It all started with the mailbox. Just as every journey begins with a single step, the crazy quilt house at 473 Clinton Street in Toronto began as an innocent craft project undertaken by a recuperating invalid. Following a serious construction accident and months of difficult rehabilitation, the man of the house, Albino Carreira, decided to jazz up the family mailbox, below. That was in 1994. Needless to say, the scope of the project has expanded considerably since then.
From the street the house is somewhat disguised by shrubs and trees. A yellow arbour and dowel mosaic fence hint at the decorative folly beyond but it would be easy to pass by without really noticing the place. Pause for a moment, however, and the brown/grey blur comes into focus, a visual cacophony lying just beneath the surface.
Carreira has a friend who works at a pool cue factory and instead of destroying the warped cues, they have become the fodder for this fantastical, outsider art project. The most elaborate piece of the puzzle is the covered porch; the door, walls and ceiling (below) are a complex riot of pattern constructed from cue dowels, small plastic toys and myriad bits and pieces.
Carreira’s daughter Paula answered my knock on her parents’ door and explained that after the mailbox, her father graduated to picture frames, below, which he made to showcase some of the jigsaw puzzles he assembled during his slow recovery from a broken neck. When I asked Mrs. Carreira how she felt about the utter transformation of her home, she threw up her hands in resignation signaling an old world acquiescence to the patriarch’s whims. It’s a harmless enough hobby, after all, for an individual who, no longer able to work, needs something to fill his days. When the house was all but covered, Carreira turned his attention to the family car, which I wrote about last week. Then, Papa Carreira volunteered to dress up his daughter’s house, but like Amy Winehouse, Paula said, “No, no, no.”
Needless to say, Casa Carreira is a local landmark. I asked a neighbour what he thought of the house and he expressed no chagrin at all; “The man’s got a lot of time on his hands,” he said, referring to Mr. Carreira. Certainly Clinton Street is a little more colourful as a result.
December 21st, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Unique creative people make the world a more interesting place. I don’t want to live there, but I say “you go, Albino, and make the world a little less beige.”
December 14th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
They make the world a great place but at the same time he’s destroying the property value of the house next door, and it’s a semi-detatched home. If I lived next door I’d be pissed.
March 28th, 2011 at 12:17 pm
This is disguisting! What better place? Just because you put some “color” doesn’t make it a more interesting place. Its sick and disrespectful to your neighbours.
January 8th, 2012 at 9:15 pm
“…destroying the property value…”.
Isn’t this just the problem with modern life? People see houses as “investments”, not places to live. So many people want uniformity and can’t see the home behind the commodity. How grey and sad.
As to Mila’s comment, I feel sorry for you that you have so little joy and appreciation for life’s pageantry. Our diversity and eccentricities as individuals are what make us special, like the bouquet of a fine wine– not an aberration to be stamped out, like fast food.
April 14th, 2013 at 10:26 am
I actually lived there for a while. Inside it is pretty neat and clean, completely different from the outside. It is a great location and it’s fun to spend time in a home full of colours and creativity. Plus, I do not see how it destroys the other properties’ value… And kids love it! :)