Duane Hicks
The ’52 Canadians Arena will be brightened up with more art created by local youth after town council gave the nod for a second mural to adorn one of its walls.
Artist and art instructor Lindsay Hamilton spoke to council Monday night, explaining the mural, “Elemental,” was created during a summer camp at Confederation College here last year.
“It is a collaborative mural which explores the representation of the elements—water, earth, air, and fire,” she noted.
“It was conceptualized and created by youth, aged 11-14, and is the second instalment of the Confederation College youth mural project,” added Hamilton.
Stylized designs, mythological creatures, metaphorical symbols, and the personification of the elements all are contained within the mural, she explained, adding the gold lines separating each section are a hybridization of the alchemical signs for each element.
“Not only are there a variety of elements represented in the work, but the youth physically used the elements in the creation of the mural,” Hamilton said.
“A torch was used to add a smoke effect to the ‘fire’ element section,” she noted. “Aerosol spray paint was used to create the birds in the ‘air’ section of the mural.
“Sand was added to the paint to represent the ‘earth’ in its respective element, and water was sprayed and dripped onto the surface of the ‘water’ element of the mural.”
Hamilton said she challenged the youth to experiment with how elements could be used and harnessed to create art, as well as inform the subject matter.
“The youth tackled this challenging theme, as well as compositional issues, very well, and had decided to take on the challenge of using the elements in their work, such as the water, the fire, and sand, over traditional painting modes,” she noted.
Hamilton added “Elemental” is an expansion of the first mural put up at the arena, “Timmy’s World.” But the youths did not want to create another landscape and took risks when deciding to work in stylized and segregated sections dedicated to each element.
Compared to “Timmy’s World,” “this work is more streamlined, creating focal points in each area,” Hamilton said.
“There is a mermaid, a light bulb with a tree growing in it, a Mother Earth underneath it, an owl, and a phoenix-dragon.
“They also took great care in creating strong, attractive backgrounds to support these focal points, embracing sophisticated techniques to achieve the composition,” added Hamilton, noting a variety of techniques were explored in creating the mural.
“This mural deserves the same enthusiasm and support our town gave ‘Timmy’s World’ in 2011,” she stressed.
“This support has had a lasting impact on the youth who participated in the project.
“I would like council to know that 75 percent of the youth that created this mural were the ones who created ‘Timmy’s World,’ as well,” noted Hamilton, adding that one youth who had moved to Thunder Bay after working on “Timmy’s World” returned to Fort Frances to work on “Elemental.”
“I believe that this is proof of how engaged and dedicated the youth are to this project and this opportunity,” she said.
“They have earned a place for our work to be displayed and it is our job as community leaders to provide consistent support for our artistic youth.”
Hamilton added she will be working with youth to create a third mural at an art camp this summer.
Council approved the erection of the mural at the ’52 Canadians Arena, and Hamilton now will work with Community Services manager Jason Kabel to determine a location.
The installation of the mural is at no cost to the town.
Coun. Andrew Hallikas said council needs to support local art and culture, especially the town’s young artists.
He not only wanted to see “Elemental” installed at the arena, but he’d like to see more opportunities for art to be publicly displayed.
“I think . . . we really need to get a policy in place about displaying public art,” Coun. Hallikas added. “I want to display public art, I support public art, but we need to be fair to everyone.
“We need to talk about questions like how many pieces of art can a group or individual have up, are there types of art we don’t want to put up, [and] how long will it stay up for,” he noted.
