Go Ahead in the Rain

 

Location: Laneway off Pelham Avenue

Date photo taken: 7 December 2022

A perfect mural for our showery April but it's also a call out to 90s hip hop band A Tribe Called Quest. Go Ahead in the Rain was a track on their first album and it's also the name of an award winning book about the group. 

Billie Holiday

 

Location: Logan Avenue, north of Lakeshore
Date photo taken: 4 September 2020

This beautiful portrait of jazz great Billie Holiday forms the southern part of a huge mural on Logan Avenue, just north of Lakeshore. If you're a fan, you might know that Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915, in Philadelphia. The northern end of the mural features another jazz legend, also with a Philadelphia connection. You'll have to visit the mural to find out who.

Easter Bunny at work

Location: Cabbagetown

Date photo taken: 28 March 2024

Large inflatables aren't just for Christmas and Hallowe'en anymore. While not as prevalent as at those other times of year, I was surprised how many yards were sporting various egg and bunny themed blow ups. What makes this yard display special is something you can't see in this picture - dozens and dozens of painted eggs spread all over the yard. 

Winged fairy

 

Location: Noise barrier along the rail corridor, viewed from Sudbury just south of Queen St. W.

Date photo taken: 11 November 2021

The jagged edge on the right side of this mural is explained by the fact that it forms the final E in the name Parkdale. It's part of a lengthy mural that adorns the sound barrier along the railway lines south of Sudbury Street. Each letter is blocked out against black and features its own mural. Further murals spell out Liberty Village and West Queen West. Another mural in this set was featured in 2022 and you can read more about the project in that post. 

This mural was contributed by EGRart. According to their statement, "In a metaphorical framework, her art delves into the notion of finding our place in the world by depicting archetypes within wondrous urban and natural settings; fantastical characters blessed and at times burdened by our modern day ways of living. Figures convey strength, vitality and power; winged characters and fairies represent angels among us."

Pi

 

Location: Wellington Street, just west of Bay

Date photo taken: 12 August 2020

Tucked away in one of the Financial District's many weird pedestrian access lanes sits this unusual multi-part bronze sculpture by Toronto-based sculptor Evan Penny. It was commissioned in the 1990s while Penny was teaching at the Toronto School of Art and it is actually meant to function as seating. I couldn't find any information about the specific subject of the piece but I can't help seeing a resemblance to Sir Wilfred Laurier.  

Signal box by Natalie Very B

Location: Lakeshore at Thirty Seventh Street

Date photo taken: 10 July 2021

In honour of International Women's Day this Friday, here's one of Natalie Very B's gorgeous everyday goddesses. She painted it in 2020 as part of that year's crop of signal boxes prettied up through the city's Outside the Box program. Her boldly beautiful depictions of body positivity and self-love caught the attention of CBC and in 2020 they commissioned her to create a CBC Arts logo for Women's History Month. You can check out that logo, and read the article and interview here.

Slurry management

 

Location: Laneway north of Queen, between Munro and Hamilton

Date photo taken: 15 March 2023

I've said it before but I love it when murals thoughtfully work existing infrastructure into their narrative. In this case Emily May Rose has her raccoons monitoring the flow of what I can only assume is some form of deliciousness while also keeping an eye on the posted notices. The work was created in 2021 as part of Women Paint Riverside, a partnership between East End Arts, Women Paint, Native Women in the Arts and the Riverside BIA.