Posts Tagged ‘welcome’

Queen East and a little bit Eastern

Posted: September 23, 2023 in construction, doors, intersections, old buildings, stores
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These are some of the photos that I took the last time that I walked along Queen Street East – with a diversion or two down to Eastern Avenue.  It was a wander around parts of the Leslieville and Riverside neighbourhoods.   In no particular order….

below: Leslieville mural painted by Elicser Elliott, Queen Street East

large Leslieville mural by Elicser, man wearing a brown hat

below: Queen Street shops

stores on Queen St East, including LIttle Peeps

below: Hebrew letters, part of a project called “Welcome Back to Main Street” from back in 2021.  The Riverside Neighbourhood and Leslieville BIA collaborated with STEPS Public Art as part of the I HeART Main Street Challenge. The painting was done by local artists Bareket and Curtia Wright

in pink, Hebrew letters spelling welcome

below: … and nearby, “welcome” in Polish, witamy.

pink letters on sidewalk spell witamy which is polish for welcome, part of welcome back to main street project

below: At 744 Queen East, the old white Bank of Commerce building with its bowed front facade, dates from 1905.  The architects who designed the building were Darling & Pearson who were responsible for a number of bank buildings in Toronto and other Canadian cities.

large old bank of commerce stone building with pillars in front, police man writing a parking ticket for white car parked in front of building

below: Blessed Love Caribbean Grocery and Take Out.

signs for stores on Queen East including Blessed Love Caribbean

below: A frenzied backdrop to a sidewalk patio.

mural on wall beside sidewalk patio

below: Ghost sign at Queen and Coady.

ghost coca cola sign on side of old store, now a Spanish restaurant, with red umbrellas on patio

 

below: More details from the past trying to hold on.   The “blue box” has obliterated the old gabled roof structure that has probably been there for more than 100 years.

a row of buildings on Queen East with different architectural styles, some bay and gable, some modern square

below: Canadian flag motifs on planters

tree planters on queen street, painted in red and white maple leaf flag motifs
below: Strange ducks on posters, a form of graffiti?  Or just weirdness?

paper poster graffiti on a cement utility pole

below: Sax player at the Duke

street art painting of a saxophone player on yellow background, at the Duke tavern

below: Mediah on Queen

mural by mediah on queen street

mural

people walking past Samairas, with a street art painting on one of the exterior walls, large hand

Leslieville meat market, with street art image on door, a cyclist in front, women waiting at bus stop

below: on Broadview

mural on the side of a building on Broadview

below: Gales Snack Bar, Eastern and Carlaw.

Gales in old house on corner

below: Old row houses on Eastern – 4 in a row, 3 blue but 545 is in its original brown.

two storey old rowhouses on Queen St West

below: Something else that is old – an old style bus shelter close to an old metal Queen Street street sign affixed to the brick building.

old bus shelter with curved roof and brown metal supports,

below: And one last “you don’t see many of these anymore” – old parking meters.   Anyone got coins?

old grey metal parking meters, two on one stand

below: Snapdragons

pink, red, and yellow snapdagons flowers growing in front of a grey house

below: Lilies and hostas

small city frontyard with some grass and some red lilies and a hosta

below: More flowers, and a baby pram too.  Did you know that pram is just a short form of perambulator?  How British is that!  Even better, the second meaning of perambulator is, “a person who walks, especially for pleasure and in a leisurely way.”

porch of house with hanging baskets of flowers, chairs on the lawn,

below:  More than flowers!

reddish orange painted brick house with lots of decorations, such as fake flowers, a white swan,, around the front porch

reddish orange painted brick house with lots of decorations, such as fake flowers, a white swan,, around the front porch

below: Perambulating on Queen West!

some people walking on queen east, another person sitting on a bench

Queen Street east street scene

below: Traffic on Eastern Ave, headed downtown.

westbound traffic on Eastern Ave., moving towards downtown

below: No trespassing sign on one of the many vacant lots on the south side of Eastern.

black and yellow no trespassing sign on chainlink fence

faded warning signs on a locked gate and chainlink fence

below: This is one of the vacant lots on Eastern; it’s just west of Leslie.  The containers are offices (?) for GM as in General Motors.  They are sitting on a seven acre site that is otherwise empty.  Starting back in 2016 there was talk that this site would be developed as a GM Mobility Campus but approval from the city was never granted.   The previous buildings (film studios) were demolished and the lot lies vacant.

container offices in large vacant lot with chainlink fence around

below: Another space is for storage of old buses and trucks, movie props and other remnants of film productions.

trucks and school bus behind fence

below: … which happened to be unlocked the day I walked past.

