The Murals of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada: Murals

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472 Dufferin Avenue (1) Location Map

Establishing shot. It is extremely rare to not have any trucks in the yard at the side.

Location: SW corner, Dufferin & Powers; North and West Face

Occupant: Neptune's Fisheries

District: North End

Neighbourhood: Dufferin Industrial

Artist(s): Reid Edgeworth

Year: 1998

Reid Edgeworth: "This is my first Mural. I was really fortunate that the good people at Neptune's gave me the commission without having prior work to show them. I think they sensed that if they gave me this commission that I was dedicated to try to express what they wanted. I came in and met with the owners and did a number of colour sketches to the scale of the building and they OK'd it."

"This was my learning wall. I had not worked on such a large-scale before. All the images are centred around the fishing industry. The owners wanted to do something to brighten up the neighbourhood. I was trying to focus on communities- whether it was oceanic communities, or schools of fish and their struggles with predators and life; underwater beauty and all of this chaos going on. The community of people and their union with the underwater world was also a theme; so I wanted images of markets and of people."

"I included ocean imagery and freshwater fishing because that's what the company deals with. I wanted to include the work of commercial fishing and on the other wall the serenity of personal fishing-the human act of trying to anticipate where the fish are. The front wall is more chaotic under the ocean and the struggle. For the underwater sea life, I used several photo references."

"Part of the fun of this wall was the community aspect to it. While I was painting it, that sidewalk was essentially the backyard to a lot of the families who lived along Dufferin. Over that summer there were so many kids I got to know and they'd come out every day. I'd bring some sidewalk chalk and the kids would sketch while I was painting. That's part of what made it so enjoyable to me. I think I picked up a feeling of the community while I was there."

"I wanted the ocean scene to be surrounded by this human vignette (Photo 5). The ocean and the waters are supporting all these different families and businesses. But the whole market scene, the Mural within a Mural, was completely from my imagination without photo references of any kind. I was trying to imagine being there! For the female figure though, I had a friend stand there and model for me! The boat at the top was the Karen Kelly and was owned by the grandfather who started the business. The grandsons are now involved with the business."

"Because it's such a long wall I was trying to break it into different stories that as you walked along would change but they would all spill into each other even though they were all different worlds. On the left, for instance is a school of fish running for their lives! At the corner of the two walls is a strong visual where the boat on the smaller west wall is a pleasure boat for freshwater fishing. As you turn the corner, the same boat becomes an oceanic vessel been used for commercial purposes. Also note the use of a single downward-sloping horizontal line on the main wall which separates that which is occurring on the water surface to that which is occurring underwater."

"I like this wall for what it is; it was my first outdoor Mural, and a tremendous learning experience. Looking back on it now, it represents an earlier stage of my artistry. My style has changed and evolved a lot since then."