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"Haile" is a mural that celebrates the Ethiopian community at Christie Ossington. In Emharic, "Haile" means "King" which was written in stylized letters across the top by Mediah. The mural was created by the Graffiti Arts Program 2008 - Javid, Mediah, Viviana, Colin and Troy.

The wall belongs to Mike, owner of the Black Lion Hair Salon adjacent to the Christie Ossington Neighborhood Centre. He gave us permission to paint the wall, which was vandalized for some time.  He also gave us drawings of people dressed in traditional Ethiopian garments, which we used on the left and right of the mural.

In the center, we used an image of Haile Geberselassie, the famous Ethiopian long-distance runner.

Above:  the original vandalized wall.

Funded by the City of Toronto Graffiti Transformation program, the artists came up with the design and executed the production over the course of a week, and recieved great response from the community.

Above: Colin Turner Bloom hard at work.

Above: Mr. Bailey (LOFT Program Manager, Hector Escober and  Claudia Sarmiento (LOFT Volunteers) in front of the Haile mural on our first day painting.

If you have a vandalized wall and would like to have it painted by the Christie Ossington Neighborhood Centre, contact Javid.