Love Letter to Toronto Wildlife

In the summer of 2022, the city of Toronto hired me to paint this traffic signal box at Fort York Boulevard and Dan Leckie Way. The intersection stands at the corner of Canoe Landing Park and is flanked on all sides by tall condominiums. It was my pleasure while painting to meet and talk with several of the box's neighbours! A lot of them are newcomers to Canada, and there are quite a few budding young artists who stopped to chat and whose parents showed me pictures of their children's paintings on their phones. The design features four wild animals that you might see roaming around the city if your eyes are sharp! Front: white-tailed deer Right: raccoon Back: peregrine falcon Left: coyote

The raccoon painting honours a very specific little urban daredevil who was spotted walking across the power lines in the east end of Toronto in 2013! You can watch the high wire act here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doGrp_WMp3k This box has been featured in a StreetARToronto gallery exhibit and in promotional material for the StreetARToronto Outside The Box program. I continue to get delightful feedback from people who see my art and send me photos. This was my first experience painting on the street, and now I'm hooked for life.