Muralist Mique Michelle said she grew up about 45 minutes from Sudbury in Field, Ont. with “a river in my front lawn and a lake on my back lawn” — specifically the Sturgeon River and Muskasung Lake.
Given her deep connection to these two bodies of water, it doesn't seem unusual she chose the great blue heron — a large water bird common in these parts — as the subject of a mural she's painted on Ste. Anne Road.
Because the bird is depicted in flight, with its neck stretched out, the mural fits well on the long, skinny surface.
“I was flying over Mexico last year, and there was no lakes,” said Michelle, who now lives in Vanier near Ottawa, and travels the country, creating public art. “We are so privileged. Just in Sudbury there are (more than|) 200-something lakes.”
The subject also fits well with how Michelle, a non-status Métis, thinks we should celebrate Canada in 2017, the 150th anniversary of confederation.
In her mind, we should celebrate “all the mountains, the animals, everything that we have that's already been here,” and perhaps not the political stuff.
Michelle is one of two muralists participating in the third edition of the Up Here Urban Art and Music Festival, which runs Aug. 18-20.
The other muralist, Toronto artist Jarus, is painting a portrait of a miner at the corner of Lisgar and Larch streets as an homage to his grandfather, who was a Sudbury miner.
Michelle, who calls herself a graffiti artist, works with spray paint. She emphasizes the difference between graffiti and vandalism — the latter is done illegally, and without permission.
The space she used for the Up Here piece has also featured several previous murals. That's all part of the medium, Michelle said.
The previous mural on Ste. Anne, applied in a kind of "wallpapering" technique, has been scraped off to make way for Michelle's new piece, which is sponsored by Collége Borèal.
Public art is “effemeral,” she said. “It's always ever-changing, depending on what the community has to say or what they want. If you always keep the same murals, then you're not really listening to your community.”
Sudbury.com wants to know: Which Up Here mural is your favourite?
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