Written By: KJ Mullins

Last summer a group of young graffiti artists traveled from Toronto to New York City to take part in the Jeff Pulver’s 140 Character Conference, The State of Now. During the conference a dream to bring a mural back to Toronto started.  Yesterday that dream was revealed.

In New York City the artists, Kedre Browne and Jessey Pacho, began their dream with a mural at a tattoo store in the Bronx called Tuff City Styles. They were there along with youth mentors Scott Mills of the Toronto Police Service, and Steve Welton of the Hamilton Police Service. At the time Mills said of the trip, “This is so important. Our kids that are on this trip are incredible artists who could have gone down the wrong path. Instead they are using their talents for good causes. It’s so important that the police work to mentor our youth and show them that we do support the good acts that they do.”

That mural called awareness to a project started by Mark Horvath called Invisiblepeople.tv. Horvath knows what it’s like to be one of the invisible people, he was homeless during the late 2000s himself.

The project focused on interviewing homeless people across North America to bring a true face to those living on the streets, thus giving them visibility. In New York City the two groups met with New York film maker Americk Lewis to put together a video of their dreams.

Coming back to Toronto the group wanted to make a huge mural dedicated to this project, putting a face of the issue of homelessness and a local project, ProjectWinterSurvival.org. It was a daunting task, first to find the space and then to find the funds to put it in motion.

The space was found within weeks. During the launch of this year’s Project Water Scott Mills and Kedre Browne were talking to Jody Steinhauer owner of the Bargains Group and Lorne Simon owner of Michael Communications PR Group, who had donated their space for the 242,000 bottles of Nestle Water to be given away to local charity groups, about the trip to New York City. As they talked about the need for a wall for the mural a smile lit up the faces of the owners. They had a long brick wall that was ripe for a mural. It was agreed that the project would take place later in the year.

Exit summer and enter an autumn of planning and designing. Murals the size of this one aren’t an easy task. Kedre, Jessey and Scott obtained the paints and funds needed from an anonymous donor, and through their dedication worked tirelessly to produce a work of art that was finally revealed on Saturday. The same anonymous donor ensured Mark Horvath was able to attend to see in person the difference he has made and continues to make through his tireless advocacy for ending homelessness.

Scott Mills said in a phone interview that Kedre watched over 24 hours of video from the Invisible People project to narrow down the images to put into the mural.

“Kedre said that without the help of everyone, including Jody and Lorne, whose causes are ones that they can believe in, this project wouldn’t have been able to go through.”

Last week Kedre “Bubz” and Jessey “Phade” got to work. It took a week of painting to get the mural perfect for the unveiling on December 10th.

Permission to reprint this article given by newz4u.net.