Feeling Stuck? A little whimsy goes a long way

What's beneath the surface of true crime? Uncover brings you there with premium investigations that demand justice. Each season delves into a distinct case from the inner workings of a cult to the disturbing legacy of residential schools. Promising new content year round, uncoverable take you on a journey through explosive revelations with hosts dedicated to revealing the truth. Uncover, the best and true crime, find it on the CBC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast. When I say the word "wimsy," what does that mean to you? "Wimsy" to me means listen more to your inner child and do things that your younger self probably would have loved. It doesn't really care about what other people think. It doesn't really care that she might not know how to do something entirely before she starts doing it. And like, isn't afraid to kind of take on the world. It's now or never, I'm E.P. Tuito and right now I am musing about "wimsy" with "carahoe" as we are on our way to do something that I cannot recommend enough. We're leaving work in the middle of the day heading to a park. How will we cross the street we can chew? Okay. If I'm allowed to say that. And we start by breaking the law. Yeah, we're such rascals. Exactly. Maybe we can find like a shady spot with a tree to ourselves. Oh, maybe that one over there. This is like a happy place for me in the city. Yeah. I've never really painted outside so today I thought I would try it for the first time. And what better than to be joined by you? I love it. Yeah, I feel like we're summer maxing. Pushing herself to try new things to find moments of spontaneous delight is brand new to "carah". After finding herself feeling stuck, she's given herself a daily, whimsy challenge. And that means making herself do something new every single day. And today that looks like bringing a picnic blanket, some acrylic paints, and me to the park. We are currently sitting under this gorgeous, huge tree. And it's stretching over us like a hug. And there's so many clouds in the sky. It's blue. There's someone with a guitar over there. Yeah. And there's some other people enjoying the summer day as well. There's a gentle breeze and we're painting. Okay, so I brought some paints and oil pastels so you can pick your poison today. I chose the wrong day to wear white pants. I'm just gonna say if you're skipping out on a day of work and you're not inviting me, we have a problem. She would do it. Then come, everyone should come. Right now, bring this show with you, of course, because you have to finish it. But I really am in this season of feeling like these moments of doing something out of your routine, of just trying to get yourself to be present and feel a little joy, are more and more important to making it through. I feel like this is a mantra for you right now. 800% is. A few months ago, I had a milestone birthday and I had a realization that I had stopped really feeling. There was a way that I think I have been just so conditioned to like, bracing for bad news, bad events, devastating things happening that when they would happen, I was just kind of numb and it wasn't just numb to the bad things. It was also numb to the good things in life. Finding moments like Kara's doing, fighting for just these small pieces of joy and discovery and play, I am all in. Today on Now or Never, we're finding them all around us in our neighborhoods and in the world. People who are out there leaning into spontaneity and curiosity to intentionally find joy and whimsy. We're going to join a family who found a mysterious painted line in their neighborhood and had to find out, where does it go and who's behind it? Do you know anything about this orange line? No, I noticed this line, maybe, over a year ago. There's no clues as to who did it, but I wish you the best of luck on your adventure. It's very playful because it kind of goes, but very quickly, very fun to follow. And when two Americans show up on offense, bringing joy to the neighborhood around them, what happens when one of them is stolen? Well, and we didn't really realize people were actually paying attention until he got clipped and then we're getting all these posts of, where's Gunner and, you know, where'd he go? Yeah, it was unbelievable. Brian got about 400 messages on Facebook. We hope you find them and more watching, more looking everywhere. I'm Ypichu Batalu. And I'm Trevor Deneam. This is Now and Ever. Now, if you will excuse me, I'm heading back to the park with Kara Ho, who has her reasons for giving herself a whimsy challenge. I started this, like, in late winter after a long and depressing couple of, like, wintery months. And so now I'm just trying to find ways to do things that I maybe wouldn't necessarily quote-unquote normally do, but I realized, like, we have free will here. We can just do things and hang out in a park in the middle of the afternoon and paint if we want to, instead of, like, doom scrolling at home, being on the couch or something like that. So true. So I know today it's painting in the park, but what else has it been? So I did a pottery class by myself for the first time. That was really fun. I took a dance class, a swing dancing class, which I've been putting off for years, because I was always too chicken to go, and you have to be around people, because it's a partner dance. So that really, I really was a leap outside my own comfort zone, because I can, like, really dance on my own, like, with another human. And then you