From June 20th to 25th, many street artists brought their talents to paint murals with the Great Lakes as their theme. It was part of Pangeaseed Foundation’s Seawalls for Oceans. Pangeaseed’s mission is to use science, art and creativity to “inspire positive change around pressing ocean environmental issues”. This campaign originally focused on oceans but they have now branched out to increase awareness of the issues involving out fresh water lakes and rivers as well. One of their methods is to support and encourage the painting of murals – Seawalls have been painted in Miami, San Diego, Napier New Zealand, Cozumel Mexico and many other cities around the world… and now in Toronto too.
One of the locations chosen for the murals was around Ossington and Queen where they join a number of murals that were already there.
below: The S.S. One Love sails high above an alley, painted by Peru143
below: Painted in mostly shades of grey, a mural by Caratoes (aka Cara To), a street artist based in Hong Kong.
below: A large water bird swims along the surface and watches the people passing by.
Painted by Jon Todd.
As you can see from the above photo, there are three round images painted on the south wall of the old Self Storage building.
below: Closest to the street, a mural by Sermob
below: In the middle and tying the three circles together is a mural of entwined fish by Miguel Valinas from Mexico.
below: A sleepy baby otter in its parents’ arms, painted by Sens, also from Mexico
below: A mural on a bright yellow wall – a shark and a dinosaur amongst geometric shapes that are characteristic of birdo’s work. There is also another animal head beside it. This was a collaboration between birdo, tens2, fuel, kostyn, phil and barney and it pre-dates the Love Letters to the Great Lakes murals.
below: From bright colours, to black and white – birdo’s collaboration with En Masse. A mural with the words “RIP Don Valley River”
below: It’s a rather dark lament about the state of the Don River.
below: Standing on an island, ‘Hello’ by Chicago-born Hebru Brantley in 2015
below: Whales, lobsters, fish and other creatures swimming amongst the seaweed, painted by street artist lebonar (aka Olivier Bonnard)
below: More marine life, but in an unfortunate spot. I’ve been to see this mural twice, and both times the fence was locked. It looks like the fish has an arm that it’s using to reach for the unsuspecting crayfish – a metaphor for invasive species and their effects on marine life and their habitats. It was painted by Cinzah Seekayem from New Zealand. You can see better pictures of it on his instagram page.
Other posts about this project:
- other murals at Queen and Ossington, seawalls and serpents
- murals by the Don River, at the mouth of the Don
- murals at Queen, Spadina and Bulwer
#seawallsTO | #pangeaseed | #loveletterprojects
as I walk Toronto 