Slave Lake artist Michelle Vekved made a bit more history recently, when two of her pieces went into a huge mural commemorating the 100th birthdays of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Called ‘Buffalo Twins’ and designed by Edmonton artist Lewis Lavoie, the mural is made up of 336 individual works of art by over 250 artists, including Premier Ralph Klein!
“I had two pieces,” says Vekved. “Each piece stands on its own as an individual painting. Together they make a bigger picture. But we don’t know what it is. We just get the boards.”
It’s a concept dreamed up by Lavoie several years ago. He sketches a huge mural, applies the basic colour and then chops it up into pieces. Each artist gets a piece or pieces with basic instructions. Lavoie and his partner in art, Phil Alain of Night of Artists, then await the results.
On Apr. 3 the pieces came together on the ice pad at the West Edmonton Mall rink. Buffalo Twins turned out to be a picture of two kids hugging, amidst flowers. Ralph Klein painted the final panel.
Alain says ‘Buffalo Twins’ refers to an early suggested name for the new province that would have been Alberta and Saskatchewan togther.
“...Back in 1905 the two provinces were almost actually made into one province named "Buffalo". However the size of the two provinces combined was too intimidating for the well being of Canada as a whole so it was decided that the provinces would be split down the middle and one would be named Alberta and the other Saskatchewan.
“The mural is re-uniting the twins that were separated at birth through a piece of artwork. Its a story we had no idea was even out there until we started this project. It was a pretty amazing find for us!”
Vekved says her boards had “lines and colours” on them. She had to keep the lines and colours, but the rest was up to her.
“One of them I painted a close-up view of a horse’s face with a grandstand in the background.”
The other was a collage including a wagon wheel, a tipi, a pumpjack, an oil derrick and wheat. The squares are near the bottom of the mural.
Vekved also participated in last year’s Edmonton centennial mural, and unlike this time was able to attend the unveiling.
“I was kind of sad that I couldn’t go, but it was not very practical with a two-month-old baby.”
To see the mural, go to muralmosaic.com on the worldwide web.

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