have to, like, rotate between 30 different strangers. So for me, that was a fun time. How do you decide what activity or what the thing is that you need to do to wake yourself up, feel alive? Something that I've learned or realized the older I've gotten is that, like, everything feels, like, so urgent all the time in adulthood. Like, in work, in life, I just wanted to find something where I could feel like I was safe to make mistakes, or to be a beginner, and to be terrible at something and not have the entire world, like, collapse into flames. But I can't feel like that sometimes. I love this idea of intentionally putting yourself in spaces to make mistakes and to not know what has been a moment of that, in the things that you've tried, where you really sort of felt that feeling of, like, "I have no clue what's going on here." Oh, there's been so many. One of the things that I did try, that kind of kickstarted this whole learning to love life again journey, was when I started taking horseback riding lessons last year. And it was something I've always wanted to do since I was a kid, but it was just never possible, because of, like, location and money and everything. It's just a huge kind of commitment. So being an adult now, like, with my own adult money and, like, resources, I finally just started doing it. That was super humbling, because that was one of the first times that I, like, was like, "Oh, man, Kara, you really are not good at this right now, and you really have to start from the bottom." But it unlocked something that showed me that it is possible to kind of rewrite your story, or to start a new, if you want to. You can kind of let go of old versions of yourself. The reason why I started that initially was because I had this, like, crazy bucket list, wildest childhood dream of horse trekking in Mongolia. And thing I always think about how, like, "Oh, we always say we'll do something someday. We'll do something someday." But I kind of got to a point where I realized, like, "Oh, someday has passed. Like, someday was yesterday. It was last year." And so I realized, "Okay, now we're doing it this year. We have to." That got me ready. I did three months of that, and then went to Mongolia. And then now here, now I'm trying to like find micro adventures, everyday adventures, finding magic, and ordinary things. Being in Toronto? I love that. I want to paint a little. Okay, let's paint. I'm doing that. You're inspiring me to dive in. I'll just like squeeze out a bunch of colors, and then we can just play. I think the whole point of this is to not create anything necessarily that's perfect, but just to have fun with it. Okay. You know, my instinct is to go for a smaller brush, but I feel like we're challenging safe instincts today. So I want the biggest one. I love that. Do you have something in mind that you think you're going to paint today? Like maybe an emotion or an object or something? Ooh, is that how you get yourself going? Sometimes, yeah, trying to like revisit it by exploring memory through the memory. through painting to capture things I don't have photos for or reimagine certain things. Maybe I'll paint like this moment. I like it. So I think I'm going to just dip my brush in yellow and see what happens. Go for it. Run wild. Thank you for your support. Oh, I like that. So tell me like what happened? You're here to fall in love with life. Like when did you fall out of love with it? It was a lot of like reflection during the pandemic. That's when it really started. I graduated, you know, I'm university, a couple months after the world shut down. And I had all these plans. I was like, oh, that's one of my life is going to start. And I'm going to do this and this and this. And then none of that happened. And I was just at home, like giving it my parents place. I was really in my own way. I got really stuck in my own head because I really wasn't sure about what to do with my life. And then I realized that there's so many pillars of my identity that had been shaped by things that were kind of like imparted on me from like growing up in an immigrant household, being the oldest daughter growing up in a religious family and in Catholic school. The idea of having to strive for perfectionism or to be the good girl, to be quiet and easy and as little trouble as possible, take it as little space as possible. And I realized like, oh, this is maybe not exactly how I want to like move forward in my life. I think it was learning that you're allowed to take up space, you're allowed to show up appropriately. And that your voice is valuable and just learning to be independent and spend time with yourself, enjoy your own company. That was definitely something I was just trying to learn for the first time as well. It wasn't like a 180 turn where I woke up as a completely changed woman the next day. It was not like that at all. I definitely like fell back into old habits or just like rolling on a bed to go right to work every day and then doom scrolling to decompress and then going to sleep and then doing it all over again every day depressed. But I bet on myself I can be like 1% closer to that every day. What are you learning about yourself in this time of committing to finding playfulness and whimsy and love in your life? What are you discovering about you? I constantly feel like I'm falling behind in life whether that's like through social media, comparison, peers too. But I think I'm learning to like look more inward and look more at the everyday things around me and