Conceived as a ten‑film anthology, Heartbreak  to  Art set out to prove that creative practice isn’t just catharsis; it’s architecture for survival. Each spot was treated as an impressionistic portrait: floaty handheld, a powerful soundtrack and a restrained voice‑over that lets confession breathe. The brief was simple: show the exact moment pain turns into process, then capture the result of that alchemy.

From pre‑interviews to color grade, the production rhythm mirrored therapy. Shoots were previsualized around the artists’ actual creative rituals, so we could embed ourselves as much as possible into their process.

The series was released in tandem on CBCArts.ca and the network's 200k+ subscriber YouTube channel. Beyond the metrics, the real win is cultural durability: schools and youth‑services organizations requested clips for wellness programming, proving that these short‑form, elevated-documentary-style portraits can be both art and an actionable resource.

Bryan Espiritu,

Artist and designer Bryan Espiritu rose from turning raw MySpace diary posts into the cult street-wear label The Legends League and has since woven that same unfiltered storytelling into painting, typography and poetry that confront trauma and mental health, head-on.

His large acrylic canvases and coded letter-forms channel a personal lexicon while fueling apparel design, a bridge between Toronto street culture and contemporary art.

Espiritu’s multidisciplinary practice includes hand-painting 13,000 letters across Gladstone House's vaulted ceilings and co-creating the 14-foot “Peace to the Past, Reach for the Future” monument for the Toronto Raptors’ 25th anniversary at Nuit Blanche and earning a spot on Adweek’s Creative 100.