SUDS AND THE 6
North York laundromat has mural honouring everything Toronto — from Honest Ed’s to The Weeknd,
People used to go to Robert De Luca’s Monte Carlo Laundromat just to do laundry. Now some are dropping by just to look at the walls.
#The6Mural covers 80 square feet of De Luca’s laundromat and features more than 400 cartoons of everything and anyone who represents the city that he loves — Toronto.
“I started this mural when I was going through a difficult time in my life and needed to get my mind off of it,” said De Luca, 44, standing in the laundromat, surrounded by washers, dryers and the smell of detergent.
He has invested 600 hours into what was at first a simple spray paint cartoon of the band Rush.
“Now, I can’t stop,” he said, gesturing to the remaining two bare walls he plans to fill. “I don’t think of anything when I’m here. I just paint.”
Since last April, he has spent late nights and early mornings tracing his drawings with pencil onto the wall before adding spray paint. Honest Ed’s, Toronto Zoo, Don Cherry, Degrassi, Caribana and The Weeknd are all represented.
“When I saw it, I was genuinely blown away,” said De Luca’s friend Rob Moncrieff. “I couldn’t believe the time and dedication involved.”
Broadcast personality Spider Jones was the first person in De Luca’s mural to pay him a visit.
“I think it’s great, you go in there and see all those icons,” Jones said. “This guy’s a creative genius. I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it.”
Mayor John Tory, also in the mural, stopped by Friday night.
“He’s created a beautiful tribute to a great city and I’m honoured to be part of it,” Tory said in an email to the Star. “He’s a hugely talented man and the mural is so worth seeing that Torontonians should take their laundry there even if they have their own laundry room!”
What started as “mind therapy” has now made headlines across the city, something De Luca said he didn’t imagine happening “in his wildest dreams.”
De Luca grew up about 10 minutes away from the Keele St. laundromat, near Lawrence Ave. W., that he has owned for 12 years. He draws on icons from his childhood and pop culture when deciding what to add.
He groups characters and places together to create a storyline, he said, such as painting Prince beside a sign for the Bridle Path where the music icon once owned a mansion.
People spot new details each time their eyes scan the brightly coloured scenes, he said. But De Luca isn’t finished. There remains cartoons to fix up and new ideas to be added.
“Wait until it’s done,” he said. “This place is going to be nuts.”