like finding true abundance and joy in that. You're living in the good old days right now. Like you're not where you want to be at in life but there's no point in like punishing yourself for it or hating yourself for not being where you want to be. And I think that kind of part of why I've been seeking more playfulness and whimsy and like learning to reconnect with child like wondering curiosity because it's been enough so we just have to like tap into it and like learn to navigate the world a little bit more with that rather than being so stressed out all the time. Listen we're just two adult children playing and indulging in a little bit of whimsy. Yes we are. I mean Cara is working hard, working hard to get that feeling back. She actually has created this summer bucket list bingo where her goal is to cross off every single item on this grid. She has things on there like get a tattoo, ride a horse, have a photo shoot with myself. She's doing it. I'm going to share her bingo card with you on our CBC now and our Facebook and Instagram and I want you to add something that you want to commit to doing to bringing just a little spontaneity, delight, joy into your summer. The summer of Cara. There you go. I'm going to do one of her things try new sport. Which one? This might be the summer I do pickleball. I mean I've been resisting. I'm coming for you. If solving a mystery doesn't sound delightful and whimsical to you think less true crime and more. What is that thing that just showed up in my neighborhood? Seven year old Benny and her parents are hot on the case of the mysterious never ending line. Nope. Do you? No. I'm going to find out. Wait this is just the beginning. I wouldn't say we aren't even halfway there. It's very playful because the kind of girls were going to be waggally that's why I was saying was waggally waggally very fun to follow. It's a roller coaster for your feet. It's amazing just like that. I'm invested in the line. I've never seen before. Well, it's a roller coaster for your feet. Everyone's saying it. Who made this line? How did they do it? Where does it go? We're joining Benny and her parents on an adventure and that's coming up later on the show. This is now or never. I'm E.P. And I'm Trevor. And if I'm being fully honest with E.P. before we ever did this episode or start thinking about it, I don't think I've ever used the word whimsy ever in my life. I don't know. I think I've read it. It might be seen in a poem somewhere. But like using it. Like if you ever, you'd be like, that's so whimsical. I think so. I can pick like when you say whimsy, I picture it. I think playful, silly, you know, all those things. So you picture like feelings and emotions? Yeah, whimsy's a vibe. Okay. Well, you should have been picturing. What's Gunner? It's hard to find him closed. So I'm looking for some wine shirts for him and some better trunks. And glasses and hats. Yeah. Yeah. And he's kind of a big guy. So we did have a pink hat on him. But his head's so big. Yeah. And I think somebody took his sunglasses one time and I thought, there goes another pair. I got another one in the house. Where is Gunner right now? In the front. In the front. Can you see him from where you're sitting? No. No. But I could take the camera and show him to you. Are you able to? Oh, yeah. Oh, can you do that? I'd love to see what he's doing out there. Oh, yeah. Oh. Oh. Now at this point, you might be wondering, is Gunner a person, a dog, some kind of animal? All of those guesses would be wrong because Gunner is a mannequin. Can you see him? Look at him. Is he rocking sunglasses in a bathing suit? Yeah. Just looks like he's just living the dream. Draped across Brian and Terry Neve's fence in a NIMO BC posing like an 80 swimsuit model is Gunner the mannequin who's become a neighborhood sensation. The neighbor lady said, "Well, I'm visiting my mom and dad and I'm from the States and the next time I come, I'm hoping to see a little baby." I said, "Don't even go there." That's no more. Well, yeah. I never dreamed there'd be one to begin with. Gunner can't conceive. If he don't tell Gunner what he can and cannot do, okay? It is 2026, all right? But how did he get there, you ask? No, Brian will tell you. I was just on my way home and there's this grad sale, some walk around looking at your junk and then I'm seeing this mannequin laying there and pieces and going, "Huh, well that's kind of different." So I went and found the guy and said, "So what do you want from the mannequin?" I kind of think I paid $20 for it. I don't know. But you know, that's the whole beauty of grad sale anyway, right? You always find something to do. Don't need it. Don't need it or you thought you might need, right? But when I came home and here's this guy laying on the floor in the garage and I go, "What, what are you doing? What is that?" Well, that's my mannequin. I said, "Why?" Then I went in the house. I thought, "He's losing." Whatever. It doesn't matter. It's a matter. But every one of them don't involve me. Yeah. So when I say, "I got all the parts glued back on and everything." I went down to the Lombard and I got some paint and I gave my nice tan. I think I painted his hair black. So they kind of thought it was funny. Weird. Weird or funny. Yeah. The first couple of months, once you got them together, you thought, "Well, what am I going to do with them?" So then he put them just outside the front door. So we would go to go out and forget he was there. Well, scared, delitting. Yeah. I could hear you. I was