Podcast – SofiL, Walnut Studios & Gentrification in Toronto

2020-05-26

Hong Kong-born Canadian visual artist Sophy Lee

SofiL, Walnut Studios & Gentrification in Toronto

There are several topics that keep coming up in CUTO Podcasts. We often find ourselves talking about gentrification and the way it affects us.

Gentrification is one of those beasts looming over everyone in Toronto, our rent affected seemingly every day, pricing us out of the city.

How quickly the sand slips beneath our feet; Toronto’s business and architectural landscape is giving way to a culture of foreign investors and local developers commodifying the places we live and work and removing the places and spaces that make the city charming.

Towards the 40 minute mark,

SofiL discusses the importance of artist’s communities, studios where artists can create and congregate. She talks about Walnut studio, and how it provided a community for her until a fire took it away.

Escalating property values create more opportunity for investors, which means more condos, more Starbucks, and more Shoppers Drug Marts. Ironically, this pushes out the artists that make Toronto a city worth investing in.

Aside from gentrification, in this dope and upbeat interview (it's not all doom and gloom) we get to know more about SofiL and see her layered works of art, drawn from memory. We discuss the pros and cons of working from home, going to New York, traveling all 50 states, managing your mailing list and we talk about Patreon.

Enjoy