A few white walls on a sunny shadowy day.
A metal wall with peeling paint and a few rust spots… and then add an old basketball hoop to the composition.
In the spotlight, spotlight, spotlight, spotlight… and on camera too?
Twig and texture
Posts Tagged ‘wood’
colour and silliness
Posted: November 24, 2019 in alleys, windows and wallsTags: alley, bricks, door, glass, metal, paint, wall, window, windows, wood
There’s a building near King and Strachan that is adjacent to an alley. The alley side of that building has been painted in many, many, squares and rectangles of different colours and as a result, it looks like like a giant mosaic.
Although there is a certain sameness to these pictures, here’s a sample of the doors, windows, and wall in that alley.
of many ages
Posted: August 7, 2019 in alleys, graffiti and street artTags: clouds, cloudy daze, Curtia Wright, faces, fence, finger, flyguy, graffiti, Jamaica flag, Kensington, large, luvsumone, mario, murals, P.S, paint, Philip A. Saunders, philip saundres, poser, poser bunny, stencil, street art, walls, wood
Follow the pointy fingers!
In a Kensington alley just north of Dundas there are several new faces.
below: A very bright face by Curtia Wright
below: An up close look at ‘Lovely’ by ahayahisone (aka Philip A. Saunders, or P.S.)
below: A portrait of Philip Saunders by luvsumone (aka Moises Frank)
A Poser bunny face and a companion mini happy face too
Bonjour from the future
This one looks very much like it’s another P.S. painting.
Not as bright, but still surviving in the lane, are a couple of older faces
Mario sticks his head above text graffiti that says flyguy
“Keep yo head out the clouds” to which someone has responded. At first I thought the response was “Nah, Rock that cloud.” but on closer inspection I see that I am wrong. I like my answer better!
a dome above all else
Posted: July 25, 2019 in locationsTags: architecture, cathedral, church, coptic, cross, doors, Markham, mosaic, mural, St. Marks, Steeles, tiles, Warden, windows, wood
I was driving south on Warden the other day when I spotted a large church dome.
This is St. Marks Coptic Orthodox Cathedral near Warden and Steeles. The Coptic, or Egyptian, Church is believed to have been founded by St Mark at around AD 42 in Alexandria Egypt. It split from the rest of the Christendom in 451. In the 600s, Egypt was ruled by Islamic conquerors but it wasn’t until the 12th century that Coptics became a religious minority.
Construction of the church began around 2008/9 and was completed by 2015. It was officially opened by Pope Tawadros II who is the 118th pope in the Coptic church. The Roman Catholic Church and the Coptic Church are the only two religions in the world led by a “pope”.
below: Seven large carved wood doors. The colour of the exterior is reminiscent of desert sand.
A large mosaic mural across the top of the church is almost complete. It has been grouted and now is being cleaned.
below: Come out of Egypt my son, Matthew 2:15
below: The interior of the church is massive; under the dome, the nave is just over 29m high. There is seating for 1800 people.
As I was walking around the church, I spotted another cross just to the north – the Toronto Christian Community Church – with a different style of architecture. The name of the church was also written in Chinese but the church functions in Cantonese, Mandarin, and English. It was built in 2001.
alley doors
Posted: May 10, 2018 in alleys, doors, graffiti and street artTags: alley, bird, birdo, buildings, chair, doors, garages, graffiti, hinges, lane, laneway, metal, mural, old, paint, painted, pasteups, peeling, red, rust, urban, wood
I know that this isn’t the first time that I have blogged about alley doors (previous alley post, Nov 2017) and I know that I tend to take a lot of pictures in alleys so I hope that you aren’t rolling your eyes right now. I’m not sure that I’ve found anything “wow” or anything completely new, but here we go with a little bit of rust, a splash of paint and a dose of weathered …..
below: A dead end alley with three levels of doors.
below: Lots of rusty hinges and peeling paint
below: Not an inviting place to sit and chat!
below: Something to catch an eye – a bright red door amidst the greys and browns. If you look closely, there is a bird roosting on the door.
below: Look up! And watch your step.
below: An alley with some colour in blues and greens…. and even a few straight lines.
below: Are you wondering if something’s missing? Where are all the graffiti covered doors?
