Someone has been painting sad faces on abandoned furniture in Toronto
An armchair that has sat in a vacant Toronto lot for over a year got a sad face from a Los Angeles based artist.
The chair sits in the lot once occupied by the historic Peacock Hotel, which burned in May 2019 and was later torn down.
Over the Christmas break, a face appeared on the chair and also on an abandoned couch on Bloor Street, west of High Park — although it seems to have moved.
Both are the work of Lonesome Town, a project from an L.A. artist that prefers to remain anonymous. Lonesome Town has been featured in The Independent, Wall Street International Magazine and Bored Panda.
The artist tells blogTO he started working on Lonesome Town projects around November 2016. He created the two latest pieces while visiting the city with his girlfriend, who is from Toronto, over the holidays.
He also created some private work for friends.
All the public artwork is done on found items in the street, the artist says, and he paints them at the location where they are found.
"There is an ever flowing river of trash in the streets of Los Angeles, which provides me with plenty of opportunities to work," he says.
Lonesome Town revolves around themes of neglect and abandonment, he adds.
"We have these material items that hold so much significance in our lives, things we rely on to keep our food cold, things we sit on to provide us comfort amongst our family," he says. "Then one day when we decide that we don't need these particular items anymore, we push them to the street to let them fall victim to what life has to throw at them."
He says Lonesome Town gives these pieces a second lease at life.
These weren't the first Lonesome Town pieces in Toronto.
The artist worked on a few pieces in the summer of 2019 as well, including a vintage painting of Venice, Italy found hanging on an alley wall south of Jersey Avenue. He believes that piece is still there.
Karen Longwell
Latest Videos
Latest Videos
Join the conversation Load comments
