Part of the Memorial Sports Centre will be brightened up with art created by local youths after town council agreed Monday night to allow a mural to be installed on the wall in the ’52 Canadians Arena, by the doorway to the Ice For Kids Arena. The mural was designed and completed by a group of 11- to 13-year-olds, under the tutelage of local artist Lindsay Hamilton, during a Confederation College art program here earlier this summer.

Hamilton appeared before council Monday night to ask if the mural could be installed at a community space, such as the arena. “I’m super happy, very, very proud and excited to share it with the community,” Hamilton said in an interview yesterday. The 18 ft. x 8.5 ft. mural was done with acrylic paint on wood panel. It is semi-permanent, meaning it will stay up at the arena as long as the town wishes. Hamilton will be installing the mural herself at the arena. She hopes to do it by the end of September or early October, after which time there will be an unveiling.
The mural, entitled “Timmy’s World,” was created by Harvey Revus, Chase Badiuk, Cameron Cawston, Julia Cawston, Jordyn Ahrens, Jada Eide, Kennedi Handberg, Emma Smith, and Max Sovereign.
Hamilton told council the project began by asking the youth to contemplate “Transition, Metamorphosis, and Transformation.” And they rose to the challenge, developing “thoughtful concepts” into sketches and colleges relating to their own experience of this theme. They drew from nature, the environment, the every-day, individual imagination, and their own personal understanding, then composed and articulated from their sketches into “Timmy’s World,” she noted. The mural depicts a fantastic landscape which hosts many allegorical figures and objects: a tree in the transition of burning down, an hour glass which spills sand through a crack, a large toad, an array of butterflies, a pile of decorated eggs juxtaposed by a pile of human bones, a giant sky god (“Timmy”), and many representations of the sun and moon in their various phases. “The landscape is vertically framed by a representation of film strips portraying images of the every-day,” Hamilton said. “These images together represent the two universes which exist in the mural: fantasy and reality,” she explained.

A written explanation of the project will be displayed near the mural so the public will be able to learn its background.
Coun. Andrew Hallikas congratulated Hamilton and the youth involved on completing the ambitious project, adding he felt there needs to more colourful art installed around town for the community to enjoy.
He added he’s excited about the possibility of more such projects here in the future.
Coun. Rick Wiedenhoeft said he was very impressed with the artistic value of the project, adding, “It blew my mind.”
Hamilton said she plans to do more murals in the future.
“Ideally, I would like it to be an annual project,” she remarked. “Confederation College has already agreed to that.
“It’s just a matter of having to go in front of council every time to show them the mural, which is fine.
“It totally makes sense because you never know what you’re going to get,” she conceded.

Hamilton also said it’s possible mural workshops might happen on a semi-annual basis, and not necessarily be just for youth.“The idea is to get as many people involved in making communal murals as possible,” she noted.
“It will be at least an annual thing for kids ages 11-13, but I might branch out and see who else you can try and do the same process with. “It’s a very collaborative thing,” Hamilton stressed. “We did brainstorming sessions, and those brainstorming sessions turned into sketches, which turned into images that became the mural.
“That whole process, I would like to apply with different types of communities within our community.”
This could mean working with seniors, Community Living Fort Frances and District, the local Canadian Mental Health Association branch, Seven Generations, and others to create new murals with different perspectives.
“It doesn’t have to be kids, although they are pretty fun to work with,” Hamilton said.