Russian Hall mural in winter

Recent photos of Russian Hall murals showing each of three wall murals. February 2011.

Globe and Mail article

Attached is an article about recent projects, including the Santiago de Cuba mural.

It can also be seen online at:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/tom-hawthorn/muralist-turns-vancouver-into-open-air-gallery/article1934546/

Point of Contact exhibition Cuba 2011

This series of mixed media works on mylar called 'Point of Contact-Idea of North' was exhibited for the first time in Santiago Cuba at the Centro Provincial de Artes Plasticas y Diseno, January 2011.
Photographs by Esther Rausenberg, painting and print imagery by Richard Tetrault. Collaborative (large vertical) work with Gerald Pedros and Brian Saby.
Next exhibit of La Raza Artists will be in Thomas/Elgin Public Art Gallery in May 2011.

La Raza Artists in Cuba 2011

La Raza Artists in Cuba, 2011

La Raza Artists is a group of Canadian artists interested in cross-cultural exchanges and projects. These encounters provide a spark for valuable collaborative experiences. As a collective, the artists come from a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences, but have a common interest in directly creative, challenging encounters and exchanges with artist, both in Canada and worldwide.

In January, we were invited on a cultural program to Cuba to spend several weeks in the town of Santiago de Cuba working on a project. In this time, we completing an exhibition of paintings and drawings, as well as painted a large mural.

Designing this 1200 square foot mural was a collaborative process between four artists: Gerald Pedros, Brian Saby, Esther Rausenberg and myself. Designing was complete in three days, and painting in six. The mural is located on a prominent wall at a busy intersection on Calle Garzon in Santiago.

Called ‘Punto de Contacto’ (‘Point of Contact’), the mural is based on themes that we had begun to explore in our exhibition in Merida, Mexico the previous year (March 2010). It is a visualization of Canada in a tapestry-like format, presenting encounters between landscape, people, animals and other elements. We intended it to read as a ‘map’ of our collective experience of place. The canoe, the main means for accessing the Canadian wilderness and opening up the country, floats over a grid of contemporary highway systems. Figures based on photographs by Esther of Kokoro Dance, (a butoh-based dance troupe in Vancouver), are superimposed on and through the landscape. The animal symbols emerging from the canoe are derived from native imagery, suggesting legends of hunting and trapping. Lastly, the traditional bird of Cuba, called Tocororo, or Guatani, appears on a postage stamp, juxtaposed with a pair of northern ravens.

We had enthusiastic assistance from Cuban muralists and friends from the Taller de Cultural on this project. This cultural centre, under its director, Israel Tamayo, is a highly active printmaking, sculpture, ceramics and painting studio that works with basic facilities and supplies, yet manages to produce excellent works. Their muralists were an important and skilled team to work with.

The gallery exhibition was presented in the Ex-American Embassy in Santiago for the first two weeks on January. We used five rooms of the gallery with works painted on Mylar, a velum-like transparent film. Excellent for graphite drawing and collage, it served our purposes for portability and ease of installation.

RT, January 21, 2011

print series

Recent prints from Urban Crow and Haida Gwaii series of woodcuts and linocuts.
My prints can be seen at Malaspina Printmakers Gallery, Granville Island, Celia Duthie's Woodworks Gallery, Saltspring island, and Effusion Gallery, Invermere, BC.

Eastside Culture Crawl 2010

Eastside Culture Crawl invites the public to visit studios in east Vancouver for the weekend of November 26th, 27th and 28th. (Friday 5-10 pm, Sat and Sun from 11-6 pm) Our studio is located in the heart of Strathcona, at 800 Keefer street. Entrance on Hawks avenue, look for the yellow balloons, the yellow door and the crow mosaic on the door!
This year i am showing a range of recent wood and linocuts (images for some here) as well as small paintings on Mylar from a recent trip to Italy. Esther is featuring recent C-prints from a series on Migrations as well as some double-exposed prints from Celestun, Yucatan. Please come and visit.

Launch, Through the Eye of the Raven Mural

Images of the ceremony to inaugurate the mural, September 2010.
For a panorama of this mural, view the dramatic photos at:
http://www.urbanaboriginal.org/images/360/MuralShot360.html
or follow the links at www.urbanaboriginal.com to
'Through the Eye of the Raven' panorama