MELFORT 鈥� A new mural at Melfort鈥檚 Historic Post Office will incorporate community painted tiles, various pieces by local artists, and old post boxes.
鈥淭he objective is to commemorate the history of the postal service in Canada as a starting point,鈥� said Brenda Mellon, artist and project co-ordinator. 鈥淭hen we really wanted to be inclusive of the whole community. We want people to come in and feel they鈥檙e connected to the mural when they come in.鈥�
The team behind the project includes Mellon, Randi Londe and Joanne Bolen.
At the present time the team is keeping the exact design of the finished product a secret.
鈥淚t鈥檚 going to have 400 post office boxes in it, it鈥檚 going to incorporate 10 other commissioned pieces in it and then I鈥檓 guessing probably 75 to 100 of these community tiles,鈥� Mellon said.
鈥淲e have a concept mapped out and we want it to represent past, present and future.鈥�
The three are currently seeking pieces from Melfort artists who want to donate their work to be incorporated.
In addition, on May 28 and 29, community members of all ages were invited to paint a tile with the theme of 鈥渃ommunity鈥� to be added to the finished mural.
The theme of community is broad, with the participants just asked to paint something that reminds them of community.
One tile was painted to look like the Melfort water tower, and another had a bee painted onto it.
鈥淏y holding these workshops we鈥檙e hoping that whoever wants to come and participate has the opportunity to do so,鈥� Mellon said. 鈥淭hey鈥檒l be permanently on the wall.鈥�
Each of the community members who come and paint a tile gets added to a listing of all the collaborators that will be present when the mural is viewed.
鈥淗opefully people will feel connected and pride at coming to see their work and the work of friends and family.鈥�
The painted tiles come in shades of yellow, sepia, blue and green.
鈥淲hen we came up with the idea that we wanted to involve the community at large, one of the issues is, 鈥楬ow are we going to do that and how are we going to make it a cohesive piece?鈥� That鈥檚 why we decided to basically limit the colour pallet for each tile 鈥� so we can basically incorporate it into each area that we鈥檙e painting.鈥�
For example a blue tile may be placed in a painted sky.
The mural will be a minimum of 36 feet by 10 feet high, and will be attached to the wall in the middle of the main floor. Currently that wall doesn鈥檛 exist.
鈥淭he City of Melfort is going to be constructing the wall for us, and they鈥檙e going to be creating it according to our specifications and they鈥檙e going to be incorporating our post office boxes,鈥� Mellon said.
The three organizers will be painting the secretive part, what Mellon did say was that they wanted to have it represent the whole community.
鈥淲e have similar styles yet different styles, so that鈥檚 something that we鈥檙e going to have to let evolve as we鈥檙e working on the piece. We have our concept hung out. So I envision that we鈥檒l probably take certain areas of the painting and we鈥檒l work together to make everything work.鈥�
The completion date is set at Oct. 31.
Any artists who want to donate a piece of their work can reach Bolen at 306-921-8287.
鈥淲e鈥檙e requesting artwork from a variety of mediums, so we鈥檙e hoping we get paintings, drawings, but we鈥檙e also encouraging sculpture. The sculpture would be more relief sculpture, so it wouldn鈥檛 be 3D but would be flat on one side.鈥�
She is also searching for quilting.
鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty wide open.鈥�
