The Largest Painting to Date! 2,300 ft²
Coming Home ~ A Community Mural in Port Moody
Early June I was contacted to discuss designing a large scale mural that would be transferred onto asphalt for families to come and paint. I learned the mural was to represent Slaughterhouse/Dallas Creek, which was under the roadways in Port Moody where I will be placing the mural. The aim of PCI Developments and Environmental Groups is to tear down infrastructure in this area in 3-5 years to daylight the once lively creek. They contacted me to be one of the first projects in shedding light on future plans, and I jumped at the opportunity!
The mural depicts the life stages of the coastal cutthroat trout, starting from eggs, to sac fry, fingerling and then mature adults. As the fish grow and change they find their way to the sea (indicated by bull kelp) - Burrard Inlet. Along the trouts path are indigenous plants such as nootka roses and salmon berries, both important food sources for various animals. The orange circles represent marine derived nutrients (MDN). MDN’s are delivered to water, soil and animals through eating the fish and corpse decay. The importance of renewing fish spawning grounds means the continued ecosystem benefits of MDN’s. These benefits have been well researched and its shown that MDN’s create richer soils, healthier plants and animals. All which directly benefit humans by healthier air for breathing (larger trees and plants).
The first stage in the mural was measuring out the boarders, then priming the surface. In the above photo volunteers are working hard in the heat to grid and start drawing the design in first compressed charcoal, then black paint. We soon discovered we would need double the paint than what I first estimated.
The incredibly hard workers form day 1, July 22 2023. Prep day. They did so well, I cancelled the second prep day. Many hands make light work!
July 29 & 30th saw around 50 people from the public each day, coming out to fill in the mural with colours. We had all ages and all abilities come out to participate. Most people enjoyed it so much, they stayed for hours!
We had a selfie station where children could draw on and have their photos taken, we also had informational posters about the daylighting of the creeks and chalk art on the asphalt.
Lots of activities for families to enjoy!
Getting a shot of my mom and I, she was such a great help and always full of energy and laughs
A photo mid day of all the volunteers and community who came out to participate!
Fixing up the nootka roses!
The final painting! Showing the life cycle of the coastal cutthroat trout. It came out better than I could have ever expected. What I learned from this project is that there are many people who are interested and enjoy doing large scale mural painting. I also witnessed many people with different techniques and points of view collaborate and problem solve together. It was such an interesting project to manage and watch unfold. I think I might do it again sometime!
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Thanks for reading!