The wall was banal as only a wall can be, a lengthy expanse of uninteresting cement block.
It stretched for more than 30 metres along the interior yard of a recycling business located in a gritty Victoria neighbourhood home to tire depots and auto-body shops.
It was stupefyingly dull even by the undemanding standards of walls.
For the owners, though, it represented an opportunity to make a statement. For one local artist, it provided an opportunity to launch a career that is changing the look of the city.
A blank wall for Ellice Recycle was a blank canvas for Jeff Maltby.
Trained as a graphic artist and mostly self-taught as a painter, Mr. Maltby has produced Christmas cards for the company for more than two decades. He went from the smallest of commissions – rendered in a palm-sized card – to the largest.
In the eight years since, the artist has completed six other murals in the city, including a trio in Chinatown in front of which tourists gather for photographs.
Yet he remains a little-known figure, this Michelangelo of the cinder block, a quiet artist who confesses one of the difficulties of working as a muralist is “being on stage.”
The homage to garbage pickers was rendered with great deliberation.
He began painting on Canada Day in 2004, his days often spent aboard a hydraulic lift.
He painted throughout the summer and fall before at last completing the mural.
To earn a living, he sells canvas paintings, does some commercial art, even paints houses.
He moved to Vancouver Island with his wife, Trudy, who is also a painter.
Their first stop: a pilgrimage to Chemainus, the logging town that transformed itself into an outdoor art gallery with more than three dozen murals.
It became his ambition to “do a big painting and make it like a piece of fine art.”
None of his murals have been damaged by the city’s legion of taggers and graffiti artists. Even the easy targets at street level have gone untouched, which the muralist takes as a sign of respect.
Victoria muralist is a Michelangelo of the cinder block - The Globe and Mail
LINK: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/victoria-muralist-is-a-michelangelo-of-the-cinder-block/article4515460/
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