A creative take on realism, which is generally the attempt to represent subject matter truthfully, without artificiality and avoiding speculative fiction and supernatural elements.
Emily May Rose (she/her) is an award-winning artist and illustrator based in Toronto, Canada. Based on her own experiences, Emily’s work features a cast of recurring characters (most notably her weed-smoking, pizza-eating raccoons) to depict humorous situations that are relatable to many of us who are trying to survive in an urban environment.
Love and passion flow through the JVN brand and I wanted to capture this by depicting figures with beautiful flowing hair cascading through the design reminiscent of waterfalls.
The mural name is an Anishinaabe word that describes the experience of having been on a long journey, and returning home (returning to your true self).
The mural’s ‘Bees and Urban Pollinators’ theme recognizes Riverside’s hidden green spaces that maintain wildflowers and local hives, as well as the area’s growing bee-keeping culture in the east-end.
This design featuring forms and visuals drawn from nature aims to remind passersby of the restorative peace, solitude and joy that can be found in the natural world that is so inextricably linked with the city of Toronto.
Inspired by the resilience of the natural world, this stylized water garden highlights nature’s survival through harsh and changing conditions of our urban environments.
I created this mural for my Grammie. I wanted to give thanks to her and honour her life and her journey. She was a genocidal camp survivor, (formerly known as residential “school” survivor) and I am here today and have my culture, because she survived.
This mural depicts dark hands digging or separating the earth to create a waterway path that winds like a blue snake.
It takes collective efforts to restore, protect and nurture the changing landscape of The Don. The Cycle illustrates the interconnectedness of water and how it nourishes animals, plants and humans within the ecosystem. The steady stream reminds us of the urgent protection it requires today to thrive in future generations.
In this mural, Haenahhh revisited her experiences and memories of Riverside and the Don River: walking and bicycling along the water and taking a quick break admiring the nature around the neighbourhood, it makes you forget that you’re in the city.
Mural commissioned by the committee “Habiter mon quartier du vieux-Masson”, painted on the St-Jean de Brébeuf primary school, acrylic on bricks, 45′ by 36′, 2019
This piece of public art celebrates the strength of women as water warriors. The process in creating this piece started with a stroll through the Riverside community photographing local female pedestrians. Then I took those photos and digitally manipulated them, overlaying vintage Toronto maps of the region. These images were then printed on paper 12…
Lake Ontario provides drinking water to 9 million people. In June 2021, a series of regulations that set the limits for direct discharges of toxic pollutants to Ontario’s lakes and rivers were repealed. This leaves Ontario with no sectoral standards for industrial water pollution. This mural depicts a glass of drinking water being filled with…
Our design celebrates the incredible beauty of the Don River and its surrounding waterways. It pays tribute to the traditional keepers of the land, its current residents, and its potential futures. “Tkaronto” is a Mohawk word that translates to “where trees stand in water”. The focal point of our piece is a tree emerging from…
Nature is persistent. From a single seedling emerging through a crack in the concrete, to a river flowing through an ever-expanding city. By nature, artists must be persistent, meaning we must never tire of learning new things, and never give up too soon. Whether we learn new skills or techniques, we need to continue changing…
The Riverside Sports Heritage & Legacy Mural was created by artist Monica Wickeler. The lower portion of the mural illustrates Riverside’s rich history in bicycling and curling associated with the Royal Canadian Bicycle and Curling Club, and also baseball, as Riverside was home to Toronto’s first baseball stadium, the Toronto Baseball Grounds (aka Sunlight Park)….
As our urban environment grows and becomes more and more dense, we are surrounded by fewer wild spaces and it is important to protect and appreciate the ones that remain, as well as the flora and fauna that inhabit them. Continuous tracts of urban woodland such as the Don River valley allow a diverse ecosystem…
How can one represent in a single image a community’s attachment to its territory? The mural “Common Ground” offers us the vastness of the local landscape: the river, its islands, and its mountains. It evokes the diversity of its population united by the French language. A land of possibilities where the child embodies the unlimited…
For over 20 years, the Centre-Femmes La Jardilec in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli had dreamed of adorning its facade with an activist mural. Following a collaboration between the center’s members and visual artist Tania Hillion, the Centre-Femmes now boasts a mural that celebrates the strength and diversity of women. The mural “L’Envol” (The uplifitng) highlights the invisible burden…
NUSCHOOL Design Agency
This mural is an homage to the kindness of Sudburians.
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CHOOSE TO SHINE community basketball court
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