Graffiti Alley – spring 2024

Posted on March 16, 2024 by Mary C

As you might know, every once in a while I walk down Graffiti Alley in Toronto to see if there is anything new that might be of interest. This blog post is a result of last week’s walk….

below: Orange hair with attitude – “You don’t look smart because you have a beard!” by NYC based City Kitty. In the upper right corner all the way from the UK, a D7606 old style telephone featuring David Bowie… call a friend.

below: Havana to Toronto and of course, 2 + 2 always = 5.

below: A diverse group of faces

below: Many more faces but mostly a frowny face man. Every time I look at this picture I think of Poilievre but that opinion might get me into trouble!

below: Purple with green wings and a golden halo – horus and tuffytats (aka Trevor Goodwin) be dreaming again?

below: “Tell them louder”

below: Yarn squares crocheted and attached to a pole with Urban Ninja Squadron’s T-bonez looking on.

below: No Dumping stickers

below: Playing on his knees. That’s quite the instrument. Cuba on his shoulder.

below: And a similar man with curly hair and beard, but this time in pink.

below: A blue legless and armless robot along with a conehead type creature with a big mouth, both at 733.

below: FPmonkey – a young woman with long purple hair tied up with green flowers. A single red tear drop on her cheek.

below: Uber5000’s marine life is still a colourful fixture in the alley.

below: Nearby, his Toronto/Canada themed mural has not lasted as well. A couple of yellow birdies are still visible.

below: Spiderman and the Spiderverse – some of the mural remains untouched but much of it has been tagged over

below: En masse has a number of pieces in the area including three metal boxes on the sidewalk – this is part of one of those boxes. Almost all of their work is in black and white.

below: The tears of a clown when there’s no one around….

below: She’s green.

below: Tiny finds on a blue wall. Princess Lays Chicken (Princess Laya Chicken?)

below: remnants of Black Lives Matter, and a new purple flower on the door.

below: A scrawny cat scribbled on yellow paint. In case it is difficult to see, the sticker (or paste up) on the pole is an old television set with text near the bottom that says, “HAHA”. Interpret it as you wish (as usual).

below: Rubbish in the lane (maybe just a spring clean up needed? … not that the alley is usually clean LOL)

Photos taken March 2024
This post also appears in As I Walk Toronto blog

vibes at Coxwell & Gerrard

Posted on March 15, 2024 by Mary C

This is “Vibe Mantra Scroll”, a collaboration between two Toronto artists SOWL (aka Rowell Sowell) and Flips as a shout out to hip hop culture and its global appeal. It is on the southwest corner of Coxwell and Gerrard.

On the back side of the same building there is another SOWL mural

Photos taken March 2024
This post also appears in As I Walk Toronto blog

Along the Riverbank

Posted on January 18, 2024 by Mary C

There is a new mural (2022) in Toronto by Nick Sweetman featuring animals and plant life commonly found along Ontario’s rivers, especially the Don River that flows nearby. It adorns a wall/fence that runs the length of a new park, Riverside Square, which is southeast of Queen and the Don Valley Parkway.

below: The east end of the mural

part of mural by Nick Sweetman, Along the Riverbank

below: A blue-fronted dancer damselfly (A very long name for a very small creature!)

below: Mink, toad, and a water insect called a water strider.

below: Catfish

below: A raccoon eyes the fish swimming past

below: A happy dog among friends, a raccoon and a cotton tail rabbit. If you look closely, there is a bridge in the background by the fox – Torontonians might recognize this bridge as one of the many that cross the Don River.

below: Red fox, coyote

below: In the middle

below: Egret diving for fish

below: White-tailed Deer

below: North American beaver

below: Painted turtle

below: Northern Leopard Frog

Tensoe2 and Moises (Luvs) also contributed to ‘Along the Riverbank’

Photos taken January 2024

In the alley after dark

Posted on October 14, 2023 by Mary C

A walk down Graffiti Alley on a rainy night.

below: Unfortunately, one of Uber5000’s large Toronto/Canada themed murals has been defaced (the one on the north side of the alley).

below: Doug Ford running away with the money, stencil graffiti by D. Terra. Our Premier seems rather happy with his haul. Accurate?

below: A dope piece that bears some resemblance to Homer Simpson.

below: A yellow one-eyed daisy standing tall.

below: This portrait has hair!

below: For some reason, a section of one of the side lanes (McDougall Lane? or Rush Lane?) was lit by a red light. Here there was a collection of pasteups and stickers including one with an abundance of flowers in her hair, a skater figure by drecks. She is joined by a bare breasted woman with even more flowers on her head as well as a Snoopy look alike and a cat on the telly.

below: On the same wall as the above – Tweetie bird, from Australia, along with some friends. Because of the red light, this photo is very low contrast and difficult to see. Best to see this wall in the daytime! Second best, would be to check out the instagram page of tweet_streetart

below: Another selection of slaps, mostly birds this time.

below: A little raccoon

below: Mortus figure – his hands are almost big enough to hold all those skulls.

below: On the pavement

below: FP Monkey (aka Julia H), Skamoney, Monster Fan Club, and PP Spray

below: Poser bunny

below: Making a rap music video

below: The east end of Graffiti Alley, the part closest to Spadina, was very dark.

below: As it turns out, the buildings at this end (north side) are now behind a metal construction fence. Darkness equals empty I suspect.

below: Yes they matter but was there no where else to paint this? There’s so much junk in the alley that no one would miss.

below: I am going to end this post with a bit of a rant. Yes, to some extent the art in this alley has come somewhat commercialized especially with the newer buildings on Richmond that back onto the alley. Uber5000 has benefited from some of this as he has painted a few large (and very good) murals here. Also, I understand that street art by its nature is prone to “disappearing” behind the work of others but I reject the notion that one person’s tag is as good as another person’s mural. Anyone can destroy. Anyone can paint their “name” but if you are proud of writing it over someone else’s more talented work then you haven’t progressed beyond the preschooler phase of life.

