Graffiti At Its Finest - Toronto's Style In Progress

by Mike Wood | July 14, 2008 at 07:02 pm | 779 views | 23 comments

Dozens of graffiti artists from all ages and skill, gathered yesterday in Toronto's "Graffiti Alley" for the 2008 Style In Progress, a legal event which spans from Spadina Avenue to Portland Street in the Queen Street West alleys.

Through the distinctive odour of paint and multi-coloured haze which drifted in the breeze, the mostly masked writers lined side by side, with empty cans piled at their feet, quickly transformed bricked and stuccoed walls into a more canvas like appearance, as the unsightly became murals of beauty.

Backed by DJ's spinnin' tunes, and the many B-Boys & Girls throwing down their style of dance on a portable linoleum floor, the 8 hour event was nothing less than an awesome display of great artistic talent, achieved no doubt, by countless hours of spray paint in the
hand, and imagination in the mind.

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Rachel Nixon

at 19:07 on July 14th, 2008

good stuff:

Mike Wood, I like this story. Great photos too!

rpshen

at 19:10 on July 14th, 2008

good stuff:

Mike Wood, I like this story. It's good stuff. Great photos!

Rob Peters

at 19:17 on July 14th, 2008

good stuff:

Very cool, thanks for the coverage. I'm always amazed by what graffiti artists can do. I'd imagine it would be hard to get the proportions right for large murals like that.

Mike Wood

at 19:39 on July 14th, 2008

Most of these guys are naturals and seem to work miracles with cans of spray paint. It's a lot of fun to watch the creations come to life. I wish I were that artistic.

Thanks for the GS!

JeffHuang

at 19:34 on July 14th, 2008

good stuff:

Mike Wood, I like this story. It's good stuff. graffiti artists are so talented. Great pictures

Rhonda J Mangus

at 19:44 on July 14th, 2008

good stuff:

Mike Wood, I like this story. Great photos too!

Mike Wood

at 19:44 on July 14th, 2008

Thanks for the flags and comments everyone!

amyjudd

at 19:55 on July 14th, 2008

good stuff:

Mike Wood, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Awesome photos!

Jarrett Martineau

at 20:05 on July 14th, 2008

good stuff:

Mike Wood, great post, great event -- look forward to seeing more photos.

Mike Wood

at 20:09 on July 14th, 2008

Thanks Jarrett!

I'll be trying to make it back there soon to get the completed works. I'll add some more photos then.

everchanging

at 21:28 on July 14th, 2008

good stuff:

Mike Wood, I really like this story. It's a great piece.

It's so wonderful to watch an artist create from a can, the beauty of an art that's creative, imaginative with the final result most often beyond words.

Free space for these artists is rare and event are becoming more common, thankfully. Phoenix Az. has a few free spaces (walls) for Graffiti artists and no taggers touch the finished piece once done (generally), because they respect the craft and skills of the (individual) artists and not for or of which crew their part of.

Great story. I hope you're able to get some more pics, these are sweet. I'd like to see the final result of the two story high piece - was that only one person doing this one whole piece in eight hour? If so WOW

caffiend

at 22:43 on July 14th, 2008

good stuff:

Nice! I just added a post about this too... shoulda checked first. I guess I'll just tack in some of my pics :)

Paschen

at 03:28 on July 15th, 2008

good stuff:

Mike Wood, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Good event and very nice Pictures!

Mike Wood

at 08:26 on July 15th, 2008

Thanks!

Caoimhin1

at 10:14 on July 16th, 2008

good stuff:

Mike Wood, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Mike Wood

at 10:26 on July 16th, 2008

Thanks for the GS flag Caoimhin1!

jordan

at 16:57 on July 16th, 2008

good stuff:

Just stellar.

Mike Wood

at 23:07 on July 16th, 2008

Thanks Jordan!

I went back today as a followup for photos of the completed work. I'll post them soon. I'm not sure if I should add them to this or start a new 'thread' or story as a followup.

Newsy (not verified)

at 18:08 on July 20th, 2008

There's some nice graffiti over at a public school near the gas station off of Danforth and Gledhill. It's a nice graduation piece for the students. Normally there's just people "signing" their name but no pictures so the kids haven't seen good stuff as they had fun in the playground at recess but now there is something nice but wish it was done during the school the year.