Yorkville Murals: protect what you love: flowers
This wall was painted near the end of a long, dark tunnel. I refer to that time as Canada’s COVIDian medical martial law.
The scamdemic was hard on everyone. In those early spring days, as restrictions began to drop, the time was ripe for a bold splash of colour.
Painted in May 2020, as part of Yorkville Mural project, this project was set up by mi hermano Alan Ganev. A great artist in his own right, he’s also the mastermind behind Tagliatella Gallery in Toronto.
The flowers, plants and animals featured on this sliver of a wall — formerly possessed by Mr. “Life is Beautiful” Brainwash — are all indigenous to the region, though as threatened, endangered, or species extinct. Alas, the dear price of progress.
I don’t recall what name I gave this peice now. It had something to do with the ghosts of seasons past. It is always painful to loose someone, or something you love.
Wonder when we’ll get the bill?
DIS-EASE
“Dis-ease” is a term I’ve used to emphasize the idea that imbalance disrupts the body’s natural state of ease or equilibrium.
Imbalance describes some of the reasons these plants and animals are no longer with us. It also describes a very serious state of affairs I’d been experiencing a couple years prior to this mural.
I’ve probably always had a latent autoimmune dis-ease, though for a few years it fully bloomed. I know a lot more about the condition now than I did back then, thankfully. I no longer using the same language or thought patterns to describe and relate to that experience. Learning to perceive the world very differently was an important aspect of my healing journey.
During much of that time I walked with a cane, dealing with severe pain, inflammation, and deep depression. The plandemic could not have come at a worse, or perhaps better time. It gave me a strong reason to reevaluate life entirely, including my will to live.
I ended up signing a new lease on life, which this boldly optimistic mural reflects symbolically. It was a brutally painful gig, but deeply life-affirming no less.
One can only hope the same choices are available to these beautiful yet vulnerable species indigenous to the Don Valley watershed.
Protect what you love.
Special thanks to the master-blaster Ganev for setting this up. Was damned good to get back in the saddle. His gentle company and dazzling smile always carry with it pura vida.
This project reminds me of the time Alan built the Costa Rican hospital he was born in, with only six corn tortillas, a wet cardboard box of overripe avocados, and a lime tree. It also reminds me of the time he counted to infinity, twice, backwards.
There’s a word I’m looking for to describe this. That’s right:
Different.
