Doors Open Toronto features the 6-minute film, “Shea’s Victoria”, as a virtual experience (scroll down the page to “Shea’s Victoria”). Sarah Keenlyside created the film at inkblot media: https://vimeo.com/inkblot.
Great Gulf commissioned me to create a series of large-scale lightboxes. Their condominium development is located at 25 Richmond Street East in downtown Toronto. Renowned glass and mosaic studio Mayer of Munich fabricated my designs. Three areas of the building feature 420 square feet of hand-painted float glass. Three panes of glass, arranged inches apart in depth, appear to move when the viewer walks past the art. The glass designs recall the elaborately decorated Beaux-Arts theatre, which stood on this site from 1910 to 1956.
You can also watch my film HERE. It is an intriguing short film about the conception, creation, and installation of the public artwork, “Shea’s Victoria”.
The public can view the glass artworks 24 hours a day at 25 Richmond Street East at Victoria Street in downtown Toronto.
I searched for original blueprints at the City of Toronto Archives. I found drawings dated 1909 from the elaborately decorated interior of the vaudeville theatre. The art glass drawing above the ticket wicket depicts a harp and laurel motif. The symbol, dating back to Ancient Greece, denotes an entertainment theme.
Around the corner on Yonge Street stands the historic Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre. The Ontario Heritage Trust oversaw the restorations of the Centre in recent years. Its interior features the same rich Beaux-Arts ornamentation that would have been found inside Shea’s Victoria Theatre. The stained glass windows above the main doors reveal the same harp and laurel symbol I found in the historical blueprints.