Bizarre, surreal and a little funny—two new murals depicting imaginative beasts now hang on the side of 44 Gaukel, an artist’s workspace in downtown Kitchener.
Unveiled on Sept. 18, 2026, the murals mark the 100th artist to contribute to a project called The Beasting, in which local artists blindly create sections of a monster, then combine them to create a freaky, flat Frankenstein.
The project began in 2019 when artist Vincent Marcone, who works under the alias My Pet Skeleton, joined three friends to riff on a technique called the ‘exquisite corpse’ used by surrealists as far back as 1920.
“The idea was to have different artists work on different pieces in different rooms, and at the end of the night bring them all together,” Marcone said in his Kitchener studio.
In a weird way, the pieces are connected.
Surrounded by hundreds of prints of his own creatures and sipping from a coffee cup shaped like a skull, Marcone tried to describe the feeling of marriage between artworks.
“It’s like seeing a ribbon sewn throughout the entire silhouette,” he said.
When the pandemic hit, the project took on a new meaning. It became a way to connect at a distance. The Beasting shambled on.
And so, the monsters multiplied.
Soon, they lined the halls of 44 Gaukel. A structure called The Beastagon appeared in the lobby—a spinning display that can create hundreds of ‘corpses.’
Now, two 150 square foot murals hang on the exterior.
In the first, a chimera of wolf, octopus and dragon bleeds into the legs of a painted garden.
In the second, a gang of lazy demons make their home in the shoes of a creature part cosmic rabbit, part geometric urn.
Cheyenne Spencer, one of six local artists who contributed to the project, reflected as she stood under the giant murals. Like the others, she was given only five hours and a set of restrictions: black and white with a splash of one colour.
“No thinking, just doing,” she said with a laugh.
“Let the imagination run wild.”
She finished her drawing in one sitting, letting the time restriction serve as a creative catalyst. But she couldn’t help but wonder about the other artists.
“What styles do they have? How will they mesh? Is it going to be alright?”
She looked up.
“It’s so cool.”
Will these be the last monsters? Marcone isn’t so sure.
“It’s a nice bookend, 100 artists,” he said.
“Of course, I’d be happy to see it move further.”
He spoke optimistically about making an app or a website where users could combine every piece ever made for The Beasting.
But he also mentioned—more than once—the impermanence each contributor must confront, which might leave one to believe the beasts are being laid to rest.
“Like a musician, you go in, you do your performance, and you go out.”
The other local artists who contributed to the murals are Blair Kelly, Kelsi Sorensen, Cami Torres, Carolyn Tripp and AnnaMaria Vasco.
Kelsi Sorensen is the creative director at the Community Edition.
Leave a Reply