A lone dead stump of a tree stood proudly on Queen Street West at Peter Street. The tree became a work of art, decorated by many, known as the "Hug Me Tree". I saw it a few years ago and I loved the little stump. And one day the dead tree of art fell over (or was pushed) and was no more a part of the streetscape.
But the tree, which had become a canvas for street artists, had become more than a dead tree and the unusual canvas was moved to the Royal Ontario Museum (I am not sure where it is now) after local residents and street artist Elicser (who painted the tree every year) saved it from destruction at the hands of the City's clean up crew (see that story here at SpacingToronto).
Elicser then created his own Hug Me Tree - or Hug Me Tree II, and put it where the original had been located. The new tree was made of wood, wire fence, cardboard and a bunch of other stuff and painted again with the sign "Hug Me."
Gary Mueller (pictured below) provided some of the history of the tree and noted that vandals had attacked the new tree within the first week. For a time Hug Me Tree also became a shoe tree (people put up old pairs of shoes on the tree) until street people used the tree as a shoe store and used all the shoes on their feet. The tree is a little worse for wear and hopefully Gary's plans to repair the damage will restore the dignity and beauty of the little fake tree stump.
Here is a picture of the original tree from 2006.
And 2005.
