Installation complete for The Wisdom Mural

Installation of The Wisdom Mural, a project created by Claudia Salguero, a multidisciplinary Colombian-Canadian artist in Ottawa and member of Arts Network Ottawa’s board of directors, was completed on the side of an Ottawa Community Housing apartment building near Billings Bridge Shopping Centre on Friday. Those who worked on the 32x48-foot mural, a collection of 4x8-foot acrylic panels, included elders from many cultures, including Chinese, Iraqi, Indian, New Zealand, Métis and Algonquin. “This is my most ambitious project yet,” Salguero said in a story about the project in early July. “Not in terms of the size, but in terms of what it means and the participation of the community. The participation of the Indigenous elders and knowledge-keepers has been key. I’ve just been the interpreter of their messages and teachings.”

Community-engaged artist Claudia Salguero brings together community at Red Apron

All in a Day with Alan Neal

Sandra Abma speaks to artist Claudia Salguero about how a new mural at Red Apron brought together an entire community. This mural represents a link between local farmers and the community, supporting wellbeing and healthy communities.

Young artists envision a world without COVID-19

Mural by 9- and 10-year-olds hanging at Ottawa Art Gallery

Equipped only with paints and brushes, a group of Ottawa elementary school students was asked to create a time machine to whisk them into the future. The world they've envisioned has flying cars, space portals — and no COVID-19.

"I'm just hoping I can travel to the future," said Ayla Jahani, 9. "I hope there's no pandemic."

They see the future as a beautiful thing.- Claudia Salguero, artist and instructor

Their individual work has been assembled into a colourful mural titled The Future Awaits, that was exhibited at the Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG) during the summer of 2021. It can be seen now along with "Butterflies" at the corner of Wiggins Private and Chapel Crescent in Sandy Hill, Ottawa.

CTV NEWS

A Message of Wisdom: Ottawa's tallest mural created on Bank Street

OTTAWA - Claudia Salguero has always loved to create. "I’ve been an artist all my life," she said. But never has her canvas been so tall.

"Never, Never. You know, one project leads to another one and one dream leads to another one and" said Salguero. "And then I started dreaming about his project and here we are,” said the artist.

Her dream was to create Ottawa’s tallest mural, and she has.

It’s 35ft x 53ft, composed of 48 hand-painted panels.

Council Spotlight look at the Ottawa Arts Council Award recipients with Claudia Salguero

We continue our #CouncilSpotlight look at the Ottawa Arts Council Award recipients with Claudia Salguero, who received the 2021 Peter Honeywell Mid-Career Artist Award.

Canadian-Colombian Claudia Salguero is an Ottawa community-engaged artist, award-winning digital artist and Latin jazz-folk singer. Claudia has created over 35 murals and led a wide-range of community arts and culture projects in Ottawa for groups of diverse ages and ethno-cultural backgrounds encouraging community integration and self-awareness.

New murals see beauty in everyone

Claudia Salguero looks back with joy on her collaboration with downtown Ottawa Community Housing (OCHC) tenants.

“The thing that I love about my work is that I work with people from all kinds of backgrounds and genders and ages. The beauty of community art is that it is a beautiful tool with which you can bring people to work regardless of their background.”

The digital artist worked with more than 20 tenants last winter to create a mural in three panels, located on the exterior of the OCHC buildings at 415 MacLaren Street and 380 Somerset Street West. The mural’s theme is “I See Beauty, I See Beauty In You.”

Paint therapy session takes over Parliament Hill

Randy Sidaoui and Claudia Salguero are two of the organizers of Paint Therapy Ottawa. (David Thurton/ CBC)

Salguero coaches and encourages others to pick up a brush and give painting a try.

Many come to the Hill, she said, stressed and anxious about life, and without even realizing it, they get lost and turn their worries into art.

"You see people alone painting for hours," Salguero said.

"We are creative by nature. But you don't know until you try, until you have an instrument and a brush in our hand … You have anger? You are frustrated? Grab a brush and paint some strokes and you liberate that."

