Posts Tagged ‘urban’

a few guys hanging out

Posted: February 11, 2015 in general Toronto
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A few guys that I encountered the other day.

black and white paper graffiti of a man in grey pants, white shirt, and tie. He has two black and white faces instead of hands. Someone has scrawled words on the hands.
A deflated inflatable Santa Claus is hanging from a hydro pole in an alley beside a garage door with a graffiti man on it.

A large pinkish man's face, with big blue eys, and large hands

close up of man's face painted on a garage door. You can see one ear, the nose and the mouth.

Street art painting of two men's heads. Both have beards. One is wearing a black crown and the other has a red hat and a red & black plaid shirt on

 

Douglas Coupland at MOCCA

Posted: February 4, 2015 in galleries
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Douglas Coupland’s
everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything
at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Queen St. West
until 19 April 2015

Secret Handshake
What makes Canadians Canadian?
What do we identify with that others don’t recognize?

close up of part of a quilt. One of the squares is made from fabric with a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey player on it. Old chrome hubcaps have been added to the quilt.

A quilt made of plain beige fabric into which dreamcatchers of various sizes have been incorporated.
A low hutch with three drawers. The handle of each drawer is on old pepsi advertisement on an old bar from a door - the kind of bar that you would push on to open the door.

 One of the rooms of the exhibit features Coupland’s re-imagining of famous Canadian paintings,  paintings by Tom Thomson and Lawren Harris of the Group of Seven to name a couple.
In the center of the room is a black metal structure that is supposed to represent a damaged hydro transmission tower reminiscent of the ones damaged by the eastern Canada ice storm of 1998.

A large metal structure that is supposed to represent a damaged hydro (electricity) transmission tower is in the center of a room. There are paintings on the walls.

A large metal structure that is supposed to represent a damaged hydro (electricity) transmission tower is in the center of a room. There are paintings on the walls.

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Growing up Utopian

A portion of three Douglas Coupland creations are visible. In the foreground are numerous lego houses complete with yards and garages all laid out in a grid. In the background are wood shelves with household articles from the past. In the middle are lego towers in bright stripes and interesting shapes.
below: Towers, 2014
An urban jungle of imaginative lego towers created from selected parts of towers that were “crowd-sourced” at building events at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Close up of some of the brightly coloured lego towers in the art exhibit

below: 345 Modern House, 2014
One hundred identical houses built from a kit that was first issued in 1969.

A grid of white lego bungalows with black roofs with detached garages, green lego lawns and red fences.

 

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Irene Ave

Posted: January 16, 2015 in graffiti and street art, locations
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Irene Ave. is a short street that runs behind the north side of Bloor Street West between Carling and Shaw streets, just east of Ossington Avenue.  Irene Avenue Parkette takes up most of the south side of Irene Avenue.  There is an alley that runs between the park and the back of the stores on Bloor West.

The Christie Ossington Neighbourhood Centre, through the Graffiti Arts portion of their LOFT program, has sponsored a number of murals in this alley.

This is what it looked like on a cold afternoon last week.

laneway in winter, some snow and ice on the ground. Three cars parked. A mural on the side of a two storey building. Reddish rust coloured background with two faces, one woman and one man.

blog_irene_africa

blog_irene_lion

blog_irene_mj

blog_irene_mos

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The next picture was taken in June of 2012.
The mural is still there but I couldn’t take a proper photo of it last week as there was a car parked too close.

A mural of Teetnage mutant ninja turtles painted on a garage door.

When I walked around the block to check out the fronts of these buildings, this is what I found

Street art mural by elicser of three men on a bench. One is smoking a cigarette, one is reading and one is holding a lunch box in his hands.

A mural by Elicser and to the right the LOFT Youth Centre for Social Enterprise and Innovation.

Scarfo Lane

Posted: November 29, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
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Yesterday I came across some interesting colourful garage doors on Scarfo Lane that I have not seen before.   I didn’t see any signature on them so I don’t know who painted them.

Walking south from Herrick Street…..

a blue animal like creature is carrying a stick over his shoulder. three wood bir houses are at the back of the stick. A blue bird is sitting in front on the stick, and looking at the creature.

street art mural on an alley garage door. A red deer is seated in what looks like a computer lab, or factory.

street art mural on a double garage. yellow background. three floating logs with birds sitting on them are being pulled by a creature with a pink and purple head as well as a blue body.

street art on a garage door - paisley shapes in blues and purples
 

and then walking north from Herrick St…..

an alley with garages on both sides, also tall trees that have lost their leaves, small piles of dead leaves along the sides of the alley.

Looking north from Herrick St.

graffiti of a black and white dog's face on a metal garage

under the tracks at Bathurst

Posted: November 28, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
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Murals painted by Elicser in 2014, under the railway bridge on Bathurst St., just north of Dupont.

