The city of Toronto is trying to make its streets more beautiful by asking artists to think inside the box.

For the third year in a row, the city is commissioning local artists to re-imagine the dull grey traffic signal boxes that control lights at intersections and transform them into hand-painted works of art. About 120 of the city’s 2,200 traffic boxes have received makeovers since 2013.

“They encourage people to get out of their cars and walk more,” said Lilie Zendel, the manager of StreetARToronto, which started in 2012 to counteract graffiti vandalism with street and mural art. “They’re little, unexpected delights.”

1. Artist: Margaret Cresswell

Title: Brown Paper Packages Tied up with String

Location: Eglinton Ave. E. and Kennedy Rd.

This giant brown parcel is stamped, but not going anywhere.

Cresswell painted it last year after Canada Post caused a public uproar by announcing they would replace door-to-door service with community mailboxes. They put that plan on hold after the federal election last fall.

Cresswell says her painting is meant to “engage the community in discussions around handwritten notes versus email or texting.”

2. Artist: Nick Sweetman

Title: Beaware

Location: High Park Blvd. and Parkside Dr.

Sweetman had bees on the brain before re-decorating this traffic signal box. After learning about widespread bee mortality caused by certain pesticides, he wanted to create a buzz about the pollinators’ plight.

“I read about the things that are happening to bee colonies because of neonicotinoid pesticides. I was upset and I wanted to do something,” he told the Star.

Perhaps some legislators at Queen’s Park drive by this intersection often because, last July, Ontario became the first jurisdiction in North America to curb the use of neonicotinoid pesticides to protect bees.

3. Artist: Kailey Spearin

Title: Love Our Parks

Location: Finch St. and Islington Ave.

Like many children, Spearin loved to climb trees as a child. Unlike most adults, she still does.

The 28 year-old graphic designer’s traffic box is an ode to Toronto’s parks. “I wanted to send out a PSA that we’re lucky in the city of Toronto to have so much green space to take advantage of,” she said.

Toronto boasts more than 1,500 parks, which cover about 13 per cent of the city’s territory.

4. Artist: André Kan

Title: Modify

Location: Carlton St., west of Church St.

These flashy, neon blue, orange and yellow designs aren’t merely abstractions; they are Kan’s “utopian” vision of Toronto’s future.

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He says they were inspired by the Royal Ontario Museum’s Michael Lee-Chin Crystal and the Ontario College of Art and Design University building. The bright pastel colours are supposed to symbolize the young generation, he said.

5. Artist: Andrea Manica

Title: Bicycles

Location: Overlea Blvd. and Thorncliffe Park Dr.

Manica likes nothing better than riding her beat-up, vintage Supercyle along the Waterfront and High Park’s trails.

Her traffic signal box overlooks a busy intersection and represents a celebration of cycling and the outdoors.

6. Artist: Christina Mazzulla

Title: Mountains #2

Location: Ellesmere Rd. and Borough Approach W.

This splash of colour near Scarborough Civic Centre is hard to miss.

Mazzulla, a 26 year-old visual artist, says her “dream landscape” is meant to evoke “a yearning for a return to nature.”

7. Anya Mielniczek

Title: Just Be

Location: Dufferin St. and Glencairn Ave.

Until Mielniczek came along, the closest thing to art at this Glen Park intersection was a gas station billboard. Her box of roses with the message “Just Be” is meant to be a public reminder “not to free the little things,” she said.

“It’s really great to see more art on the streets,” she observed. “It takes us out of the mundane and spurs our imagination and creativity.”

8. Artist: Jeff Blackburn

Title: Rac in a Box 2

Location: Spadina Ave. and Davenport Rd.

Blackburn became well acquainted with Toronto’s nocturnal scavengers on his nightly walks home from work at a bar.

Now a painter and illustrator, he dedicated this piece to the animal he describes as the “unofficial mascot of Toronto.”

“I’m just trying to add a little bit of vibrancy to what would be something of an eyesore, a grey or brown box,” he said.