My work as a community engaged artist came to a halt with the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic. This was very hard, not just because I had to stop working, but mostly because I knew about the profound impact art -and more specifically community art- has on isolated individuals and on communities at risk.
So I figured out a way! I decided to send art kits to individuals and families for them to create artworks that I then digitalized and put together as part of a bigger design. These creations were then printed on big format aluminum panels are now installed in various locations in Ottawa. I was able to create six "together-apart murals" during the Pandemic and amazingly, I am still using this technique to create huge murals in schools and communities.
Butterflies! The first of my series of "together apART" murals created during the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020 in collaboration with OCH and MASC.
At the start of the Pandemic, thirty-two families received an art kit (canvas, brushes and paint) and instructions to create their own art piece. I added butterflies to the composition, and this is how I created the first together-apart mural. I digitized it and it was printed on aluminum. Butterflies can be seen along with "The Future awaits" at the corner of Wiggins Private and Chapel Crescent in Sandy Hill, Ottawa.
Finding ways to innovate and reinvent my creative process to keep painting murals with the community, and more importantly to bring creative opportunities to families/individuals in risk or isolated, as well as to schools working online during such a difficult time was a source of great joy for me.
BUTTERFLIES
Sandy Hill Ottawa
THE FUTURE AWAITS
Sandy Hill Ottawa
"The Future Awaits" is the view of the past, the present and the future for fourteen kids. As well, an intrepid butterfly that leads us towards the future with determination and grace, reflects my feelings about hope, endurance, beauty and freedom. This mural was exhibited at the Ottawa Art Gallery during the 2021 summer and now embellishes the streets of Sandy Hill in Ottawa at the corner of Wiggins Private and Chapel Crescent along with "Butterflies". Created as a MASC artist.
"Where do we find the inspiration and the strength to grow? It is in our core; it comes from within." This was the powerful conversation I had with 1300 students at Half Moon Bay Public School to create this mural on aluminium. All students at Half Moon Bay Public School created an image inspired by the concept of “growing”. Their drawings became the background for this multi-panel mural that symbolizes the flow of life, the growth of our neighbourhood, and the power of an inclusive and supportive community.
Inspired by our personal growth and dreams as individuals, this mural depicts our hands as our tools for creativity. A spiral growing from the centre of our palm is a symbol of our compromise and dreams while becoming the accomplished and kind human beings we want to be. By growing as individuals, we also grow as a community. it is located at 3525 River Run Ave in Ottawa. Created as a MASC artist.
GROWING
Half Moon Bay Public School, Barrhaven
I was the artist in residency for The 2022 Listen Up Program lead by The Gryphon Trio. Inspired by the theme "our dreams and memories" I guided 60 students through the creation of these colourful works of art that I later incorporated into a three-piece aluminum mural. These amazing works of art and The Gryphon Trio's beautiful music, turned the Centennial Public School into a concert hall-art gallery! Created as a MASC artist.
dreams & memories
Centennial Public School, Ottawa
In this art project, each mandala tells a personal story about the student that created it. By putting them together I created a two-piece mural in which I also tell my story. If these images could talk, we would be listening to 73 stories and dreams at the same time! Working online I facilitated the creation of 280 mandalas with students from G1 to 8 grade. Of these, 72 were chosen randomly for the creation of this digital-art aluminium mural now at the Hawthorne Public School in Ottawa.
The mural reflects conversations about the cosmos, about growing as individuals and community, about the beauty of our differences and about what it means to be an artist. Created as a MASC artist.
WE ARE THE COSMOS
Hawthorne Public School, Ottawa
