Tag Archives: Luvs

Along the Riverbank

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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.

part of mural by Nick Sweetman, Along the Riverbank

below: Catfish

part of mural by Nick Sweetman, Along the Riverbank

below: A raccoon eyes the fish swimming past

part of mural by Nick Sweetman, Along the Riverbank

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.

part of mural by Nick Sweetman, Along the Riverbank

below: Red fox, coyote

part of mural by Nick Sweetman, Along the Riverbank

below: In the middle

part of mural by Nick Sweetman, Along the Riverbank

below: Egret diving for fish

part of mural by Nick Sweetman, Along the Riverbank

below: White-tailed Deer

part of mural by Nick Sweetman, Along the Riverbank

below: North American beaver

below: Painted turtle

part of mural by Nick Sweetman, Along the Riverbank

below: Northern Leopard Frog

part of mural by Nick Sweetman, Along the Riverbank

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

Photos taken January 2024

Breaking Walls in Montreal

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Breaking Walls was an Urban Arts and Culture event in Montreal that was held back in June of this year. It was supported by Kolors Worldwide (“Let’s kolor the world”) and MOS Canada – Meeting of Styles Canada. The event was held in a space between rue Moreau and the railway tracks, close to rue Rouen, in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighbourhood. In hindsight, I realize that I missed a couple of the murals the day that I was there. Additionally, a couple of the smaller pieces that I have included may be graffiti that pre-dates the Breaking Walls event.

below: A Nick Sweetman and Mr. Tensoe2 collaboration

large street art mural with two blue owls
close up view of blue owl painted by nick sweetman, mural in Montreal, on brick wall

below: Vuducat aka Christina Mazzulla

mural by Christina Mazzulla, in reds and pinks mostly, woman's face

below: Jijón painted red and pink figure

mural by mexican artist jijon, pink character

below: I am going to call it a blue traffic circle because it’s blue and it has traffic related items in it such as an orange cone, the front of a car, street signs, and traffic lights yellow. It was painted by Sergio MB. Unfortunately, the red and white tag has already defaced the work.

blue circle shape with traffic related items like orange cone, traffic light,

To the left of this purple dog (by Hank) was a painting of a woman’s portrait in turquoise that unfortunately has already been tagged over. It was painted by Polographe and can be seen on his Instagram page.

below: Arlick Enigma ( Arlick PaXman Team), originally from Mexico, painted this wonderful portrait of a child wearing a parka with a fur lined hood.

with leaves from small trees framing it, a street art portrait of a child's face

below: Monk.E and Luvs (Moise) collaboration

below: Emmanuel Jarus – A blue woman with long braids down her back walks away.

in blue, jarus street art painting of the back of a person with a long braid down their back

below: The portrait on the back of the truck is the work of Pearl

truck with graffiti on it as well as portrait of a woman on the back, parked beside jarus mural in parking lot

below: “Westbound” by Megan Oldhues.

below: Dodo_ose

below: Keep Going

below: Bryan Beyung

below: by Retro and Raquel Hernandez, both part of 𝑨𝖗𝖙 𝕯𝖊𝖆𝖑𝖊𝖗𝖘 𝕿𝖊𝖕𝖔𝖟𝖙𝖑𝖆𝖓 

blog_retro_raque_masks

below: A Mos Geez face

on a wall in a parking lot, a green skinned face with purple eye sockets and green lips, a graffiti piece by mos geez

below: That’s one nasty can of spray paint! Nemo, or n3mo1er on Instagram.

painting in black on a chunk of grey concrete, a face with a very large nose

below: A map of Montreal like a patchwork sock

painting on a double door, exterior, map of Montreal made using different colours of text, text gives name of that area of Montreal

below: Resister

graffiti, all text, largest word is resister in black, lots of words in red too

Breaking Walls was supported by NBQ Canada (makers of NBQ Pro Spray Paint).

Photos taken in July 2023.

