Some local communities are having success in addressing crime and safety issues through the creation of public art murals initiated by the Pinecrest-Queensway Community Health Centre. One impressive work located down Regina Lane was unveiled in late September. House of PainT Festival of Urban Arts and Culture was involved. Yesterday morning I biked over and checked it out. Lots to take in. While in the area I also took the opportunity to cover a few yet-to-be-explored streets on the south side of Carling.
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Images of the mural in its early stages of creation can be found on this site.
And here is the completed work. I wound up having to shoot a bunch of pictures and splicing them together to create one cohesive image. Click on it a couple of times to zoom in and get a good view of the entire piece. I highly recommend heading over and taking a look.
On the way back I noticed that the channel of water just before the Mill restaurant has been emptied. At the bottom there is a smaller channel carved out of the rock, partially covered by old timbers which look like they’ve been there for a long time.
I believe this channel acts as a reservoir for No.2 Generating Station, which houses some of the oldest operating hydro-electric equipment in Canada.
I visited the station a couple of years ago during the annual Doors Open weekend in June and remember the phenomenal power of the water rushing through by the rotational velocity of the huge turbines and the very loud humming noise they create. This clip gives you an idea of what it looks like inside.
OttawaVeloOutaouais 
The mural on Regina Lane is spectacular. It is a combination of colorful traditional graffiti styling, with more ‘realistic’ and cartoon representations of animals. It is really huge and I am pretty sure I haven’t seen a mural this size in Ottawa.
I have seen this mural. I think if you walked by it every day for two weeks, you would find something new in it. For the residents, it must be something to have an art gallery in their own back yard. Some of the ‘pieces’ are very well done and others, it appears that less skilled artists were involved. Overall though, it adds a lot of atmosphere and dimension to the lane. It definitely is worth taking a look at.
There are a number of styles presented in the work while maintaining a collaborative feel to it all.
It is indeed quite spectacular. It’s off the beaten path so I hope lots of people get to see it.