Artwork Details

Birds in Renfrew

Artist

Joey Mallett

Year

2010

Neighbourhood

Renfrew-Collingwood

Location

2929 East 22nd Ave

Description

This project was in two parts:

A. Bird Shapes:
This project was developed from the naming of eight rooms in the community centre after various local birds. Altogether there were nine bird shapes to correspond with the doors. The first step was to engage the Twitchers Bird Watching Club to identify some of the birds in Renfrew Ravine. Once the birds were identified, the materials were chosen. A sheet of plywood was found in the community centre and delivered to Windermere Secondary High school, during the last few weeks of school before summer holidays. Jonathan Tenta's class of shop students were involved in cutting out the bird shapes and the bird houses, which artist Joey Mallett had drawn and made templates of. The next stage involved the members of the Renfrew Arts and Health group which was continuing with Yoko Tomita and Joey for the months of June and July. They first had to sand the bird shapes and then prime them with gesso. Over the next few weeks they painted them with acrylic paint in very realistic fashion, finally sealing them with a coat of medium.

B. Bird Houses:
Part two of the Birds in Renfrew project involved the building of birdhouses to install in the Renfrew Ravine.
It was decided that nine birdhouses would be built to house the specific population of birds identified in the ravine. Robin, wren, nuthatch, and flicker house templates were drawn from plans by artist Joey Mallett, and again, delivered to the students at Windermere School to cut out of plywood. Both the shapes and the birdhouses were done over the course of a few weeks in the wood shop. They were ready by mid-June. At this point they were ready to be assembled, sanded, primed, and painted, by members of the Renfrew youth C.H.I.L.L. Program. The group met with Joey once a week for 5 sessions in august, completing them on August 23, 2010.

Medium/discipline of Project

Community-based participatory

Park Board Funding Program

Neighbourhood Matching Fund

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