|
|
|
|
|
|
Atb.jpg)
|
|
Lagimodiere Boulevard & Regent Avenue West
Location Map
Believed to be the largest fixed Canadian Flag in the world. Photo courtesy of John Robertson.
|
Location: mural is on ROOF, visible from Lagimodiere overpass, SW side bet. Lagimodiere and Panet
Occupant: Canford Sports
District: St. Boniface
Neighbourhood: Tyne-Tees
Artist(s): Mike Valcourt
Year: 1998
Sponsors: Take Pride Winnipeg!
Painters: Assisted by John Robertson (Founder of Canford Sports)
|
|
|
Mike Valcourt: "One of my visitors when I was working on the Mural at Roxy Lanes
(385 Henderson Highway) wanted my help in painting the world's largest rooftop
Canadian flag! That intrigued me. This was for Canford Sports; they run a lot of casual sport programs for
youths, adults, and families in sports like sand volleyball , touch
football, and spongee! It's on top of the former agricultural admin building that
was donated to them.
I went down and he did up a design for me.
He measured it all out and I want up onto the roof and masked out (with masking tape)
the entire design of the Canadian flag. It's a corrugated roof, every 12 inches; and it's dimensions are 36 feet by 72 feet.
And of course that was one of the hottest summers we had. I cooked up
there, I was like an egg. I burned myself on that corrugated roof so many times. I'd put
my elbow down to get leverage and burn it. I burned my toes, hands, everything! John
Robertson (of Canford Sports) and his sons helped me up on the roof. It took about two
weeks."
"I painted it with one coat of galvanized metal primer, and then I painted the white (also
with galvanized metal paint). It's very expensive stuff and I got in those big 5-gallon
drums. That paint isn't good to get on you because it's very hard to get off. Even rolling
it was hard because you had to get an eight-inch brush to fit between the corrugations. It
took a really long time to do. The red needed two coats-it must have been $2000 worth of
paint in all. The hardest part was doing the flag and getting the exact dimensions. I drew
it all out first in pencil, and that I went back over it with the masking tape where the
pencil marks were. That was difficult because it wasn't a flat surface and every time you
go over a bump the angle of the line changes for the bump. Taping it off was long and
laborious, but I'm pleased with the result."
"That's a Manitoba logo (photo 4) that I took off a Manitoba Highways and
Transportation envelope. The sides of that were my own design; the fence with the
wheat. The other one (Photo 3) is the coat of arms of the city of Winnipeg."
For more information on the worthwhile efforts of Canford Sports, visit their website at
http://www.canfordsports.ca/
|
|
