street art - Ossington

This is one of my favorite pieces of (guerilla) public art. The photo is one of the more popular ones in my flickr stream. I don't know the artist, but this mural on Bousthead Avenue, off Dundas St W, says 'Fiat Mihi' on it. Clearly, the piece on an exterior wall on Ossington, between Dundas and Queen, is by the same artist. I asked RJH to photograph it:



We had gone to see some of the PRINTOPOLIS exhibits, on Saturday. Along the way, we stopped to explore an alleyway, where I shot the graffiti.




Yes, that's a cement baby-head in the teeth of the 'Private Property No Dumping' sign.







Bit blurry, but I also appreciated the rabbit, sauntering down the street in his velvet jacket.

Hallowe'en 2010

As I mentioned last year, this neighbourhood considers Hallowe'en the biggest event of the year, as far as I can tell. It is easier to capture the lights than the little monsters, so here are some of the best yards we walked by. I made some costumes for a couple of parties we were invited to: bats, complete with mask with the spectacular nostrils and ears, and wings made from broken umbrellas, so the spokes served as the bones in the wings. The wings were popular.



This was my favorite house again. I love that they use the architecture to full effect, with archway as gaping maw and red glowing eyes. "Isn't it fabulous?" one man asked. "No," his neighbour replied sarcastically, "it makes the rest of the street look bad." They were also amazing with their use of pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns. Not only was there the genius pumpkin-snowman, and expertly carved jack-o-lanterns along the walk, but they created this pumpkin-alligator:




One of my favorite costumes was the young woman in white with a trasparent umbrella hung with strands of bubblewrap - the jellyfish! I noticed a fair number of old school superheroes (Batman, Spiderman, the old-fashioned Wolverine), a large number dressed as Ironman, the usual assortment of fairies and princesses, various animals (my favorites being the giraffe, unicorn, toddler-spider and infant ladybug) - but the clearly handmade costumes are always my favorites. There were a few cardboard boxes as dice, a present and a remote control. Three girls were dressed as the three little pigs. A group of five adolescents were dressed as a train (an old steam locomotive)!



This house placed their decor strategically; having the zombie barely visible to those who approched from the east was very effective.



The KISS jack-o-lantern was great. The house with the specter suspended from the 2nd floor had live creepy organ music, competing with the X-files theme playing across the street.

Masks

In the spirit of Hallowe'en, the lovely rikrak, etsy seller and blogger extraordinaire, has featured my mask collection as part of her "The Collectors" series. The feature includes photos of my collection, an interview with me, and a few pieces of my art she says she would like to collect (she's a sweetie). Read the interview 'a collection of masks with minouette' here.

Amongst her questions was, "what (‘s a crazy/interesting story behind one)?" which I couldn't answer without alluding to the late, great border collie/German Sheppard Agua, and her people faunalia and reynardin, and two, rather than one mask.



Thanks to RJH for photographs!

Cat Pillows

So, I held off posting this because I didn't want young Master Ernerst W. (& parents) to see the original cat pillow (and 0th birthday gift) until it had arrived in the mail. I thought Mr. E would be fast friends with Mr. Sammy Samuelson, Cat, Esquire, so I made him his very own Sammy, block-printed, patchwork fabric cat. Knowing his mother, Lady Redjeep's pashion for thrifting, I thought some vintage fabric was in order. I also used my collection of letterpress letters and some embroidery to personalize it for him.




(Also, personally, the way gifts for infants tend to be highly gendered irks me, so I avoided all that non-sense: we've got denim and faux-bois on one hand and vintage florals on the other).

Next, someone who has been won over to appreciate cats by the intrepid Minouette, seemed to really love this print and project, so I made a second cat pillow:




And then, I thought I'd make a couple for the shop. Since these cats are the spawn of the Mr. Sammy Samuelson, Cat, Esquire lino block, their names are linked to his. Meet Samantha:




and Samir:

multimedia, with narwhals, and bunting

So, I was thinking more about semaphor, than bunting, really, and narwhals, of course. The narwhals are a linocut with chine collé (kozo and unryu papers, respectively). The arctic wolf is acrylic ink on water colour paper. The island is a geological map centering on the North Magnetic Pole (of course) with washi bits. The flags are Japanese papers on bookbinding thread. The paper behind the wolf I got in this specialty paper store in Amsterdam, which is safely far, far, from my home, or I might be bankrupt by now.




I also like that the arctic is full of places with names we use in Toronto, like Bathurst, and Peel and Wellington.

Not the greatest photos. It's sort of dark, and wet, and autumn here, so there's not enough light. I should just let RJH photograph stuff, but I wouldn't get images until he was satisfied and I'm too impatient. He reports, by the way, that the tiger-garage-robot is now missing. You gotta be quick if you're going catch those sudden robot-on-the-roof moments.

tiger face with robot

So, do any of you people drive along Dupont much? Cause there's a giant tiger mural, with a freaking robot of the roof on a garage of late.






Some times one needs to get out of the car and take some photos.

Post Thanksgiving

RJH just sent me this photo, labelled 'turkey-dazed'. I think he's in love with my cat. My cat is definitely in love with Thanksgiving, because with Thanksgiving comes turkey. This is what happens when you eat 1/20 of your body mass in turkey. Though, we probably all feel that way. He keeps telling her he would give her more but I won't let him to try and get on her good side.