Women of colour celebrated in International Village mural
A mystical" Black woman, surrounded by leaves, a blue sky and stars. On the corner of King Street East and Ferguson Avenue North at Theatre Aquarius, local artist stylo starr is one of the four artists displaying her work.
The mural Sanctuary" shows esoteric elements the artist associates with the idea of a safe space.
Described by starr as a very calming and enticing image," she is excited to have people see it. It's such a beautiful piece that I feel really connected to, and I think it feels like it should have a home in public, downtown."
The artist, who generally works with paper, said the mural is the biggest piece she has ever completed in her career, but also the most challenging one.
It's a really cool experimentation and learning process with new medium and how collage can live on things that aren't necessarily paper," starr said.
Besides learning how to develop a large-scale piece, starr also had to figure out how to display her paper collages on a metal panel.
They had a call for submissions this summer and I just took a leap of faith. I really didn't know how I was going to go about doing the project. It's been a lot of trial and error because my initial idea was to complete it as a paper collage on a mass scale. Literally pasting paper to the wall with very hard drying glue."
Starr said using paper collage wasn't a possibility due to the size of the mural. And then the BIA delivered the actual (metal) panels they wanted me to work on, that threw another wrench in the hole for me."
Then, the artist bumped into another problem.
I was going to collage right onto those panels, but I was noticing that because it's aluminum (the panels) and it's going to be outdoors, there are different factors I have to be mindful of if I'm working with paper," starr said.
The panels were enough to make the artist consider walking away from the project entirely. I was actually going to give up and rescind everything."
After a heart to heart with her art big brother," Leon Eklipz Robinson, a multidisciplinary artist and founder of Concrete Canvas," an outdoor art festival in Hamilton, starr was advised to leave the paper collage aside and change to digital collage, which came easily since she also creates in Photoshop.
Eklipz connected starr to Category 5, a Burlington printing service which prints on metal. It's collage, just not on paper. Once it's completed on the computer it's just a matter of printing out that whole image together and that can technically be printed in any medium."
Starr said the metal panelsfurther immortalize her work in a physical medium, making it more permanent than paper.
This piece stands alone as a very esthetic one but the artist statement I have attached for this mural is talking about mental health in the Black community, especially in Canada."
Next to starr's mural there is a poem and her artist statement.
Now is the time, to soften/ Now is the time, for deep breaths/ Now is the time, to plant the seeds of sanctuary/ Now is the time, for care./ Now, is the time. - Looking to social media, we see a collective desire for rest, for tenderness. Untitled (Sanctuary) speaks to creating a sacred refuge in a world committed to harming us. Now is the time to come home to ourselves."
Beatriz Baleeiro is a reporter at The Spectator.bbaleeiro@torstar.ca
A World of Welcome
A World of Welcome" features murals created by: Amani Muhammad Ruiz and Robyn Lightwalker located on 245 King St. E.; Leila Partovi and Tania Sedighi as Olka Art Collective on 197 King William St.; stylo starr on 190 King William St. and Kate Szabo on 215 King St. E.