Until recently, the Ledbury-Banff area was one of Ottawas’ most troubled. Public housing, low incomes and newly arrived Canadians unfortunately combined to create a climate of fear and lawlessness. This is no longer the case and the success of its turnaround belongs to the efforts of the whole community. It is an example of community building with empowered residents working together with social services and government agencies to make positive change.
The Ledbury Community Centre is a timely addition to this neighbourhood and will only cause to strengthen their sense of pride in their accomplishments. It is a structure geared to a human scale and surrounded by ample greenspace and recreation facilities. It acts as an anchor to Banff Avenue and is a natural meeting space for the whole neighbourhood.
Early on in the design process, architect Michael Brum contacted me about incorporating designs into the building’s concrete exterior, similar to what I had created into the concrete skin of my own home. My challenge was to come up with attractive, durable designs and markings that would be meaningful to the community.
The process of inscribing into concrete is delightfully low-tech. The properties of rapidly drying concrete, limit the range of line and image making. There is no time for hesitation. Quick, sure drawing with confidence is the critical tool. These are the same attributes inherent in ancient cave petroglyphs and pictographs. In our modern world, the cave walls are substituted for concrete, but the mark making is surprisingly similar.
This ‘earthy’, spiritual connection is something I continually work on in my art practice. All human space was once occupied before by nature and is a key concept for me. I
play homage to this by marrying one of the four elements and a native, symbolic image with each compass direction:
| North Wall | West Wall | South Wall | East Wall |
| earth | water | fire | air |
| black bear | trout | sun | blue heron |
This satisfies the distant past, however creating something for its immediate history was even more important. Knowing the history of the neighbourhood, I immediately made the connection with graffiti. I do not condone graffiti, however it is often possible to admire the handiwork of vandals in the abstract. Taken out of context and presented in a clean contrasting environment, many graffiti markings can be seen as works of art. Graffiti in this neighbourhood was rampant at one time and definitely part of their history and visual language. My goal was to utilize grafitti markings in a new medium to be seen simply as a pattern and as a rich visual texture. My intent is to respect the grafitti and have the casual observer delight in its beautiful abstract markings. Overhearing one child call over a friend and describe the wall with the fish on it as ‘sick’, (a cool thing), was a confirmation that I had done my job.