CN Tower in the distance, a parking lot with old trucks and buses in the foreground

looking through upper windows of two buses, with reflections

below: On Leslie Street, at Eastern, this whole building is for lease because….

three storey industrial building with billboards on the side

below: .. as the letter states, the last tenant was locked out. They abandoned the premises leaving behind more than $100,000 in rent owing to the landlord.

letter on door stating that tenant was kicked out of arrears in rent and for abandoning the premises, dutch love cannabis is no more at this location

below:  The former Consumers Gas Company (now part of Enbridge) has had a large presence on Eastern Avenue for many years.  This stone on the exterior of the building names all the Consumers Gas directors in 1907 (presumably when the building was built?).  J.L. Blaikie was the president and A.W. Austin was the vice-president.  The mayor of the city, E. Coatsworth, was also a director.   There was a Sir W. Mortimer Clark on the list and, to no one’s surprise, the other names were all very anglo.

engraved stone with the list of Consumers Gas Company directors in 1907. on exterior of the building

below: Queen West at the CNR tracks

woman in long black skirt and white hat walks on Eastern Ave

below:  Little red picket fence

small red picket fence in front of a house

below: Renovations

large third storey addition on a house, juts out over front yard

two new renovations of family houses in leslieville

below: Note the many hydro meters all in a row – six units in what was once a single family home.

large new multiunit residence being built beside older smaller grey house

back of a house that has been painted orange, an old garage with graffiti on the door

below:  So far so good

front door steps of empty house that has been boarded up, with sign on it that says so far so good

below: Nice

green sign with white letters that says nice on brick wall on old industrial building

below: You never know what you will find written on the concrete.

quotes supporting cannabis availability stenciled onto a concrete barrier

on a TTC bus stop sign, a black marker drawing of a star with a happy face in the middle of it, with the words be kind

below: In memory of Karolina Huebner-Makurat who died on a Friday afternoon in August because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She was caught in the crossfire during an altercation outside a supervised injection site.  Senseless.  Horrible.

flowers, memorial

Stay safe.

Roncy old and new

Posted: October 21, 2022 in graffiti and street art, locations
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Walking an old favorite, the upper section of Roncesvalles.

below: The old Roncesvalles Village mural with the 504 streetcar is still looking good….  Jac’s Milk convenience store at Wright.

Jac's Milk convenience store on Roncesvalles, with a large mural on the side wall, a TTC streetcar, text that says Roncesvalles village, people waiting for the streetcar

below: There is now a bright new mural for Roncesvalles. It was painted by Philip Cote and Jim Thierry Bravo. It’s title is: “The Original People Leading to the Eighth Fire”.

new indigenous theme mural for roncesvalles village, a large brown bear looks down at the text in the mural, a lone of fish and birds under the text, a row of rental bikes in front of the mural, an orange sun in a yellow sky

There are many symbols that have been incorporated into the mural.  The large brown animal at the top (over the window) is a wolf who was the companion of the first humans.  There is an article on the Roncesvalles BIA website that provides more information and insights into the mural’s stories and symbols.    Also, what used to be a pharmacy is now Early Bird & Worm – but the painting of the interior of an old pharmacy is still there, under the new black and white sign.

left hand side of new Roncesvalles mural with a large green fish, a blue bird, and a bear, on the side of a brick building

below: On the far right is a thunderbird, a co-creator of the world.

right hand side of mural painted by Philip Cote and Jim Thierry Bravo, indigenous symbols, thunderbird

below: It’s pumpkin season!

Roncesvalles fruit market store with produce on display outside, pumpkins and sunflowers

view in a store window, gold and black and white pumpkins, picture of a woman in a frame

looking in the window of Good Neighbour store on Roncesvalles

old black sign with red peeling letters that say we scoop kawartha dairy ice cream, some letters missing

a man anad a woman talking and looking at a phone while standing on sidewalk by bicycles parked there, across street from White Corner Variety Store, new condos behind the store, Roncy, Roncesvalles

3 store fronts on Roncesvalles, Thai restaurant, Amma Roti place, and

below: Relax and Recover

two garages in a lane, ivy covering a lot of the nearest one, the word relax painted on the door, on the second garage, two large eyes above the door, and a white heart on the door with the word recover written in the middle of it

below: An oldie – a grominator on a concrete wall in an alley

street art on a cement block garage in an alley, a black and white grominator on one side and an abstract of swirls and wavy shapes in multi colours on the other

below: Bike parked in front of a painted door.

a black goccia bike parked in front of a door with multi color painting, abstract, on it

below: A defaced 33wallflower33 slap on the back of the traffic sign.

33 wallflower slap on back of traffic sign, two children in period clothing, sidewalk scene beside the sign

below: Opossums eat about 5000 ticks per season – now you know!

metal sidewalk box that has been painted with a picture of a possum along with some facts about the animal

samples of store merchandise on a door, a mat that says everyone welcome, a canvas bag with an image of an old TTC streetcar, a pink bag with a black stenciled womans face on it

turquoise and gold sign in the window of a door along with a lace curtain, sign says closed

parts of an old green sofa discarded and left by a bus shelter

north and south, blue and green

Posted: July 20, 2016 in galleries
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A comparison of sorts.  Two painters from two different time periods.  One looked north and the other looks south.  The north with its barren cold and blue in comparison to the south and its lush greenness.  A famous anglo Canadian painter who went searching for simplicity and a relatively new British painter with Jamaican roots who explores complexities.

