While winter may be fast approaching, lakecity artists Tiffany Jorgensen and Sarah Sigurdson aren’t letting it freeze their artistic vision of bringing colour to the downtown.
Jorgensen and Sigurdson are good friends and have become well-known faces of the artistic community in recent months thanks to several murals, art shows and pieces featured in Art Walk. Most recently, they’ve teamed up with Downtown Williams Lake’s executive director Jordan Davis to bring the lakecity some new vibrant public murals.
This now includes a small mini mural on the concrete retaining wall by Downtown Williams Lake’s office, across from Mr. Mikes, where the pair have been seen, often in the cold, painstakingly bringing several animals to life. Each of these animals includes a leash, with the hope the community will embrace it as a prime photo spot.
A big driving force behind this push for more murals, Sigurdson said, is the motto of Downtown Williams Lake which is ‘Colourful Cariboo Culture.’ Sigurdson said she and Jorgensen want to live up to that idea and show the rest of Williams Lake they do indeed live in a “colourful and vibrant community.”
“We’ve really just wanted to get the momentum going with making it seem like something is happening down here and making (the downtown) interesting for people to think about,” Jorgensen said.
Prior to starting this new one, Jorgensen and Sigurdon had worked together throughout the end of August and beginning of September on a massive and ambitious mural in the parking lot across from the movie theatre. The support they received for that project, Sigurdson said, was awesome especially with community members coming by and saying hello to them. The two were quite sad when it was complete as they love working together.
“It’s kind of like the day after Christmas when a mural is over,” Sigurdson said.
Thankfully this mini-mural offered them a sort of extension to this project which they felt obvious glee and excitement to begin upon.
Jorgensen said when she and Sigurdson first saw the wall they mulled over it for a bit before running back inside the Downtown Williams Lake office with their idea. Their proposal was a painting of a bunch of fun animals you wouldn’t expect to see walking down a Williams Lake sidewalk with leashes and collars so folks could pretend they’re walking them, Jorgensen said. According to her, Davis looked at them and said “I love it” and within a week they were out on the streets putting brush to concrete.
The animals they’re bringing to life include a triceratops, a majestic lion, a crocodile, a penguin and either a small songbird or a bunny. In addition to the animals, Jorgensen and Sigurdson said they’ll be adding their shadows to really give a feeling of life to the piece.
So far the project has come together nicely, Sigurdson said, as they love working with Downtown Williams Lake on these types of projects. Most of all they love working with each other and hope to be done within a week.
“We want to do as much original, imaginative, meaningful, creative and colourful stuff that we possibly can,” Jorgensen said.
Sigurdson said they would also like to thank the City of Williams Lake for approving these mural projects so quickly and with such trust. Both of them wanted to thank the community for being given the chance to be creative and share their passion with them.
“This is what we live for and it’s really nice to see it received so well,” Sigurdson said.