Posts Tagged ‘wall expressions’

You are Here

Posted: November 24, 2017 in alleys, graffiti and street art
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big bright pink flowers, mural on a garage door by Blazeworks
above: Bright pink flowers by Blazeworks

I shared David French Lane with some garbage men, a bright green truck, and a lot of smelly garbage the other day. Luckily there were lots of murals to distract me from the smell!

a green GFL garbage truck in a lane as men pick up garbage on garbage day

below: The north end of David French Lane is at Barbara Barrett Lane, immediately south of Bloor.  Here, elicser painted a mural in his characteristic style that I have already blogged about.   It is also where there is a mural of a blue and white train.  I didn’t take any photos of it this time because it isn’t new and it wasn’t part of the Wall Expressions project.

corner where two alleys meet, a green P parking lot and a building with murals on two sides.

Quite a few of the garages in David French Lane had been painted sometime in the past.  Many had been tagged over or were in need of updating.  The ‘Wall Expressions – You are Here’ project provided the lane with a fresh coat of paint back in mid-September.

below: A large TTC bus drives into the alley by dudeman, surrounded by skulls of many colours.

a mural by dudeman, TTX bus, spadina sign, and lots of different coloured skulls

‘You are Here’ was the result of a collaboration between StreetARToronto, the Tranzac Club, the local community, and last but not least Team Spudbomb who organized the artists who participated.

below: More colours here too – lots of movement and energy too.   Mural painted by Chris Perez.

a garage covered with colour splotches

below: Almost didn’t get this shot – the garage door started opening as I stood there.  A geometric abstract mural by Andre Kan.   It reminds me of the chaos of roads in the city

geometric abstract mural in browns and red and blues, by andre

below: Another geometric design – this time by mediah.

geometric abstract mural in browns and greys, by mediah,

below: whales by wales, swimming in the lane

large mural with marine life theme, whale, blue background for water,

a row of garages with the doors painted with murals, garbage ready for pick up in front of them, in a lane, large tree too

below: Midtown cinema by ACK

mural on a garage, red and light brown text on the botto, grey tones picture of midtown cinema on the top part

below: A portrait of Ed Mirvish holding an iconic Honest Eds sign, painted by spud.

street art portrait of David Mirvish holding iconic Honest Eds signs

garage with two sides painted in street art, lane, backs of houses, no leaves on tree,

sides and front of garage with street art on them

below: Mural by fly vandals

mural on side of building, purple,

mural on garage

below: An apt phrase – ‘Be Here Now’ beside a fence of spudbombs.

a garage door with the words Be Here Now beside a fence painted with spud bombs, hand grenade shaped characters with eyes and smiling mouths

elicser paints people (again)

Posted: October 18, 2017 in alleys, graffiti and street art
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As part of a larger mural project in David French and Barbara Barrett Lanes (near Bloor and Bathurst), elicser has painted another mural with more of the kinds of people that he is known for painting. Every day people doing every day things – with some emphasis on musicians and the people who listen to them.

For this post I’ve combined photos that were taken back in mid-September on the weekend that the ‘Wall Expressions’ project was started with those that I took a few weeks later.  ‘Wall Expressions’ was a StreetARToronto project to paint/repaint garages in David French Lane.

below: Elicser works on a face

street artist, elicser elliott, up on a lift as he spray paints the outlines of a man's head as part of large mural that he is working on.

below: The finished face.

mural, part of, by elicser, people sitting outside, a young child with red hair sits on the grass, her mother behind her. A black man sits on a wooden seat, a cassette player on his lap

below: More of the mural in progress.

view of most of a long horizontal mural on the side of a building in an alley, by elicser, who is in the picture, painting, mural is of people doing various things.

part of a partially completed mural, two girls sitting at a table and talking, one with brown skin and long black hair, one with short red hair, a glass of water in one hand

partially finished man with green sweater, grey hair, elbows on table

finished section of a mural, with man with grey hair sitting with elbows on a table,

elicser works on painting a mural, in the foreground is a large painted guitar player with a red uitar, painted behind a metal fire escape staircase

part of a mural by elicser of people - 4 people, a woman overlooks them, a small black man on a cello and a man with beard and glasses on a white guitar.

part of a mural by elicser of people - a woman is sitting on a stool and playing a guitar, a man in a red and black checked shirt

below: The complete mural

mural by elicser of people - whole mural, completed, on Barbara Barrett Lane, musicians and the people listening to them as they sit at tables

Leaside has murals!

Posted: August 20, 2016 in graffiti and street art
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Today’s story begins back in 2007 when elicsr painted this mural behind a store that fronts on Eglinton East.

mural depicting the biblical story, Luke chapter 15, of the prodigal son

It depicts the bible story of the prodigal son.  A very brief summary of the story – A wealthy king had two sons.

mural of the prodigal son, the wealthy king with his two sons at the beginning of the story

The younger son took his half of his father’s money, left home, and squandered the money. He fell into hard times.  He realized that he would be better off as a servant in his father’s household than living in penury on his own.

mural, the younger son leaves his father the king where he goes and squanders his half of his father's inheritance

So he returned home to repent.  His father celebrated the return of the son and forgave him and his prodigal ways.

part of a mural, return of the prodigal son to his father, the king.

