It's easy to wander around the city and see murals standing tall. Up close, intricate details can be lines the size of a person and questions of how these things actually get made often far from thought.
The Vancouver Mural Festival offers a chance to shed some light on how blank walls become showcases for talented local creators. For anyone who's seen an artist on a lift, or taken the time to stop by and talk, the festival offers many opportunities to watch and learn about how the art that makes our city beautiful takes shape.
"Reclaimed," by Carole Mathys confidently weaves a story of humanity's relationship with nature by layering earth toned anatomy and vibrant plant leaves over a soft pink background. The mural is expressive and looks as if it could have been done by someone who has painted many murals. Which is why it came as a surprise to find that this was the first piece at this size she had painted.
Carole opened up about what it was actually like to create this piece and some of the challenges of trying to get a mural of this scale done in a short period of time. In many ways, her work shows the value of the Vancouver Mural Festival in helping talented artists take their perspective to a larger public medium. After all, everyone has to start somewhere.
You can find new Carole on Instagram @carole_mathys_art or her website at www.carolemathys.com
Tell us a bit about yourself, your background and what you usually do when you're not painting murals?
I am a Vancouver based artist with a background in figurative oil painting. I graduated from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2009.
When I'm not painting murals, you can find me painting at home or in the studio, or working my day job.
You mentioned that this was your first time painting a mural. What was that like? Will you pursue it in the future?
What an honour to work alongside so many incredibly talented people with this year's Vancouver Mural Fest.
I first got the news at the end of March. Most everything was on lock down and I wasn't working at the time, so I was really grateful for some good news, and a new project to work on.
To be honest, as exciting as it all was, the closer I arrived to the actual start date, the more daunting it became. I had never painted on this scale before, and had little experience with acrylics, and even less experience painting on not-so-smooth surfaces.
But, I had such kind and constant support from the VMF team, and overall it was a very valuable learning experience. I really enjoyed getting the chance to speak with interested passersby, discussing the theme and the process of it all. It was such a nice way to connect with the community.
Your work included underpainting of various symbols, can you speak to what that was and how it helped you paint your work?
The underpainting of symbols is a technique used to scale up the work. Most often referred to as a Doodle Grid or Scribble Grid.
There are various methods used to scale up your work. A lot of people use projectors, which is great if you have a source of power and can work at night. Some will use a more traditional grid with measured squares.
I wanted to try the doodle grid mainly because I had never tried it, and it's a good skill to have depending on where you're working and what resources are available to you.
Essentially, once your wall is primed and ready to start painting, you draw doodles on it where your design will be. Once finished, you take a photo of the wall. Using photoshop or some similar program, you overlay your design on this photo so that you can see both the doodles and your design. This allows you to use the doodles as reference points to draw your design directly on the wall.
What was something unexpected about working at this scale?
I was definitely a little naive about the time it would take to complete this project. I began completely confident that I could create this piece, start to finish, on my own, in ten days.
It took me a little longer than I'd like to admit, to realize that I was going to need a bit of help. Lucky for me, there were many lovely people that gladly offered their time and assistance. I'm honestly not sure how I would have finished without them.
Not quite the ten days I had planned, but fifteen isn't bad, right?
Your work seemed to emphasize humanity’s relationship with nature. Where does that come from?
In my current work, I explore relationships between the mind and body. So when I heard the theme for this year's Mural Fest was climate change, it seemed logical to continue this exploration of connection, or lack thereof, but in relation to humanity and nature.
Humanity's disconnect from nature is a huge factor of climate change. But what I also wanted to portray was nature's resilience and ability to strive and grow with or without us.
What are you working on next?
No solid plans at the moment. Looking forward to getting back in the studio after a little bit of a break and lining up a few projects for the near future.
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