The Photographer

I went for a walk to shoot some pics of the houses along Palmerston Blvd which have some of the laneway buildings behind them - the ones I showed you a few weeks ago. As I wandered along I spotted this photographer who was really into shooting the same houses. It turns out he is an artist working on a project of taking shots of classic porches and he is planning a show of them in the future. He already has over 700 images to choose from!

In the pic you can also see the single pole-top lamps which line Palmerston Blvd. Originally installed in the 1910s, they were refurbished and renewed in 2005 and this remains one of the few streets in Toronto with this type of lamp.

"Graffiti Alley"

This is a shot looking along the laneway off Queen St West known as "Graffiti Alley" where I took the shots of the graffiti & murals this week. Toronto has a large graffiti culture and this is probably the epicentre of it all with even tours being conducted along here. The lane backs a very old long commercial strip of small businesses and stores and has become the site of an ever-changing display of graffiti despite the efforts of many politicians. I am not a fan of mindless tagging but do enjoy the murals and have to admit that looking down a lane like this is usually a real treat and an adventure for me. Funny how I would go down such a lane here but sure wouldn't go down one in another city that looked like this! Familiarity I guess!

Laneway Chaos

I thought that I would show you a more typical shot from the laneway that I had wandered down on Sunday. Almost every building is covered in these stylized tags and only once in a while do you happen upon a good mural, although this particular shot is saved by the presence of 2 of UB5000's yellow birds. The Zip Car sign refers to a car-sharing program that lets you take a car to use a car for an hourly fee.

A Tax Revolt?

No - it was simply a marketing scheme at Loblaws this past Saturday. Loblaws is the largest grocery store chain in Canada with over 1,000 stores and offered a break from our sales tax on Saturday only. In Ontario we pay 13% sales tax (VAT) on practically all non-food items and services so it could add up to real savings if you pick the right purchases, e.g. soaps, light bulbs, etc. It was the striking array of yellow signs that caught my attention however!

Taking part in Signs, Signs. For more signs click here.

"Walkin My Dog"

This is another mural that I discovered on my Sunday travels along the laneways/alleys of Queen St West and it is by the same artist as yesterday's - UB5000. This piece is really large - the bottom of it starts at the 2nd floor of the building and the top bird is sitting on a 4th floor window sill! Once again you can see all the neat details he put into his pieces - the top bird wearing a Blue Jays hat, the girl's headphones hooking into a pre-existing utility box on the wall, etc. Love it!

Jail Birds

This has to be one of my all-time favourite murals which I found yesterday in a laneway/alley behind Queen St West. Enlarge to see the funny details the artist has put on the birds behind bars - tattoos, shackles, bird detective, etc. I have come across a lot of these canary paintings but haven't found out the artist yet - will keep trying.

Update - the artist is UB5000 (aka Allan Ryan)

Taking part in Monday Murals. For more murals click here.

"Man And Woman"

Another abstract bronze sculpture from the 60s, "Man And Woman" by Canadian artist Louis Archambault was done in 1968 as one of the commissions for new Ontario government buildings called the MacDonald Block. Located in a breezeway off Grosvenor St, the angular male figure stands over 12 ft tall and the more rounded female is a bit shorter. I really like this piece!

I have shown you some of the other pieces from the MacDonald Block before - click the link below.