Fast forward to August 2016 when the alley became a canvas for 46 street artists and their Wall Expressions project, Go Big or Go Home.  I walked the alley on Thursday and this is what I saw.
[Warning: a lot of the street art is text or abstractions which may not be your cup of tea. ]

below: Girl power skull with pig tails by dudeman.

street art mural on the side of a garage in an alley, by #dudeman, blue stylized skull and cross bones with pig tails on the skull, the words, girl power as well

below: Under the weather vane, a newer garage door painted with a mural by Mediah IAH aka Evond Blake.

two garages in an alley, both covered in murals. On the right is a newer garage, with a weather vane on top, and a mural in blue and greys, geometric and abstract shapes. On the left is an older garage door with multicolured street art on it.

below: Black and white owl on a branch by mska

mural by mska of an owl sitting on the branch of a tree, the owl and tree are in black and white, there are concentric circles in many colours in the background.

below: SPUD bombs and swirls on the back of Eco Cleaners.

spud bombs and swirls on the back of eco dry cleaners

below: And another SPUD creation on the other side of the lane.
A few skulls seemed to have snuck into the painting!

spud bomb and swirls street art on a fence in an alley

below: ‘Mars Attacks’ by the ACK crew, wales, miles, noser, braes and tensoe.

large mural on a two storey brick building, mural is called Mars Attacks, shows a green robot like alien and lots of tags.

below: Garbage bins lined up in front of a horus/tuffytats rose in blue and red.

mural of blue and red roses, large and stylized on a wall, a line of small trash bins in grey , blue and green (garbage bins, recylcing bins and organic waste bins) is in front of the artwork by horus also known as tuffytats

below: A swirly wavy mix of colours brighten up a wooden fence.

a section of wooden fence covered with street art in pink and orange and turquoise and purple striped swirls

below: Red head (and shoulders) man

street art mural on a garage door, head and shoulders of a man in red tones,

below: The Men’s Salon Barber Shop now has a mska creature, complete with scissors in hand, by the back door.

back door of men's hairsylist and barbershop, 814 Eglinton East with a white skulled creature holding a pair of scissors by mska as well as a large yellow 814

below: Next to the barber shop is this mural, or at least this is part of it.  The next photo….

multicoloured mural on a wall with a car parked alongside it.

below: … is the end of the mural.  I’m not sure who painted it but the marks on this are: Mark One, BOB (or 13013) and xFLA,.

tag-like street art in yellow and orange on the side of Bonavista store, alley north of Eglinton East, back of car in the picture - it's parked in front of the rest of the mural

below: A mural for Loui by minus two (and others?)

mural, street art text and tags with words 'for loui'

below: More text and abstractions, this time by manic, roam and acuse.   Loui gets another mention too.

 

street art mural of text and colours across the back of a building in an alley

looking at a building so that the corner is in the front, can see two sides of the building, both of which are covered with murals. Wood railing across the top as there is a balcony up there

below: In the foreground, a Nick Sweetman shrimp swims across a mural with help from peru and ctr.

an alley with street art murals, a pickup truck and a car parked in front of one of the murals

below: A closer look at that shrimp

a street art painting of a colourful but realistic squid in yellow, turquoise, and blue, painted on a wall

below: Another large mural with more than one photo.  At one end there’s a zas possum hanging out, spray paint can in hand – possibly up to no good?

street art of a large possum standing on its hind legs, and standing beside an open door

below: And at the other end there’s another animal that is usually nocturnal, a raccoon.  An animal that is no stranger to Toronto!

large street art animal, raccoon, in a mural, with a white crown on his head

below: Look up, way up!  There’s a dog on the roof.

mural on the side of an upper storey, above the roof of the bulding beside it, a dag, some text, and the back of a man painting on the wall

below: Swimmer with a bathing cap looking at you, by sparr

mural on the side of a building, a woman's head and shoulders. She's in the water and wearing a bathing cap. Above her is a painting of a man spray painting on a wall.

 

below: Phil wrote his name on a garage door.

large blue letters P H I L in street art form on a garage door

below: Sofe in orange and green tiger stripes

large letters S O F E in orange and green tiger stripes with purple sky-like background

below: Two more garage doors.

two garages in a lane with street art spray painted on their doors.

below: Bright colours stand out on the side of this garage near the entrance to the lane.

mural on the side of a garage by cruz 1 art, a young girl in orange with many colours abstractions around her

below: Rozy, from the other side.

mural on the side of a garage by cruz 1 art, a young girl in orange with many colours abstractions around her

below: someone beginning with the letter m?  (m–?) and lerch.

mural in an alley, horizontal street art aerosol spray paint artwork of text graffiti, two different ones side by side

below: Big fat P in pink by bias? at number 153

a large fat P in pink on a white wood fence, with some other symbols as well, street art

below: And last, a little snail

a small painting of a large orange and blue snail on a fence beside a tree in an alley

This project had help and support from Toronto Police (53 division), Stephensons Rental, Dominos Pizza, and StreetARToronto.

video of the event on vimeo

in an alley, back of a store, old rusty metal stairs to the upper storey, small awning over the backdoor, laundry hanging by the door, weeds growing in front of the bottom of the stairs.

small metal box, part of doorbell system, covered with graffiti stickers, including purple horror face of man