A Great Alternative to Graffiti

             Now that I work right downtown, graffiti is the wall covering of many of the cities lovely old  buildings in my new hood. I'm not totally against it, in some sections of the city, it is a welcome and uplifting bit of colour in a drab landscape, but on many buildings it is a blight that is expensive to remove and almost impossible to prevent.

a  sepia coloured street scene

Fishing in a long covered over river

 

      On  a recent trip to the other side of the city, I happened upon some fairytale like murals that enhance , surprise and delight the viewer to happens upon them.   The murals are on Dundas West in the village of Islington.  I didn't even know that there was a village of Islington, I must get out more ?  The artist is John Kuna and his nostalgic paintings are a glimpse of what the village used to be. www.etobicokehistorical.com


   I couldn't find out much about this talented artist but you can view his work on several other websites. His own website seems to be under construction right now but keep looking.  He can be reached at jfkunadesign@yahoo.com.

    We are all familiar with the pictures of New York City subway cars, they are colourful but for some reason they always seem a little sinister to me.  Toronto Transit Commissions takes great care to make sure that no graffiti sullies their cars, it's a full-time job removing it . Apparently, graffiti artists have some principles and they will not spray paint over another artists work.  In the long run, painting a mural on a building is a fabulous way to stop the graffiti.  It might initially cost a little more but in the long run, it will save the great expense and bother of cleaning the graffiti off. 

   That's it for today,  I'll  be posting more on graffiti, it fascinates me and I'd like to document more of it in Toronto.  bye for now, Debora