Fernie will be getting an all-new mural, with a new piece, ‘Grow with the Flow’ to be painted on to the wall facing the Arts Station building this August.
Fernie artists Tara Higgins and Becca Davies are the creative minds behind the new art, and designed the mural to fit with a theme of community and public space.
“We started with the river flowing and the community, and all of the iconic symbols of Fernie,” said Tara Higgins.
“We played with shape and flow and colour, and built up from there. Once we got an idea of what we liked … we started moving things around and honing the shapes and building it, making sure we had good patterns to repeat that weren’t too busy, but made it vibrant and alive.”
With bright yellows and blues, the new mural will adorn the back of the building housing GPI and Freya on 2nd Avenue, bringing a whole lot of colour to an otherwise featureless grey wall.
The mural will be easily visible from the Arts Station and Station Square, making it a welcome backdrop to events over the summer months in that space.
“It’ll bring some life and joy to the back alleys which are a bit neglected a run down at the moment,” said Higgins.
Louise Ferguson of the Arts Station said that the new mural design was selected based on community feedback on what Station Square meant to them. “It was all very community minded,” she said.
Funded through a grant from the Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance, it is the second mural to go up in Fernie in recent years, following the piece by Michael Hepher, ‘All Kinds of Beauty’ on 7th St.
Work on the new mural wont start until August, but the base later will be going up in early July, making it ready for Higgins and Davis to get to work.
The mural will be painted through summer, with a final unveiling and celebration on August 31st, at the same time as the unveiling of the completed dumpsters at the final Wednesday Social for the year.
“There’ll be lots of art going on that day,” said Ferguson.
READ MORE: Dumpster art to make a return to Fernie
scott.tibballs@thefreepress.ca
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