Joel Richardson in Cologne
Toronto street artist Joel Richardson, whom I’ve blogged about many times, is on a global scale! I was so pleasantly surprised to find his stuff in an alley in Cologne! His signature stencils – the suitman equation. Suitman + War = Dividends.
Canadians, bettering the world, one country at a time.
You’re welcome.
Who’s the sweaty mess taking a selfie?
Joel Richardson in Montreal
Street artist Joel Richardson is a friend of this blog and one of my favourite Toronto artists. He’s travelled a lot and put his great stencils around the world, and I found a couple examples in the alleys off of Mont-Royal near St.Denis in the plateau of Montreal 
Here we see his trademark Suitman + Bomb = Revenue stencil that I’ve found all over Toronto. He’s even put this up in Europe and the States as well
Check out my Joel Richardson category for more of his work that I’ve photographed.
no suits allowed
luckily, dundas and sterling isn’t an area of toronto one is apt to see men in suits.
Check out my Joel Richardson category to see more of his work.
the people, the birds, the handmade things
found this joel richardson at ossington and argyle.
almost didn’t see this saying because it was behind the electricity box. i’m usually looking at the sides that face the street. dunno who is behind this one, but i like the saying.
the people,
the birds,
the hand-made things…
all stood in a line
& watched it smile
adore your deadboy
when deadboy put up his ADORE at shaw and argyle, it wasn’t long until it was vandalized, making the poor lass look like she either had a beard, or a face-veil. so deadboy recently returned to that construction panelling and erected a NEW Adore, one just as lovely and beautiful and beguiling and bewitching as the first.
joel richardson’s 911 has been left untouched, it seems.
…. as has Anser’s lady portraits.
deadboy has also recently been profiled in a series of graffiti documentary exposés (produced by a couple of friends of mine, kelli and james) called BETWEEN THE LINES which just today received some MAH-JAH props on the mother-blog WOOSTER Collective!
you can watch deadboy’s profile here:
SO proud of him!
check out my DeadBoy category to see more of his work
love ain’t safe; you won’t get hurt if you stay chaste
only one blog post today, munchkins, i’ve been in jury duty selection all day, and must return tomorrow! obviously, i can’t talk about the details, and if i end up being selected for this particular case, blogging and tweeting will probably either slow to a crawl, or cease to exist altogether. when i know more, you’ll know more!
civic duty, and all that.
onto today’s graffiti and street art stars!
STARS, I TELLS YA
i’m way behind on photographing this stuff because it happened weeks ago, but i’ve been travelling, so you will forgive my tardiness! remember a few months ago when i photographed Deadboy’s piece up on the construction panelling at shaw and argyle? if you look at that post, he had put his lovely ADORE piece next to the Inside Out Project wheatpastes…
before New Years, renovations occurred…. and while the entirety of the Inside Out Project wheatpastes were removed and painted over, along with all the other graff, ALL OF DEADBOY‘S pieces, including Adore and the Raccoons, were spared!
RESPECT!
but some new stuff has popped up next to Deadboy’s Adore, so let’s take a closer look….
fans of this blog will recognize this style immediately as Joel Richardson‘s. he uses his infamous suited-man stencil and incorporates it into a 911. SO MUCH DOUBLE ENTENDRE. brainsplosion.
and next to it, to show his lurve of the work,of course gregory alan elliot had put his heart of approval.
if you round the corner onto argyle street, you’ll find that richardson wasn’t done with this spot….
he told me that he has erected these little praying halo’d ladies around his hometown, but he didn’t tell me where he had placed them in toronto, so finding this was super exciting!
graffitigasm.
check out my Deadboy category, my Joel Richardson category, and my Gregory Alan Elliot category for more examples of their work.
DEADBoY and Joel Richardson, look what I do for you
it was christmas day, and it was fricken freezin’ outside, but i STILL stripped down to photograph myself in Bushwick sportin’ your Tees.
THAT’S HOW MUCH I WUV YOU GUYS.
hahaha “DEADBoY was here” could either mean “here in brooklyn” or “here on my ass.”
take your pick.
fist-pump! power to the people!
now that you’re presence has officially been made in brooklyn, it’s time to get your work up on some of these walls, boys!
check out my DEADBoY and Joel Richardson categories for more of their work.
the Suitman speaks
134 Ossington Ave , Toronto, ON
Saturday, December 17 from 8-10pm
Join us for a fun and informative night with Joel Richardson.
