Queen West Gets a Heart On

It's amazing how serene Queen Street West can be if you're there at the right time: 3:30am on a weekday, after the drinkers have gone home, but before the suits have come to work. It was there and then that the people of newmindspace decided to put on their latest, and most ambitious, project.

It was, like so many of their projects before, to be seasonally themed - in this case for St Valentine's Day. It was also to continue in their tradition of bravely reclaiming public space for people to enjoy themselves; this time though, they wanted to share it with the city. Meeting at the corner of Queen and John, maps were handed out; they would be painting pink hearts along the length of the eastern part of Queen West - both sidewalks from Yonge to Bathurst. In groups of two or three the guerilla artists, some from as far away as Hamilton, were assigned blocks to paint. Supplies - sponges, paint, tupperware - were easy to be found.

In the end, a success, but not the unmitigated success for which they had hoped. Anybody walking on Queen Street today will doubtlessly notice the pink hearts at their feet, but the desire to create a 6km (nearly 10 times the current world record for longest mural) continuous flow of St V Day momentos by sunrise proved to be out of reach. Perhaps the biggest trouble was the paint itself, which demonstrated an uncanny knack for doing what plaster does best, and hardening.

Still, Queen Westers will be in for a plesant surprise when they hit the streets this morning.