Before his engagement as keynote speaker at the 12th National Mural Symposium in Midland Ontario, Berlin-based artist Hand offered to leave a gift to Toronto in the form of an outdoor public art mural. Trace is one of the artist’s series of anonymous public portraits – his first in Canada.

As source material for this painting, Hand met with Torontonians living in Berlin and asked them about their feelings towards Toronto and how it feels to be away. This public portrait of Cathy, ex-patriot Torontonian, focuses on absence and what it means to miss a place. It is rendered as a faint image in two tones of grey, conveying a sense of longing and distance.

Trace was created in fall of 2009, funded by the artist with administrative support from Mural Routes.