Love Letter to The Great Lakes: Street Art Around Ossington

This week, Ossington is a major location for a new Toronto arts festival. This one brings some beautiful new murals to our streetscape. Love Letter to The Great Lakes as an event runs until tomorrow at Rally Ossington, but the street art will live on our local buildings for a long time.

Today, the team behind the project at Rally led a bike tour of the murals, starting behind their site at 12 Ossington. We stopped at several murals in and around Ossington, the street and alleyways. We checked out the murals as they were being painted, and got to hear from some of the artists. While this was a one-time experience, you can still go for your own walk or bike and have a look for yourself!

I took some photos and notes on where and who.  The website also showcases a map with the sites and bios of all the talented artists working on the project, so you can conduct your own personal self-guided tour in the days to come. Also, Rally is holding a pop-up shop and art exhibit with materials related to the project, so stop in tonight or tomorrow for more information.

Please note – these murals are not finished. The artists have been working on them in the hot sun all week and they are elaborate so expect a few more days before completion.

Alleyway West side of Ossington, behind Rally:

We started behind Rally, where several different artists are painting their own work:

First, a mural by Caratoes:

In the same alleyway, a work by Peru evoking shipping lanes:

Alleyway East side of Ossington, at Humbert

Then, we went back onto Ossington and across to the other side of the street, behind House of Horvath, the cigar factory on the east side. First, we saw Birdo‘s street art which focuses on disappearing species:

Right next door, Chris Konecki‘s mural of shipping lanes sparked attention:

West Side of Ossington at Rebecca

 Just a little bit further south, across from 41 Ossington at the south side of Rebecca Street, Bruno Smoky is in the midst of his mural. Apparently, there are a lot of restrictions and he is being held up, but try to check him out this weekend. You can see it is a very large piece and not finished!

Queen West Self-Storage building, 21 Ossington, west side

Right at a very busy part of Ossington, Toronto local Jon Todd has been painting some very detailed wildlife of the Great lakes.

Parking Lot next to Jimmy’s Coffee, 15 Ossington

We met Valinas, a muralist from Mexico who made his first trip to Toronto to participate in this project. 3 different pieces fill the wall in the parking lot north of Jimmy’s Coffee.

Rally, 12 Ossington

Olivier Bonnard from Montreal painted the front of the Rally building, with fish swimming up and down the exterior.

We’re lucky we don’t need to travel to see great street art, but if you wanted to, I suggest visiting Tahiti.