Slayer

 

Location: 739 Queen Street East

Date photo taken: 17 February 2025

Slayer Burger is a Toronto burger chain that proudly proclaims their love of heavy metal. This is the mural on the Queen East location and it features Slayer founding member and co-lead guitarist Jeff Hanneman. There's another one of him inside. The distinctive style, more apparent up close, is the work of Toronto-based calligraphy artist Rei Misiri. 

Given the name of the company it might come as a surprise that the mural at the first location doesn't pay tribute to a Slayer band member. Fans of the genre will likely not be surprised to hear that the mural there features Motörhead founder, lead singer and bassist Lemmy.

Tiny Tiny Homes

 

Location: St. James Park, Church and Adelaide

Date photo taken: 13 February 2025

The shoveled pathways and wooden stoops lend a real neighbourhood feel to this small gathering of huts located on the western edge of St. James Park in the heart of downtown Toronto. The huts are actually portable emergency shelters created by Tiny Tiny Homes to provide a safer alternative to tent living for those experiencing homelessness. The gathering of neat little homes isn't without controversy however as the shelters were placed without City approval and there is a push to have them removed. It seems they'll stay in place for at least a while longer however as Mayor Olivia Chow has intervened, hoping to find a resolution that benefits everyone. 

Celebration of the arts

 

Location: East wall of 290 Adelaide Street West

Date photo taken: 5 February 2022

On a big blank wall next to a parking lot at John and Adelaide is this gorgeous tribute to arts and culture. It's by Alexander Bacon, a Canadian graffiti artist, and was created as a Partnership Project through StART in 2019. If you're curious, the portraits he has incorporated are of real people, whom he credits in his Instagram feed as @que_rock_, @anniecwh and @allblckerthing.

People Walking 2006

Location: 333 Bloor Street East

Date photo taken: 10 July 2019

Mirroring the hustle and bustle of a weekday late afternoon, figures of light traverse this large black screen positioned just steps away from the sidewalk on Bloor Street East. There are nine figures in total although I only know this from reading about the piece - their appearances are randomized so while watching from the sidewalk, the impression is of a much greater multitude. Commissioned by Rogers, and billed as Toronto's first LED-based piece of public art, it was created by British artist Julian Opie. On his website, I found it interesting to see what other cities feature "walking" pieces like ours. Spoiler alert - they include Shanghai and Taipei.

 

East Point Pavilion

Location: East Point Park

Date photo taken: 4 February 2024

This structure is part of a viewing pavilion designed to enhance the bird watching experience in East Point Park. According to the City's website, the park, which is located atop the Scarborough Bluffs, is a migratory staging area for monarch butterflies and over 178 species of birds. As part of an initiative to enhance and protect bird habitat within its borders, the City has designated the eastern portion of the park as a bird sanctuary. The design of this weathered steel wall reflects that. It is laser cut with a swarm of tiny birds, below which are included the common and scientific names of many of the birds that can be spotted in the park. The pavilions and other improvements to the site were the work of PLANT Architect Inc. and their work won them a Toronto Urban Design Award. In creating the site, they took pains to disturb as little as possible, including routing the paths through the park to minimize tree destruction and timing construction around the nesting seasons of local birds. 

Hugman

 

Location: The PATH, Exchange Tower

Date photo taken: 8 September 2024

If you've been in the Financial District in the last few weeks, you might have noticed a bit of a quiet invasion. Scattered inside and out, across several properties, are a number of Hugman sculptures. These crude human figures, which range from pint-sized to roughly adult height, are the work of Nathan Sawaya, an American artist, and they are made completely out of Lego. What started out as a street art project in New York has now spread to cities around the world. Brookfield Properties is responsible for bringing Hugman to Canada, first to Calgary, and now most recently, to Toronto. While to some eyes the tree-hugging stance may evoke thoughts of protest, Hugman just likes to hug. According to signage, the series was inspired by the simple idea of embracing others. 

Limelight Hydrangeas

Location: Berkeley Street 

Date photo taken: 18 September 2024

Walking up Berkely Street, there's a garden bed planted with small shrubs that have for some time been simply overflowing with the most magnificent flowers. Thanks to the signage so thoughtfully included by whoever planted these, I know that they are Limelight Hydrangeas and that I should be able to appreciate the blooms for a few more weeks yet. While there are great apps to help the curious identify plants, I love that in this case, I didn't have to pull out my phone to know what I was looking at, especially considering that this bed isn't part of a city park or associated with a garden centre.