Mural installed on wall at continuing care centre

A new mural stretching more than 30 feet with a variety of pictures representing this area is now adorning one of the walls at the Willow Creek Continuing Care Centre. Last Thursday, Dec. 5, John Twaddle, of Metrographics, was at the continuing care centre installing the mural, which consists of one long image across the entire wall with several smaller images framed in wooden frames to resemble windows mounted on top. The images were painted by Calgary artist Doug Driediger, who founded Metrographics with Twaddle. Driediger painted the mural in downtown Claresholm on the wall of the liquor store more than 15 years ago. Carmelle Steel, volunteer resources coordinator with Alberta Health Services, explained the goal is to add colour to a busy hallway that not only serves the residents of the centre but also community members who use it to access the physiotherapy department. The mural is also intended to make the hallway more inviting, and provide images that stir memories. “I think he accomplished that,” Steel said. Driediger came out in September and met with families, residents and staff, which had many departments including maintenance, housekeeping, nursing and more. The ladies auxiliary of the continuing care centre paid for Driediger to come and determine the content of the mural, including how they wanted people to feel and what the end goal was. They talked about the stories of Claresholm. People told stories about the area on topics ranging from curling and hockey to farming and the air training base. After that, Driediger took a variety of history books from Claresholm, Stavely, and Nanton, and went through them to determine the images. The artists came back with proposed images, including a landscape that someone would see looking out west of town. Then the artists started creating images, keeping in mind what they were supposed to mean and how to portray that. Once everyone knew what they wanted, Driediger started painting. The result is a mural 30 feet long and five feet high at its highest point, with 10 frames looking into different parts of people’s worlds. The actual paintings are on the wall, not duplicates, that have been sealed and protected. One of the challenges with this mural was the artists could not spend 2.5 weeks painting it because the hallway is so well used. Consequently, the mural was painted off site in a studio in Calgary. The background is a painting digitized and printed on a decal that was put on the wall in six to eight pieces. The total cost of the project is about $12,000 with the main fundraiser being the Claresholm and District Health Foundation, with the Wandering Willows, and the social committee at the continuing care centre also contributing. “It really is a great partnership,” Steel said. High resolution copies of the images have also been made and turned into post cards. Packages of 10, containing one of each of the images on the wall, are available for $20. The post cards are a fundraiser by the Wandering Willows with proceeds going to fund quality of life enhancements at the Willow Creek Continuing Care Centre.