December 14, 2022
The mural is currently located at the Coquitlam Public Library in the teen space at the Pinetree Location
The youth committee began meeting in December 2019. With multiple members on the team, deciding on which type of project we wanted to do was initially challenging, as many amazing options from events and art pieces to technological projects were presented. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, our ideas were changes and narrowed to allow for safety, including meeting only on ZOOM. We decided that bringing awareness to the Tri-Cities through visual art, as well as connecting the community to resources via QR code would be an engaging project at this time. After deciding on a mural for our project, we wanted to paint a permanent mural on city walls. The opioid crisis is a major health emergency, and is still as prominent as it was the last few years. This crisis needs full awareness from the community, as changes need to be made to save lives. We hoped that a visual art piece would spark conversation, and would provoke an “I hadn’t thought of that” moment. We met with a local Indigenous artist Christine Mackenzie, who took time to hear about our vision, mission and values and agreed to work alongside us to action our art piece. Through ZOOM meetings, the group discussed themes of community, connection, anti-stigma, wellness, growth and re-growth, mental health, and support. The group discussed shapes, colours, designs, and images to support the desired meaning. Members of the committee submitted designs and ideas to each other and Christine. Christine presented the designs and the group narrowed down the designs that best represented their interest.
We were unable to find public or private property to paint on during our timeline, and came up with a “portable” mural idea. This allows us to bring our art piece to any events that are being held in the city, or any events that TCCAT holds. Having a “portable” mural may increase the amount of people that view the piece, as it will be able to be in different locations that have larger crowds.
We wanted an engaging piece that captured audiences of all ages and was visually appealing and intriguing. In addition to choosing symbolic elements that represent our mission and vision statements, we hid small images and words to make it engaging for all ages to try to “seek and find” certain elements of the piece. Having a “seek and find” element also captures the audience’s attention for longer, hopefully increasing the chance of interest in the learning more about mental health, substance use, the overdose crisis and reflecting on their own relationship to community and others.
We are so excited to show off our art piece and see it displayed within the community. We hope that the piece will spark conversation, encourage reflection, and connect persons to resources via the QR code. While a portable mural was decided to be a great idea at this point in our journey, some members still aspire to have a permanent mural in place on city or business property one day.