It was the fertile imagination of artist
Lewis Lavoie of St. Albert, Alberta that conceived of the concept of
Mural Mosaics. The process involves arranging smaller paintings, each by a different artist, into a larger mural with a specific theme. The result is absolutely stunning. See a more complete explanation of the process below.
The first Mural Mosaic we viewed was entitled
Buffalo Twins and was a huge outdoor mural on an
outside back wall of the Vic Juba Community Theatre at Lakeland College in Lloydminster, Alberta. That one was composed of 336 individual paintings. This mural mosaic, being inside, is somewhat smaller and is entitled
Trust, created with 216 paintings. This is another of those
MUST SEE items that one should not miss when in the Cochrane area.
Lavoie did his first mural mosaic,
Michaelangelo's David in 1997, an individual project for which he created each painting himself. The next came in 2004,
The Heritage Fiddler, this one a community project involving 70 artists. To date Lavoie and his support team have created something like two dozen mural mosaics, now arrayed throughout North America, the majority being situated in Alberta. Prints of many of the mural mosaics are
still available, though many have sold out.
The Mural Mosaic
Mural Mosaic is a process invented by artist Lewis Lavoie that takes individual paintings and places them in a specific order to create a large painting. The first Mural Mosaic was created in 1997 for a retaining wall next to an art gallery in St. Albert, Alberta, Canada. Five years later, in 2004, Lavoie took his process and involve other artists. During a 24-hour "paint-a-thon" to raise money for a local charity, Lavoie pre-prepared panels with color tones and shapes, then using the color guidelines on the prepared panels as inspiration, artists created a painting using their own style. When all the panels were reunited, the final image was a success.
see history timeline click here
Lavoie and his partners Phil Alain and Paul Lavoie began the Mural Mosaic journey to bring communities together using their murals as examples of "Unity through Diversity". This is represented by bringing the uniqueness of individual creative styles together on numerous panels to create one united image. The most unique aspect of this artistic process is that artists are given an individual panel with the freedom to paint what they want within the "theme" of the mural subject, however, the final image created by Lavoie is kept secret until mural unveiling.
About artist Lewis Lavoie and his team
Click here to see all participating artists
From Mural Mosaic