Reasons to Love Toronto: No. 25, because Rob Ford isn’t so bad for the arts after all
Reasons to Love Toronto: No. 25, because Rob Ford isn’t so bad for the arts after all
By Courtney Shea | June 15, 2012
By Courtney Shea | 06/15/2012
By Courtney Shea
The silver lining of our library-loathing mayor’s no-frills agenda has been an outpouring of city-wide creativity. Here, a collection of the most notable Ford-inspired art.
143088 An OCAD grad named Stephanie Kervin created an oil and acrylic portrait of the mayor, prompted by his obsession with the five-cent plastic shopping bag tax. It’s among the more flattering depictions of Ford, which is probably why it was bought by an unabashed Ford fan last year. The same fan recently put the painting up on eBay with the somewhat facetious asking price of $5,555.55. So far, no takers. (Image: Courtesy of Stephanie Kervin) BAG MAN FORD BAG MAN FORD https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_1-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_1.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_1.jpg 492 624 [] https://torontolife.com/city/reasons-to-love-toronto-25/slide/rtl12_no25_1/ rtl12_no25_1 0 0
(Image: Courtesy of Stephanie Kervin)
143089 After Ford’s declaration of war on their art form, the city’s spray can dissidents turned the mayoral mug into their favourite subject. Anti-Ford stencils and portraits portrayed him as an “art terrorist,” Humpty Dumpty and a giant, zit-covered worm. (The latter found its way into a gallery show.) Ford wasn’t amused, and this spring he once again vowed to get the city’s graffiti “cleaned up.” (Images: Graffito Ford by Barbara Konecny, Martin Reis and Derek Taphouse) GRAFFITO FORD GRAFFITO FORD https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_2-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_2.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_2.jpg 624 415 [] https://torontolife.com/city/reasons-to-love-toronto-25/slide/rtl12_no25_2/ rtl12_no25_2 0 0
(Images: Graffito Ford by Barbara Konecny, Martin Reis and Derek Taphouse)
143090 After Ford’s declaration of war on their art form, the city’s spray can dissidents turned the mayoral mug into their favourite subject. Anti-Ford stencils and portraits portrayed him as an “art terrorist,” Humpty Dumpty and a giant, zit-covered worm. (The latter found its way into a gallery show.) Ford wasn’t amused, and this spring he once again vowed to get the city’s graffiti “cleaned up.” (Images: Graffito Ford by Barbara Konecny, Martin Reis and Derek Taphouse) GRAFFITO FORD GRAFFITO FORD https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_3-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_3.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_3.jpg 432 624 [] https://torontolife.com/city/reasons-to-love-toronto-25/slide/rtl12_no25_3/ rtl12_no25_3 0 0
(Images: Graffito Ford by Barbara Konecny, Martin Reis and Derek Taphouse)
143091 After Ford’s declaration of war on their art form, the city’s spray can dissidents turned the mayoral mug into their favourite subject. Anti-Ford stencils and portraits portrayed him as an “art terrorist,” Humpty Dumpty and a giant, zit-covered worm. (The latter found its way into a gallery show.) Ford wasn’t amused, and this spring he once again vowed to get the city’s graffiti “cleaned up.” (Images: Graffito Ford by Barbara Konecny, Martin Reis and Derek Taphouse) GRAFFITO FORD GRAFFITO FORD https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_4-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_4.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_4.jpg 458 624 [] https://torontolife.com/city/reasons-to-love-toronto-25/slide/rtl12_no25_4/ rtl12_no25_4 0 0
(Images: Graffito Ford by Barbara Konecny, Martin Reis and Derek Taphouse)
143092 After Ford’s declaration of war on their art form, the city’s spray can dissidents turned the mayoral mug into their favourite subject. Anti-Ford stencils and portraits portrayed him as an “art terrorist,” Humpty Dumpty and a giant, zit-covered worm. (The latter found its way into a gallery show.) Ford wasn’t amused, and this spring he once again vowed to get the city’s graffiti “cleaned up.” (Images: Graffito Ford by Barbara Konecny, Martin Reis and Derek Taphouse) GRAFFITO FORD GRAFFITO FORD https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_5-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_5.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_5.jpg 624 404 [] https://torontolife.com/city/reasons-to-love-toronto-25/slide/rtl12_no25_5/ rtl12_no25_5 0 0