like, "I said, "Brenny, you got to move them." So he said, "Okay." So then he moved them over on the lawn. But then we'd kind of forget. I mean, it kind of startled you. You're out in the grass. And then I'll see you think somebody lay on your lawn, right? So then I put them up in my van. And then when I sold the van while I had a put them somewhere, so I figured I'd build a little thing. And that's how it started up there. That's it. Oh, Brian, don't do that. - That's it. - Oh. - When you were saying Terry, when you were like, oh no, don't do that. What were you most worried about? - It was embarrassing. Still to this day, if somebody comes over and says, well why didn't you say you live where the mannequin is? I go, oh no, I know. - But if you tell people where you live, they know where you live right away. - Yeah, so you know where you live. - No, I know where your house is. You get the mannequin on the pole. - I drive by there all the time. Like I just thought it was kind of tacky to have that. They're like, hmm, but. - No, I wouldn't get rid of him just because people were stopping by. Can we have our picture taken with him? The people that drive by and even the kids, ran kids. They always look for him. It says it makes him smile. Once I realized what it meant to other people, then I thought it was okay. You know, 'cause I just-- - Before I was just a weirdo. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Now normally, this would have been the happy ending. But this isn't that kind of mannequin story. - What happened was, I got up the middle of the night, and I always look outside. I just do and I went, happy. Gunner's gone. No. So I went and got Brian. I said, Brian, Gunner's gone. He goes, no. So we got dressed and went outside. Sure enough. We just couldn't believe somebody would take him like, "Why?" - Oh, I'm just going, well, that's pretty eager if somebody had come in the steal my mannequin. I mean, like, why would they steal? I mean, obviously, I've never seen another one like that. So I mean, I didn't think it'd be somebody around town because eventually it would show up. So we just kind of posted it on Facebook. Well, and we didn't really realize people were actually paying attention until he got clipped. And then we're getting all these posts. And where's Gunner? And, you know, where'd he go? - Yeah, it was unbelievable. Where is he? And we hope you find him and we're watching. We're looking everywhere. The grandma said her grandson heard the police siren and says, "Oh, wonder if they got the guy that got Gunner." - I put up a hundred dollar reward on Facebook for the return of Gunner. And the one guy sent me a picture of-- - Gunner on a boat. - And I says, that's him. - That's him. Where is it? - I drove up to Qualcomm Beach. - How far is that? - 40. - 40 miles. Me and a buddy of mine went up there. We eventually tracked it down. And the guy just said, "I didn't realize the store was giving me my friends or mine." I said, "Hey, I'm not accused anybody's stealing anything." - Brian said, "I just want it back. That's all I want. I don't care who stole it, who did, whatever. I just want it back." And he did, he did return it. But of course, he returned it without us seeing him returning it. It was on the Sunday. I remember that. He was in the grad. And I was in the house and I look out in the front. They're on the lawn. It's Gunner. And I said, "He's back." He came back with a broken arm. He had a rough holiday, I guess. So Brian fixed them all up. - Were you surprised that you could feel something for a mannequin? - Yeah. Yeah. Like get a life, eh? - No. - I don't think it's get a life. I think it just shows how attached we can become to things. - I did miss him. Yeah, I did. Yeah, it was weird. - I was a little shocked how attached I had become to him too because he's just like when he was gone. And it's just like, like there was something missing in the art. - Yeah. And he's got to stay there because it means so much to people. So now Gunner's got a girlfriend. So, n-n-n-n-n-n. (laughs) You know? - If he, every time I think the story can't get better, it just keeps getting better. (laughs) Because Gunner is back home now, chained to the fence to keep him safe from any theft, but he now has Jillian perched beside him. A female mannequin that they picked up who Terry dresses in her own outfits and also had her face painted by a local tattoo artist. And let me tell you, people couldn't be happier, which made me want to know. What do people feel when they pass by and they look up and they see the two of them there? - Of course, head up, left some, make some smile and going, yeah, that's cool. I like that. Oh, what's she wearing today? Hmm. And look too bad. - If it brings a smile to their face 'cause they see something, that's what it's all about, right? - Oh, and I could say people are counting on it, but kinda, you know, maybe lifts up to them a little bit during the day. - Yeah, and if I get too old to climb up the ladder and take them, no, I'll have to pay my grandson to come and do it. - I thought you were gonna say I'd have to do it. - We've been snow-hole. (laughing) - No, you just have to open your purse and give him a card or some money. (laughing) - No problem. (upbeat music) - It's one thing to hear about Julie and Gunner, obviously, but it's another to see them. So you're gonna wanna head over to our CBC now and our Facebook page to see these two lovebirds putting out the vibes on Terry and Brian's fence. You're not gonna be