Joel will speak to the place his art has in the current economic climate and his experience at OWS.
We will also be screening the short film The Suit Man and the Mural, a fairytale re-telling of Joel’s mural’s saga.
Joel also plans to bring together the interesting collection of models he has used for his Stencils, from actor and Director Benjamin Blais, past President of the Ontario Society of Artists Germinio Pio Politi, Irma Gagnon and her out spoken alter ego Yoko Sanchez, producer Robert Fisher and artist and musician Ian Christopher George. Come and hear how it feels to see your face on a wall? A building? A t-shirt? In a gallery?
show of hands, who enjoys provocative graff and timely street art?
i’ll be there, so come say hi.
Suitman by Joel Richardson at Oz Studios
i’ve blogged a lot about Joel Richardson in the past (check out my Joel Richardson category), so i’ve photograffiti’d his stencils and murals before. this above stencil i’ve photographed before several times on the rail path.
i was sent these new photos of joel’s work (fanks kelli!) but they’re not on the rail path. they’re not downtown.
they’re not in toronto.
heck, they’re not even in canada.
his stencil’s have popped up in GERMANY, bitches. sprechen sie graffiti?!! these photos are from the streets of Berlin.
it may not be readily apparent that this is berlin, but there are clues. that other stencil to the left depicts the Euro, and there’s a reference to nazis above him.
recently on the 8th, richardson had an opening reception for his exhibit Suitman over at the Oz Studios (134 Ossington).
i haven’t been to the exhibit yet, but i’m going on wednesday. if you’d like to check out Richardson’s provocative work, and would like more details on the exhibit, watch the below video and trailer for his exhibit.
the abandoned Tower Automotive building on Sterling Road
yesterday i was jogging along the rail path when i paid careful consideration to the abandoned Tower Automotive building located on Sterling, which is clearly visible from the path. you can see that it has graffiti and street art all over it, so after i was done my 75 minute jog, i grabbed my camera and decided to explore it.
unfortch, it was already past dusk, and i was a female wandering around an abandoned building all by myself in the unlit darkness. i didn’t feel particularly safe, so i didn’t stay long or do as much exploring as i wanted to. i hopped the chain fence to photograph the graff on the outside of the building (ME! HARDCORE!), but didn’t go so far as to actually enter the building.
it was so dark and creepy, and i didn’t have a flashlight or anything.
does someone wanna explore this with me next time?
anyhoo, i quickly explored the exterior and found some gems (before hopping the fence again and running away like a scaredy cat).
i see this woman’s face everywhere! i dunno who is behind her, but i’ve found her previously in kensington, and along the rail path. artist is wicked talented, whoever he/she is.
someone wheatpasted a photograph of albert ayler onto the exterior. i wonder why, it’s such an interesting choice.
freeeeeeeeeeeeky.
uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugly.
joel, you be errrr-where.
ri rove rou ralph
it’s the Listen Bird! I’ve followed this bird all over the city and in Montreal! Who is behind this, I love this!
“night of the wild dogs” indeed.
fuck yeah.
death 2010!
next step: bring bolt-cutters, enter building, photograph artistic genius, not get caught, run like hell.
i’m giving you a nightcall to tell you how i feel
another Joel Richardson equation on the rail path.
this looks like a guy wringing the neck of a deer or a sheep…. do you see it?
this is clearly a blacksmith … right?
the OM symbol (shiva’s signature), a dove with a laurel leaf in its beak, and, uh, mittens. yeah, i don’t get it either.
nuit blanche octopus. it’s the nuit bloctopus.
SHE’S STICKING HER TONGUE OUT!