Changes at Broadview and Eastern

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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.

large street art painting by nick sweetman and luvs aka moises on a row of empty houses at Broadview and Eastern

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.

part of a street art mural with the word change written in gold and yellow on a multi coloured background, on old houses with boarded up windows

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

street art mural of a large blue pigeon on the side of an empty old house

below: A pinkish marroonish reddish raccoon

a large street art raccoon on an old house, part of a mural by nick sweetman and luvs moises

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

large mural with a coyote face, a large dead orange leaf,

Funding provided by Streetcar Developments

a row of old brick houses with boarded up windows has been covered with a large mural

upper window of an old vacant house now covered in many colours, mural

below: The houses to the north….

row of houses on the east side of Broadview near Eastern, two story, peaked roof,

poster on a boarded up window that says so far so good

Photos taken 25 May 2023

Carleton Village murals, Toronto 2021

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Even when I walk in Toronto, sometimes I find myself in unfamiliar territory and so it was back in December when I went to investigate some alleys where I’d heard that new murals had been painted.

below: Around Toronto there are quite a few raccoons in murals by Emily May Rose. Here, these “trash pandas” are being watched over by a big white rat. Quite the dumpster fire!

mural in an alley by Emily May Rose of raccoons and a big white rat. One raccoon is setting fire to a dumpster

below: A large mural by BirdO (aka Jerry Rugg) beside Charles Sauriol school

below: Near the birdO mural (you can just see it on the left side here) is a house with street art covering the whole side of it.

the side of a house is covered with street art, 2 or 3 murals on both upper and lower storeys by Phillips Saunders and June Kim, in the background on the left side is a birdo mural

below: A man reaching out a multicoloured hand to a woman by Phillip Saunders covers the back part of the house

murals on the side of a house, a man and a woman with black curly hair

below: A brown octopus and bright coloured tiger playing together – a collaboration between Luvs and June Kim.

mural of a June Kim brightly colored tiger on the side of a house along with a brown octopus by Luvs

below: Baby birds with beaks uplifted in a mural by Bruno Smoky and Clandestinos

mural by Bruno Smoky and Clandestinos on a wood fence in an alley, baby birds in a nest with their beaks open waiting for parents to feed them

below: Blue jay and tomato face, rowdyradrat and Chris Perez

street art on a wood fence in a lane

below: Taking cover under umbrellas on a rainy day in a mural by Elicser Elliott

below: Mural in another lane with a signature says June, Bacon, and Erika.

below: A Nick Sweetman painting of a large Cuckoo wasp feeding on a yellow flower

mural by Nick Sweetman on a garage door in an alley, a large blue green Cuckoo wasp, on a yellow flower

below: A multi-lingual thank you to essential workers on Davenport – obrigado, gracias, merci, and grazie!

below: More of Emily May Roses’s mischievous raccoons and their cans of orange spray paint.

an emily may rose mural on the side of a dark grey building, showing raccoons playing around a white cube van, vandalism with orange spray paint

below: Mediah blues on the right and a Que Rock mural with indigenous themes and symbols on the left.

looking across a park in late December, two garages in an alley painted with murals, on the right is one in blues by mediah. On the left is mural mural by Que Rock, indigenous themes, loons on the water, mother earth

below: Planta Muisca mural with an orange snake under a purple night sky.

a mural by muisca on a garage door in a lane, an orange snake in the purple night with moon and plant with large leaves

below: Anya Mielniczek’s woman’s face looks down the lane.

mural by Anya Mielniczek of a girls's head in pinks and oranges down a lane, rest of mural blocked by fence

below: A closer look of the mural reveals another woman’s head on the far side along with people mixing together in the central portion painted by Raoul

orange and pink woman's head by Anya Mielniczek along with a picture of a group of people, mostly men, by Raoul

below: Suri in grey tones while drinking, mural by haenahhh

mural on a garage door in an alley by haenahh of a woman sitting with a cup of coffee

below: HeldbyHuda mural

geometrics and shapes, abstract street art mural on a garage door by artist with instagram handle heldbyhuda

below: by Victoria Day

garage door mural by Victoria Day, stylized yellow and green flowers on a blue green gradient background

below: Sections of citrus fruit in glass bowls, real? reflections? by Steam

Steam, the artist, painted a mural on a garage door of citrus fruit sections in glass bowls

below: Fantasy creatures playing in a mural by Kisong Koh

mural by Kisong Koh on the door of a garage in a laneway of three nonsensical fantasy creatures, a purple animal with fins for legs is upside down, a grey creature is wearing blue boxer shorts with pink polka dots and the third has a long yellow beak, one human hand and foot, and long orange hair

below: Mural by Kseniya Tsoy on a garage door.

bright and colourful mural in an alley of a woman with long purplish black hair, very white skin, and a blue low necked top. She's holding a pomegranate and two branches with green leaves and red flower

Support for the alley murals was provided by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

I have included most of the paintings but not all. For a complete set of photos, please take a look on Erika James’s Instagram page as she was one of the organizers of the project and she has documented it well.

These murals also appear on my Walking Toronto blog in two separate posts:
1. Around Wadsworth Park and
2. South of Davenport