International aerosol artists brighten Downtown Eastside

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International aerosol artists brighten Downtown Eastside

United Church asks artists from South Africa, Brazil, Italy and Vancouver to provide their interpretations of faith


Peeta paints part of a huge mural at Abbott and West Hastings in Vancouver on Sunday. He is one of several aerosol artists working on the Paint Your Faith project
Photograph by: Wayne Leidenfrost, PNG

A large religion-themed mural by four artists from around the world will be unveiled in the Downtown Eastside this week by the United Church of Canada.

The four aerosol artists — Faith47 from South Africa, Titi Freak from Sao Paulo, Peeta from Italy and Indigo from Vancouver — were asked by the United Church to paint their interpretation of faith as part of the church’s Paint Your Faith campaign.

The mural will take up 40 metres by four metres of brick wall on side of a shoe store at 55-57 West Hastings Street,

The artists began painting the mural on April 21 after months of collaborative work, said Sandra Severs, a spokeswoman for United Church.

The final art installation will be unveiled at 10 a.m. Wednesday.

Severs said the artists’ collaboration is the starting point for a national program inviting people from all walks of life and religious backgrounds to “paint their faith.” The program will include a blog site and events will be held in communities and churches across Canada over the next year.

“The result will be a collective, national canvas as rich and as vibrant as the beautiful wall now brightening downtown Toronto and the Metropolitan United Church,” Severs said in a news release.

Keith Howard, executive director of the United Church’s Emerging Spirit program, said the idea behind the Paint Your Faith campaign is to provide a dialogue on spirituality and to build a relationship with Canadians who don’t usually attend church.

He said the campaign “reaches out to people in a new way, using cutting-edge urban art in ways that people would not normally expect from a church.”

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http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainmen...ten+Downtown+Eastside/2950411/story.html