|
Doreen
Pendgracs |
Travel Samples: The
Murals of Winnipeg – 511
and Counting … You can’t possibly visit Winnipeg and not notice the murals in nearly every neighbourhood of the city. The count is now at 511 street-side works of art and counting. And there are more in the works for 2005. As murals are primarily outdoor art, their creation is very weather dependent. So enterprising muralists like Richard Manoakeesick occasionally create murals indoors on vinyl and then have them transported to their final destinations when the weather is more cooperative. Manoakeesick is presently completing a mural that will soon find a home on the wall of the Indian Affairs Building on Donald Street in downtown Winnipeg. The city’s most prolific muralist with 33 mostly North-End completed projects under his belt, Manoakeesick began his career while still in school. “The advertising art teacher at R.B. Russell Vocational School recruited me to paint a mural for a city project,” says Manoakeesick. “That was 10 years ago.” Since then, the young man -- who hails from the St. Teresa Point reserve in northern Manitoba -- has made a career of beautifying walls and teaching budding muralists his craft at the Graffiti Gallery on Higgins Avenue. Just how does the match between artist, client and the resulting mural occur? Generally, a building owner will see a mural that they like and contact the artist to do something unique for them. But how did it all get started – before there was a three-dimensional street-side gallery from which to shop? Charlie Johnston is a muralist who has participated in the creation of more than 20 murals in Winnipeg – three of which won the Mural of the Year Award (for 2002, 2003 and again in 2004.) Johnston was the creative force responsible for the magnificent mural at the corner of Higgins and Main. Back in 2001, he had the inspiration to paint a mural of the then-vacant wall at Higgins and Main. Johnston took his plan to the city’s Centre Venture committee and a year later, Johnston began a three-way collaborative project with two other local artists – Mandy van Leeuwen and Jennifer Johnson Pollock of Utopian Arts Design -- to do the job.
Each mural is funded by a sponsor. Often it is a collaborative project under the auspice of several sponsors that may include a government body, a business or an individual or community group. Take Pride Winnipeg! has been the greatest single sponsor of the murals and has helped fund more than 200 of the city’s murals. Someone else who must be commended for his dedication to the murals of Winnipeg is Bob Buchanan, who with his wife, Louise, created a special website to publicize the works of art to the world. “It took us two and a half months to go through the streets of Winnipeg and document each mural,” says Buchanan, who now has more than 5,000 photographs on his hard drive. Buchanan, a native of Halifax who subsequently spent 24 years living in Calgary before coming to Winnipeg, is a retired newspaper man who admits to not having any natural artistic talent. “I can’t even draw a stickman,” he jokes. “But when I came to this city a few years ago, I was blown away by the wonderful free public art we have on our streets. I wanted to find some way to showcase it, and came up with the website idea.” The Murals of Winnipeg website is in itself, a masterpiece. Buchanan’s photographs give you several full-colour views of most murals. The site can be searched by artist, sponsor, general neighbourhood/district, exact location or the year the work of art was created. Buchanan spends hours updating and refining the website. He is continually adding photographs and descriptions of new murals and expanding the number of artist profiles in his online databank. And it is he who is responsible for overseeing the Mural of the Year committee that determines the winner each year.
Other great murals installed during 2004 can be found at 470 Provencher –an intricate work of art depicting the history of Lagimodiere and his wife, at 1 Cole Avenue and at 714 St. Mary’s Road, both murals by Jill Sellers -- a talented muralist best known for her delicate historic works and who has completed 17 murals to date. The mural on the wall of the St. Regis Hotel at 285 Smith Street won Mural of the Year in 2003. The 5,600 square foot mural depicts life on the street in 1911 and showcases the talent of muralist, Charlie Johnston, in which he’s used a special three dimensional technique to bring history alive. Drop by and check it out – and see if you can recognize the well-known, regular patron that Johnston has placed in the window of the hotel. Take a virtual tour of all the murals of Winnipeg at The Murals of Winnipeg website: www.themuralsofwinnipeg.com. You’ll find a map online to help you find each mural, with a newly-added mapping interface that enables you to track the location of each mural with ease. So get out and appreciate the street art of Winnipeg. A special thanks to Bob Buchanan, for making it so easy for us all to find – and appreciate -- these unique and thought-provoking curb-side treasures. -30-
|
||
|
The result, formally
titled “Welcome to Downtown” and
more fondly known as “Copper Girl” is one of the most inspiring
murals in the city – and my personal favourite. “We came
up with the idea of Copper Girl using a metal sculpture of a welcoming
woman figure – like a counterpart to the Golden Boy – to
be our focal point,” said Johnston, who works under the name
C5 Artworks.
A panel of about
34 independent judges is involved in the process. The mural that
took this year’s honours can be found at 190 Disraeli – an
expansive masterpiece at 14,000 square-feet that wraps around three
walls of a massive building in the city’s downtown core. It is
the largest privately commissioned mural in the country, the second
overall largest mural in all of Canada and the largest mural in the
province of Manitoba. The colourful work of art was a collaborative
project with Johnson’s wife, Sarah and is entitled “Layin’ Down
Tracks” as tribute to the city’s rail history and
notable musical talent.