Community Spotlight: Justy Dennis and Street Art of Ottawa

Justy Dennis has spent the last six years walking and biking, every corner of Ottawa she can reach, documenting the city’s street art through the Facebook group she started and runs on her own: Street Art of Ottawa.

Ottawalls caught up with Justy to talk about how the group started, building community during the pandemic, and where she hopes to go from here. Central to that future is a new collaboration between Street Art Ottawa and Ottawalls, combining her grassroots community effort with the Ottawalls archive and map to help showcase and preserve local murals across the city.

A pandemic walk that turned Into something more

Justy started the group in May of 2020 during the COVID lockdowns. Getting outside was the only thing keeping most of us sane at the time and Justy found joy in finding street art in her neighborhood. The piece that started her love for Ottawa street art was a mural at the Tech Wall painted by Prank Sinatra, a portrait of Ol’ Dirty Bastard from WuTang Clan.

At the time, Ottawa was a city full of people stuck indoors and some had found ways to share art with their neighbors by painting on their windows and placing signs with inspiring messaging such as “stay strong” or “we will get through this”.

“There was lots of wonderful street art,” she said. At the time she was limited to downtown because arthritis was keeping her from walking long distances, getting a bike changed that. “It’s been a godsend,” she said, allowing her to reach places she’d never have found on foot.

The group grew slowly and then steadily, from 34 followers in the first week to reaching over 3500 members as of writing this piece.

Building something Ottawa didn’t have

The original idea wasn’t just to share photos of street art. Justy wanted the community to shape the group itself, and for people to see street art for what it actually is.

“Ottawa gets flak for being a boring city, but the art shows it isn’t. It’s vibrant.”

Part of the mission for the Facebook group was to draw a real distinction between street art, graffiti, and tagging, categories that get flattened regularly.

“You’ve got fine art, galleries, studios. Street art doesn't get the kudos it deserves,” she said.

Justy has watched conversations in the group shift over time, from members dismissing graffiti as vandalism to defending the artists behind the work. For the most part, people change their mind about what makes art when they start interacting with it.

The regulars who keep the group alive

A handful of contributors have been posting lots since day one and many artists from the community also help keep the information posted factual. When new members join and mislabel or misattribute a piece, the community and sometimes the actual artists make sure that credit is corrected. Justy keeps an eye on that too, since getting credit right matters to the people who made the work. “I’m always happy to share culture,” she said.

Where to actually find it

If you ask Justy where to see the best of Ottawa’s street art right now, she will point to Brewer Park, home to some of the city’s best tags, graffiti, and even painted ceilings. “Pictures only get you so far,” Justy said. “The scale of a piece doesn't register until you’re standing in front of it.”

Justy is also a long time fan of the House of Paint, though she misses what it was before it moved to the NAC. “The culture is cohesive and fun, hip hop and dancing included.”

She has also noticed a real shift in how the city treats art too. Business Improvement Areas across Ottawa are starting to fund murals themselves. Justy can’t point to a specific mural gig that came out of conversations in her Facebook group but she’s seen a pattern where someone might ask if anyone knows an artist who can do a certain kind of work and referrals flood in.

Quick hits

We closed out our conversation sharing our passion for Ottawa’s street art scene and also with a few rapid fire questions.

Most memorable moment in the group: the discovery of Spaceman Music pieces on Gladstone Ave. A few works went up, but it was the Clandestine’s Bear piece that caught fire. “People really wanted to go see it,” she said.

A moment that makes Justy smile: Biking out to Adonis Grocer and spotting a new diversity mural by Art by Andre on what used to be a plain grey wall. She nearly went over her handlebars, stopping to look.

The group’s unofficial mascot: Dan Metcalfe, a local tattoo and graffiti artist with many murals in Ottawa, frequently shows up to debate in the group. Justy describes him fondly and appreciates his contributions to the group.

Why Justy keeps showing up

Running a group of 3500 members by herself is not easy. Justy fits it around her full time job and her own art practice.

“The people in the group,” she said. “I’m providing them with opportunities to appreciate art, and that’s what keeps me going. I can’t live without art. I think it touches a different part of your soul than anything else does.”

What’s next

Justy has never wanted the spotlight. She calls herself a backstage person and is happier pointing the camera at a wall than being in front of one. This collaboration with Ottawalls is the first real partnership her group has taken on.

Street Art Ottawa is where much of the city’s urban art gets spotted first, with Justy originally mapping the group’s community submissions on her own custom Google Map (see it here). Building on that foundation, she is now teaming up with Ottawalls to elevate the experience. Transitioning her efforts to the Ottawalls interactive map makes the growing collection easier to manage while creating a permanent archive of Ottawa’s murals and legal graffiti. It celebrates local artists and offers residents a tool to discover street art in their own neighborhoods!

If you’re a member of Justy’s group and you’ve found a wall Ottawalls hasn’t documented yet, feel free to submit it here.