… and around the corner

an exterior brick wall with some of the bricks covered with rectangular pieces of mirror

blue painted graffiti words on a pale grey brick building that say this is all gonna end badly

below: This street art faces a parking lot between Brigden and Queen East that is now fenced off.  It is one of 4 or 5 paintings along that wall.

old street art that has small shrubs and vines growing over it

below: This is one of the street art pieces on the same wall. The photo was taken in  2012 when the site was accessible and before the vines and shrubs took over.

photo taken in 2012 of street art with iconic red tongue from rolling stones

below: A very large empty building and vacant lot that used to be a car dealership. This is part of a large section of land that has been under redevelopment for at least five years (includes the parking lot in the photos above).

bags of yard waste lie on the sidewalk on Richmond Street on sidewalk by large vacant lot, east of Sherbourne

below: … The original proposal back in February 2016 was three towers of 39, 45 and 39 storeys, on top of two base buildings ranging from 3 to 11 storeys within a site bordered by Queen Street East, Ontario Street, Richmond Street East and McFarrens Lane. That was turned down by the city. Since then there has been various modifications, appeals, and litigation (ongoing?).

a black and a blue metal drum shaped container, barrels, in vacant lot, with large puddle and tall weeds by vacant Downtown collision center building

a chair, outside, litter on ground, vines on wall behind

below: On what was once a Honda dealership there is now an art installation with words…

exterior wall of empty honda dealership, word graffiti that says to win the outergame you must first master the inner game, dr. joe

below: … and pasteups from jumblefacefoto aka Jeremy Lynch

pasteups by jumbleface foto

pasteup collages by Jeremy Lynch, eyes in the center, abstract around

below:  On the same wall: In the line of fire – urban ninja squadron‘s t-bonez takes aim with very heavy firepower.  It looks like spudbomb has already been hit by an arrow and is bentoghoul providing the target?

pasteups on a black wall, an urban ninja squadron with a large missile, a spudbomb and another poster like graffiti by bentoghoul

below: Looking west on Richmond from Brigden Place.  Richmond Street jogs to the right at Jarvis – it doesn’t dead end like it looks in the photo.

looking west on Richmond street from near Sherbourne

below: Looking north on McFarrens Lane to Queen Street

looking north on McFarrens Lane from Richomnd Steet, to the babrber and hairstylist shop on Queen. Tall apartment building behind that

below: About 1910 this is what the northeast corner of Richmond and Sherbourne Streets looked like.  Not surprisingly, this is all long gone.

old black and white photo from about 1910 of the northeast corner of Richmond and Sherbourne streets

an old car from the 70s parked beside a building, a new TTC streetcar behind

below: From biscuits to hot dogs…. Soloways Hot Dog Factory Outlet, in business since 1927. They sell a wide range of bulk meat, meta products, and plant based meat products both wholesale and to the public.

sign over entrance to Soloways Hot dog factory outlet in nondescript brick building

below: Richmond and George, with the bright red of the George Diner dominating the intersection.

at Richmond and George streets, red building on corner is George's Diner, with large sign that says Delicious Food that Satisfies

below: The windows have been painted.

one of the windows of Georges Diner, a red brick building, painted with a scene of the interior of the restaurant.

below: Old newspaper articles taped to the window.  The top one is a review of the restaurant (with apologies for it being too small/fuzzy to read).   The bottom one has a headline that reads “Don’t be like Dick”.  With an image like that I immediately think of Dick and Jane (yikes, those of us who remember Dick and Jane from our childhoods are dwindling in number!).

old newspaper articles taped to window with coke machine behind it

below: At Richmond and Jarvis, northeast corner

indigenous theme mural on the side of a Petro Canada station at Richmond and Jarvis

below: Mystic Muffin on the southeast corner of Jarvis and Richmond.

mystic muffin, a blue building, on the southeast corner of Richmond and Jarvis

below: Richmond Street bike lanes are now separated from traffic by a low kerb that has been decorated by a number of street artists.  This section is the work of AndreaCataRo aka Andrea Rodriguez

brick building and parking lot behind chainlink fence

red ant painted on a kerb separating bike lanes from traffic

below: Another view of the bike lane barrier, this one at the intersection of Richmond and Berkeley and looking west towards the city center.

Richmond Street east, at Berkeley, with barrier between bike lanes and other traffic

little purple mouse sticker graffiti

two black and white sticker slaps graffiti on a grey metal pole, one is a black rabbit with words why suspect us. and the other is a white abstract drawing on black background

Kensington paper

Posted: November 11, 2021 in graffiti and street art, locations
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November 2021 edition

below: Jumbleface foto collage, slightly peeling.  Keep cold.

jeremy lynch jumbleface foto pasteup collage on a window in Kensington, eyes

below: Doesn’t he fit right into the poster?  Or are you busy looking at all the little creatures swarming around t-bonez head?

on the back of a bike rack, pasteups and stickers, urban ninja squadron in green,

below: It’s Life, it’s a one-eyed red daisy

red petal, blue eyed daisy, it's life sticker

below: Smugrat, Las Mujeres Vampiros, bentoghoul, and others.

stickers on plywood hoardings, outside, mujeres vampiros,

below: Wash your hands after It’s Life yellow daisy takes first prize

three stickers, bottom one is wash your hands

on plywood hoardings, coffee cup poster, with t-bonez and a large missile in the background

below: Miss You!  Nika loves Aura, and other messages around the coffee.

coffee cup poster

below: Crying real water

small sticker with water in eyes, crying tears

below: And you’re looking blue too.

small blue square sticker that says I'm feeling blue

below: Gas Phaseout? We CANDU It!  Part of the poster has been torn off ….

posters on a utility pole, top one is climate change action, rosie the riveter picture with words

below:  … but this Homer Simpson poster is probably related.  Climate Hero!  Eating donuts?  No… “In Ontario nuclear workers provided 90% of the electricity needed to phase out coal – North America’s greatest CO2 reduction.  Let’s phase out natural gas next”.
I can’t read all the handwriting but part of what someone has written on the poster says: “How did you turn off my portable Panosonic TV Karen? Did your boyfriend help you?”  Can you make any sense of that?

two posters on a metal pole, top one has Homer Simpson