disappointed. (upbeat music) - This is now or never, I'm Ethan. - And I'm Trevor. You know, on a show all about whimsy, I think what you have to do is get out and just search for it. And as I make my way down Broadway here in Winnipeg, I see Nestle between a giant pawn shop and a pharmacy, the most colorful little building in this whole neighborhood. It is bright green, bright pink. It's got a giant orange heart on it. And at the top, a flying bicycle. So I figured it myself, if I'm gonna find whimsy anywhere, I think it's in here. (indistinct chatter) Hey, hey, you good. Good to see you. Good to see you. Oh, look at this, looking good. (indistinct chatter) This is Art City, a nonprofit community center run by artists where anyone can come and create for free. And right now, they're getting ready for their annual parade. (upbeat music) - I'm making a sign for the alien parade that says, "Take me to your leader." We're making UFOs with silver paint. We're making alien masks. We're just being really creative. - I would like for the vision to be like, a bunch of fabric on the bottom of lights, illuminating the bottom, but also like a little cow on a string being sucked up. Because you know, every time you see like an alien, it's always like a cow being sucked up. We're just cute, but at the same time, it's a matter of getting done, you know? Crunch time, getting it going. - All these kids are coming down to the wire because the parade is on June 20th. And everything from the floats to costumes is all made here. And then they wind their way through the streets of West Broadway, a neighborhood that has some challenges. But art cities here to make a difference by injecting wind. - Of course, there's like big sheets of cardboard for building big sculptures. Gallons and gallons of different colors of paint and brushes and everything you need there. Supplies to make paper mache, balloons, every kind of like color of fabric, different textures, faux fur, enough green to have a whole army of little green Martian people. We're ready for anything. - Hi, I'm Eddie A.U. Artistic Director of Art City. - It's kind of funny because I've driven past here so many times over my life and I've never been through these doors. - Well, we try to make it look welcoming. We want people who are walking by to know that everyone can come here. We're the only program that we're aware of that is open to all ages. Everyone's welcome. So you have groups of friends, siblings of different ages, moms with babies and strollers, all the way up to senior citizens all coming to participate in the programs. There's an alien hanging from the rafters over there. - Yes. - Really known as one of our flagship events is the Art City Parade. And it's a different theme every year. And this year, the overwhelming majority of the concept drawings were flying saucers and little space alien people. It wasn't even close. Like last year, it was pet parade. Everyone wanted pets. - What are you working on here? - I'm working on a space helmet. It's gonna be a frog space helmet. And right now I'm working on these, which are gonna be the eyes, which will go on top to look like a frog eyes. Yeah, they're a little fake pairs that I'm gonna paint them white and turn them into eyes. A lot of my art is about frogs, so frogs make me really happy. So it's always fun to make something different that's like with the frog in it. What is it about frogs? Tell me more. I don't know, I just like, if I'm ever feeling down or feeling sad, I'll like look at a frog drawing that I made or even just a picture online and it'll always make me smile and kind of turn my mood around. - Yeah, I gotta tell you, there's nothing that kind of brings out joy more than when you see kids just splash and color on things, creating, making something like really pop. Like when you come in here on a daily basis and watch them do this, does it feel like you're like part of like a whimsy factory? Like things are just moving? - Yeah, I guess whimsy can exist when you have safety and silliness and this is a safe place to express yourself and you can be silly, but I think a lot of times a lot of the art here is actually the most sincere effort by participants to express themselves. They're actually pretty serious, and I'm very serious about what we're doing here, we're building community. It's made a very dramatic difference in the neighborhood and all the people who participate. - What do you see in the kids that come in here, like the changes when they start kind of creating and using their imaginations and doing things like that? - You see a lot of fun, satisfaction, pride. Just people just building up some real personal strengths and resilience as a result of being here and just being able to come in and be creative and we're seeing young people, actually people in general, but there's a lot of hammering about the lack of time young people are spending being creative versus consuming what other people have created in media. And then this is a chance to just be free of all of that and we're really, it's more of an old fashion kind of approach to just, you're here in person, you're not on the computer, we do have digital media, but you're using all those tools to create your, you're not watching YouTube when you're here in digital art, you're actually making digital art. Hey, what's your name? - Charles. - How old are you, Charles? - I'm 10. - How often do you come to Art City? - Almost every day. - Really? What do you love about Art City? - I like it that I can make friends