Study this picture carefully (above) .
There are those bird houses again, this time attached to men, I thought it would be a great image for a hostel to have birds looking for a home. Also the female hockey players with Canadian flag would make a good area for photos, most of them are missing teeth and have black eyes, there is also a lacrosse player included, the best durn sport on Earth. Also featured are "Tiny Houses" another signature that lets you know A.Shay Hahn was responsible.
About six years ago (maybe five) I was hired by The Planet Traveler's Hostel in Kensington Market on Augusta to paint a mural for their back patio area. This is one of the instances where I was given free rein to paint whatever came to mind, I had very limited time to paint this piece but I enjoy the surreal humour and homages to Kensington/Canada very much. Actually I painted the piece with a giant tarp behind me so I was literally pressed up against the wall and had to push back against it to back up to see what I was doing, it was freezing cold and raining intermittedly over the three days that I had to paint the piece, before leaving for the Blyth Festival to work. The only source of a heat was an oven that I would rush in to warm my hands on when they started to freeze up.
Over the years the neighbouring eavestrough managed to wash out large chunks of the piece, (see first photo) I did not know this and this is where the Cloak comes in to play. I was having a pint and struck up a conversation with another patron, we were talking about murals as I was planning the Cloak and Dagger piece, (see above post) and Tony, the guy I was talking to, said that his favourite mural in the city was at a Hostel in Kensington Market and I started laughing. Tony was nice enough to get me back in touch with Anthony the owner of the Hostel and I was able to restore the piece to it's former glory, with some added new touches. Anthony estimates that easily over a thousand people from all over the Globe have had their picture taken in front of this mural, whichI find very touching that my work has travelled so much.
I rarely get to restore work and I think these photos really show what the environment can do to a piece and also give credence to a new coat of paint. If you are looking to stay here, International Shoppers it's located at (I believe) 185 Kensington, right across from the Park and Amadeus (sardines!) there is a Majong Men's club with two Lions right beside it and there is a barbecue every Saturday, very reasonable rates.
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