Okay, so I’m going to preface this post by saying that nothing here is edible, but I HAD to show you all these photos I took yesterday during my morning out on the Ossington strip: AWESOME FOOD-THEMED GRAFFITI ART!! I found this entire spread on Ossington just north of Foxley, I believe, and I went nuts with the camera. Carrots! Bananas! Limes! Chili peppers! Considering what a food mecca the Ossington strip has become in the past few years (on my to-eat list: Fishbar!), the presence of the food graffiti art is rather appropriate!
For those of you who don’t know, I LOVE taking photos of graffiti art in the city. Obviously I’m referring to the gorgeous stuff painted on the sides of buildings all over the city, not the vandalism form of it! That I don’t support. But the art? Can’t get enough of it. My boyfriend and I have been photographing these amazing works for over 5 years now and I’ve created quite a photo collection for myself, both on my computer and in a real photo album where I’ve chronicled a large portion of my shots. I’ve even organized my photos by neighbourhood so I can remember where I took them and, up until yesterday, I didn’t even THINK to create a separate set of just food-related ones. Duh, right?! New project in the works!
Being an artist myself, graffiti art ignites such a creative fire and passion in me and I really have my boyfriend to thank for fueling this passion in the beginning. In addition to taking me to enjoy and photograph flowers on our first date, my boyfriend also took me to the side streets of both Queen West and Richmond to photograph all the graffiti art that was tucked away because he knew the art would make me so happy (quite the keeper, huh?). I couldn’t believe my eyes. So much colour, so much personality, so much talent. I’ve actually seen graffiti artists up close and in person doing their thing with the spray cans a few times and it is so inspiring just to watch them. It’s mesmerizing. These are talented folks who are hired by building owners and/or the city to create these artistic masterpieces for everyone else to enjoy and to juice up the visual landscape of the city. Seeing the focus and drive and artistic wittiness reflected in these works is a beautiful thing.
Ate by Ate 