Ahhh…. here we are.
below: Part of Graffiti Alley. A birdo eye peeping over a wall.
below: An eagle’s head
below: Another birdo, this time a rooster head and a ??? tail. Cock tail?
below: There really is a door under there. A very narrow door.
below: Another narrow door. This one is adorned by something purple, something that looks like a head but isn’t a head. More heads, as pasteups on either side of the door.
below: A solitary bird on a shadowy tree.
below: I think that there was once a red heart on that door.
below: Mass confusion on the wall, the door, and the window. Many people have left their mark here…
below: …. and here too. The door as a canvas that comes already framed.
below: Maybe the Pink Panther is suffering from writer’s block, pacing back and forth waiting for inspiration. Or he can’t find the doorbell? He forgot his key? No one’s home. Abandoned.
This is another Thursday Doors post inspired by Norm 2.0’s blog. You can check out Thursday Doors for links to even more doors that other people have blogged about. Take a wander over!
warming with everyone and their dog – almost
Posted: February 27, 2018 in events, public art, waterfrontTags: alexander greiss, art, beach, dog, family, installations, jorel heid, joyce de grauw, Kew Beach, kids, kien pham, lake, Lake Ontario, lifeguard station, make some noise, nest, netting, Obstacle, paul van den berg, people, pink, public art, pussy hat, pussy hut, red fabric, sand, surfer, water, wind station, windmills, wood, wool
Yesterday started damp and grey but then flipped to bright and sunny. Almost spring-like even. So off to the beach I went.
Well, not that kind of beach. It does look warm though doesn’t it? Yesterday it was more like this:
below: Looking towards Lake Ontario from Kew Beach Ave. Lots of trees and lots of what looks like grass but is more like mud. Squish, squish as I walked gingerly across the water logged ground, trying to keep my shoes clean.
The goal? To check out this year’s warming stations art installations. Lots of others had the same idea as it turns out. Some kids, some dogs, but that’s okay.
below: Interacting with “Nest” both on the outside…..
below: …. and on the inside. Like all the other warming stations, this one is built around a lifeguard station.
below: The structure is covered with netting-like fabric on the inside and webbing on the outside. It was designed by a team from Ryerson University – Adrian Chiu, Arnel Espanol, and Henry Mai.
below: A sign of the times, a pink pussy hat makes its appearance as “Pussy Hut”
below: “What’s all the fuss about?”
below: A large square made of many pieces of hanging red fabric, anchored at the bottom with plywood. This is “Obstacle” by Kien Pham.
below: “Revolution” by a design team from OCAD university. It consists of 36 vertical red poles with conical metal pieces that twirl. You can look through them or speak through them, or just walk amongst the red poles.
below: Red!
below: “Rising Up” by University of Guelph, School of Environmental Design and Rural Development. The design was inspired by the topography of the Don Valley.
below: Ooops! One has blown over and collapsed already (it was quite windy). Ironically it was called “Wind Station” (designed by Paul van den Berg and Joyce de Grauw). When it was first constructed, it was in the shape of a nuclear cooling tower and you could go inside. The little plastic windmills continue to blow in the wind.
below: Not everyone was looking at the warming stations.
below: This is ‘Make Some Noise’, designed by Alexander Greiss and Jorel Heid. Apparently it is based on based on the intonarumori, an invention of the Italian futurist Luigi Rusollo in 1914. An intonarumori generates noise. Rusollo envisioned noise music replacing traditional forms of music but he was not successful and none of his contraptions survived.
below: This is one side of the box. The red is a handle that can be turned thus generating noise. I don’t think that it was working. Each side had a handle and a black speaker.
Stay warm!
