THE MINDS BEHIND THE MURALS
StarPhoenix reporter Erin Petrow spoke to three of the artistic individuals behind the new creations on Broadway.
Broadway is set to get even more colourful this summer with a little help from the Saskatoon Community Youth Arts Programming (SCYAP), which has been commissioned to paint three new murals in partnership with the Broadway Business Improvement district and the Saskatoon Community Foundation as part of the Canada 150 celebrations.
Q What inspired the design of murals currently in the works?
Tammy Krueckl, SCYAP projects manager: The Canada 150 themes were pretty broad, but included ideas like inclusiveness, community, Indigenous culture and reconciliation. But Broadway really wanted something vibrant and bright and inviting so people would come visit their community because they want to draw people into the community. So we came up with some really beautiful murals and this one has kids playing, just a really fun piece to draw attention to the community and how it’s a great place to live.
Q What kind of planning goes into such a large piece of art?
TK: We have a graphic artist on site at SCYAP so we just sat down together and came up with some concepts that we thought would be appropriate. Once you come up with the concept, take pictures of the building to figure out the dimensions and put together some imagery then you send it off to the clients and say ‘what do you think?’ Then lastly, we grated the whole wall and drew out the image in paint.
Gerry Potie, artist: April (Doepker) and Tammy created the design, then we did some interpreting and grid them out to scale before we paint.
Q What is the most difficult part so far?
Michelle Pritchard, artist: I think it’s just the heat. The other day was nice, it was overcast so I was way more productive, but I started feeling the heat yesterday and it’s just kinda like your brain starts cooking.
TK: We’ve never had heat be such a factor in painting before. So this little heat wave we’ve been having is shortening our days for sure.
Q. Do you deal with a lot of graffiti or tagging when you’re out working ?
GP: That’s always kinda been SCYAP’s motto to bring the graffiti to the canvas not to the streets. It kinda hurts, because we do have to go back and restore it. Who wants to do the same thing twice?
MP: Actually, someone just tagged a box I just did on 22nd Street while I was still painting. It wasn’t huge, but it was still frustrating because it wasn’t touched before that. Obviously, I just put a bunch of work into it and I just felt disrespected.
Q. What is your favourite part of painting these large murals?
MP: I think it’s just the process in general when you’re figuring it all out and, of course, getting to see the finish product.
GP: The whole process from start to finish and just collaborating with other artists. I enjoy the process more than anything, when it’s done I’m kind of sick of it by that point but two or three years later you’re walking by and it’s like ‘Holy s---, that’s still there’ and it’s kind of cool I get to see that again.