Canadians from coast to coast are taking part in a massive mural painting project celebrating our country’s 150th birthday.
This weekend, the project made a stop in St. Albert inviting 150 local artists and citizens to paint a tile that will be added to the mural.
“We just want people to come out and paint tiles and have fun and enjoy art and celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday,” Lewis Lavoie said.
Lavoie is the project designer and part of St. Albert based Mural Mosaic heading up the national project.
READ MORE: Giant mosaic project brings Canadians together through art
“There’s a tremendous amount of work that goes into a mural of this size, it’s going to be like the Guinness book of records sized murals,” Lavoie said. “We have volunteers that just want to paint tiles and there’s a synergy that’s going on where everybody wants to be involved.”
The Canada 150 Mosaic is a series of murals that will be displayed in communities from Vancouver Island to P.E.I. to mark Canada’s birthday. When all of the murals are put together, it will become a series of train cars that are meant to tell the history of each community and those who live there.
WATCH: Tens of thousands of tiles are currently being painted to create one of the biggest art projects in Canada. Quinn Ohler explains what it’s all about.
Each person is given a 4” by 4” tile to paint. There are restrictions on the colours they can use and some have certain details to be worked into the mosaic but otherwise, participants are allowed to paint whatever they want. They are then built into murals. One-hundred-fifty different works of art will be displayed across Canada, each made up of 400 to 600 tiles. The entire mural, if ever connected, would stretch out over four football fields.
“As a designer I’m always designing these murals, weeks, if not months in advance,” Lavoie said.
It’s hoped once the project is completed the murals will go on display in communities across the country.
The team visits between four and five communities across the country every weekend. You can learn more about events in your area by visiting Canada 150 Mosaic.
with files from Quinn Ohler
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