Tell us the story behind the mural.
The mural is in-between Saint Francis de Sales and Island Bay School and they share a walkway, so Council set up workshops with each school to find out what the students wanted to see. I love teaching and have done a few workshops with kids, so it was great to share and hear their ideas.
I told them that when I come up with my own work, I like to just draw and see what comes out of it, but also have a big white board session where we just come up with a big word cloud.
We talked about what Island Bay means to them, what they see in the suburb and on their way to and from school. In the end I had this insane word cloud from the two schools, plus a stack of all the fun drawings we did together.
From there, I interpreted their ideas and made them come to life. We got a whole lot of chat about dog poo and ice-creams, so that’s why there’s a massive pink poo on the mural and ice-creams throughout.
Another key thing was capturing the vibe of the community, and I was luckily able to use the Island Bay Community Centre as a place to rest and have my lunch while I worked. It was a great way to get a feel for the awesome people who live there!
In the end, this mural took close to three weeks to paint. The focus was on the ends, but with the help of some awesome assistants I ended up getting all 99 metres painted– it was a lot!