It’s a sizable art installation, for sure, and still has a whacky name.
“It involves close to 1,000 paintings,” explained Phil Alain. “Actually, it’s over 1,000 paintings done by students from all over Alberta.”
Pubble People is the brainchild of the artistic team at Mural Mosaic, the local creative company that has had its murals travel the world. Alain is just one member of the three-person team that puts these masterpieces together on a regular basis.
This one originated at the International Children’s Festival. Over the last two festivals, Alain and his partners, Lewis Lavoie and Paul Lavoie, have had many child visitors help them with single tiles. Lewis designs them so that all of the tiles, once completed, can be arranged like a jigsaw puzzle into a larger image.
Pubble People shows a small group of children smiling and holding hands. It’s hard not to enjoy this colourful and positive image of celebration. Alain explained that “pubble” is an Irish Gaelic slang word for community and bringing people together.
That’s why it makes sense that it’s now on display at the leisure ice rink at Servus Place.
“We plan to continue adding more pubble people to the project. These kids will continue to connect in a paper doll effect.”
Those are some big dolls. Each character’s mural is 122 centimetres by 244 centimetres, so all four of them together stretch almost five metres along the wall.
He hopes that this will be an annual project that will keep adding new characters as time goes by.
“We’re just going to keep doing two more every year until the children’s festival decides not to.”
They also hope to do this project around the world as they travel with their other murals.
Lewis Lavoie said that he loves doing this project with all of the kids at the festival.
“I wish we could make a living at it. It’s a lot of fun. The kids bring a lot of energy. They’ve got this unbridled creativity and enthusiasm. I think I relate better to them than adults in the sense that I’m pretty immature,” he joked.
He added that the festival really knows how to put together a quality experience for all of its attendees.
“They do that children’s festival better than most festivals around. They make it so much fun! We take a week off work just to do this thing. It’s like a holiday for us.”