Photos taken October 2023

This post also appears in mcfcrandall.blog

Catchoo and friends

Posted on September 24, 2023 by Mary C

A group of stickers seen on a pole on Queen Street East recently

has an image from Catchoo combined with a perplexed Sailor dude from Ty Pro in the top place – what a cute balloon! At the bottom are three heads that you might recognize from previous posts. In pink is T-bonez from urban ninja squadron and the chosen few; on the right is a luchadore mask from bruho.

Here catchoo collaborates with c_priority (a k a Christopher Piccinich ) Even within the blacks of his suit there are little catchoo symbols and characters. I was hoping that there were secret messages written on the pieces of paper on the desk but there are just squiggly lines.

Last, feelings boi joins the fun. Is it a sword? or an umbrella? Whatever it is, there are smiles all round.

Photos taken Sept 2023

This blog post also appears in As I Walk Toronto

bits of paper in Graffiti Alley

Posted on July 19, 2023 by Mary C

Another visit to Graffiti Alley to see what’s changed…..

below: Collage on the back of a sign with contributions by many.

below: An orange dragon graces a utility pole.

below: Sentient Cookie with “The words you’ve said to me a decade ago still echo in my brain”.

below: Another section of wall covered with the remains of stickers and slaps.

below: Truth, It’s that simple. Consume daily. “Free through an earnest volition. Side effects include decreased stress and increased mental clarity…. ” Dorian’s House.

below: Who do you love? Apparently someone loves his/her girlfriend while someone else loves, and misses, Stephanie Ann.

below: More ink additions, this time on a bird. Someone has written, “no phone no wife” – either he thinks that without a phone he can’t find/attract a wife (no tindr?) or he has neither a phone nor a wife (lucky man?). Interpret as you want. Also, there is Kone x Roc on his wing as well as Sari D. declaring her love forever.

below: Someone left their shoe behind… and that’s quite the reaction from Tips

below: 33wallflower33 wheatpaste – My body my choice

below: … and another

below: Urban Ninja Squadron running away with an angry bird…. and Adopt by Praxis in bright pink

below: An angry white cloud seems to hover hover a drawing by catchoo

below: More catchoo

below: What’s this chef serving up?

below: L S and Z

below: A skull and Noah forever.

Photos taken June 2023

Graffiti Alley Bone Head

Posted on June 27, 2023 by Mary C

There are a series of 5 paintings by Bone Head nestled between the windows of a building that backs onto Graffiti Alley in Toronto. As the name suggests, Bone Head painted characters with large boney heads or skulls. They also have a penchant for white shirts and striped neck ties!

graffiti painting by bone head on a brick wall in the narrow space between two windows, large boney head, narrow white shirt and striped neck tie

Lovegates faces

Posted on May 31, 2023 by Mary C

On the side of Fat Pasha Restaurant at the corner of Howland and Dupont there is a large mural of ten local Annex residents painted by Troy Lovegates.

whole Troy Lovegates mural, faces of 10 Annex residents both male and female

part of Troy Lovegates mural, two faces of young men in a variety of colours

Troy Lovegates mural, faces by a red door with word kitchen over the top of it, blue face of a woman, also an upper storey window

Troy Lovegates mural, faces by a red door, and two upper level windows, a line of light green garbage cans beside wall, two bikes,

Changes at Broadview and Eastern

Posted on May 27, 2023 by Mary C

This row of old two storey row houses has been vacant for years. Recently the developer that owns the properties provided a couple of Toronto artists the opportunity paint the exterior. This is the result.

If you look carefully, you can see that Nick Sweetman and Luvs (aka Moises) have painted the word CHANGE across the front of the buildings. As a theme for a mural on a redevelopment site in a city bursting at the seams with such sites, change seems very appropriate.

below: I’ve played with the colours a bit to highlight some of the letters. You should be able to see C, H, and A across this image.

But the mural is more than colour and letters. There are three animals featured here – pigeon, raccoon, and coyote – all of which have adapted to changes and now thrive in urban environments.

below: A blue pigeon

below: A pinkish marroonish reddish raccoon

below: A coyote with a dead leaf and new buds.

Funding provided by Streetcar Developments

below: The houses to the north….

Photos taken 25 May 2023

at Croft and College

Posted on April 3, 2023 by Mary C

Painted in the summer of 2020.

below: “Protect your energy”

a painting on the side of a wall on Croft Ave., by elicser elliott, of two people with text protect your energy

below:A raccoon in pinks and purples, by Jeff Blackburn

mural featuring a large raccoon head in shades of pink and purple

part of a collaboration mural on a wall, yellow popsicle by Jeff Blackburn and an ebony jewelwing damselfly on a leaf by Nick Sweetman

below: by Nick Sweetman – two ebony jewelwings, a male and female along with a partially submerged frog with its tongue ready for action. Jewelwings are a species of damselfly.

mural on a wall by Nick Sweetman, ebony jewelwing damselfly, frog with long tongue partially submerged in water