Intro

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uh my name is lester coloma

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i’m a hamilton artist born and raised

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been practicing mural painting for over

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22 years now

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and i’m here working at the agh doing a

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painting directly on to wall on a theme

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that is talking about the awareness of

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mental health

Background

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so when i moved back i’m born and raised

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in hamilton so when i moved

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back to hamilton from toronto there

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wasn’t a lot of

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mural art happening so

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i started uh just doing stuff on my own

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uh there was a restaurant called

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acclamation that had used to have a

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really long

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wooden fence that was just dark brown

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and i approached the owner and i thought

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hey

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do you mind if i just paint the mural on

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here for art crawl one day

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well it was actually for art crawl and

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uh

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they didn’t mind so i went down with one

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brush

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uh one color and i painted a giant fish

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and i thought hey this is this is kind

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of fun it seems to be getting a good

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response

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from people and then from that piece i

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was invited to do

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a painting on the old tivoli theater

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and i did a rabbit riding a tortoise

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um and a business owner saw that

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asked me to do the exterior of

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his building that he owned um and i

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painted that one

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and from there it just became a lot of

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referrals

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so i think that that first fish one

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that i did on the fence was uh was kind

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of the starting point of it all for here

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so in in doing the research for trying

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to come up with imagery

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um i saw a lot of things that were very

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very negative so things with people with

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barbed wire or people imprisoned in

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their mind

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and i thought that’s a really tough

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image to swallow for someone if they’re

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trying to overcome certain issues

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uh so the direction i wanted to take was

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something more

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approachable that still showed the

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layers of complexity

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so i came up with a metaphor of leaves

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and foliage and

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different types of leaves and how

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they’re kind of intertwined

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and and it was important for me to do

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that because it seems

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from my perspective you can kind of uh

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approach obstacles when they have more

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of a

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when they’re more approachable they

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aren’t

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like a giant wall that that inhibits you

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it’s something that’s that’s more

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conquerable it’s a sense of pride

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it’s a sense of ownership it’s a sense

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of confidence it’s

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it’s all of those things i think if you

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can kind of

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if you can kind of maintain a

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good eye contact with someone and talk

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about issues it’s almost empowering

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right so you have a good connection and

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you can kind of speak

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speak about things a little more freely

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honestly

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if i was not painting i would i would be

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struggling a lot more

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i find having to do large scale artwork

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for me

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um i really like the benefit that it’s

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there’s a bit of physicality to it so

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you know it’s it’s not just

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movements of of the wrist when you’re at

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an easel and you’re painting something

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smaller scale

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like you’re up and down scaffolding and

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you’re moving around so i i enjoy that

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that physicality of it and in terms of

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of the imagery that i get to create i i

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find it really

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really appealing because a lot of people

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seem to connect with the work that i do

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so it’s

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uh it feels good when you can do that

Murals

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in a couple of the neighborhoods i get

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to talk to

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people who’ve lived there for a long

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time and

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it’s it’s always a sense of

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of pride when they see the mural you

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know

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they can’t believe that oh this artwork

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is in my neighborhood

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and they’re very they’re very happy it’s

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there i i’ve spoken to a couple people

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and they’re very

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protective sometimes they say oh if

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anyone

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puts graffiti on this you know we’ll

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take care of them so there’s a

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big sense of ownership in it and it

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seems to make them happy

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and a lot of people don’t get to see the

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behind the scenes so i think it’s

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important for them

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to kind of almost keep guessing you know

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what

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what direction the arts gonna go how

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it’s gonna look like in the end and and

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seeing how

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i like to build in in layers you know

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it’s it’s

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it’s almost these mini unveilings every

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time they

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they stop by and it’s kind of fun

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because when we used to have art corals

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before

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kovid i really liked when people would

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come into my studio

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and ask questions about art and talk

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about the meaning behind things because

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they really don’t

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get to see that perspective when they’re

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just looking at the finished artwork

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you know they get to pick my brain about

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how i arrived at this image or

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why i did certain things or or even ask

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me about the struggles that i’ve had in

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completing the artwork

Conclusion

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i i think it’s more meaningful because

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the original artwork i did

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uh 2019 so

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in explaining the the theme of the

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artwork and and the

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the climate of society now with all

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these lockdowns and

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and social isolations people seem to be

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responding even

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more positive more positively

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to the theme of the artwork you know

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that’s it’s a lot more relatable to them

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and the struggles that they’re having

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[Music]

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currently

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[Music]

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you

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