easily and I get to make art. It's fun. - Yeah. - And it keeps me occupied and not just play games all day. - That's fun. I need to be able to get off the old screens per a bit. - Mm. (laughing) - It depends. (laughing) - So I have a circular outfit. I painted it to look like Northern Lights and Blacks. Sky background with some aluminum foil fabric. And now me and my son are white gluing shapes and putting random sequins on it. We have swirls, hearts. My son made this up long shape in my-- - It's flex. - It's a six, apparently. And then we also have another swirl for my other son. And then Charles made a circle. I grew up, my dad was an artist, my late father. He was a acrylic painter and he has paintings all throughout the city. And so I grew up watching him paint. I'm an also an artist. I made the dress I'm wearing right now. And I wanted my sons to have a foundation of art so I bring them here as often as I can. - What's your name? - Lance. - Lance? How old are you? - Fifth. - What do you like about coming to Earth City? - Drone club in Pottery. What do you like to draw? - Chicken bananas. - Chicken bananas? (laughing) - Yeah, I'm really excited for the parade. We'll all get dressed up. We'll start just right beside Art City and we walk around the community. And we all have our costumes on and we have signs. And usually there's music playing and it's just a lot of fun. We're all walking and like dancing. It's like, "Ah, it's so fun. It's so crazy that I'm like in this parade and everyone's watching us super cool." - It's very celebratory. It's the culmination of a whole bunch of like weeks of collaborative artwork. And it's really, I think the only, in Winnipeg is the only neighborhood that has its own parade. Initially it was pretty tiny, you know? And there was only a few floats and people were laughing at it because it was like the most so-called dangerous neighborhood in Winnipeg, which at the time also was per capita. It had the most murders and the most lateral violence going on per capita. And this was the neighborhood where all that was happening at the time. And so the idea of trying to like send that out into the streets was like, you know, for some people were like, "Why, you know, what are you up against? What are you putting yourself up against?" It's like your tiny little program with no budget, you know, with a bunch of cardboard and paint and reclaim scrap wood. Look at this, you know what I mean? Like that's whimsical, you know? And instead of focusing on what's wrong, why don't you just start like just pumping with right into the neighborhood and giving it what it needs for people to actually be happy, you know? So that's what the parade is. And yeah, we're proud of it. It feels good and you see the results. Like people are coming in here and they are so excited to work on their costumes this week. You know what I'm most impressed by? The fact that you're brave enough to wear white pants. Surrounded by all this paint. Yeah, no, I just know how to stand. All my pants end up getting ruined, but, you know, you're a brave man. Thank you. (upbeat music) I love being around creativity, Evie. Yeah. Like people making things using their imagination. It's contagious. The art city parades happening on June 20th in Winnipeg and there's photos online of the artists you heard and the costumes that they're creating. Head on over to our CBC now and our Facebook and Instagram pages and have a peek. (upbeat music) How many times have you walked by something new in your neighborhood and thought, oh, I wonder why that's there? The other day in a park near my house, like a little kid's car showed up, you know, the kind that you can like climb in and press the button and drive. Oh yeah. But I did ask myself like for half a second, like, I wonder, who the hell that's there? And then in my mind, I just filled in like, oh, I'm sure some family had a kid who outgrew it and they dropped it off. And that's about where that curiosity ended. But what if you actually just dug a little deeper? When an innocent painted line showed up in his neighborhood, Pete Moray and his family did a lot more than just think about it. They decided to follow it. (upbeat music) - In my family, we argue about the color of it. - It is pink orange. It's pink. - Orange. - It's more pink than orange. - Actually guys, I think it's red. - Actually. - I mean, sure it's not red. - But there's one thing the three of us, my wife Sabrina, my daughter Benny and I agree on. We love the line. (laughing) - It's orange. - We spend far too much time imagining who did it. - I mean, I think first of all, for sure it was a woman. I just feel that. - How? - I just think it's so playful that I think it was kind of a creative girl's idea. (laughing) - Yeah, I guess. - Could be a woman. - Well, good to have in. - Maybe there was two people. - Yeah, good. - Maybe it was a family. - Yeah, maybe. - We wonder if we'll ever find them to ask why they did it. - No. - No. - I think one day, I think we, when we're gonna think about this line forever, you know how old right now? - Seven. - And it's already been in our life almost two years, right? - Yeah. - We dream up schemes to track them down. - What if we put posters up? - Yeah. - Like do you know who did this line? Looking for information. - And yes, we still argue about the color. - Maybe we should make an email. - Sure. - We could make a special email. - Sure. - Like the pink line. (laughing) - No. The orange line. It's properly orange. You know it, and you're just