A Barbie Pink

This is Queen Street West, in the block behind the Queen Mother Cafe.  What an interesting choice of colours for graffiti and wall murals.  The coral-pink tones are very inviting.  That is because the colour pink is the colour of universal love of oneself and of others.  It represents friendship, affection, harmony, inner peace and approachability.  It is the official colour for little girls, and it is the sweet side of the colour red. The Barbie Doll displays this use of little girl pink in North American society.  The doll came about when the Mattel co-founder's wife, Ruth Handler,  saw her daughter Barbara giving her dolls adult roles.  Ruth's initial suggestion of an adult doll was rejected by her husband and the Mattel board.  However, she persisted and found an equivalent doll in Germany, which was used as the model for the American Barbie.  Barbie was subsequently introduced in 1959 wearing a zebra-striped swimsuit then. It doesn't mention how the pink came about. Over a billion Barbie dolls have been sold worldwide in over 150 countries since then.  Mattel claims that three Barbie dolls are sold every second.

Queen Street West

I stepped into Hudson's Bay at Yonge and Queen last week and the floor was a mess.  They had been sanding it and these were the marks the sanding left behind.  (I chose the blue colour).  They are in progress on updating the flooring.  Walking through Hudson's Bay (formerly Simpson's) was like walking through someone's home renovation.  The spaces need to function but it sure isn't normal to be in the plastic-lined hallways and then pop into brand new spaces. The old Eaton's store has taken the opposite approach to renovation: it is completely closed.  The store will become a Nordstrom's next year. The next picture is a shot of Queen Street West's back alleys.  I cam so astonished that the front facades along Queen Street West can be pristine, and the back can look like the 9 circles of Hell all collapsed into one experience.

Larger Than Life

I found this in the Queen Street West Graffiti Alley in Toronto.  It's well known as the setting for Rick Mercer's 'Rants'.

It all seems so perfect.  It might be that now, a few weeks later, the chair too is a story of images and letters.