Picture an image of an old, rough-and-tough Sudbury nickel miner. Now, picture him (or her) 13 stories tall.
That's the scale at which internationally-renowned muralist Jarus is used to working. And the organizers of the Up Here Festival are bringing him to town this summer to paint a quintessentially Sudbury piece — a miner on the face of a building.
And they're looking for a very tall building.
Christian Pelletier, co-founder of Up Here, and Nico Glaude, the festival's murals co-ordinator, say they have two sites in mind for the piece — one big, and one, much, much bigger.
They were mum on the specifics but said it all depends on securing a partner in the mining industry to support the project. The larger the contribution, the larger the mural can potentially be.
“It's going to be a big piece, on a very grand scale,” says Pelletier. “If we can find that big partner to co-present Jarus on that scale, then we're kicking ass.”
Jarus comes from humble roots, painting train cars in his hometown of Saskatoon, Sask. (also this reporter's hometown). But, he's gone on to paint murals of increasingly bigger scale in Mexico, Denmark, Holland, and as far as Australia.
A quick scan of his work depicts quite photorealistic people, but with a unique flair.
“Jarus's work really focuses on his portraiture — there's some abstraction to it with like bright colours and weird forms,” says Glaude. “In essence, he's a storyteller. He meets people in the community and paints their portraits, whether it's in Norway or a farm down south. He really focuses on that storytelling aspect.”
And Jarus's mural up here will focus on a big part of our story — mining.
The festival received about 250 artist submissions this year. Jarus's, Pelletier says, stood out — one, because of his status in the world of public art and, more importantly, he has strong ties to Sudbury.
His mother grew up here. And his grandfather was a nickel miner here.
“He's genuinely excited to come here,” says Pelletier. “He's been wanting to come back to Sudbury for a while. His mom talks about Sudbury a lot — about growing up here and what it meant to her. It was during those formative years.”
The festival, now heading into it's third edition, takes over hot spots in the Downtown over a weekend Aug. 18-20.
The street art and music festival, known for closing down a stretch of Durham Street and laying down sod overtop the pavement, will add about 20 new pieces to a growing “urban art gallery” this year.
Creating that lasting impact is the mantra of the festival's organizers.
“Sudbury is becoming a public art destination,” says Pelletier. “When you walk around downtown on weekends now, you're seeing families with strollers walking around and they've got their phones out and they're doing a little mural tour.
“I was in a cafe last week and I overheard 'daddy, daddy, can we go see the murals?' That's shifting the way people see downtown.”
While most murals the festival commissions are based on the individual artist's perception of Sudbury, Glaude says the work Jarus will create will go deeper than that.
“He's going to paint a mural that's explicitly and specifically about Sudbury,” Glaude says. “And while he's here, he's going to take the opportunity to look into his roots a bit more, learn more about his family and where he comes from.”
While in town, Jarus will also help mentor emerging artists through the festival's outreach programming.
“He'll be able to tell these young people who maybe haven't even picked up a brush until now, 'Guys, I'm a young punk from Saskatoon who's now doing murals in Mexico, Denmark and Australia',” says Pelletier.
Jarus's mining-inspired piece will of course be just one of the many projects aimed to “animate” the Downtown, both during the festival and once everything is packed up and the artists have moved on.
It's all about growing the urban art gallery that Sudbury is becoming more and more each time the Up Here Festival rolls around.
For more information on this year's festival, visit uphere.com.