doing that to an army. - Thank you. - The line first appeared in our neighborhood some years ago when they built a new bike path along the railroad. For the sake of keeping my seven-year-old happy, let's agree on the color orange. The orange line of paint seemed to start at the foot of the bike path and then disappear into the sprawling neighborhood beyond. Some days we'd be out on a bike ride or doing chores and we'd come across a section of the line far away from its point of origin. It became like a friend we'd bump into. Then one lazy summer day, Sabrina and Benny made a spur of the moment decision. They'd follow our orange friend to the end of the line. Off they set. I was at work. I got giddy text messages from Sabrina about their adventure all day long. They were having a blast. - Hi dad, we're following the line with help you love you, bye! - Bye! - But eventually they had to give up on their quest. It was a hot day. They ran out of water and energy. They'd followed it as far as they could, but they lost it. Do you know that I've emailed a bunch of people about this? So now there's other people who are kind of on the lookout too. I talk to everybody I know about it pretty much. So between us, if everybody we know talks to one more person and it keeps going, I think somewhere along the line, somebody will be like, along the line, get it? Somebody will be like, oh, that's my mom who did it? - We waited for an email response from local community groups and local artists to see if we could track down the creator of the line, but all avenues came to a dead end. Even people who responded didn't know. Summer turned to full, as leaves fell from the trees and the temperatures started to drop. I proposed that we follow the line one more time. And this is what happened. - It's very playful 'cause the kind of girls were going to be waggally. That's why I was saying, waggally waggally, 'cause like a little man wanted us to follow him and it's very playful and they take a woo. - Mm-hmm. - And yeah, it's very fun. The woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. - Yeah. - Yes, and it's a very adventurous line, I would say. - We met pastas by? - Are you doing the show? - Yeah. - We don't want to interrupt. We're following the same line. - Oh. He was still committed to the color orange? It kind of ends all the way in the junction. Nope, do you? No. No. Let us know. Okay. I thought there was something good at the end. Yeah, there is. I don't. Wait, this is just the beginning. But I can tell you one thing. This person loves going through Adiwais. The bridges over here. Go up and find over line. We followed the line upstairs over a four-lane road. So we ruled out it being done by someone on there. Bicycle pretty quickly. Here it is. And here's the line again. The line is always here for us. Because we don't know where we're going. And one thing is we don't know where we're going. But. Or the line. Sure does know where we're going. Trust the line. You have to trust the line. Trust the line. If you don't trust the line and you don't. Then you just go a different way and don't look properly. You are lost. Good fun, I think, ever. I've done a following. Better than a maze. Now buried deep in a neighbourhood and an hour into our journey. We ran into more people curious about our quest. Have you ever noticed an orange line? Orange line? Yes, I have. It comes all the way, goes all the way around and around. I don't know if somebody has done it. Have you ever followed it? It comes from somewhere there. I've seen it and goes. It comes from the bike path over there. Yeah, it goes. Follow it. Maybe you will find out where it goes. And let me know. I'm surprised. I'm wondering what that one would be. No, I noticed this line maybe over a year ago. There's no clues as to who did it, as to the reasoning for this mysterious orange line. How it did it? Yeah. Oh, it's a conundrum. We're going to try and solve it. But I wish you the best of luck on your adventure. Thank you. I like your shoes too. Thank you. We're going to keep following the line. Good luck, guys. See you. I'm getting hungry. Oh, wait. My restaurant is over here. Remember? We were running out of water and energy again. So we stopped for lunch. The restaurant is here so we can every talk out. I'm getting hungry. When are you getting a little hungry? Yeah, I am getting hungry, yeah. Just around the corner from the cafe is where Sabrina and Benny lost the line last time. There had been construction on the sidewalk and the thin line of paint had been erased. But we headed back there for a second look. So when we came to the end of this road last time, it was totally under construction. All those are. Let's go this way and see the old road. But the problem is. New concrete. Every block here, the whole street is new concrete. I know, so we just go down, down, down, down, down. We went down there. Oh, yeah. See? And so it was crazy too, because we could see them doing it. We were like, "No, our line!" It was all construction, right? The one way we didn't go is we didn't go that way, but it looks like a dead end. Do you want to just take a quick look? All right. I remember it was a dead end. And then we might have come to its natural conclusion. But we came to its natural conclusion, daddy. And we found it again. So I am not giving my eyes up. Okay. Is that clear? Clear as a bell. It says no exit, right? I'm scanning the ground for. Check that. Any evidence of the line. So, okay, this is where we saw it. The line would love