Community-engaged artist Claudia Salguero wins Ottawa Arts Council's mid-career award

"We talk to Claudia Salguero about winning the Peter Honeywell Mid-Career Artist Award and her work as a singer and muralist"

Popular muralist and more latest recipients of Ottawa Arts Awards

Salguero is the winner of this year’s Peter Honeywell Award, a mid-career prize of $5,000 that recognizes professional artists who contribute to the community. A popular muralist, Salguero said on social media that the recognition gives her and other artists “the encouragement we need to keep going during these hard times.”

The murals of Claudia Salguero

Claudia was recently recognized for her talent and community engagement by the Ottawa Arts Council, receiving the Peter Honeywell Mid-Career Artist Award. Nicole Milne, Executive Director, had these lovely words to say in the letter that accompanied the prize:

“It is important that the Ottawa Arts Council acts as a catalyst in our community to support all artists, but in this case, someone who is making a significant impact in the sector. Your work connects communities. And it is presented in a way that reminds us of the importance of the value of art in our everyday lives. It provokes discussion and contemplation, and contributes directly to our well-being. Thank you for sharing your talent with us. I have long admired your work and look forward to seeing where your next creative adventure will take you.”

Claudia Salguero at the National Arts Centre

Featured by Ottawa Life Magazine as one of the 2013 Top 25 people in the Capital, Claudia Salguero is a Colombian-Canadian professional multidisciplinary artist and Community Engaged Artist working with multicultural groups in communities at risk. Working in collaboration with different Social Institutions, she has created more than 40 community murals in the City since 2014.
She was awarded by Ottawa Arts Council with the 2021 Peter Honeywell Mid-Career Artist Award, recognizing and encouraging the achievements of Ottawa artists of all disciplines who have evolved beyond the emerging stage in their career to become recognized professional working artists contributing to the community.
Through her work, Claudia has evidenced the power of community art and her capacity to work with communities in big projects.

VANIER COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION

Granville Street Mural Artist, Claudia Salguero Wins Ottawa Arts Council Prize

Claudia Salguero is the winner of this year’s Peter Honeywell Award, that recognizes professional artists who contribute to the community. The recognition includes a prize of $5,000.

OTTAWA ARTS COUNCIL 2021 AWARDS

Every year since 1988, the Ottawa Arts Council pays tribute to local artists, arts leaders and community supporters through the Arts Awards program. (Read full article here.)

This year’s laureates included music industry educator Colin Mills, multidisciplinary artist Claudia Salguero, and songwriter/musician Amanda Lowe Warnakulasuriya.

Adding colour and a message of hope to the community

Open hands hold a beautiful tree adorned with butterflies or “mariposas” in Spanish, after which the mural gets its name. “Mariposas signify hope; transformation,” artist Claudia Salguero explained with a proud smile. “The mural represents freedom in a pandemic: freedom from fear of each other and freedom of judgement of each other.” She expressed that the hands are holding life and future.

Butterfly mural Ottawa's biggest yet

The first time Clauda Salguero proposed a mural for busy intersection in downtown Ottawa, officials nixed the idea.

“I sent a sketch and the first comment was, ‘This is an intersection. There might be an accident,'” recalls the Ottawa artist who now specializes in creating art that engages the community. “They told me to think of something not as colourful, not as bold.”

Since then, she estimates, she’s designed about 20 murals in Ottawa and is thrilled to see the attitude changing, thanks in part to a growing belief that murals help prevent graffiti and can bring a neighbourhood together.

Ottawa artist creates new mural during pandemic, with help from 32 families

The butterfly is Claudia Salguero’s favourite motif.

She’s the Colombian-Canadian visual artist (and singer) who’s been instrumental in creating big, bright murals on Ottawa Community Housing buildings, often with a butterfly incorporated into the design.

