Tag Archives: nature

The world is changing….

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The previous post, Utopia and smiley faces, showed a mural on Via Regina Margherita in Stornara. It is not the only mural on that wall. This is the next chapter in the story.

below: “The world is changing” are the first few words written on this mural. It was painted in 2022 as part of Comix Street Stornara, by Alaniz, and Wanda Hutira,

street art mural on a wall in Stornara Italy,

below: Princess Mononoke and she-wolf Moro come from an animated Japanese film. The story is about “Mononoke” (a “wolf-girl”), a foundling raised by the Goddess – Lupa Moro, protector of the forest. The plot is too and complicated for this blog post, but it involves a the war between the forest gods and the people of Irontown.

street art mural on a wall in Stornara Italy,

below: “The world is changing. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth and I smell it in the air.” A white wolf with many sharp pointy teeth snarls at the fox beside him.

street art mural on a wall in Stornara Italy, white wolf face and head in profile, open mouth, large pointy teeth

below: Flowery and colourful, a painting by Margay Art (aka Margot) , “Coyote Mediterraneo”,

street art mural on a wall in Stornara Italy,

below: Human figures walking on leaves caught in barbed wire beside the leaves and plants flowing from the fox’s face. In the caption to this photo I have cut and pasted the artist’s description of the painting that I found on her Instagram page. The translation is from Google Translate so tread with caution!

“El zorro es el coyote del mediterraneo. Se mete a traves de la “macchia”, de las praderas. Su pelaje toma el olor de las plantas salvajes y sus ojos se llenan de la sed de libertad. El zorro no se detiene ni en las barreras, ni en los alambrados como muchas almas en equilibrio sobre las fronteras.
Represente a la marguerita que es la flor nacional de Italia. Al olivo y al laurel, emblematicos del mediterraneo, al roble por su fuerza, a la avena sativa por su particular modo de dispersion de semillas ( ella tambien se agarra del zorro para plantarse al otro lado del campo evitando el empobrecimiento genetico de la especie) y al opio por tener una flor que pierde sus petalos cuando la cortas ya que solo se admira su belleza cuando esta viva y libre.”
TRANSLATION: The fox is the coyote of the Mediterranean. It slips through the “macchia” (grassland). Its fur takes on the scent of wild plants and its eyes are filled with the thirst for freedom. The fox does not stop at barriers or fences, like many souls balanced on borders.
It represents the daisy, which is Italy’s national flower. The olive and the laurel, emblematic of the Mediterranean, the oak for its strength, the sativa oat for its particular way of dispersing seeds (it also grabs onto the fox to plant itself on the other side of the field, avoiding the genetic impoverishment of the species) and the opium for having a flower that loses its petals when you cut it, since its beauty can only be admired when it is alive and free.
street art mural on a wall in Stornara Italy,

below: At the far end of the wall, there is a mural by Eloi Angel (aka TMX) and Roseta Fuster Serquera, titled “Freedom” When we were young, we had to work. When we are older we are free from work but we have not the strength to do everything we want.

street art mural on a wall in Stornara Italy, sorting apples and putting some in a bag

Other ComixStreet murals in Stornara that I have written about

Photos taken February 2024

Lansdowne underpass

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There is a railway bridge that crosses Lansdowne Ave just south of Dundas West. Along the concrete wall on the east side of the underpass is a long stretch of murals painted last year by a group of muralists and street artists. This is “Community Built”.

below: At the south end of paintings…. Ducks and loons in the water; ducks in flight by Nick Sweetman. Most people will recognize the green-headed mallard; the duck with the big black and white head is a male hooded merganser. A female merganser has a similar crest on her head except that it is brown.

Next to the ducks there are people fishing and wading in a creek. This portion was painted by Elicser Elliott.

part of a mural on the walls of an underpass, Nick Sweetman painted ducks and Elicser Elliott painted people in a creek

part of a mural, painted by elicser elliott, woman in yellow jacket and hat, standing in creek, hands in water,

below: Under the tracks, abstract flowers in yellows and oranges by Chris Perez

painting of abstract flowers in a mural by underpass, painted by Chris Perez, yellows and oranges on a blue background

below: Black hands and white hands reaching out, by Rowell Soller

street art mural underpass, calligraphy in red and yellow surrounding a black person, face and many black and white hands,

below: Kedre Brown (left) and Artchild (right)

mural under a railway bridge, two diferent scenes by two different artists, a black panther on the left, a person's portrait on the right, person is wearing a blue hat with little wings on it

below: Scenes on light green by Andrea Manica – a dog, a bee, and a couple of strawberries – walking in heels with coat and hat – sitting on a yellow blanket – a tent, mushrooms, and playing ball.

stylized people on light green background, scenes, in a mural under a railway bridge,

below: As the years go by we’ll be able to date the artworks of 2020 to 2022 by the presence of masks. That’s assuming that we won’t be wearing them again…..

part of mural, a brown person wearing an olive coloured wide brim hat and a pink covid mask,

below: Under a rainbow where nature thrives in a collaboration between Shawn Howe and Mo Thunder.

