West Toronto Rail Path, Dupont and Dundas West, StreetART Underpass Program, Osler Street, Toronto, ON
Excerpt from the Toronto Star of August 30, 2009:
As a teenager growing up south of the Junction, Joshua Barndt would wander around and spray graffiti on abandoned walls.
Last month, the 23-year-old returned to the neighbourhood with paint in hand – this time because the city wanted him there.
From July 7 to Aug. 5, Barndt and artist Jamie Bradbury, 27, led a team of five teenaged artists in painting a 122-metre mural along Dupont St. at Dundas St. W. underneath the new West Toronto Railpath for cyclists and pedestrians.
Art Starts, a non-profit organization that promotes local art, last week launched the mural, named after the Toronto Cyclists Union's motto: "Strength in Numbers."
"For me, it's coming back to old roaming ground and doing something that I'm allowed to do," Barndt said. "This is a neighbourhood ... (where) there's not a lot of access to contemporary artwork, so it's important to bring it down into the streets."
The $18,000 project was funded by the city's Graffiti Transportation Investment Program and the Toronto and Ontario Arts Councils.
As the viewer moves westward, the mural's colourful images present a narrative, first depicting the Junction's history, then themes about cycling in the city, followed by environmental issues, and ending at a utopia where nature coexists with city life.
"We've taken a corner that was undesirable," Bradbury said, "and within a matter of a month, it's completely changed the whole feeling of the area."
West Toronto Rail Path, Dupont and Dundas West, StreetART Underpass Program, Osler Street, Toronto, ON
Excerpt from the Toronto Star of August 30, 2009:
As a teenager growing up south of the Junction, Joshua Barndt would wander around and spray graffiti on abandoned walls.
Last month, the 23-year-old returned to the neighbourhood with paint in hand – this time because the city wanted him there.
From July 7 to Aug. 5, Barndt and artist Jamie Bradbury, 27, led a team of five teenaged artists in painting a 122-metre mural along Dupont St. at Dundas St. W. underneath the new West Toronto Railpath for cyclists and pedestrians.
Art Starts, a non-profit organization that promotes local art, last week launched the mural, named after the Toronto Cyclists Union's motto: "Strength in Numbers."
"For me, it's coming back to old roaming ground and doing something that I'm allowed to do," Barndt said. "This is a neighbourhood ... (where) there's not a lot of access to contemporary artwork, so it's important to bring it down into the streets."
The $18,000 project was funded by the city's Graffiti Transportation Investment Program and the Toronto and Ontario Arts Councils.
As the viewer moves westward, the mural's colourful images present a narrative, first depicting the Junction's history, then themes about cycling in the city, followed by environmental issues, and ending at a utopia where nature coexists with city life.
"We've taken a corner that was undesirable," Bradbury said, "and within a matter of a month, it's completely changed the whole feeling of the area."