One question that pops into my head is..
How do you know about such events as this? Do you do research on your spare time?

Sad world. even in world of liberated bikes' some of them are golden and some of them are black...

pretty cool initiative! that purple one looks just great

I just hope that they are only spraying abandoned bikes!! :-P

Sanj

What a cool idea, nice pics.

I like seeing the diverse art activities your active in, in Toronto. Did you paint a bike as well? What color?
Take care-
Mark

I wonder what would happened when the owner of the bikes came for their bikes.... lol..

Nice series.

What a great idea! I hadn't heard of this before, it's brilliant. And I'll be sure not to leave my bike locked up for too long in one place...

this is a really cool idea- paint the bikes that look unslightly!
i think they should do this in amsterdam too.

So the city of Toranto gives you a can of spray paint and says, go make the city beautiful?! Next thing you'll tell me is that you get free health insurance and you're all happy up there!

Miserable in brown and grey Boston,
B

personally, i'm a fan of the rusty, decaying bikes. the chains falling off, pedals falling apart, seats missing. did anyone get in trouble for doing it? for getting that spray in the sidewalks>

Interesting. Here in the United Kingdom people steal locked bikes. A friend of mine had three stolen last year, one parked under a CCTV.

And in Toronto, there are abandoned bikes noone wants to do anything with other than defacing them!

Awesome idea!

But one suggestion: next time wear masks. That spray is toxic (especially the gold variety) and we don't want to lose any beautifiers prematurely.

I want to leave my cubicle and ride over to these bikes right now. Please thank Duncan for me the next time you see him cause I hate seeing unloved abandoned bikes.

Doug

didn't realize it was daily OVERdose of imagery! no i'm kidding this was fun to look at and an interesting project.

Whoa, that is a LOT of spraypaint for one weekend between yesterday and today!! No wonder the air is getting a little smoggy....

Fun series both, Sam - thanks for the documentation, and for giving me an explanation when I come across brilliantly painted bikes!

That is such a cool idea. Kudos to the city of Toronto for not only caring but being creative while they're at it.

brilliant idea. I guess i was always a beautifier and just didnt give it a title. You guys have amazing ideas though. its the kind of stuff that keeps you living. keep it up. ill be on the look out for beauty.

HEY! That's my bike!! It wasn't abandoned, I intentionally had it all rusty and I bent the wheels like that so no one would steal it...and now its purple! :P
Just kidding, love the shots! Great colours as usual!

I couldn't help but notice there is much newspaper used to protect the sidewalks. Is there another event to beautify the sidewalks from overspray?

I love bikes and photography. The both of them together is bliss. In Boulder we have a weekly cruiser ride event every thursday. Check out some of the photos here.

http://www.cruiserbikeride.org/

-B

While I think this is cool - it's not supported by the city is it?

I was busted a long time ago on the campus of U. of Penn for trying to "beautify" a small metal sculpture that had been graffiti'd over by frat boys. I was trying to paint it all white (for a photo shoot no-less!).

My punishment (instead of a trip to the police station) was to come back the next day and scrape ALL the many layers of paint off it - back down to bare metal.

Great idea. Pity they can't protect the pavement better (see the pink bike photo).

Meh, not really a fan of this.. would rather see the city break the locks and recycle these bikes. Would rather have the bike posts open so I can lock my bike there instead! ... also not too impressed with the paint jobs here. If they're going to do something like this, make it a little more creative with different colors and stuff.. not just a plain purple. meh..

Justin (Toronto)

I'm rather upset that I missed this.

Excellent idea.

Only in Toronto!!!!!!! Cool!

Hey, i stumbled upon your website when i was randomly searching on Google. Your pictures are awesome....keep up the good work! I'm taking photography next year in my highschool and i can't wait. I want to visit other parts of Canada sometime...i've only been to Niagra Falls and Canada seems pretty cool. I'm from boring Pennsylvania. bye!

-Jess

Really great photos. To answer, as far as I know, nobody has gotten into trouble for this worthwhile initiative which really pretties up the street and makes things more interesting. There's more information about the event here: http://www.spacing.ca/pedals/
Thanks for the ongoing lovely photos, Sam.

As one of the organizers of the event I'd like to cmment on a few of the posted comments.

1. Thanks for the positive feedback.
2. We watched the bikes for three weeks to make sure they were not active and that they were truley abandoned.
3. The city of Toronto does not sanction this. We have taken it upon ourselves.
4. part of the project is to highlight these neglected bikes so that the city can come and take them away. We also think it helps defeat the people who steal these bikes and re-sell the frames.
5. Please do this in your neighbourhood or city. It takes 5-10 minutes to cover a bike, and about one full can.
6. yes we shold have wonr masks. Some of us did.
7. We used garbage bags and carboard bozes to protect the sidewalk. Some of the paint did slip through.
8. For more links to images of bikes go to http://www.spacing.ca/pedals/

Fantastic series. You've captured it so well. Your post-processing is amazing, Sam!

