“For Union Hotel, I wanted the works to highlight everyday moments and local history, offering small details that guests might notice, reflect on, or enjoy discovering as they walk around the neighborhood. So I made three hand-drawn, monochrome pieces. One captures the flow of the morning commute at Union Station, with overlapping shoes and fabrics. Another shows a meeting just outside the hotel, with its facade in view. The third pays tribute to Uniform Measure/Stack, a 1997 sculpture honoring the neighbourhood’s textile heritage.” - @malihaha We’re proud to collaborate with incredible local creators like Maliha Ali, bringing Toronto’s stories to life through art for our guests to enjoy. Discover Maliha’s work in your guestroom!

Introducing @malihaha , an illustrator and printmaker who transforms everyday moments into something extraordinary. From people and food to the whimsical thoughts running wild in her imagination, her work is a playful yet thoughtful take on the world around us. Born in Karachi and now based in Toronto, Maliha’s art adds a warmth to Union Hotel. 🖤

thinking about kitchen by banana yoshimoto “The place I like best in this world is the kitchen. No matter where it is, no matter what kind, if it’s a kitchen, if it’s a place where they make food, it’s fine with me. Ideally it should be well broken in. Lots of tea towels, dry and immaculate. White tile catching the light (ting! ting!). I love even incredibly dirty kitchens to distraction—vegetable droppings all over the floor, so dirty your slippers turn black on the bottom. Strangely, it’s better if this kind of kitchen is large. I lean up against the silver door of a towering, giant refrigerator stocked with enough food to get through a winter. When I raise my eyes from the oil-spattered gas burner and the rusty kitchen knife, outside the window stars are glittering, lonely.”

“Patrick didn’t give me a chance to object or express my ambivalence. He just told me what we were doing. The diner was an all-American classic: no-nonsense waitstaff, tabletop jukeboxes, everything chrome. I saw people I recognized from AA gathered around a long table, but Patrick led me to a booth. “Two coffees,” he told the waitress as we sat down…Under the table, my knees and feet brushed against his as I shifted, trying and failing to get comfortable on the cracked vinyl seat.” drawings for @serviettemagazine for a really tender essay by Adam Spiegelman serviette’s latest issue “food is vice” is available at @issuesmagshop and lots more places. limited prints of this drawing are in @bazaar.toronto (306 college st) and @savile_studio (roncy). thanks also to @thelakeviewdiner where i ate in the name of research (reuben, pickle, coleslaw, fries) and made some initial drawing notes.

More from the OCAD University drawing series. One of the asks from @csocadu @ocaduniversity was to draw people working on digital art and design projects. I work both old school (ink pens or color pencils etc on paper) and with a digital pen, and both processes involve working by hand, training yourself over years, and hours of painstaking project work. I wanted to get these scenes right, of real people working, without letting the presence of a screen take away from the creative process. How do people hold themselves as they work? What do their desks and chairs look like? Are they tea or coffee drinkers? Do their desks have plants? Do they have a nice view? What are their lives like??? What are they making? Fun questions to think about as I draw. Colors and clothes and rooms turn up. Some from memory, some from looking around my own spaces, others from research. Here are some of those pieces. This project was made possible by the @torontoartsfoundation who invited me to be a part of @artworks.to team. More on my website: malihaali.com . #toronto #illustration #ocad

Feeling very lucky that I got to draw a #Toronto landmark for @ocaduniversity @csocadu , the iconic “tabletop” building and Butterfield Park. I’m often in the area, testing color pencils at the Above Ground art shop next to the university, then finding a spot at Grange Park, admiring the energy of OCAD’s art students, and watching this structure which looks like huge color pencils propping up a monochrome Rubik’s cube. So it was pretty surreal to be asked to draw this for OCAD. Drawing is how I’ve come to know this city. Esp grateful to the @csocadu team for the excellent collaboration and conversations. Thanks also to the @torontoartsfoundation for inviting me to be a part of @artworks.to and for making this project possible. Sharing more from this series soon.

got to make a drawing for @cake_zine ’s forbidden fruit issue. the drawing accompanies a most hilarious essay by @oshehzad about masculinity panic and chilli millli and tamarind aka imli. the magazine is available in toronto @issuesmagshop and a few other places.

if you’d like to embrace your inner 90’s aunty and get a wall calendar for 2026, congrats. i made one and did a silly little photoshoot of him. i grew up with these in karachi (usually from banks or auto insurance with that red slider for the date) and they’re prominently on lounge walls, behind sofas, in most family photos. i think they’re a sweet way to wonder about time and life and plans and things to look forward to or wait for or dread etc. so i made one on my kitchen table. v small batch. every date day month was hand-lettered and lots of drawings of course. a vase, not of flowers, but leeks! to remind us all to use seasonal sabzi. a bowl of hot hot soup. overflowing coffee (abundance? mess?) for the cold harsh slow months. a tall sandwich. summer tomatoes. iced tea. sunny eggs. etc etc. maybe you can hang it in your kitchen or office cubicle or foyer. or gift it to someone. circle important/scary dates. take notes. manually turn over a new leaf. tear off a page if you like. folks in toronto, you can DM to order directly or find it at @bazaar.toronto and @savile_studio this weekend while supplies last. . . . #calendar #2026 #toronto #handmade

In Spotlight! Maliha (she/her) is an illustrator and printmaker from Karachi, now based in Toronto. Her handmade drawings of people, food, places, and everyday objects chronicle both the silly and serious parts of life. Her first book is called It’s OK to Be Sad (2022), and she’s been featured in Cake Zine, the Toronto Public Library, and The Globe and Mail, among other places. Check out their work at malihaali.com or @malihaha 🎨 [alt text in the comments]

sweet little greenhouse with many plant personalities + table chair

🌀🌞🍳 i made a @substack ! it’s called fallow fallow. trying this out. the first installment is an illustrated essay about some of the circles of our lives. ☕️🐚🪐 💌 if you like drawings and getting letters, sign up at fallowfallow.substack.com

my drawings are up at @torontolibrary yorkville branch all december. please go see! this is my first ever exhibit and a collection that is quite special to me: family recipe drawings (any shaljam ka achaar fanatics??), drawings of the various kitchens of my life, sweet homemade meals (thank you farri for inventing spaghetti with french fries), posters of imaginary food events. if you have a copy of it’s ok to be sad, you’ll recognize a print from the book too. ☕️ there are also some postcards to take away if you visit. the yorkville library branch is over a century old and the library’s first ever building. big windows, big tables, nice light. the staff have also put up a hilarious shakespeare vs taylor swift quote quiz. this branch is right across from the big reference library branch, which is also stunning.