B Streets Mural – An Experience to Remember
In the summer of 2011 the Toronto Muralists took on a large exterior mural project; the B Streets mural. This mural was for a condo developers project that planned on building a condo at Toronto’s iconic Bloor and Bathurst intersection. This is in the central west area of Toronto which happens to be a very trendy area with a university and some historic buildings of Toronto. A large mural of this type seems to be right at home in these surroundings.
A perfect location for a mural
The mural was painted on a former school that had been turned into the sales office and future home of the condo. The total size of the mural is 80’ long and 28’ feet high. The concept of the mural was a very strong idea coming from an ad agency called La ads, they were faced with a large blank canvas and made a daring choice to fill it full of colour and images. Toronto is booming right now with condos in the downtown area. Many developers have kept in the formal ad sense of a large banner with type, this does get the message across however with no real creativity. La ads chose to do it differently. The condo team had a sense that where they were building was an important space in Toronto. This area has an exclusive culture unto itself and they hoped to reflect that in their advertising.
Capturing the area in paint
The first phase of this mural project was to design the image. As La ads knew they needed to reflect the area and incorporate the elements of its unique urban landscape. They hired a photographer to capture the people of the area. They then transformed those photos it into a collage, almost to look like one full scene .The pictures that were taken were of people that had real roots in the Bloor and Bathurst community.
The final images chosen were of musicians, consumers, pedestrians and even a young couple. Seeing as how this area is so rich with community there is of course many musicians there. That is why the first figure is of a harp player near a subway entrance. This harp player is engrossed in the music, determined to perform at his best.
The second figure is also of a musician instead of him playing an instrument he is sitting and enjoying some coffee on one of the many outside patios. He is so well known in the area his face is recognizable without his instrument beside him. Perhaps as he is pondering the finer things in life he is thinking about a new song or maybe even a long sought question to the meaning of life. No matter what it is, there is a sense that he has a plethora of topics to mull over while sipping some coffee.
A young couple is apparent in the third image. Here they are heading into the horizon. As they sneak a kiss, we see the back of their heads; the city lights and traffic endure on to get this couple onto their romantic night. We had the pleasure of meeting many of the people represented in this mural. It was very surreal to be meeting these figures as we were painting them on the wall.
Our fourth image of a street performer yielding his electric guitar was even a little more surreal because we would be painting while he was playing at the same time. This busker plays right at the corner of Bloor and Bathurst a few steps from the mural. The size of a mural like this may cause some to weary but there is even more figures.
Our next figure, bringing the total to five is of another coffee house customer here he has just bought his coffee and is heading out of the shop looking to take in the sight and sounds of the vibrant city of Toronto. Stealing the glares of admiring eyes is our sixth figure this picturesque young woman strutting down the street similar to models on a runway has no room for idle thoughts she is determined and on her way. Our seventh and final figure is a young man with an ultra-sleek road bike carrying some flowers. His presence compliments the young lady beside him, with his strong and care-free demeanor.
It’s at this point the mural fades into black and has the triumphant conclusion – the vibrant green logo of the condo developer, B Streets. With such an assault of images on your retina you take a second and wonder if you have just been hoodwinked. After careful thought more than likely you’ll decide to pull up a chair across the street or maybe wait for the bus a little too long. Regardless, this mural is one to be remembered.
The task of painting a massive exterior mural
The job of taking on an exterior mural of this caliber is no easy task. There are many things associated that need to coalesce at once for it to go smoothly. The area where the mural is situated makes a big difference on how we approach the mural project. In this particular situation the area surrounding the wall was completely free of obstructions that would impede our process. There was even a plus to the location; here it was right beside a major street. So we were greeted with many friendly faces and some new faces, which were happy to celebrate the artwork on the wall.
At the onset of this mural project we were faced with the less-than-glamorous job of priming the wall. Solving this matter was not much stress, our airless paint sprayers made quick work of this wall. Here in this situation the area we needed to cover was quite large, so we made sure to oil up our sprayer. It would have given you jitters if you saw this blank freshly painted surface full with the knowledge that the next day the mural painting journey was to begin.
And a great journey it was.
We had two head artists, two assistant artists, and two camera operators to take pictures and film. Painting this mural required over 250 spray cans, 40 gallons of paint, two scissor-lifts, and a pile of other tools for the job. Our first night of projecting was filled with anticipation; we were just so excited to get started. The whereabouts of that mural always had welcomed onlookers there for our encouragement. Painting this mural took our artists two weeks, and we certainly used up a lot of gasoline to go up and down on our Skyjack scissor-lifts. After long sun baked days and a few empty water bottles the mural was finished. We are happy to have had the opportunity to work with B Streets to produce such a creative mural to the city dwellers of Toronto.
Photography/Cinematography courtesy Jassa Campbell & Ben Graeme