to go. Allie weights, right? Yeah. And to our joy in an alleyway close by, we found the line once again. (Gasp) Hey! You found the line. We found the line. Uh-oh. We may never go home. (Laughs) So happy. Wait, where did it go again? Ah, here it is. Oh, I want to go dig a bit. Now we actually get to see it. Where it goes. But this must end at a very, very, very good place. Is it an somewhat nice, can we please play there? The line continued through parks, across busy intersections, and then doubled back on itself. It was getting more erratic and harder to make sense of. We are going. So is it, and I actually stopped with a gun. It was on that rock there for a second, I saw it. We finally followed it to a wooden pagoda in the heart of Toronto's junction neighborhood. And this is where we lost the line. And we're left with more questions than answers. Ok guys, I think we've come as far as we can come. We came even further than you came last time. No, guys, we have to think and solve the mystery. Was this even the end of the line? Or just the beginning? Let's try to go do that eye again. We were disappointed. It can't be it. I think Benny expected to see a pot of gold or the artist, Orange Paint Can in hand. We took the bus home. Weeks went by. Then on a rainy day on my way home from work, I was riding on the bike path, trying to pedal fast to avoid a total soaking when something I saw maybe hit the brakes. A new line. This time painted in electric blue. It was running parallel to the orange line now starting to fade. I couldn't believe it. I stopped long enough to take pictures and then headed home. I decided not to tell Benny and save the blue line as a surprise for our next adventure. I posted pictures of the orange and new blue lines to see if our social media net could bag us any info. Our line quest got a lot of likes, but not much more information appeared. I was about to let the line lie again when I got a last minute message from a colleague who suggested the lines might be the work of famed artist Francis Elise. So I had a name. Francis Elise. I kind of recognised it. A quick search revealed the Belgian-born Mexico-based artist often included passeos, walks into his artwork. For one of his first pieces, he dragged a small magnetic toy dog on wheels through Mexico City to attract debris to it. After that, he took a walk wearing a blue sweater that unraveled, leaving a blue thread trail behind him as he went. Then it clicked why I knew his name. He made a movie called Real Unreal that Sabrina Benny and I had spent a lot of time watching at the art gallery. In it, a group of children unspooled and re-spooled a can of film through the streets of Kabul. Benny was obsessed with this short film. It turned out Francis Elise was influencing our lives in multiple ways and we didn't even know it. And then there's his work which looks just like our local lines of paint called The Leak. In 1995 in Sao Paulo, Francis Elise walked from a gallery around the city and back into the gallery trailing a dribbled line from an open can of blue paint. Sound familiar? He did it again in 2004, this time walking along the Armistice border in Jerusalem, which is referred to as the Green Line. This time he used a tin of green paint with a hole punctured in the bottom that dribbled the paint as he walked. Watching the video you can see it creates a very similar line to those on the bike path. The mystery of the line's methodology revealed. So I sent Mr. Elise some messages on social media, sent the gallery he exhibited in emails and waited. And waited. Full turn to winter. And soon the lines we loved were buried under snow drifts, hidden beneath ice, there for only the most intrepid of frozen followers. Now this is the end of the video. is the point where you're expecting me to say, "And then suddenly I got an email from Francis Elise himself, and it turns out it was him who did the Toronto Lines. Ta-da!" Well, that didn't happen at all. This isn't a Hollywood movie or an inspirational podcast. In fact, our life, boringly enough, moved on, and we left the lines behind. I was waiting for Winter to turn to spring. I still hadn't told Benny about the blue line. I was waiting for the snow to melt to follow it with her. One spring morning, when the sun was shining, we headed out to the bike path to introduce Benny to her new friend. "A new another line, the blue line." Can you believe there's another line? "Somebody probably has made it in these weeks, which is not that many." It wasn't here when we walked the red line. Yeah. "Well, the orange line." "Yeah, it's not red." Do you think it's made by the same person? "Maybe, it's a copy of it goes the same place, but it's just more showing so people can notice it more." "Mmm." "It's a beautiful blue color." "Yeah." "Can we read it that blue?" "Yeah." "Benita, should we follow the blue line?" "Mmm, yeah." And off we set to follow new blue to the end of the line. I secretly hope that whoever created those lines is listening and is a little delighted about how much mystery and adventure that they've given at least one family. I'm sure you want to see the line and don't worry, we have many pictures. Head to our CDC on our Facebook and Instagram and follow the line yourself. A big shout out to our team of producers who helped put this episode together this week, Saratake, Bridget Forbes, Sam Rueh Yohannis and Jessica Singer. And special thanks to Pete Morin. "I'm Trevor Dene." And I am Yffi Chiuweta-Lue. We'll see you at the end of the line. [Music]