mural by shawn howe and mo thunder, an wall of an underpass. under a pink sky, a semi circular rainbow. under the rainbow a sleeping fawn, a loon, and many flowers and plants

a sleeping fawn in a street art mural

below: Que Rock

two murals on an underpass wall, on the right, by que rock, first nations theme and symbols

from a street art mural, a face painted with lines in blues, red, and yellow,

below: A few artists from Red Urban Nation Artists Collective had a section of the wall to paint

houses above, a stair case to a lower level sidewalk and street, with a mural on the wall and stairwell between the two levels

below: Part of the RUN Collective, is Ren Lonechild who painted the mother sasquatch with her little ones at the bottom of the stairs. Swooping and swirling around the apes and the stairs are ghostly creatures that are the work of Cedar Eve Peters

murals by an outdoor staircase, by red urban nation artists collective, apes walking in the blue night time, northern lights, ghost like figures

close up of part of a mural with large monkey or ape hand reaching for a smaller monkey or ape

below: The view from the top of the stairs from Shirley Avenue

looking down an outdoor stairwell beside Lansdowne Ave., into an underpass, murals on the left wall, street on the right

below: by Danielle Hyde

close up of part of mural painted by Danielle Hyde, a member of Red Urban Nation Artists Collective, on a wall beside a staircase, pink and brown faces swirled together,some hands too

long stretch of concrete wall alongside a railway underpass on Lansdowne Ave., covered with many different murals,

below: A mural with a message that the willow tree is nature’s aspirin. Willow bark contains salicin which is chemically similar to aspirin which also known as acetylsalicylic acid. The salicin chemical structure is shown in this mural by Keitha Keeshing-Tobias.

mural on a wall, willow as nature's aspirin, chemical structure of aspirin, evening sunset scene

below: This project incorporated a previous public art installation on this site. Back in 1989 a number of small sculptures, or forms, by Dyan Marie were embedded into the wall of the underpass.

shiny round sculpture embedded in concrete wall that has been incorporated into a street art mural

below: This is Leone McComas’s contribution to the ‘Community Built’ project

mural on concrete wall of underpass, different coloured silhouettes in long flowing clothes walking to a picnic in the park

below: Alex Bacon painted dancers in hazy flowing shades of pink and orange.

mural on exterior concrete wall, in shades of pink and orange, 3 human figures dancing, females, long flowing hair,

below: Two murals.

two murals on a concrete wall. on the right is a cyclist painted by Curtia Wright and on the left is a scene with two brown figures, a male and a female, standing above a yellow and orange sun

below: Close up of the cyclist painted by Curtia Wright

close up of cyclist head and shoulders, part of a mural, long brown hair, orange bike helmet,

below: Two brown figures by kaya joan

two brown figures facing each other, pink flowers on chest, hands up, white flowers in hands, dark sky behind them

below: On the right – a blue woman reclines by a cluster of colourful houses. She’s got one hand on a pink lawn and her feet on a red lawn under a white-leafed tree. This mural was painted by Yasaman Mehrsa.

two murals, one by june kim of a gold tiger, and one by yasaman of a blue reclining woman

below: Close up view of the big regal cat by Planta Muisca as it sits on a blue mat by a bowl of papaya and a slice of lemon.

part of a mural by Planta Muisca, yellow and gold tiger, with green necklace, a bowl of papaya, other animals in pastel colours

below: Welcome to Little Tibet … standing beside a white chicken by Caitlin Taguibao

two murals on Lansdowne Ave., on the left is tribute to little tibet, on the right is a white chicken with wings stretched out

below: People from the Little Tibet mural, by Kalsang Wangyal,

part of a mural, multi generational group of people, little tibet, mother holding baby, father with son on his shoulders, grandparents too

below: A mural by Tenzin Tsering on the right – a bonfire where “the flames of the bonfire represent the tradition of oral storytelling and act as a homage to the diverse and unique stories/voices of the people in Tkaronto.” (from her instagram page)

two murals with tops of houses behind,

below: And what’s a Toronto mural if it doesn’t have a raccoon?

light blue silhouette of a raccoon with a light blue and dark blue striped tail, in a mural on Lansdowne Ave

In the mural two pictures above, the painting on the left is the work of Jordan McKie (aka trip2thetop) The next few images are from that mural.

part of mural by trip 2 the top, butterfly with smiley face, other abstract shapes and figures

trip 2 the top mural, face of a person, black and white crosswalk, a yellow duck, a purple cat,

a smiley face worm by some leaves in orange and red, abstract shapes mural

below: A dragon’s head at the north end of the underpass by June Kim.

part of a June Jiuen Kim mural of a green gragon head with white teeth, blue spots, blue nose, and blue eyes

below: Looking south

graffiti on concrete supports at the end of a railway underpass, winter time, some snow on the ground, trees, a truck driving past,

city of toronto brass plaque on Lansdowne underpass bridge

A Mural Routes project from 2021

June, Jordan McKie, Tenzin Tsering, Kalsang Wangyal (waz_graphics), Caitlin Taguibao, Planta Muisca, Yasaman Mehrsa, kaya joan, Curtia Wright, Alex Bacon, Leone McComas, Keitha Keeshig-Tobias Biizindam, Red Urban Nation Artists Collective (Drew Rickard, Danielle Hyde, Cedar Eve Peters, Ren Lonechild and Que Rock), Mo Thunder and Shawn Howe, Andrea Manica, Kedre Brown, ARTCHILD, Rowell Soller, Chris Perez, Elicser Elliott, Nick Sweetman.

Curator and community engagement facilitator: Bareket Kezwer

looking through the top of a TTC bus shelter with blue sign for Dundas, Lansdowne Ave in the backgound