*some conditions apply
i finally got around (i’m lazy, i know) to photographing Joel Richardson‘s revamped and repainted mural at the Lansdowne & Dupont underpass. i’ve blogged about Richardson before (first when his mural was stupidly removed, and then when i found one of his stencils on the rail path), and i’m glad to finally be able to photograph his work in detail. the man is wicked talented and has a unique artistic vision. his street art here is comprised mostly of stencils, but also some free-hand brush work.
deeeeeeenied.
i love how he uses these mathematical equations and formulas in his work. like halo’d men in suits to the power of infinity divided by the base root of economic recession multiplied by perjury under oath equals wartime dividends.
where’s my calculator?
eerie.
check out his website. as i was taking these photos, it was raining and drunk men stumbling along the underpass were yelling at me.
since i am stubborn and refuse to acknowledge the dangerous situations i sometimes put myself in, i yelled back at the drunk punks “get a fucking life!” um, hey chris? hey, it’s the reasoning part of your brain talking. hi! you’re a woman alone at night in a sketchy part of the west end brandishing an expensive camera. MAYBE YOU SHOULD RETHINK THIS, MORON. fanks, and feel free to consult me more often.
well look who it is.
THINGS apparently put one of his smirking Ford’s here after Richardson’s original mural was removed earlier this year. it’s nice to see that when Richardson repainted, he incorporated THINGS piece into it, instead of removing it. THAT’S how you earn street cred.
look at the two of them. LURVE.
do you see that? *some conditions apply. again, that’s another stencil THINGS put up when Richardson’s work was removed. it’s kinda faded and some of it is covered, but it’s still visible.
I think this gas-masked suit is my favourite.
you ever seen the documentary The Corporation? it’s a canadian documentary that features Michael Moore and others, speaking on the amazing shit that corporations get away with in the name of commerce and the dreams of avarice. because these criminals are wearing a suit and make billions of dollars, they are treated like heads of state. but when a guy in a lower tax bracket does the same shit at the local convenience store, he’s rightfully arrested and thrown into jail. Corporations are considered humans under US law.
what’s most interesting about that documentary is it explores the Bolivian water crisis in 2000. the international engineering/building company Bechtel essentially bought the water in Bolivia, and raised the rates exponentially to a price that the residents could not afford. so people were forced to choose between food or water. their children’s school or water. it became so outrageous, that even collecting rain water or digging your own well was made illegal. it resulted in the Cochabamba protests and revolution which left hundreds hurt and one young boy dead.
my father is an accountant with Bechtel.
fanks for the blood-money, dad!
why are the women wearing mini skirts and open-toed shoes? i’ve worked in dozens of corporate offices, and they are all way too conservative to ever let that shit fly. I’m assuming Richardson did this either because he thinks women are sexualized in the workplace…. orrrrrrr because he doesn’t respect women in the workplace.
om shiva.
speaking of the Bolivian water crisis, i reviewed a film last year at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival called Even The Rain, which dramatizes the Cochabamba revolution. it wasn’t the greatest film i’ve ever seen, but it starred Gael Garcia Bernal, so i couldn’t officially complain.
i’d watch that man remove toe jam for 2 hours on film. no problem.
wow, i need a moment to let the classiness wash over me.
suit man has a halo, an 8 ball, and a bad toupee.
suit with briefcase in the negative.
halo suit in the negative (squared) with some LOVE.
squared negative.
“and do thy duty even if it be humble, rather than another’s even if it be great. to die in one’s duty is life: to live in another’s is death.”
#TheMoreYouKnow
“this at least could be the case in a society where things were left to follow their natural course, where there was perfect liberty and every man was perfectly free both to choose what occupation he thought proper, and to change it as often as he thought proper. The whole of the advantages and disadvantages of different employments….
…of labour and stock must in the same neighbourhood be either perfectly equal or continually tending to equality.”
for love or money?
you have my answer.
hahaha, fuck you man without a face.
and then this little piggy ran wee-wee-wee all the way home.
stockbroker + bomb = economy
remember when i blogged about joel richardson, the street artist whose commissioned mural was stupidly removed by rob ford’s graffiti vandals squad?
well joel richardson was allowed to repaint his underpass with the same images. i’ve driven by the underpass a few times lately, but haven’t been able to photograph it yet. i saw one of THINGS pieces embedded in the mural, so i definitely want to check it out soon.
anyway, it looks like richardson also does some stencilling from time to time.
case in point, i found his stylistic suited men equations along the rail path
fits in well with my OCCUPY STREET WALLS campaign, n’est-ce pas?
don’t sit down ‘cos i’ve moved your chair
YOU STILL HAVE 3 DAYS to enter The Submarine Contest, sponsored by Alliance Films and The Spadina Monologues. Get a pass for you and a friend to attend the advanced screening of Submarine, and you could win a prize pack as well! clicky the poster for your chance to be a wiener winner.