Lawren Harris and Hurvin Anderson.  You should know which is which!

I didn’t purposely set out to compare them.  I saw the ‘The Idea of North’ exhibit that features the Steve Martin paintings of Lawren Harris first.  As much as I like the Group of Seven, Harris’s minimalist snow and ice paintings have never been my favorite.  Still, it was an interesting collection to see.  After I finished there, I headed up to the contemporary art floors.  The fifth floor is still closed (new installation opening later this week) but I discovered that the fourth floor is devoted to the works of Hurvin Anderson.  As I walked around the Anderson installation I kept thinking of similarities and differences between him and Lawren Harris.

many people in a room in an art gallery, standing around and looking at paintings.

below: Mountains in Snow: Rocky Mountain Paintings VII, 1929.  One of the many famous Lawren Harris snow and ice paintings.  Light, reflected light, shadows, and contrasts.  The elements reduced to their simplest form.   The landscape itself is almost secondary.  Or the landscape is the medium, not the message.

a Lawren Harris painting of a snow covered mountain, blue sky in the background.

below: The large painting on the right is ‘Pic Island’ painted about 1924.  Pic Island is an unpopulated island along the north shore of Lake Superior.  Today the island is part of Neys Provincial Park.

a woman walks through a gallery with paintings on the wall. She stops to look at one of them.

below: Two of Hurvin Anderson’s paintings from his Caribbean landscape collection.  On the left is ‘Beaded Curtain – Red Apples’, 2010.

three young women sitting on a couch with their backs to the camera, they are looking at two large paintings on a wall, by Hurvin Anderson.

below:  ‘Constructed View’, 2010.  Anderson’s Caribbean paintings have grilles incorporated into them.  These are the security features prevalent on houses and businesses in the Caribbean (and elsewhere in the world), metal fixtures over windows and doors to keep out the unwanted.  They contain what’s inside.  They are a barrier.  They intrude on the landscape and cut it up.  Again, the landscape is almost secondary.  The message, or emotion, is more important.  [aside – There is a grille in the painting above (right) but it’s more subtle.]

a landscape painting in shades of green with fragments of white grille overlayed, repeating pattern of 4 circles with a square

Lawren Harris painted his famous mountain pictures in the late 1920’s.  In 1930 he visited Baffin Island and a few paintings resulted from that trip.  I learned that although I associate Harris with icebergs and arctic scenery, most of his snow and ice paintings were from the north shore of Lake Superior or from the mountains around Banff Alberta.

The repetoire of both painters is not limited to landscapes.  Harris painted many houses and street scenes from downtown Toronto including houses and streets that were demolished years ago.  The examples of Anderson’s non-landscape work were interiors.  Both men used bold colours but Anderson tends to show more detail in his paintings.

below: ‘Welcome: Carib’  The Welcome sign of the bar in  juxtaposition with the red metal work covering the window.  The picture beckons to us but keeps us out.

a man in a straw fedora stands in front of a painting called Welcome: Carib by Hurvin anderson, it features a red star patterned grille over the painting, over the window that is in front of the interior scene.

below: One of the paintings from Anderson’s Barbershop collection, ‘Flat Top’ 2008.

two young women walk away from a large painting hanging on an art gallerywall. two barber chairs in a barber shop, empty. Bright pink wall with squares of colour.

below: A selection of colourful Toronto houses in winter painted by Harris in the 1920s.

two women look at a line Lawren Harris paintings of brightly coloured houses in winter on a wall in an art gallery

In the 1930’s Lawren Harris’s personal life went awry.  The words on the wall at the AGO says that he divorced, remarried and moved to the states.  That’s a bit of spin.  He didn’t divorce his wife because that would be messy, apparently.  Instead in 1934 he just married the wife of an old friend.   And of course that turned messy and the new couple left for the USA for a few years before eventually settling in Vancouver BC.   Harris’s post-1934 work is very abstract and was never as successful as his earlier paintings.

below:  You can see the influence of the mountain paintings in this,  ‘Painting No. 4’, about 1939, painted when he was a member of the Transcendental Painting Group.  This was a collective of artists in New Mexico that Harris help to found.

an abstract painting by Lawren Harris, circles and diamonds in an egg shape

below: Since I have no idea where the art of Hurvin Anderson is headed, I will leave you with one more of his present paintings (I’m not sure those two ideas actually go together!).  ‘Foska Foska’, the interior of a shop behind yellow bars and black mesh.

a painting by Hurvin Anderson called Foska Foska, shows the interior of a store with a yellow metal gate in front. and a wire structure covering the ceiling too

 

The Idea of North – until 18 September

Hurvin Anderson – until 21 August

#HarrisAGO | #HurvinAndersonAGO