Oakville residents creating mural for Canada’s 150th birthday
BY JASMINE ANTHONY
Oakville residents have the chance to be a part of a nationwide art project to celebrate Canada’s upcoming 150th birthday.
The Canada 150 Mural Mosaic project is a collaboration of artwork from 150 communities across the country. Each will produce a separate train car themed mosaic that represents their community, which is then going to be combined online to create one extended mural of a train.
“Oakville is proud to be chosen to participate in this national incentive,” Mayor Rob Burton told The Sheridan Sun.
“It’s a great opportunity for our community’s cultural history to be celebrated as part of the mosaic mural commemorating Canada.”
Residents of Oakville are invited to participate and paint their own tile during registered workshops on Feb. 13 and 14 at Queen Elizabeth Park Community and Cultural Centre, which they can sign up for online, or by dropping in on the Family Day workshop.
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Jonathan Cortese, 28, who grew up in Oakville, says that the town is “the perfect community to participate in the project.”
“It’s great that our town is going to be a part of something so great that will be seen by people all over the country,” he said.
The Canada 150 Mural Mosaic is the brainchild of internationally renowned artist Lewis Lavoie of St. Albert, Alberta, along with partners Paul Lavoie and Phil Alain.
Alain, producer of the current mosaic, said that the three of them have always wanted to create a mural that would unite Canada.
“We’ve been thinking, literally for over a decade, about how we could make a mural that would combine thousands of people together,” said Alain. The idea of creating a train came about a year and a half ago, he said, “that is really the foundation of how Canada was born, by the railroad.”
This mural made in Vegreville, Alberta will be one of the 150 pieces connected together from across Canada when the project is complete. (Photo from Phil Alain and Canada150mosaic.com)
By the end of the project, which is slated to be finished shortly after Canada Day 2017, people will be able to scroll through the whole country, seeing thousands of paintings by people from coast to coast.
Right now, all of the provinces are involved, and they are still working on including Yukon and the Northwest Territories.
Alain explains that they designed this project to incorporate artists of all skill levels. Some tiles are designated to more experienced artists, such as the ones that incorporate the lines that “bring the more complicated areas of the mural to life.”
But otherwise, people are given artistic freedom. “They can paint whatever they want as long as they use the paint that we put in front of them,” said Alain.
As for the final product of Oakville’s mural, Alain won’t open up. “I better not tell you what it is because I don’t want to be ruining the surprise.”
The Oakville mural will be unveiled to the public on Feb. 16.