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i was invited to the Pepsi Throwback event in Toronto.
the weird thing about having a rising stock in the social media world is you get invited to so many events, it’s kinda redonkulous. i’ve always said that as a writer, were it not for twitter, i would have no social life. so i try to go out to as many events as possible. and i like the fact that after years of my crazy ramblings and musings, i have leveraged my online presence into something that provides a constant stream of super fun happy times at someone else’s dime. but at the same, i’m a bit of a jovial anarchist.
jovial in that, well, i’m a generally happy person with a penchant for the shits n’ giggles.
anarchist in that, well, i don’t believe in promoting brand-awareness, and my body is an advertisement-free zone. seriously. next time you see me, try and find a single brand on me.
i shop no-names exclusively, and if i do have a brand, i bought it second-hand for 50 cents.
but when you’re in social media, everybody is for sale, and brands want to buy you. everybody is willing to drink the brand kool-aid for the right price.
now, that’s not to say there’s something inherently wrong with that. everybody needs to eat, and if you can paid just on the popularity of your blog or twitter or tumblr or whatever, then more power to you.
but i think too many people follow the formula of CONSUME. STAY QUIET. DIE.
stop buying. start living.
regina won the best dressed female costume competition, and it was well deserved. hottie pulled a Filipino madonna, and she got game.
here’s reg and i dancing at the event. she is a normal dancer. i am a fembot.
raymi says, “me and christine. how far do we go back? since before twitter, her name is synonymous with spadina monologues i think she trickled in around the MG days? did you know christine also made her way onto a reality show on a tropical island to boss around men and it was broadcast in the uk or something? huge. ask her about it. maybe that’s why she does that british accent voice? (stop doing that sorry ilu but be you) anyway i love this broad and am proud she’s a lifer like me, it’s good to see her face in the scene.”
i swear if i do a brit accent, i’m not aware. SWEARSIES. i love you luh-ren THIS MUCH. raymbo gives me a grizzle in my vizzle tizzle fo’shizzle.
playing air-guitar-leg. i am so attractive. oh hai katie!
rannie takes the greatest photos. i look so happy and my hair is the stuff of Pantene commercials. i’m doing the running man here. either that, or the roger rabbit. should i make this my FB profile photo? you tells me.
scott’s arms go on and on and on. like, if this photo’s proportions are to believed, scott must tuck his hands into his socks.
there’s nothing about sheldon that isn’t made of wizard juice.
photographers at this place weren’t on their game, they needed to sort their tech shit out, so i handed mr levy my blackberry and we busted out these hot shots, our hands were in inappropriate places, it was some sweet action.
some of the coolest people i know. raymi luh-ren, shawn, plankin-casie, scott, and my husband sheldon.
dan easily had the best 80s costume. he looks like van halen and miami vice just exploded all over him.
keshia chanté and madame stewart, cindy loo hoo?
i dunno what it is about scott, but his pepsi throwbacks bring all the boys to the yard.
i look awkwardly attractive here. most people know me as the gal with the curves, but here i look like my hips have teenaged-boy’d-out. wassup? where’s my crescent moon hips? not even a hint of a bosom! my breasteses are big. pinky swear.
i really like kelly and i really like this photo. her and i were rocking the onesie and we’re giving each other a solid. her boyfriend mark took this photo, and from this photo’s POV, you get a sense of just how fricken tall he is!
he doesn’t like to be blogged about. but how can i not post a photo of that face?
you guys see this? it’s called being one smooth mother fucker.
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for the past couple of weeks, i’ve been riding on the back of an electric scooter on the weekends, and have whizzed past this above awesome mural that’s on an underpass near the junction.
that is, until this happened
literally kicking myself that i didn’t take the opportunity to photograph it (like i always do) when i had the chance. i loved this mural. LOVED IT.
check out the artist’s website and show him some support.
some street art and graffiti that i’ve managed to photograph lately, more to come!
it’s that time of year again when i get to house-sit!
last year i house-sat 4 times, this year so far i’ve done it twice, and now a third on the horizon.
will be downtown with a couple of putty-tats in little italy, just a bike ride away from work and the people who make me feel special about a little guy i like to call ME.
the lovely june weather makes me feel like my body is a boat, and you are traveling in me.
