The Five Pillars
District at Beltline
Celebrating community and culture
Early last year, I was contacted by Art to Public and was told that I was selected as the artist to produce a new public art installation in Calgary. This art installation was to be featured on five massive murals spread across various buildings located in the heart of the beltline district. Better known today as The District at Beltline. I’m happy to finally share the result of this amazing project that took over a year to accomplish and most certainly marked one the greatest logistic undertakings of my career. This project was different in so many ways, but mainly because of the freedom I was given when creating the design. It’s not everyday that you are tasked with covering such a large portion of a site, drastically changing the landscape of an area and having the complete trust of the promoters to create the art. In the end, the final artwork was the result of an inspirational study into the community and culture surrounding the site. Much of this inspiration had been collected over the last three years while I produced various works in Calgary especially in the beltline area.
“It was peaceful painting a 100ft in the air, while the whole city was asleep during covid and witnessing these massive pillars of color starting to creep over the skyline”
DESIGN
The base design was created on a monochromatic grey background to blend with the preexisting color and aesthetic of the buildings. I then wrapped each individual pillar with shapes and ribbons to accentuate their height and create colorful reflections against the glass windows surrounding them. Each pillar is located at a different entrance point and serves as a beacon to better identify where you are on the property. As I started to weave in elements to the design, I made sure that each pillar had a unique theme and dominant colour palette to accentuate these different access points all while keeping a harmonized style across the five structures.Some of the themes I chose were specific to the location as for others a bit broader but mainly recognizable by Calgarians. Alberta’s unique climate and wildlife, It’s rich flora and agricultural heritage, The Beltline’s ever-growing community and local business development, the neighbourhood landmarks and even values of courage and curiosity are just some of the ideas explored in this project. The rest of the images and hidden gems tucked into the design allow viewers to rediscover the pieces each time they revisit the site.
PRODUCTION
One of the big challenges we faced was figuring out the logistics of producing these complex pieces on site. The location was a fully active construction site and the pieces had to be created in sync with all the major renovations happening to the building. We split up in teams tackling different parts of the pillars across the property gaining more and more access and height each day. We had lots of hard and long days and it was challenging to keep the morale up especially when we were painting during November in full winter gear. But in the end, with the collaboration of CANA’s construction crew and the resilience of all the amazing artists that help with the project, not only did we manage to coordinate a beautiful game of musical chairs between the different trades and artists on site, conquering more than 16 000 sq ft of mural design over the course of 10 cumulative weeks but did all of this safely in the midst of a global pandemic.
Full album of production and final shots
Project location: 11th and 12th Avenue SW, off of 2nd street SW
I want to take the time to thank from the bottom of my heart everyone who contributed to this project and helped me accomplish one of the greatest undertakings of my career. Starting with Art to public who nominated me for this project and Spearstreertcapital for choosing me and trusting me with this task, CANA construction for having us on their site, Loop colours Canada & Sherwin Williams for the massive paint supply, Ashop for producing, DDG.TV for filming the adventure and most of all FIVE8, Alex Kwong, Serak, Earth Crusher, Fleo, Toner and Haks for not only assisting with the mural work but for also sharing an unforgettable experience with me that definitely made the books.
