Michelle Loughery
Portfolio
Biography
Michelle Loughery is an artist, organizer, and educator. She has worked in the field of community public art for 20 years and has created over 30 large scale mural projects, working with inter-generational groups, teens, elders, and children. Michelle served as Art Administrator for the Sparwood Arts and Heritage Council for 10 years. There her work included the initiating and facilitating of numerous projects and programs as well as the day to day administrating and coordinating of an extremely high profile, dedicated Community Arts Centre. As well as Murals, Loughery's work includes extensive studies in acrylic, oil and water color as well as bronze sculpture and stained glass.
Michelle draws on her rich experiences in rural Canada to portray a wide variety of historic scenes in her murals. She carries the name of the small coal mining town of Michel, B.C., in which she was born and raised. Her rare talent in creating large scale art is an enduring public reminder of Canada's diverse peoples, heros and rich cultural heritage.
In addition to accepting commissions for public, corporate and private murals, Michelle offers a unique community art program in conjunction with public art mural assignments. This totally original program enlists young artist and art students in the community as apprentices, and trains them in the techniques of large format art.
Raised in a small community where she struggled to find support for her dream to become an artist, Michelle now encourages young Canadians to celebrate their talents and imagination through these mentor ship mural projects. Heritage murals offer an outstanding opportunity to promote community awareness of Canadian culture while offering young talent experience and training not available through traditional educational resources.
Loughery specializes in facilitating complex collaborations in which community members work together to articulate a vision of their shared history and values, of differences and difficulties, and of their vision for possible futures. Participants have the satisfaction of creating permanent art works for their community as they develop skills in collective planning and decision making.
In addition to accepting commissions for public, corporate and private murals, Michelle offers a unique community art program in conjunction with public art mural assignments. This totally original program enlists young artist and art students in the community as apprentices, and trains them in the techniques of large format art.
Heritage murals offer an outstanding opportunity to promote community awareness of Canadian culture while offering young talent experience and training not available through traditional educational resources.
The work is an attempt to create "an aesthetics of collaboration," seeing art making as a part of the collective making of meaning which creates social, community consciousness. In recent works, Loughery has examined the monological style of most public art works and has explored how to present public art in which individual voices express varying insights to a common theme.
Community Murals by Michelle Loughery
Fire Truck Mural ( 80' x 30' ) Vernon BC 1999
Elks Hall Buggy Mural (20' x 50') Vernon BC 1999
Captain Shorts Mural (14' x 70' )Vernon BC 1999
Pogo/Pog Wall Facade Street Scene (25' x 70' )Vernon BC 1999
Swanson Residence ( 8' x 14') Vernon BC- 1998
Barnard Street 1911 ( 100' x 30') Vernon BC-1998
Armstrong Asparagus Theatre Sets-A Christmas Carol-1998
Pleasant Valley Secondary Theatre Sets-1998
Armstrong Anchor Inn Pub Mural (25' x 40') Vernon BC 1998
Sparwood Leisure Centre, Rock Wall -1998
War Memorial-Legion( 14' x 70')-Sparwood BC- 1997
Michel/Natal-( 14' x 75) Sparwood BC -1997
Aggisiz- Rimex Mural ( 70' x 16') Aggisiz BC -1997
Track Team-( 75' x 35')Sparwood BC- 1996
Ice Cream Jimmy( 12' x 8')-Sparwood BC- 1995
Sonny Saad-(4' x 8') Sparwood BC- 1995
Mc Grath Mural -(16' x 50') Lethbridge, Alberta- 1995
Joe La Londe- (4'x 8') Sparwood BC- 1994
Reggie Taylor-(4' x 8') Sparwood BC -1994
Sparwood Catholic Church-1998-
Stained Glass window designed in partnership with Artist Noreen Mercereau
Private Collections
Town Hall, Kamisunagawa,
Japan B.McUtcheon, South Carolina
,M. McUtcheon, New York
John Sayer, Calgary Alberta, Canada
JI Yun Jung, Vancouver B.C B.Gipman........., Burnaby, B.C
S. Grenia, Cranbrook, B.C.
Coal Miner Gallery, Fernie B.C
J. Kristia, Elkford B.C ,
Grants and Awards
Loughery and her Mural Projects have received many grants and awards, including a Canadian "Summer Career Placement Public Art Grant" 1995, 1996,. "Challenge Canada Grant" 1994, 1995, 1996, "Human Resources Public Art "1998, 1999. Her Administrative work has won her a" Communities Connect Grant"1997 and numerous Basic Assistance and Activity Grants. "Communities in Bloom Award" 1996, HomeTown Video Award 1996
Michelle Loughery
Artist and Mentor Statement
I am an artist whose work is large scale, collaborative, public art pieces. I make community-based monuments which arise out of dialogue and exchange with community members. Mentorship is a natural outgrowth of my work as an artist. It is part of my projects that flowed into community public art, and now I find the circle completed with a renewed interest in how community, culture, and change are part of the educational process.
I want students to experience the fullness of their potential-- artistically, intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, morally, socially. Adults and children bring complex ideas and a host of life experiences to the mural projects, our task as mentors, is to create a dialogue with students while we pass onto them the best of the many legacies of culture and knowledge to which we have access at this place and time. I want my participants to experience joy in learning. I want to help to cultivate an appreciation of nuance, of subtle differences of form, color, light, metaphor, meaning.... I want to help develop discipline, the ability to focus, to engage in a complex process.... I want students to see that culture is created and that it can be re-created. I want students to have the power to dream great dreams and the means to accomplish those dreams.
Community Youth Mentorship Murals
Childhood Memories( 12' x 8')
Sunday Outing( 12' x 8')
Family Car (8' x 12')
Hockey Player ( 14' x 50')
Hockey Team (6' x 7')
Skaters (8' x 10')
Goalie (8' x 8' )
