One word comes to mind after a quick peek in the back of the NorVA Centre: chaos.
There are buckets and piles of materials everywhere, including everyday objects such as buttons, pieces of crushed and cracked tile, and glass.
There’s order to the chaos. The goal is to create a piece of art different from past projects – made by the community to celebrate the community.
The assortment of materials will be put together to create a mosaic, a mural featuring scenes and descriptions of the Flin Flon area. Birch trees, twisted streets, smoke stacks and howling wolves all make appearances in the mosaic, amongst other images.
“This goes back quite a ways, actually,” said artist Karen Clark, a near-constant presence at the centre. “The idea of community art projects has always been part of NorVA’s dream, to connect with the community.”
The idea for the project began after two muralists, Karen Cornelius and Annie Bergen, visited the centre from Winnipeg.
“We had a meeting and started with a sketch,” said Clark. “It started off looking kind of southern, then it kind of morphed. We kind of ‘northerned’ it up. We have some people with big ideas.”
Many members of the community have put their own stamp on the mural, using bits and pieces to construct their own section. A list of contributors to the project includes more than 50 names, with more likely to be added.
Some sections, including a number of small houses added to one panel, were constructed by local schoolchildren for an art class.
“We had them sketch them on a piece of paper, then they put a piece of plastic down that they could see through,” said Clark. “They put it down on a screen, and they glue the mosaic onto the screen. Then we take the screen and press it into the mortar and it comes up here.”
Flin Flonners make up most of the contributors’ list, but not all. Tourists have also stopped by the centre to create sections for the mural.
“We had a couple come up from The Pas,” said Clark. “They were from Ontario, they were out visiting, came here and made a really neat butterfly and another nice piece that are both on there now. It was really kind of a cool thing, they’ve left something here.”
While some panels are nearly complete, the mural is not finished yet. Once finished, the panels will be placed near the NorVA Centre entrance.
