Aug 19, 2024
I was at a coffee shop
on College Street when the barista Tony yelled “Hey! There’s that
duck!”
I turned and, sure
enough, out the front window was a… duck. A giant
pixelated-looking green-headed Mallard set atop a rubber-tire-sized
body on top of orange-stockinged legs and a pair of orange
Converse. And he was just … walking by.
Like some kind of
interdimensional tumbleweed.
Uh, what … was
this?
Some gimmick from the
local radio station? An ad campaign for a boot company? I ran
outside with my friend Ateqah and was puzzled that … she seemed to
know him!
“Hiiiiiii Lewis,” she
cooed. “You’re looking great, Lewis! How’s your day going,
Lewis?”
He just … quacked at
her.
I had so many
questions: “Who are you? What are you doing? What is the meaning of
this?”
But, of course, he
just … quacked.
Ducks can’t
talk!
Then he turned and did
a 1920s-pauper-finding-a-penny-style heel-click a good three feet
in the air and I was left standing on the sidewalk, stunned, with a
big smile on my face.
I couldn’t let the
story finish there.
Turns out Ateqah had
been following Lewis Mallard on Instagram for years so when she saw
him she knew who he was. She took a picture of us and posted it on
her Instagram Story, after which Lewis Mallard picked it up,
artistically edited it, and posted it on his own.
I learned Lewis
Mallard is an anonymous ‘interdimensional psychedelic folk artist’
responsible for street performances and art installations across
Hamilton, Toronto and, most recently, Victoria. Little duck-painted
streetcar stations are popping up and, of course, the duck, in full
quacking character, is being spotted on the streets.
Lewis’s work has been
covered in all the local press in Toronto—CP24, City News, CTV, The
Toronto Star, etc. In one of many pieces of coverage in CBC a
person named J.J. Collins, manager of a local record label, said
"Anybody who sees Lewis will tell the next person they see and say,
'Oh my God, I saw Lewis on the way to work today.' It's like
finding the golden ticket."
Finding the golden
ticket? I … love that. BlogTo calls Lewis a “Toronto legend” and a
“viral folk artist” and was trumpeting him after he painted a
Toronto streetcar stop to look like … himself.
There was this …
allure, to me, of what Lewis Mallard *was* and what he was doing.
Taking over the streets, creating art amidst dustry construction,
and mapping rivers of love, humanity, and community through
endlessly flowing change we all feel happening on the
streets.
Lewis Mallard agreed
to meet me in human form—though his face, name, and identity remain
secret throughout this interview—on a bright orange bench on
College Street outside the same Manic Coffee where I saw him the
first time. Lewis and I parked in the hot sun in front of noisy
streetcars, gaggles of teens, and one guy who (really) believes
Lewis is a spy.
We share Manic's
famous yogurt cups, ham and cheese croissants, and cookies—all
homemade!—and discuss sacrifices for art, the power of the
collective, the right amount of ‘bad,’ community through poverty,
how to parent your parents, becoming an adult reader, what
vandalism *really* is, and, of course, Lewis Mallard’s 3 most
formative books…
Let’s flip the page
into Chapter 139 now…