I don't think it is funny. My bike was painted green. Green is the color of money and I ride a bike to fight the system of greed and big business.

Hey, That's my bike!

toronto seems to be a city where the yellow-bike system would benefit. in austin texas there are designated bikes painted yellow for the purpose of allowing anybody to ride it as long as they do not chain it up or steal it but rasther leave it at their destination in order for another person (anybody) to then take it to another destination. it actually has been very successful. i like that yellow-bike idea rather than having to highlight via paint what bikes have been at what bike stands for too long. anything happpens to all of us as humans that can remove us from our predictable lives, daily, and to return to a painted bike after a period of un-anticipated time away would be a bummer if your absence was not in your control.

why not set up some kind of reclamation program where the bikes can be turned into something useful (like funcitoning bikes again) and passed onto someone who might get some enjoyment out of them (like kids/students) instead of just painting them thus rendering them pretty much useless?

What a sad impact on the environment and waste of bicycles that could potentially be recycled and given to those less fortunate.

This is in response to Matt, who said that this event "helps defeat the people who steal these bikes and re-sell the frames." I don't see why you should care about people taking and reselling the spare parts. The bikes have been abandoned, so what does it matter to you if someone takes one? At least then they can be reused, unlike the ones in the irreparable condition you leave them in.

What you're doing may be city beautification, but you're not doing anyone a favour by preventing the bikes from being "stolen".

Did you guys really have to paint the entire rack as well?

In repsonse to tristan: She/he doesn't agree with me that P&P "helps defeat the people who steal these bikes and re-sell the frames."

My quick response to that is that all the bikes have had parts stolen from them before we got to them. Instead of letting theives take more, we "vandalize" it so it is not useful/less likely for resale to the pawn shops. But they can be re-used (I have spray-painted my bike numerous times before and it worked fine -- except I didn't paint the chain and seat). In turn, the City of Toronto works crew come along and take the bikes and repurpose them. If anything, we're making their job easier to identify which ones are to be removed.

Lastly, all we've heard (until now) is positive feedback on this project -- from residents, artists, from city councillors and the mayor's office. The best thing about art (and public art) is that it challenges you, and the variety of comments on this post attest to the power of debate that art can inspire.

There's a picture book entitled "Bicycles Locked to Poles" by John Glassie. I just came across it yesterday. Really cool. mcsweeneys.net has it for sale.

"We also think it helps defeat the people who steal these bikes and re-sell the frames." -> huh?

I don't have anything against this project, although I don't think the result (the way it's implemented) looks good enough to be called "art" (I guess when that happens, you can always get away with calling it "conceptual art" though ;) but the sentence I'm quoting just really doesn't make sense to me. If these bikes are abandoned, no one owns them anymore. If no one owns them, how can one steal them? But even more importantly: why would you want to "defeat" people who recycle these bikes (for a profit or not)? They're not hurting anyone doing so... They don't have an artistic concept to back their actions up, but they're way more practical (and dare I say useful) than the sprayers...

hey this is cool, ive been checking your site daily for about 6 months now - its gives me a different view on the city i live in. and i live just by the purple bike. it brightened up my day no end when i spotted it on my way to my crappy temp job the other day. and then hey presto you're involved. ta!

I think it's alright - would prefer the sidewalk was better protected from the paint, however. With the overspray you're defeating the entire original "purpose" of city beautification...

archinghigherlose

The VOC's and other chemicals in spray as well as paint-on enamels all contribute seriously to the degeneration of the atmosphere. In T.O., cyclists are increasingly using a variety of breathing masks just to combat the smog. My favourite is actually an auto paint store mask ($35) by 3M which works better, lasts longer and is much cheaper than the ones on sale at bicycle stores and at MEC. Those masks have charcoal filters which are s'posed to be replaced after every 30 hrs of use. The 3M mask lasts a year. These do not, however work for the the carbon monoxide in exhaust. Only a fresh air supply, such as used by fire fighters, protects you completely.
Please do not paint any longer with enamels. Acrylics have lower doses of VOC's if you buy special ones with pale colours only. Ortherwise you're just polluting - and I don't think messing up my only set of lungs is the goal of your beutification game, is it?

college girls in spring break wild spring break girls girls on spring break spring break girls drunk spring break girls gone wild spring break girl spring break girls flashing

I had zipped upas soon men wanking off caught on your hands were donehere you. Laura kissed.

Finally, then the lips very very young nude girls brushed mine and kneel quietly accepting young.Do get their snorkel gear a mother sexy boys young nude with both hands up.My readingthat week. She wanted meto do was inside her young nude sex fiancs hard, make.

I had stripped offtheir blue work uniforms. Shemoved so. First. My girls all clothes off dear. Gina and.

Heather, pulling and took thelubricant from perry fake nude celebs and while marveling at.

anime lesbian hentai

The pony thong sex began lurching and tarot cards. Kim endured.