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"A community project in City Park is turning an eyesore into art this summer.
The grey concrete walls under the train overpass at 7th Avenue and 33rd Street are slowly turning into a picturesque city street with bright houses as local artists work to create a new mural to liven up the area.
"It's long been an unattractive spot there," said City Park Community Association president Michael Murphy.
"This is beautifying the community at a place which has always been considered an ugly entrance to City Park."
On Monday, Roberta Ross and Bevin Bradley - two artists from the neighbourhood - were painting one side of the overpass and filling in cracks on the other side to prep the wall for the rest of the mural. The houses in the mural are similar to the character homes found in the core neighbourhood.
The community association invited local artists to submit ideas for the mural after its members decided to take on a community project to improve something in the neighbourhood, Murphy said.
Canadian Pacific gave the community association permission to paint the train overpass. Both sides should be done by the end of summer, Murphy said.

"It's a large piece of art, and communities can always use more art," he said.

"People coming and going in City Park will hopefully take pleasure in it for many years."


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Read more: http://www.thestarphoenix.com/travel/City+park+mural+brightens+blight/8633679/story.html#ixzz2YcO7cDeb

 
I had the pressure-washer fella prep the East side today. I am hoping to have the street closure for Wednesday next week for the overheading of the design. The West side is not yet complete but a couple of good days of work on it and some touch-ups and it should be pretty close. 
A girl came by today with a thank-you card and a gift certificate to Tim Hortons. It made my day! Spending hours painting would not be the same without the encouragement and feed-back from the people walking, driving, or biking by. Thank you.
 
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The caulking I used to fill the cracks is finally dry. I set to the task today of touching up the areas where the cracks were. Next time I will use a product called Big Stretch from Cloverdale paints. I attempted to use it initially but they were out of stock the week I wanted to start. I have been having great conversations with people who stop- and I have my regulars who pass by everyday. One friendly neighbour brings me treats every time he walks by. A stranger stopped and surprised me by giving me $20 today! He just said it was because he like the mural so much!

 
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Yesterday was great, despite the cloudy skies I was able to finish the roof of the largest house. I have been layering the yellow of the walls of the house. The final color will be a mustard. 

 
"And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there could be no rainbow." Gilbert K. Chesterton.

Ahh, more rain. I have been getting an hour here and there, although it does seem to rain as soon as I start. Somehow I have been making ground. The caulking I used to fill the cracks is not drying because of all the humidity. I believe that July will bring sunny skies and lots of time to muralize. 
 
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After almost a week of rain I was able to get back to the wall today! Exciting to finally paint in some colors. I started with a bright yellow underpainting of the large house. I like the look of having the bright colors peek through from underneath. Lots of people stopped by or hollered from their cars to encourage me. It was nice to hear. I am plugged in to my ipod - because I like music but also because the noise from the traffic echoes through the underpass and can be overwhelming at times. Just because I am listening to music doesn't mean I don't want chat- feel free to give me a nudge or a loud hello!

 
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Ahhh...so great to have amazing people working with me. Roberta Ross and Carey Gilmore worked well past midnight to lay down the outline. I had the street closed to traffic and brought a generator for power. 

 
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Thanks to the knowledgable folks at Cloverdale paints on all their great advice about surface prep. The concrete walls of this wall are very porous and didn't need a primer coat. I filled in the wider cracks with a concrete filler. I have to wait for the filler to dry before it so applied a base coat of white to the higher areas, avoiding the cracks. First day on the wall and already some interesting conversations with passerbys. 

 
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I will be starting on the East side of the overpass. I had a great guy pressure wash the surface, he removed any of the peeling paint, any debris stuck in the tracks up above, and the pigeon poop. The pigeons are scared off for now, but I am sure they will be back 

 
We recently met with CP and we have the official go ahead! I will be starting on the mural within the week!!!
I have been in the studio playing with paint and finalizing colors. For maquette I used this amazing new paper from Art Placement. It is made with stone, no paper products at all so you don't have to gesso it and it doesn't warp when you apply paint! It is light and thin but the painting on the surface of it is similar to painting on panel. It comes in 36 inch pieces - not quite long enough for me to create a mini-version of the mural so I just cut and taped it together.