River of Time

Mural Routes Member(s): Bareket Kezwer Julia Prajza Julii McMillan

Artist(s): Natalie Very B., Bareket Kezwer, Julii McMillan, Julia Prajza

Producer: STEPS Public Art, StreetARToronto

Category: Contemporary, Creative Realism, Fantasy, Heritage, Illustration, Landscape, Lettering

Completed: June 2022

Size: 200 ft

The ‘River of Time’ mural was undertaken by artists Natalie Very B., Bareket Kezwer, Julii McMillan and Julia Prajza, as part of the Neighbourhood Love Collective’s Gateway Mural Project. The mural depicts artistically rendered wildlife, rivers and other nature scenes flowing through the seasons, the observer’s eyes following a series of unbroken rolling hills that pass through the seasons.

Beginning with winter on the far left side of the mural, a red fox runs on an icy path surrounded by snowy trees. On its right two deer look upward to a tree full of brown birds under a dark blue and starry sky. The smaller of the two deer appears to be standing on ice, which transitions into a flowing river, marking winter transitioning to spring. Two swans sit in this river, making a heart with their beaks as the sky transitions from purple to pink. Squirrels, robins and cardinals share a tree surrounded by green hills, rabbits and flowers.

The river flows behind this tree, past a sitting fox and keeping a family of Mallard ducks afloat. The scene transitions from spring to summer as the river flows past some trees which turn dramatically more green and lush. The river then reaches high tide, met with bulrush, butterflies, lilypads, schools of fish and a grazing deer. Summer transitions into fall, and the words “flow gratefully through the currents of time” are written in large, capitalised block letters. These words are surrounded by a pelican, bluejays, bees, flowers and ducks, as the river returns to low tide and races past multicoloured fields.

The sky darkens over this fall scene, with bluejays, deer and foxes looking to the sky, sitting in trees as their leaves fall and brown. The river freezes and whisps the background as snow covers the final section of this mural, with foxes, blue birds, white rabbits and cardinals dotting themselves behind rocks and between leafless trees.

This mural was funded in partnership with the Sunnylea-Stonegate Neighbourhood Association, Neighbourhood Love T.O, Lakeshore Arts, the StreetART TO, Councillor Mark Grimes (ward 3 – Etobicoke Lakeshore), Steps Public Art, Stonegate Community Heath Centre and Dulux Paints.

For More Information: see Neighbourhood Love TO's Gateway Project website.