(Images: Graffito Ford by Barbara Konecny, Martin Reis and Derek Taphouse)
143093 <em>Rob Ford: The Opera,</em> a “surrealist fantasy” composed and performed by a group of U of T music students, imagined the mayoral creation myth with one or two dramatic embellishments (baby Rob emerges demonically from his crib, and an adult Rob steals an angelic Margaret Atwood’s wings—only to fly too close to the sun). The show played in January at the MacMillan Theatre to a full house of 800 pinkos. (Image: Getstock) TENOR FORD TENOR FORD https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_6-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_6.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_6.jpg 624 435 [] https://torontolife.com/city/reasons-to-love-toronto-25/slide/rtl12_no25_6/ rtl12_no25_6 0 0
(Image: Getstock)
143094 Francesca Mendaglio, a 19-year-old OCAD student, sculpted an amazing likeness of the mayor out of a spiral-cut honey-roasted ham she bought at Loblaws, then let the camera roll as she doused her creation with a pint of gravy (a video is still viewable on YouTube). Her original plan was to eat the sculpture, so that Ford could, quite literally, be fuelling the arts community, but fearing food poisoning, Mendaglio instead donated <em>Ham Mayor</em> to the raccoons of Grange Park. (Image: Courtesy of Francesca Mendaglio) MEATHEAD FORD MEATHEAD FORD https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_7-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_7.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_7.jpg 624 442 [] https://torontolife.com/city/reasons-to-love-toronto-25/slide/rtl12_no25_7/ rtl12_no25_7 0 0
(Image: Courtesy of Francesca Mendaglio)
143095 Torontonians went bananas for a snap of the mayor high-kicking the pigskin at a football game and sparked the second-funniest leg-related meme of the year (with top honours going, of course, to Angelina Jolie). Some of the more inventive photo manipulations: Ford gyrating at a teen dance, figure skating and skipping down the yellow-brick road. KICK-ASS FORD KICK-ASS FORD https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_8-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_8.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_8.jpg 624 450 [] https://torontolife.com/city/reasons-to-love-toronto-25/slide/rtl12_no25_8/ rtl12_no25_8 0 0
143096 Torontonians went bananas for a snap of the mayor high-kicking the pigskin at a football game and sparked the second-funniest leg-related meme of the year (with top honours going, of course, to Angelina Jolie). Some of the more inventive photo manipulations: Ford gyrating at a teen dance, figure skating and skipping down the yellow-brick road. KICK-ASS FORD KICK-ASS FORD https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_9-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_9.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_9.jpg 436 624 [] https://torontolife.com/city/reasons-to-love-toronto-25/slide/rtl12_no25_9/ rtl12_no25_9 0 0
143097 Torontonians went bananas for a snap of the mayor high-kicking the pigskin at a football game and sparked the second-funniest leg-related meme of the year (with top honours going, of course, to Angelina Jolie). Some of the more inventive photo manipulations: Ford gyrating at a teen dance, figure skating and skipping down the yellow-brick road. KICK-ASS FORD KICK-ASS FORD https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_10-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_10.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25_10.jpg 469 624 [] https://torontolife.com/city/reasons-to-love-toronto-25/slide/rtl12_no25_10/ rtl12_no25_10 0 0
143098 Reasons to Love Toronto: No. 25, Because Rob Ford isn’t so bad for the arts after all Reasons to Love Toronto: No. 25, Because Rob Ford isn’t so bad for the arts after all https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25-96x96.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25.jpg https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/RTL12_No25.jpg 656 408 [] https://torontolife.com/city/reasons-to-love-toronto-25/slide/rtl12_no25/ rtl12_no25 0 0