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TO Tour

Cruising Kensington

By Carl Fisher

July 9^th, 2015

Perk Me UP

After spending a long weekend in Chicago, it was nice to return to some familiar stomping grounds in TO. While I never spent a ton of time there when I was growing up, Kensington Market is always good for many pleasant discoveries. But before I ventured too far into it, I fueled up on some hot java in the back patio of Jimmy’s Cafe while munching on a rhubarb danish from Blackbird Baking Company.

THe streets

After my caffeine fix I was ready to tackle the not so mean streets that make up the Market. Based on all the people whizzing around on bikes (with so few wrapped around the bumpers of cars) I came to the conclusion that this was a very bike friendly place. Cycling was tempting, but I opted for public transit, a much greener and less frustrating alternative to driving. The down side was that it didn’t take long before my dogs began to bark. Still, walking does gives you the best chance of coming across visual gold (as the pics below can attest).

Parklet

I was reminded of the days of my youth by a wading pool that I happened upon. Many hours were frittered away on hot summer days in such cool shallows. On that day it was bone dry. You’d think I was in Cali, where the water rationing is just starting to ratchet up. At least I was able to get some relief from the nearby fountain.

Nattification

Always trying to keep at the forefront of urban fashion, I paid a visit to Model Citizen. Most of the clothing would have made me look 20 years younger (or more accurately, like I was trying to look 20 years younger), but I did pick up a house-made tee that looked pretty natty.

Checking out the hood

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Eye Candy

It seemed like every corner that I turned contained a new discovery. I had no hesitation walking down back alleys since I was consistently rewarded with fantastic finds. Mind you, nighttime would have been a whole nother story. Bright sunshine is definitely my preferred environ.

Faces

I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that many of the street art that I encountered contained faces. I didn’t really think too much of it at the time, but it can often be just a whole lot of squiggles. Throw in a face, though, and it is transformed.

The Eyes have it

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Artism

With so much color on the walls, you’d wonder where it all came from. Of course it was created by someone’s hand, but where do they get all those colors? At least a partial answer was revealed as a result of a chance discovery while on my way to MEC. At first I thought it was a comic shop with what appeared to be a Manga character in the entrance. Turns out it was an art supply shop called Collective. I think they use that term rather loosely. I didn’t see any water color or oil based paints. No easels or stretched canvases. Lots of cans of spray paint though. Hmm. While I’m sure some of it was used to produce the wall art that I passed earlier, I suspect that a lot of it is used for tagging. Just by itself, it doesn’t impress me. But hey. It’s a place for people to start. Maybe with some practice and refinement, art will emerge. Let’s hope so because I just bought a 16 GB memory card for my camera. Get spraying. I’m ready.