The latest is no exception. On the south fence of the Ottawa Community Housing office in Sandy Hill, four stylized butterflies flit over a colourful landscape that evokes a garden full of flowers and sunshine. Measuring four feet by eight feet, it’s not one of the biggest murals in the artist’s portfolio, but it may be the most creative in its approach.

Murals: Artist Claudia Salguero paints the biggest in town

Salguero has designed about 20 murals in Ottawa and is thrilled to see the attitude changing, thanks in part to a growing belief that murals help prevent graffiti and can bring a neighbourhood together. Salguero is currently working on a community art project with women from the Pinecrest Terrace Community House to demonstrate how mural art can bring a community together.

COMMUNITY BUIILDING

I had the honour of working with Mural Artist, Claudia Salguero and Arts Educator and Facilitator, Nancy Solange Parra-Dean, on this amazing project, which was funded by Crime Prevention Ottawa/Prévention du Crime Ottawa and the Cajole Inn Foundation.

The theme of the mural, “Robert E. Wilson Public School: A Place We All Call Home”, was decided in consultation with the students. This theme encompasses safety, inclusion, love, welcome, freedom, respect, family, support, and community. These are the thoughts and ideas that were important to the students.

Feeling proud. This is the biggest mural in Ottawa.

Thanks for the great radio interview and article CBC! 

Murals: Artist Claudia Salguero paints the biggest in town.

A nine-storey butterfly mural in Lowertown that touches on themes of change and diversity is officially Ottawa's largest.

Transformation, which was designed by artist Claudia Salguero, adorns the outside wall of an Ottawa Community Housing apartment building at the corner of Rideau and Wurtemburg streets.

New mural aims to reflect Ottawa's diversity

Salguero has spent all day in the snow watching as Canadian Pride, Harmony in Cultures – the biggest project so far of her career as a professional art facilitator – was installed on the face of the Hunt Club-Riverside Park Community Centre.

“It’s a very gray building, there’s no art in this part of the city,” she said. “The goal of the mural (is)… to depict the diversity, not just in our neighbourhoods, but in general in Canada.”

Stop by St. Laurent this week and you’ll find high school students along with award-winning Colombian artist, Claudia Salguero, creating a mural for the BeYou campaign.

This interactive, selfie mural will come to life on the giant-sized canvas (54’ x 15’) located at the former Sears entrance.

Claudia Salguero is a Community Art-Based Facilitator and award-winning Photo-fine-artist. As a MASC artist and working with different social institutions in the city, she has facilitated the creation of murals and a wide-range of arts and culture projects with children, youth, women and mature-adult groups.

Claudia Salguero–100 Per Cent Artist In Everything She Does

“I’ve been able to make my way because I do many things. I teach, I sing, I’m working with teenagers and I’m working with recycling,” says Salguero. “I’m in love with the community development and what I can do with my creativity.”

Salguero is known for the urban aluminium murals and portraits she creates using a combination of digital media and traditional art. She uses a computer program to create a digital image—either from scratch or by using a photograph and to then apply paint with digital brushes. It is through her expertise in the program Corel Painter, and the Wacom electronic pad she paints with, that she is now recognized as a ‘Corel Painter Master.’

“Somebody once asked me,” she said, “Where is home?”…

Claudia Salguero moved to Canada in 2001. She didn’t want to leave her hometown of Bogota, Colombia. Everyone with a chance was getting out and she didn’t really want to abandon her country and her city, but opportunity beckoned and so she moved with her family.

It was a life-changing and ultimately life-affirming decision, Salguero said in an interview.

Art above and art below, two different mediums: one of colour and brush strokes and the other in the smooth, sensual vocals of Latin America. This is the duality of Claudia Salguero. To her, however, the two are not very far apart.

“Going from teaching the techniques of digital art to painting large murals around town to singing Boleros such as “Si Dios me quita la vida”, her mother’s favourite, were not difficult transitions. She moves between her various careers as fluidly as the digital brushes that sweep across her computer screen.”