Artists Create Fun Murals at Galleria Shops

Artists Create Fun Murals at Galleria Shops

Rosanne Fortier - News Correspondent

Jordan Ernst is the Lead Artist for Graffitisalad where he helped make a mural at Galleria Mall.

When asked when he began doing artwork, Jordan replied, “I started doing graffiti professionally in 2017. I have been doing graffiti since 2006.

As a youth in Saskatoon, I grew up doing graffiti illegally and I was in and out of jail because of this. When I turned 18, I stopped doing graffiti illegally and I focused on finishing high school and then I got into graffiti more as an art form in my adult years.

Now what I do with my company is I am focusing on helping youth that have been incarcerated and who come from troubled homes, (at risk youths) by teaching them by example of where I came from and how I turned my life around. I am trying to make something positive come out of my past.

The painting on Hott Boxx mainly painted by James Greenaway.

(Rosanne Fortier/Photo)

As for the artwork that is on the wall at Galleria Mall, it has been done by one of my mentees James Greenaway who is the one who painted the wall. I just painted the bricks and coached him through it. He did all the artwork of the pig holding the burger.

The process of making a mural is a lot of work as there is a lot of preplanning and drawing, as well as, gathering all the materials which can be time consuming. Then when you are working on it you never know if it will be a super warm day or a windy day.

As for creating the artwork on the wall, it is super fun as it drowns out my thoughts and helps me stay focus and in the present moment. So, I use it as a form of mediation and I am sure a lot of artists also do this.

I am hoping for myself with the other artists to be done the artwork on the walls outside of Hott Boxx, Fire and Flower, Pet Value and Farm Credit Canada by May 26.

James Greenaway, who created the mural on Hott Boxx, said he has pretty much been doing artwork his whole life. I started doing art with crayons. I took it at Vegreville Composite High School in 2005. Now I live in Edmonton. I started painting this mural on April 26.

I like to do this type of work because I am a tattoo artist by trade and have been tattooing for about 12 years. I do work in a lot of different mediums. This is the first major public mural I created. Making a mural is a lot of fun because I enjoyed people popping by while I was creating it and asking me questions about it.

What I want people to take away when they see it is I want them to have fun; everything in life is so serious. I like to make people smile and laugh. The new burger place asked for a mural which was burger related so I drew up a happy piggy eating a burger. There is no hidden meaning in it.”

Branden Cha from Edmonton who artist’s name is Busyrawk expressed that he has been painting murals since last year. “I am an emerging artist. So, Jordan was good to take me under his wings and show me a few things. To be able to work on different approaches in art is a big thing for me.”

Tyler McGinnis mentioned that he has been painting professionally for about a month. “But I have been creating artwork my whole life since I was about two-years-old. I like doing this because I get to do what I love for work and it is not even work as I get to come over here and have a lot of fun.”