Caffeine 'n' Diesel
Sometimes a project comes along that is so special
that it doesn't fit into any other category,
and these are them!
In 2015, the Canada Mosaic Mural project was launched to celebrate Canada's 150th birthday. 150 murals were created in communities across Canada and volunteers each painted one small tile to be placed in their town's mural.
This was my contribution to Airdrie's mural which can be seen in Nose Creek Park.
The whole mural project can be found at
Canada Mosaic Mural project
In 2018, I was lucky enough to be involved in a community bench project in Airdrie. A local church group built 30 park benches, and Airdrie Paint and Decor donated the paint.
All participating artists had free reign on what they wanted to paint on their benches and the variety and beauty when they were done was a sight to behold!
My bench was called Canada in Postage Stamps and it was one of the most enjoyable paintings/projects I've ever done.
You can see my bench upstairs at the entrance to the gym at Genesis Place in Airdrie. The other 29 benches are scattered around the town, some indoors and some outdoors, and all a beautiful addition to our beautiful community.
Thank you, City of Airdrie, for your help in making this project a reality!
If You Dream It
16x20 mixed media
A friend of ours ran in the 2018 Boston Marathon as a charity runner supporting the National Braille Press. I did this painting for her to help her fundraising efforts.
It is based on a photo that Wayne took himself as he came down to the finish line at the 2017 Boston Marathon. There are two special things happening in this painting. The first one is this: if you look in the bottom right hand corner, you'll see a depiction of blind runner and her guide. Visually impaired athletes are tethered to their guides so that they stay close to them and also to keep people from running in between them.The second special thing in the painting is seen just to the left of the blue lines and looks like something pebbly. It's an actual Braille sticker that reads as follows:
"Greatness is achieved, not only by what a person accomplishes, but often, more accurately measured by what that person overcomes in order to accomplish it."
In addition to choosing that quote and getting the Braille dots for me, our friend also wanted this quote attached to the back of the painting:
"I ran the Boston Marathon out of love. I believe that love is the basis of all meaningful human endeavor. Yet it was a love that was incomplete until it was shared with others." - Bobbi Gibb
(In 1966, Bobbi Gibb became the first woman to ever run the entire Boston Marathon. She became an advocate for female runners and was instrumental in getting women marathoners into Olympic competitions.)
This little cedar patio table was created as part of a fundraiser for the Airdrie Food Bank one Christmas through the Airdrie Art Society in 2016.
I'd never done pyrography before but it seemed like a good idea for this project, so I dove in with both feet. Once the ideas came together, the designs were burned into the cedar and then different colours of wood stain were applied.
Ready
4x4.7 acrylic
Ready was part of an international project by Imago Mundi called Oh West Canada. It took place in 2015, and 238 artworks were chosen from contemporary artists in Western Canada. They are now housed permanently in a museum collection in Italy.
Artists were asked to produce a tiny piece of
art that reflected western Canada. I chose the cowboy theme of Alberta and put our family's brand very faintly on the upper right piece of leather.
Photo credit:
Kathy Kethmark
Painted on rough canvas
My daughter and I are trail runners and our most favourite race of all is Sinister 7, held every July in Blairmore, Alberta.
Our team name is Eating Crow. I painted flags to mark our camping areas, vehicles, and our group's location at transition areas while we waited for our relay runners to come in.
The logo was designed by Juxtaposition Designs of Airdrie.
