Ogopogo + Friends

The Work

This mural depicts a gathering of funny heterogeneous characters in a Kelowna ambiance. It celebrates the richness of difference and multiculturalism in a fantastic and playful way.

The Project

The Uptown Mural Project was a community-inclusive and educative urban-art initiative within the community of Rutland, Kelowna BC, organized by Uptown Rutland Business Association. This week-long event centered around the painting large scale urban murals. Each of the mural's locations has been strategically selected creating a short walking tour within the Rutland Business Improvement Area.

The goals of this project are driven towards the beautification of Rutland, encouraging community involvement, increasing walkability within the business improvement area, and educating and inspiring youth through contemporary public art. The Uptown Mural Project is proudly supported in part with funding by the City of Kelowna

The Artist

Being a muralist from a metropolis, Mono is particularly interested in the diversity of the populations that make up her environment. Obviously, whether by choice or necessity, it is the phenomena of migration and exodus repeated throughout history that led to the appearance of cosmopolitan cities, such as Montreal. Thus, heterogeneous societies tend to coexist, somehow, in the same territory, sometimes restricted. From this coexistence arise a variety of such gatherings, cultural events, festivals, demonstrations, assemblies and other phenomena of crowds and popular movements of our urban everyday life. These gatherings promote, among other things, cultural sharing and hybridization, social progress and inclusion, mutual help, acceptance, etc.

Thus, Mono illustrates in caricature her vision of the individual in Western society. She generally uses a process of accumulation of various characters, in order to represent a society where the coexistence of sometimes human beings, sometimes fantastic, refer to a dense, diversified and multicultural vision peculiar to big cities.

In addition, her murals have a playful character, by the association that the spectators make with themselves and their entourage or by sometimes believing that they recognize famous personalities, among the illustrated figures. Moreover, by the repetition of characters, the result is a kind of motif that can recall a tapestry. This pattern has the advantage of harmonizing with any type of wall architecture or to be segmented without affecting the composition of the image.

Through her imaginary crowds, she tries to convey notions of coexistence and celebrates the richness of the existing differences in each of us and harmoniously living together.