With everything that went on last year, one of the projects I worked on seemed to just slip on by. Last August I entered a competition to be one of 6 artists creating 12 murals in Norwich Market. I submitted 2 designs inspired by the brief "Past, Present and Future Norwich" and much to my excitement I found out that I had been chosen to create 2 of the murals.
The first mural was straight from the brief - the design was a bookcase filled with the books that made Norwich. Some were real books such as Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman and Every Ruddy Word by Alan Partridge. Some weren't, but nodded to important parts of Norwich, such as The life of Edith Cavel, and On the ball, City. We wanted the mural to be full of colour so as to bring life to the market when it was all closed up, and to match the hustle and bustle of it when in full swing.
The second mural was designed in collaboration with the OPEN Youth Trust Charity. When we went to see them we were truly impressed by the amount of projects, programmes and activities they run for young people in Norwich. They have an amazing space where they have live music, a climbing wall, a cafe, a dance studio, a gym, and much more. They run all kinds of activities and events for young people aged 7-25.
There were so many different parts to OPEN that it was difficult to know where to start with a design that could represent them and their place within Norwich. Many, many, many different ideas were played around with, but when we were shown a poem by Ann Kalu, a 14 year old who was part of the creative writing group there, it became clear that her poem just had to be included. To show the incredible sense of community at their centre we went with the concept of a fridge/white board. Surrounding the poem are magnets and tokens which nod at their values, key parts of Norwich and keep the piece bright and beautiful.
The actual process of creating the mural was not without its challenges and both myself and Maisie from MaisieMoffatArt were so so thankful that we had a small team to help us out. (Thanks Benji and Jose!) Firstly, it was absolutely freeeezing! Being that the murals were outside we didn't have much shelter from the wind, rain and cold - so cold that our hands became hard to move with the chill of it. Thankfully, Norwich market is built under a roof, but it didn't quite stop us from getting thoroughly damp.
I think what surprised us all the most was the sheer amount of time it took to simply get our design drawn out. We used a combination of free-handing and carbon paper to transfer it across but it still took hours and hours and hours and hours... Definitely something I'm going to learn from for next time!
A lovely surprise was the number of people who came to say hi. We lost count of the number of people who came over for a chat, to ask about the murals and to give us a bit of motivation in some of the latter hours! If this was you - THANK YOU! You are ultimately who the mural is for.
Painting these murals really was a great experience, it was so much fun to work with OPEN, paint with my friends, and leave our mark in the centre of Norwich.
I heard about this opportunity from a friend of mine (Thanks Evie!), so if you ever hear of anything like it, do please let me know.
And of course, if you're in Norwich, feel free to go have a peak! (When the government says so!)
Thanks for reading!
KTx
Since writing this blog, OPEN Norwich Youth Trust are sadly having to close due to the financial pressure placed on them during the Covid19 crisis. It is a huge loss for the city, and the thousands of young people the charity helped. Hopefully, if nothing else, our mural can be another reminder of the amazing work they did for the youth of Norfolk.
Music: www.bensound.com