Four murals, the MB Mural Mosaic Project, are now complete. All painted during this Manitoba 150 summer, they were spearheaded by Arts Mosaic Inc.
The communities of Elkhorn, Oak Lake, Reston and Virden each provided space for a mural to be created.
“Southwest Manitoba has been made all the more vibrant with the addition of these murals to celebrate Manitoba’s 150th birthday,” says Christa Milne, Arts Mosaic’s director. “The mural project is a celebration of the impact that rural communities have made on the province of Manitoba. Each mural is a testament to the people, history, and culture of each community.”
Whitney Paul-Joseph was the artist chosen to create the mural in the community of Reston. She lives in Sinclair and is an art teacher in Redvers, Sask. An art educator for 11 years, Paul-Joseph teaches art classes and runs art camps in her spare time.
Paul-Joseph’s preferred subject matter is nature and natural elements. Her mural showcases the landscape and environment of southwest Manitoba.
Erica and Mary Lowe were chosen to create the murals in the communities of Elkhorn, Oak Lake and Virden.
This mother-daughter mural team are local, professional artists who excel at painting realism, historical imagery and creatively playing with the beauty of nature.
Mary received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Manitoba. Erica graduated from Brandon University with a Creative Arts degree after studying both in Winnipeg and Brandon and works as a mural painter and art teacher.
The mural in Elkhorn is visible from the TransCanada Highway, featured prominently on the front of the Manitoba Antique Automobile Museum (MAAM). Funding for this mural came from the Elkhorn and Area Foundation and the RM of Wallace-Woodworth. The mural is a celebration of Isaac Clarkson. “Ike” to his hundreds of friends, had a boyhood dream of being able to collect and display some of the machines of his youth for future generations to enjoy. The dream came true. Elkhorn’s MAAM was opened in 1967 and Clarkson continued to work on the car collection until his passing in 1971 at the age of 58.
Oak Lake’s mural, painted on the wall of Oak Lake Community School has an educational component. Resources and images were gathered from the book Ox Cart Trail to Blacktop. This work was funded by the Oak Lake and Area Foundation with paint provided by Home Hardware Virden.
Virden’s brilliant mural was featured on the front of last week’s (Sept. 18) edition of the Empire-Advance.
More information about the project can be found at: https://www.artsmosaic.ca/mb-mural-mosaic
These four wall murals will also be listed on a Canada-wide web list, as Milne explains, “Our murals have been accepted to the Mural Routes website.”
Mural Routes is a member-based Canadian arts organization dedicated to the creation, development and promotion of public wall art, with the purpose to inspire this extraordinary public work which serves as a catalyst for community building: https://muralroutes.ca/map/
