{"id":1384,"date":"2006-12-11T18:17:23","date_gmt":"2006-12-11T22:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=1384"},"modified":"2014-12-02T23:01:40","modified_gmt":"2014-12-03T04:01:40","slug":"thimble-art-starts-to-measure-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/12\/11\/thimble-art-starts-to-measure-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Thimble art starts to measure up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/images\/thimble-94110014-JDR.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Spacing<\/em>&#8216;s very own Shawn Micallef had a piece about the thimble public art piece found at the northeast corner of Richmond and Spadina in the weekend&#8217;s <em>Globe and Mail<\/em>. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/servlet\/story\/LAC.20061209.THIMBLE09\/TPStory\/?query=shawn+micallef\">Click here to read the entire article<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A giant bronze thimble and two concrete buttons: As works of art go, Stephen Cruise&#8217;s <em>Uniform Measure\/Stack<\/em> seems pretty well indestructible. But when you leave art in the open, anything can happen. That&#8217;s what Mr. Cruise has learned as his public art piece at Spadina and Richmond has received a long-overdue finishing touch &#8212; and an unauthorized addition in bright red paint.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>But then Victor Fraser came along in September to add his contribution: a 25-metre tape measure, painted on the sidewalk in bright red, that snakes around the street corner. Most passerby assume it&#8217;s an official part of the piece and was added along with the trees &#8212; but in fact, the paint job is the unsanctioned work of the Toronto sidewalk artist, who signs his paintings &#8220;VicTor.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Fraser has done paid sidewalk art for various companies, but Torontonians who walk with their heads down are likely more familiar with his &#8220;free&#8221; work, which includes murals in front of Toronto fire and ambulance stations. Last year, he painted a massive poppy for Remembrance Day in front of Old City Hall. &#8220;I enjoy doing tributes that accent the community,&#8221; he says.<\/p>\n<p>As for the measuring tape, Mr. Fraser had been planning on it since he first saw the thimble in 1997. &#8220;I finally caught up to it,&#8221; he says. He spent 25 hours painting it over the course of a few days, before and after his day job managing a downtown building.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Cruise says his first reaction to Mr. Victor&#8217;s unauthorized painting was that &#8220;it brought a smile to my face,&#8221; adding that &#8220;it&#8217;s different than graffiti, he did a very good job. He painted it meticulously.&#8221; However, Mr. Cruise points out that what was once an element you might discover later on, perhaps while &#8220;waiting for the light to change,&#8221; the bold measuring tape is now one of the first things you see, and the surprise is gone.<\/p>\n<p>When asked about the invasive nature of his work, Mr. Fraser says &#8220;You could call it selfish if you want, but I call it positive manipulation. I had to do it. It teased me and taunted me.&#8221; Though amused and a little concerned, Mr. Cruise says his official response for now is simply &#8220;I&#8217;m thinking about it.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spacing&#8216;s very own Shawn Micallef had a piece about the thimble public art piece found at the northeast corner of Richmond and Spadina in the weekend&#8217;s Globe and Mail. Click here to read the entire article. A giant bronze thimble and two concrete buttons: As works of art go, Stephen Cruise&#8217;s Uniform Measure\/Stack seems pretty<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/12\/11\/thimble-art-starts-to-measure-up\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Thimble art starts to measure up&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1022,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21757],"tags":[4120,313,25,2713,4121,16,4116,310,4119,4117,19,4118],"class_list":["post-1384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communication","tag-bright-red-paint","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-intervention","tag-old-city-hall","tag-paint-job","tag-posters","tag-remembrance-day","tag-shawn-micallef","tag-sidewalk-artist","tag-stephen-cruise","tag-toronto","tag-victor-fraser"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Thimble art starts to measure up - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2006\/12\/11\/thimble-art-starts-to-measure-up\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thimble art starts to measure up - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Spacing&#8216;s very own Shawn Micallef had a piece about the thimble public art piece found at the northeast corner of Richmond and Spadina in the weekend&#8217;s Globe and Mail. 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