alley garages | Eyes on the Streets

… is an all that is north of Bloor, between Christie and Bathurst. Recently a group of artists painted quite a few of the garage doors here. “Flight of the Winged Ones” was the theme of this Laneway Mural Jam and it was dedicated to the memory of Miriam Garfinkle. The following photos are the murals that can now be seen in this lane – in no particular order.

two women painting a street art mural on a garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane

below: This is Adrian Hayles‘ contribution to the project. Miriam Garfinkle (1954–2018) lived on Barton Avenue, in a house which backs onto this laneway, from 2000 to 2018. She lived and worked in this community for most of her life.

street art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane

below: Sebas Perez Vicentini painted this colourful mural with two long necked birds.

street art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane by Sebas Perez Vincenti

below: A photographer takes pictures of birds and owls in a mural by April Grace and [sorry but I couldn’t read the name].

street art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane by April Grace

below: “Flight of the Winged Ones” title mural.

street art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane, purple owl in flight

below: Birch trees by the water by Joe Rich

street art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane, by Joe rich, landscape with birch trees and water

below: Julia Harper’s thunderbird of the heavens

street art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane, by Julia Harper, stars in night sky, thunderbird in the heavens

below: An archer concentrating hard on her red bow and arrow, by Hyunsun Park

street art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane, by Hyunsun Park, female archer with red bow and arrow, taking a shot, concentrating

below: Chickadees by Nick Sweetman [This is actually an artwork from a few years ago].

street art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane, by Nick Sweetman, chickadees

below: Gimun Ryu – A woman and her birds.

street art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane, by Gimun Ryu, a woman with open hand and pink birds flying towards her

below: A very stylized graphic-like rendition of birds at a cluster of bird feeders by Gust of Wind Studio (aka Mateusz Napieralski)

street art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane, Gust of Wind Studioak a Mateusz Napieralski

below: Garages between Clinton and Manning Streets,

street art murals on many garage doors in Miriam Garfinkle Lane,

below: EGR‘s angel with a butterfly

street art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane, by EGR, an angel and a butterfly

below: ‘Kaktukopunjej’ by Veronica Orozco, in memory of Layton Stevens.

mural by Veronica Orozco, woman sitting against tree trunk while looking out over a lake, swallow flying past, against a setting sun, or it could be the moon, red handprint on woman's cheek, bird nest in tree, stars in sky

below: BJR, aka Bradley Reinhardt with a lively collection of birds in a tree – blue jay, robin, owl, cardinal, and more. A smiling grey bear and a fox are under the tree and Canada Geese are flying by. A green snake lurks under the tree.

street art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane, a lively collection of birds in a tree - blue jay, robin, owl, cardinal, and more. A smiling grey bear and a fox are under the tree and Canada Geese are flying by. A green snake lurks under the tree.

below: A blue Owl and a cardinal (with its foot in the door handle).

street art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane, by Bradley Reinhardt, a blue owl and a red northern cardinal

below: Ohlordyitsjulia aka Julia Louise Pereira chose a nighttime scene of blue birds flying over rooftops in the city.

street art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane, by Julia Pereira, night scene in city, with birds flying around

below: The large orange bird (Phoenix?) was painted by Esky.

below: Scofy Wallz, nature in the city.

street art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane, by Scofy Wallz, woman's portrait, Toronto skyline with lake and CN tower, birds, butterfly, milkweed

below: Faces among the hummingbirds and bright flowers, by Cocreation Art (aka Danielle Hyde).

street art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane, by Danielle Hyde, faces, hummingbirds and flowers

below: More birds! Painting by Shoreland Arts, (aka Thelia Shelton).

street art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane, by Thelia Shelton

below: A closer look at the birds perched on blue branches.

street art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane, pink and yellow birds on blue branches, Shoreland Arts

below: A fawn prances through the night sky, a nighttime apparition among the stars.

street art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane, night sky, stars, fawn

below: A whimsical look at a fat striped caterpillar who in turn is looking at the butterflies as they flit among the milkweed and goldenrod…. by Anderkaya (aka Sarah Whang).

street art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane, by Sarah Whang

woman taking pictures of street art murals on garage doors in Miriam Garfinkle Lane,

below: A slightly creepy winged insect that resembles a tiger face… with many eyes! As you can see, the artist was Shalak (aka Shalak Attack)

street art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane, by Shalak Attack

below: The chickadees are breaking free! … by Murals by Marg,

street art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane, by Murals by Marg, chickadees

below: Talie Shalmon painted a red wing blackbird and her nest of 3 blue eggs.

street art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane, by Talie Shalmon, s large red wing blackbird flying towards a nest withthree blue eggs in it

below: A pair of indigenous art style birds.

street art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane, indigenous art, birds

below: A big bee checks out a few flowers

below: Cedar Eve, strawberries, blueberries and a couple of strange faces.

street art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane, by Cedar Eve

below: A very large bat flying over the garden, by Trina Moyan

street art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane, by Trina Moyan, a large bat flies over a garden

below: The purple painting on the right was the contribution of nshtsh (aka Nishina)

a few street art murals on garage doors in Miriam Garfinkle Lane, including a purple one by Nishina

below: A cedar waxwing and a butterfly, by Miguel Albino.

Miguel Albino, street art mural, cedar waxwing bird and a butterfly, on a wood fence in Miraim Garfinkle lane

street art mural, birch trees, with orange circle in the middle, faces in the circle, feathers too

two women paintingstreet art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane,

below: A crested bird by DJNU

street art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane, by DJNU, a bird with a crested head

two men working on garages and back fence, surrounded by street art mural on garage door in Miriam Garfinkle Lane,

With apologies to the artists whose names I didn’t know.
Photos taken October 2026

Moooo…. Hey there good looking!… Here’s looking at you! This was painted by Poser. Usually he does bunny rabbits but I think that he’s pretty good at painting cows too!

For a number of years now, there has been a lot of street art and graffiti in an alley that runs behind the east side of Ossington starting at Queen Street and ending one block north at Humbert. Some of it is interesting; some is not. A few garages and walls look the same as they did 12 or 13 years ago so some of these photos may look similar to older photos used in this blog.

below: In the background, an untitled piece by Caratoes. It was one of 5 murals painted in Toronto in 2016 for the “Sea Walls: Artists for Oceans” series. In total, there were over 500 murals in 20 countries in this series.

below: Six lit matches ready to go. This crazy cat is up to something no good…

below: An early Birdo piece, although the scroll names or street artists too. The first street art in the alley dates from 2012 when a group of artists painted some of the garages here.

below: A pink rose between two women.

below: Another oldie – this purple guy has been blowing a gust of wind for many years.

below: Vintage Spud bombs, some cheerful and some menacing.

below: A funny looking green creature with big white eyes and lots of skinny legs.

below: A couple, together in the stream, in a mural by Elicser Elliott with the title “Swim”

below: Geometric shapes with a touch of rainbow colour, by Peru

below: Large pink and white swirls and curls cover a wall. Any time that you see swirls like these, think Flips because that’s sure to be the artist that painted them.

below: Only a small portion of this moose painting by Aaron Li-Hill remains. I don’t usually show the original works but I am going to make an exception here. See next image.