Spring has definitely sprung – you can tell by the fact that I’m no longer regularly wearing loads of clothes when I’m cycling. And in facto on this day I’m out the door again with only a jersey and shorts. This is my favourite time of year for cycling and it really doesn’t let up until mid September. This year I need to take more advantage of it – April is a good start.
Today I chose a shorter ride because on Wednesday I am going in to work. The weather forecast looks good and so my plan is to ride to work to enjoy it. Better to take it a little easy to save a bit up for a 40 km round trip ride.
And so I head down to an alley just east of the Felstead Avenue Playground near Greenwood and Danforth. In 2018 artists got together for a beautification project. I see a theme – perhaps informed by the fact that it is just west of Monarch Park.
I’m enjoying watching my stamina increase rapidly (starting from when I whined about it here). This ride felt easy and getting outside to do it wasn’t hard either. Between the change in weather and the change in me, I’m thinking this destination was an appropriate one.
Go Outside Today 
The artworks are so beautiful, Can the painters paint where they want to? Do they have to take permission?
Hi Lakshmi – according to the law they need permission to do any artwork. Whether they get this or not varies. Generally if it is in a public alley and it looks nice like this, permission was granted by the owner. Sometimes owners will ask someone to paint something on their garage door to prevent others seeing a “blank canvas” and scrawling a tag (their name or the nickname they go by) or profanity. There is a bit of a code in the street art community that you don’t paint over someone else’s artwork. At least not until it’s old and been there a long time. So usually if you have something nice on your garage people will leave it alone. This particular set was a project done with the residents and different artists.
Some artists can get to be pretty well known and people hire them to do lots of work or they will sell artwork online. Elicser Elliot is one of my favourites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CdFp8tuzqk
When people don’t get permission, there are a couple of ways it goes. If it’s somewhere like an alley, often it’s not that complicated or particularly beautiful. There are exceptions to this. I interviewed an artist about 15 years ago and he would do things right out in the open. He said that if you did a painting with confidence people assumed you were supposed to be there and have permission.
Another exception is in less busy areas like under bridges in forests. There, you might see nice large pieces that nobody got permission to do but the artist felt that it was out of the way enough that they wouldn’t be bothered while making it – or, for that matter, people won’t paint over it for a long time.
Then finally there are a few places like “Graffiti Alley” downtown where it’s legal and accepted. You can see that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fPk3mwQ2Rk