The Murals of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada: Murals

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466 Gertrude Avenue Location Map

This wall was completed by Block Parent and two brothers (Alfredo & Andreas Aguilar) who worked for them through the Urban Green Team in the summer of 2005. The total 'budget' for this completed wall was under $500.

Location: S side bet. Osborne & Nassau; East Face

Occupant: Block Parent Program of Winnipeg Inc.

District: Fort Rouge

Neighbourhood: McMillan

Artist(s): Alfredo Aguilar, Andreas Aguilar

Year: 2005

Painters: J. Holm, George Jarvis, M. Jarvis, T. McKay, R. Phangureh, T. Resendes

George Jarvis (Volunteer President, Block Parent Program of Winnipeg): "We were having a graffiti problem. And you have to clean off the graffiti as soon as it shows up, and it was happening repeatedly. Our volunteer board has long been interested in putting up a Mural. There's just been one problem- the cost to do so. Not so much for the materials, but the cost of hiring an experienced artist. The cost was always the stumbling block."

"We were very fortunate to have two workers who were brothers from the Urban Green Team this past summer. They started working for us around the end of May. Shortly after they started, we found out they were artistic! They were very interested in helping us with our Mural idea in addition to their other duties. So for the next three months they designed and rendered the Mural, with the help of volunteers from the Block Parent Program."

Geri Jarvis (Office Manager, Block Parent): "They designed it themselves. I told them what we would like to see. We wanted the focus to be on Trusty (the Block Parent mascot). And we wanted it as a community setting with kids, a playground, fun activities, a street and a house- we had to have a house for the Block Parent sign because that's what it's all about. From that they designed a scene (see photo 2) and kept checking back with us- 'is this what you want'; and then we kept expanding the scene. His rendition of Trusty was just fantastic. We had to get permission from the City, too, as this was their building."

George: "Even after they used up their 150 hours of employment, they came back a few times and volunteered their time to help us finish the Mural. We didn't know very much about Murals and how they were done. Rather than projecting our images onto the wall, which hadn't occurred to us, all of this was done freehand. As the work was progressing, a lot of the neighbours gave us a lot of 'free advice' (chuckles). The parents of the kids would offer all kinds of suggestions as to what to include on the wall."

Geri: "The duck pond, we hadn't planned on. It was one of the good suggestions. We also made the house looked more 'lived in' than the sketch; opening up the curtains, with a couch in the window, a lamp and someone reading the paper. That's how the bald- headed man came into it, and the cat in the window. Then we thought if we have a cat then we must also have a dog in the scene."

George: "As we were doing it, we realized we had too many 'white' kids in the scene; so we purposely put extra figures in there to make it as multi-cultural as possible, because that's exactly what the neighbourhood is like around here."

"The car on the right was designed in the sketch to be a Cadillac; but on the wall it ended up shorter in height and wider, looking more like a Hummer! We used 'BP' as the license plate, meaning Block Parents. But the whole experience was worth it, and a lot of fun."