Ice Breakers 2018
Posted: February 10, 2018 in public art, waterfrontTags: bear, Bennet Marburger, black bamboo, CN Tower, Ensemble, eyes, H2O park, Ji Zhang, music, Music Garden, muskoka chairs, Peter Sampson, Queens Quay, red, red bear, Root Cabin, sculpture, Tanya Goertzen, Thena Tak, tree roots, waterfront, Waterfront BIA, wind chimes, winter fanfare, wood
Ice Breakers returned to the Toronto waterfront once again last month. In mid-January five interactive art installations were built along Queens Quay West between the Harbourfront Centre in the east and the Music Garden in the west.
below: Appropriate for a space called the Music Garden, is a large structure supporting many wind chimes. This is “Ensemble” by Joao Araujo Sousa and Joana Correia Silva of Portugal.
There are two installations in H2O Park.
below: On the west side of the park is “Winter Fanfare” by Thena Tak of Vancouver. It is made from painted layers of wood. After I had walked past this installation I happened to look back to see a group of boys using these wood forms as protection as they had a snow ball fight.
below: Also in H2O park is “Through the Eyes of the Bear”. This giant bear, or rather parts of a bear, is the creation of Tanya Goertzen of Calgary.
below: The large head of the bear is open at the back. With a little crouching you can go inside and look out through the bear’s eyes. It’s got a great view of the CN Tower!
below: Close to the Simcoe Wave Deck (at the bottom of Simcoe Street) is a structure called “Black Bamboo” that you can walk through. It was designed by Bennet Marburger and Ji Zhang of China.
below: Last is “Root Cabin”, a small hut constructed from large tree roots. The day that I walked past these Ice Breakers was early on when they weren’t quite complete. The roots were being arranged, like a puzzle being put together. The pink frame was being used as a guide and the plan was to remove it once the roots were in place. This installation was designed by Liz Wreford and Peter Sampson from Winnipeg.
For more information, Ice Breakers
These installations remain until the 25th of February.
exposed
Posted: January 18, 2018 in construction, locations, old buildingsTags: abandoned, architecture, brick, buildings, construction site, demolition, doors, empty, exposed, furniture, interior walls, metal, painted, pipes, store, windows, wood, workmen
This is the story of one building at one intersection, Yonge and Belsize (just south of Eglinton) but it’s also a story that is being repeated over and over again in the city. The story of demolition and rebuilding. The story of loss of the older wood and brick structures as they are replaced by glass and steel.
By December 2016 all of the businesses had closed down.
below: The back of the building
Just over a year later demolition began in earnest.
alley doors, back doors
Posted: November 23, 2017 in alleys, doorsTags: alley, back doors, bench, coin laundry, doors, entrance, fence, gate, graffiti, metal, painted, white, wood
This post features some of the doors that caught my eye as I walked a few alleys this past week.
below: It was the colour of the plant outside the gate that I liked – It’s almost a perfect match with the colour of the fence.
below: These grey metal doors are a common sight as are metal staircases. Were the boards an attempt at a wall? A hiding place under the stairs?
below: You can get your laundry done in this alley. There is even a bench to sit on while you wait.
below: At first I thought that this was a strange place to put a door. Very awkward! Then I realized that it was probably just an old door that was being used to fill in the gap between the garage and the neighbouring building.
below: An interesting texture
below: And last, another common sight, scrawls on the wall.
It’s been a few months since I did a blog post about doors. If you like doors, you might want to check out a couple of previous posts:
- Spadina Open Doors
- Late doors (of Mt Pleasant cemetery)
If you go to Norm 2.0’s blog feature Thursday Doors, there are links to even more doors that other people have blogged about. Check them out!
wall compositions made in an alley
Posted: September 25, 2017 in abstract, alleys, doors, windows and wallsTags: brick, chainlink, colours, doorknob, doors, fence, flowers, grey, hinges, latches, light, locks, metal, nature, paint, patterns, plastic, red, screens, shadow, texture, trees, turquoise, wood
Sunny September days make good walking in the alleys days. Here are some of the walls I saw and the compositions that they make. The textures of wood and metal, bright colours as well as subdued ones, the effects of light and shadow, as well as shapes and patterns – these are some of the things that catch my eye and make me stop. Throw a little nature into the mix and the following photos are the result.
as I walk Toronto 