After a month of long hours, cold weather and the occasional frozen paint gun, award-winning Toronto artist Christiano De Araujo stood on the street at 432 Rogers Rd. and watched people go by and look at his work.

“I am happy to beautify the city,” he said. “I had neighbours from here coming every day to watch me paint and they say ‘looking at this makes me happy.’ It’s amazing.”

The vibrant mural, called See the Forest for the Trees, that now adorns the retaining wall at Rogers Road and Silverthorn Avenue, was co-created by De Araujo and designer Natasha Dichpan.

The project, officially unveiled to the public on April 3, was painted over the duration of a month in October and November 2018. The weather alone was a challenge for the artists.

“By the time we started, it was fall and it started to get cold outside and it was hard,” De Araujo said, adding that his paint would freeze at times and need to be replaced.

The design for the mural, created by Natasha Dichpan, depicts a diverse community growing together. – Veronica Appia/Metroland

Nearby neighbours helped him out as much as possible during the process by supplying him with water and power to operate his paint gun and a space to store his materials. 

When deciding on the design for the mural, Dichpan says she wanted it to reflect the feel and the diversity of those residing in the neighbourhood.

“The idea behind it is it’s the community and the trees coming together and growing together, making a larger picture together. It’s also an immigrant area — I’m an immigrant as well,” she said, adding that she was once a resident of the area herself.

Dichpan was born in Russia and raised in Israel. She moved to Canada as a teenager. 

De Araujo also immigrated to Canada as a young adult, moving from Brazil in 1994, where he worked as a political cartoonist in his teenage years. 

Images of a boat and migrating geese are incorporated into the mural to represent the movement of people from one place to another, Dichpan added.

And to encompass the idea of belonging, Dichpan included a mosaic element to the mural.

“I wanted to have this idea that every person is part of a mosaic that is a bigger pattern,” she said. “I also noticed that the shadows of the trees around the mural began to incorporate into the wall so I kind of like that whole idea of the mural blending into the neighbourhood.”

De Araujo says the intention with this colourful mural, like the majority of his work around the city, is to create a visceral impact for those who view it.

“People walk by and they see this and at first they might not think much, they just think, ‘oh, beautiful,’ but it does something to their subconscious mind,” he said.

“We need food for our body to nourish our body, but we also need art to nurture our soul. For me, having vibrant colours is similar to having food that’s rich in flavour.”

The Rogers Road See the Forest for the Trees mural was created as part of StreetARTToronto’s Underpass Program, designed to reduce vandalism and improve streets and public spaces. 

Source: toronto.com