public art

Unless your name is Alice, seeing a giant mushroom raises an eyebrow and perks my curiosity. I have no idea what it means, but according to Toronto Sculpture Garden's website, it's called "Mushroom Studio" and the artist's explanation can be found there (http://www.torontosculpturegarden.com/currentexhibit.htm). Take a peek before it's gone in April 2009.

It's kind of cartoon-y -- a giant thimble stacked on top of giant, colourful buttons, with other massive buttons spilled over around it. It takes a while to realize what you're looking at, but once you do, and clue in to the fact that it's the Fashion District, it's a hoot.

I like to visit the only outdoor Totem Pole in T.O., at the bottom of Bathurst street in the park next to the Island airport ferry terminal. There is a cool kid park there too.

The Bring Back the Don mural of the fish going from skeleton to life on the fence down in the Don Valley is a simple uplifting mysterious graphic, and I love the words on the arch of the bridge where Queen crosses the Don, about never stepping in the same river twice.

My favorite piece of public art in Toronto is Joe’s cows, the small herd of seven life-sized black bronze Jerseys that are hunkered down in the grass under the black office towers just west of the TD Centre on Wellington near Bay St., waiting for a thunderstorm, forever about-to-burst above them.