In 1992, I was asked if I would consider doing a mural for Stanton Territorial Hospital. I thought about it and did a drawing of what I thought would make a good mural, one that showed the region that the hospital services from the boreal forest of the Alberta border through Yellowknife and across the tundra to the Arctic Ocean and Islands. So, all of the NWT and the Kitikmeot region of Nunavut.
ItSA国际影视传媒檚 an enormous area and if you ranked hospitals by area serviced, I am sure Stanton would rate high on the list and might even be no. 1 in that regard. ThatSA国际影视传媒檚 pretty impressive and should be celebrated.
I said that I would donate my time to do the mural as my community contribution and there was a grant to cover the costs of materials. I lived in Northlands Trailer Park at the time and wanted to work close to home. My neighbours, June and Derek Roberts, suggested I mount the plywood against the outside wall of their trailer so I could paint it.
In time, people started to drop by to see the progress and I even had tour buses stop by. It took a while but I got it done and it was installed at the hospital. Paul Bros. Welding made the metal frame and Johnson's Lumber supplied wood and labour to build a little walkway and a bench. It really was a community effort. The mural was enjoyed there for a couple of decades and then was taken down and went into hibernation for several years while they built the brand new hospital. During that time, it had a couple of adventures but it survived.
Then suddenly last week, it was re-installed. I went to look at it and people were asking me questions when they discovered I had painted it. I realized that newcomers to the city didnSA国际影视传媒檛 know the muralSA国际影视传媒檚 history and didnSA国际影视传媒檛 get the symbolism of some of its imagery.
Why didnSA国际影视传媒檛 I sign the mural with my name? I explained that I signed my work WJH. I do that for artwork and for all the maps and drawings I have done in mineral exploration over the years. How long did it take to do? Well, it took me at least two months to paint it. The bigger the painting, the longer it takes and I tend to add a lot of details you may not see at first.
How much is it worth? I have no idea on that one. How does one put value on a rather large mural? What art style do my paintings fall under? Again, I donSA国际影视传媒檛 know. With the help of a lot of books, I taught myself how to do art and I will leave classifying it up to those who study art. After all, they are the ones who have that expertise. I just do what I do.
One question that occasionally comes up is the question of perspective. Where could they go to see the image depicted in the painting? The answer is you canSA国际影视传媒檛 find such a place physically. I visualized it in my mind to include what I wanted to capture. Call it artistic licence.
I wanted to make the painting fun, colourful and interesting. The people I painted arenSA国际影视传媒檛 based on real people but are caricatures of people from the North. Also, I painted this 30 years ago. If I were doing it today, the peopleSA国际影视传媒檚 images would change a little because the demographics of Yellowknife and the North have changed a lot. So, if you donSA国际影视传媒檛 see yourself in the painting, sorry about that, but I didnSA国际影视传媒檛 know you were moving here.
When an artist does a work of art, it is a given that some people will like it and others wonSA国际影视传媒檛. That is just the reality of art. Personally, I like art that tells a story or shows a perspective I hadnSA国际影视传媒檛 thought of. Art is meant to be seen and enjoyed. I wanted to give patients and visitors to the hospital something to look at and hopefully most will enjoy it.
Albert Einstein said that, SA国际影视传媒淭he arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.SA国际影视传媒� I certainly agree with that. Also, some say that the earth without 'art' would just be, well, eh!
And you canSA国际影视传媒檛 get much more Canadian than that, eh?
