Art Project #1

There is so much to say about this project. Really, a book's worth. How do you sum up your brainchild? Even trickier, how do you sum up one of the most amazing, inspiring and fulfilling experiences of your life? That is a tough one! In sum, I wanted to put together a project that would engage youth in some sort of art-making capacity. I applied for an "end-of-the-fiscal-year-super-last-minute" grant from Brighter Futures to do a mural project with youth from Iqaluit, got the grant, and next thing I knew I had less than a month to get this project underway and completed. I started buying materials and taking care of what seemed like a million organizational details (not to mention manoeuvring around some serious bumps in the road!). On March 6th I put out a call for artists (through posters and talking to folks at the high school and the youth centre) and just as I was starting to wander into despair thinking "oh god, no one is going to volunteer!".... I received an e-mail from Anne Hellwig, a 17 year-old student at Inuksuk High School, who had seen my poster and felt interested in the project. From then on a few more people expressed interest in the project and by Monday, March 12th, I met up with three interested young ladies. I introduced myself and the project. As we started to discuss potential ideas I told them I had recently felt really inspired by the art that came out of Cape Dorset in the sixties and seventies, and showed them books of Inuit art. I didn't know if they would tell me (in a teenager kind of way) that this stuff was too "oldschool" or "traditional" but instead they were amazed by the images and felt instantly inspired. We started working on the concept right away and after some brainstorming and sketching, two of the participants (Anne and Melissa) and myself came up with an idea that we all felt really excited about! I could tell that we were all excited to get working (and the students at Inuksuk were off until Thursday) so I spent the next day running around, making what felt like a hundred phone calls and sending out a thousand emails to take care of every detail imaginable. I texted the girls Tuesday afternoon and told them that we could start painting (well, priming) right away! At this point none of us had anticipated that less than four days later we would be looking onto a 100 square feet mural. Curious to know what we came up with?? Read on!

TUESDAY EVENING (DAY 1)

Tuesday evening: prime time for priming.

Bringing together our sketches and finalizing the concept.

WEDNESDAY (DAY 2)

Wednesday morning: all primed up and ready to start drawing the basic outline.

Feeling out the flow! (The entire mural was free-handed.)

All sketched out... Let's get paintin'!

Melissa (18) and Anne (17) hard at work from day 1.

From left to right: Melissa, Anne, Dayle (14) and Rose (16).

Mel working hard and a book of art from Cape Dorset (major source of inspiration).

One stroke at a time.

Anne and Jen (11).

At the end of our first day of painting.

FRIDAY EVENING (DAY 3)

We were in the zone.. few pictures got taken.

Owls rule everything around me.

End of the day on Friday. So close to being done.

SATURDAY MORNING (DAY 4)

Mel touching up some details.

Nothing else I'd rather be doing on a Saturday morning.

Anne working away.

Melissa, Anne and myself. Words can't describe how unbelievably proud I am of these girls. They showed dedication from the start and did an absolutely amazing job.

Can't wait to work with these girls again on future mural projects!

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The finished product!

Just a few hours after putting the finishing touches, our mural makes its first public appearance at the Hip Hop Spot fundraiser at Inuksuk High School! Can you spot me? I was a judge for the breakdance competition.

More pictures to come when the mural will be up! Stay tuned!

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"This was an amazing experience! I was disappointed when I realized we won't be painting the next day. The time flew by while we painted, nothing has ever felt so amazing to complete and I'm proud to say I was apart of this and look forward to future projects!" - Melissa (18)