News Archives: GPRC art students bring mural to life at seniors' residence
Friday, November 1st, 2019
GPRC Fine Arts students Brianna Strickland and Dominique Berger in the beginning stages of their mural painting at the Grande Prairie Care Centre.
A larger-than-life art mural, hand-painted by two GPRC students over the summer, is bringing smiles to faces at the Grande Prairie Care Centre.
It was a labour of love for fine arts students Brianna Strickland and Dominique Berger, who volunteered to use their talents towards the project. In addition to being aesthetically beautiful, the six feet wide by four feet tall image of chickadees perching on a tree branch is interactive, allowing residents to change its appearance with the seasons by using magnets. This feature is particularly important for residents of the dementia ward where the mural is featured, says recreation department manager and certified music therapist Kelsi McInnes.
“It may sound like such a simple thing, but the ability to place leaves on the branches allows residents to make choices in a setting where a lot of times their choices can be somewhat limited,” says McInnes, who is also a GPRC alumna. “One of the most important things for people living with dementia is to give them a sense of purpose and to increase their stimulation, whether in the form of human interaction with community members, visual stimuli or music.
“Our goal with the art mural was to provide something familiar that could spark a memory or conversation they could share, that was also beautiful to look at. When you enjoy something aesthetically, it creates positive endorphins in your body which can in turn release tension and anxiety.”
Strickland and Berger began the process by applying several coats of magnetic black paint to a wall that was originally a creamy white colour. While this raised eyebrows at first, residents soon warmed up to it as the students then painted over it with separate layers of blue for the sky, labouring over each small detail to make it look as realistic as possible and designing wooden magnets of coloured leaves and acorns for the fall, snowflakes for the winter and flowers for the spring.
“When we first started adding the black paint, people were asking, ‘Are you going to clean that up?’” says Strickland, 19, a second-year music and education student at the College. “People were really hesitant, but we put a lot of thought into how we could make this different.”
It paid off in spades, says her fellow muralist. “When everything came together at the end, and especially after we added the chickadees, we got loads of compliments,” says Berger, 20, who graduated earlier this year with a diploma in visual arts and design.
“Having something indoors that changes with the seasons outside really felt more natural and homey. One lady said that having it come to life in front of her eyes was just like magic to watch.”