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998 Main Street
This lovely artwork was rendered by Helenå Jaworski in 2001. Sponsorship was by Take Pride Winnipeg, Neighbourhoods Alive, City of Winnipeg and Winnipeg Foundation. By 2017 the condition of the wall had deteriorated, it was painted over and was replaced with a new installation. Original notes follow:
Helenå Jaworski: "Best Care has the best dry-cleaning around! I know Tony, the owner
and I would often bring my dry-cleaning here. He wanted a Mural, and I did some
sketches for him, one of which (this one) he accepted. In the scene, I was thinking of
how much time has changed. Things have improved from washing our laundry in a little
creek and banging them on rocks. Things are difficult back then. Now all you have to do
is go to the dry cleaner to get the job done. It's the contrast of how it was then and how it
is now. Everything was so labour-intensive back then. People didn't even have water in
their homes and they had none of our modern conveniences."
A secondary theme of this Mural is its focus on the WOMEN'S work, as opposed to the
hunting and gathering done by the men. Women actually did MOST of the work,
certainly around the homestead. The focal point of the Mural is the fancy and elaborate
hand-made quilt hanging on the line. The quilt itself represents lots of woman-
hours.
The crows are a recurring element of Helenå's: "They are lovely creatures; they're very
intelligent-I believe they're part of Winnipeg. They don't really bother you."
"The women and their decor is pretty much straight out of my imagination but quite
similar in dress to what was worn at that time. They wore long dresses and skirts with
aprons and hats for outside. I included a garden and indigenous flowers like hollyhocks
for visual interest- lots of greenery. There's a woodpecker in the top left corner and two
other birds camouflaged in front of the birch trees and bushes in the bottom right corner."
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