Towering public tribute to Audrey Hepburn looks to uplift city with 'depth and beauty'
CBC
A Windsor, Ont., graffiti artist whose work has been featured prominently on streetscapes in some of the most fascinating cities in the world is tackling his most ambitious project yet — a 25 metre tall mural on a former train bridge in St. Thomas.
Daniel Bombardier, who also goes by the name Denial, is no stranger in being commissioned to make public art in towns with rich industrial history.
"It's ripe for the picking," he said of cities like St. Thomas that have a post-industrial landscape. "You find lots of these blank canvasses in those areas."
As a city that's seen two industrial heydays come and go (first the railroad, then auto manufacturing), St. Thomas has a lot to work with in terms of canvasses. It's why Bombardier is one among a dozen artists commissioned by the city for the ongoing Track the Future mural project, one that he hopes will add "depth and beauty" to help uplift the community.
"People are recognizing how powerful it is because that's what the energy of young people and creativity is, it's very, very powerful. To be able to do that and make a living from that is a beautiful marriage, in my opinion."
Bombardier's mural will be part of the St. Thomas Elevated Park. Now part of the Trans Canada Trail, the park was once the Western Michigan Central Railroad Kettle Creek Bridge, which has towered almost 30 metres over the western edge of the city like a Goliath since 1929.
One of its most prominent pillars has become Bombardier's canvas — the biggest he's ever worked with. So far he's used 30 gallons of paint to prime and add background colour to the work and expects to go through 300 cans of spray paint by the time the mural is complete.
"I have about 100 left to go," he said, adding it will take another five gallons of a special clear coat to help weather proof the mural, so that it lasts another 25 years.
"It should be here 25 to 50 years and we can always come back and touch it up too."