By Vanessa Lovell
The wonderful thing about art is that there is no one way of making it! MASC and the Lowertown Community Resource Centre (LCRC) have collaborated over the years to bring various artists to the Lowertown community to share their love of art. Though the art of getting together has its challenges these days, the importance of community building has not been forgotten.
This month, MASC artist Mélodie Coutou, also known as La Ressourcière, led a series of online art workshops to create a collaborative Recycled Art Mural with 15 different individuals and families in Lowertown. Participants met with Mélodie on Zoom multiple times throughout the week as she demonstrated how to work from the kit of art materials she provided them with.
Mélodie’s artistic style demonstrates a strong relationship with nature and the environment. As an ecological artist passionate about the environment and social action, she uses obsolete and discarded objects in her installations and sculptures. By highlighting the relationship between causes and effects of natural-resource exploitation, she draws attention to the impact of humans on biodiversity and ecosystems.
This interactive series focused on recycling not only brought members of the community together, but it also offered participants an opportunity to understand artmaking in a different way. Using various recycled materials, like wooden panels and corks, the participants all worked from their homes on their own portion of the mural, which will resemble the tree in the LCRC logo when Mélodie puts all the pieces together. The mural will soon be mounted in the community for everyone to see!
Vanessa Lovell is an intern at MASC