It is difficult to do justice to the paintings with a camera because of the structure of the bridge.   The following images are ones that I took yesterday.  Yes, there are many!

part of a mural beside the walkway under a railway bridge - taken from across the street, The picture is of 4 people who seem to be looking at the camera.

part of a mural beside the walkway under a railway bridge - a man on a red bike who is cycling towards a woman with outstretched arms

part of a mural beside the walkway under a railway bridge - a woman sitting cross legged on the ground beside a miniature city

mural under a bridge

part of a mural beside the walkway under a railway bridge - a man's hand reaching towards a miniature city. roads, houses, tall buildings and hydro wires

part of a mural beside the walkway under a railway bridge - a man with a football helmet on and green triangles in his hand

A man in a blue winter coat is walking under a bridge, beside a mural that is painted on the wall of the bridge.

part of a mural beside the walkway under a railway bridge - a pair of legs with sneakers on flying past a man's head.

part of a mural beside the walkway under a railway bridge - a man with a red baseball cap on backwards

A man sitting on a bench who is looking down into a bag that is on the ground. A face in profile is beside him

part of a mural beside the walkway under a railway bridge - Two large people in the mural. A woman is walking past on the sidewalk. The picture is taken from across the street so bridge supports are also in the picture.

part of a mural beside the walkway under a railway bridge - the triangular part of the wall of the bridge at the end, showing a woman in yellow coat and hat.

woman holding baby, man behind her making rabbit ears with his fingers

rusty metal railway bridge over a city street. There is a mural painted on the wall beside the walkway on the far side of the bridge.

mural street art painting of a man's face. He has a moustache. He is looking at the camera

 

murals in the park

Posted: November 26, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
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David Crombie Park runs along the south side of the Esplanade between Lower Jarvis and Berkeley Street.

At the east end is a basketball court and playground.   One of the back walls of the basketball court has been repainted with a mural by Shalak, Smoky and J. Periquet.

 

mural on the back wall of a basketball court
mural on the back wall of a basketball court

one end of the wall

mural on the back wall of a basketball court

the other side of the wall

the west side of the wall has been painted with a mural that looks like a train train going towards the sunset at the horizon. Three tall condos are in the distance

close up of the west side of the wall has been painted with a mural that looks like a train train going towards the sunset at the horizon

sugar beach

Posted: November 25, 2014 in general Toronto, locations, waterfront
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Sugar Beach on a November afternoon.

A time when you have your choice of seats to sit and watch the clouds race past and the wind whip the branches of the trees around.

Sugar beach with its white chairs and pink umbrellas, looking over the sand towards Lake Ontario

Late afternoon beside grey Lake Ontario.

Sugar beach with its white chairs and pink umbrellas, there are no people here, and the lake is looking a little grey.

The first hint of sunset appears in the sky.

Sugar beach with its white chairs and pink umbrellas is in the foreground and the city is behind it.

Darker skies over the city as the rain clouds pass by.

Sugar beach with its white chairs and pink umbrellas is in the foreground. The Toronto skyline is in the background, including the CN tower.

With the city behind.

Sugar beach with its white chairs and pink umbrellas, with a four storey building behind as well as some willow trees

The low sun of late afternoon is reflected off the umbrella stands as well as the glass of the Corus building behind.

Sugar beach with its white chairs and pink umbrellas,

new faces in the alley

Posted: November 18, 2014 in graffiti and street art
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New faces in the alley, or at least they are new to me.   Seen yesterday.

looking down the alley, graffiti on the walls on both sides including a large woman's head by the artist Kairo. She has curly hair and her face is about 7 feet tall.

face graffiti - a man's face on a piece of plywood. He is balding and there is stubble on his face. He seems to be sweating too.

sticker of eyes on a white and pink face. The sticker is on a pole and there is an orange wall that is out of focus behind the pole.

A bright and wild picture of a face with long long stylized hair in reds, oranges and pinks

A girl with long dark hair and with her eyes closed. From the shoulders up with one arm and hand included in the picture. Drawn on plywood and behind bars.

sticker of a man's head with an afro hairdo.

A stylized picture of a green, turquoise and red frog face with its tongue stuck out.

and a froggie face too.

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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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walls in the abstract

Posted: October 25, 2014 in abstract, general Toronto
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Just a collection of walls that caught my interest as I walked in the past few weeks.

 

reflections in the window of the OPG (Ontario Power Generation) building, a curved glass structure.

diamond blues

 

grey concrete wall

patches, cracks, and drips under a  bridge

 

close up of a maroon coloured drain pipe down the side of a house that is red and orange.

vibrant orange with drain pipe

 

Four storey brick building with large windowes with rounded arched shaped tops. Yellow brick details around the tops of the windows.

Pattern of arches at George and Adelaide

 

close up of a concrete wall that has black paint (or something like black paint) spilled on the lower part of it.

black and white under grey

 

Close up showing part of a wood pallet that is leaning against a grey brick wall.

wood on brick, browns and greys

 

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