The title they have given themselves is a complete misnomer.
The Estevan Comprehensive School's Art Vandals are anything but vandals. They aren't taking, they aren't defacing, they are adding value to the sites they visit, the latest being a large white wall on the west end of the Estevan Shoppers Mall.
A trio of painters, with a little help from a couple of their friends, are creating striking mural portraits depicting the local community that includes mining, rail, trucking, agriculture and oil, wrapped up in one body.
The artists; David Kleemola, Elisha Daneluk and Eden Redman have received assistance from ECS artists/classmates Emily Vollmin and Phillippa Williams during various phases of the work that has been ongoing for a couple of weeks now.
ECS art teacher Wade Kotelo, who made his way to the mall after regular school hours Tuesday afternoon to check on the work, said he was quite pleased with how the students are interpreting the theme.
"I received a call from mall manager Mike Pickering asking if we had some students who might be interested. So I asked the students to work up some concept options and it was decided that David's worked out the best for the space and time," Kotelo said. "It's one of three themes of Estevan we decided we could do. The others deal with sports and recreation and the other is family life.
"These three were the first up and they took ownership of the project," Kotelo added.
Elisha pointed out that "I saw what the art students in the past did with the mural at SARCAN, and I wanted to give it a shot too."
"I just wanted to be part of a community project," David added.
"And Mr. Kotelo pretty well made him do it," said Kotelo with an added chuckle.
Work featuring ECS artists from the past can be seen elsewhere in the mall in the Old Homestead Restaurant where a rolling mural bedecks the upper walls. That was produced in 2005.
A trio of murals featured on the SARCAN exterior walls were applied in 2004, 2005 and 2009, again by ECS art students. Their challenges for those three projects included changing weather which also meant some changing dates on which they could climb their scaffolds and apply the paint.
"I don't solicit these projects. People have given me a call and I then check to see who and what can be done," the art educator said.
Since the work is done outside of regular school and class hours, the commitment has to be there.
"These kids have jobs and other things on their schedules, so for them to take several hours over a four-week span, maybe two or three nights a week 4 to 8 p.m. is substantial," Kotelo said. "So when they're here, they are really producing and it looks very good so far ... better than anticipated. I'd say they're about 60 per cent done."
Asked to comment on each of the three artists who are either in Grade 11 or 12 at the Comp, Kotelo said he has found that Elisha is "an intuitive painter who is willing to step up. David knows how to ignore me because he has a gift that few have and Eden has been a real art warrior this year, not a vandal, a warrior. I would say this year's group of artists as a whole are having a hot painting year. They are a very talented group."
Kotelo said he has fielded a call from the local branch of the Royal Canadian Legion to see what might be added to the front facade of their brick building, a feature structure on Fourth Street.
"I have agreed to at least look at it to see what we can do with brick and panels. I want to see what they do to it, because they have a project in mind, and then see if we can add to it."
Kotelo noted that adding projects such as this take a lot more planning than in the past since there are curriculum demands and schedules that have to be met and various units of study that have to be completed within a certain time frame. There is very little time available to extend a community project now. But when you have a talented group of young people who want to go the extra mile for the community, willing to put in the extra hours ... scholastic credits or no scholastic credits, it's hard to say no to them.
In many ways it's just like some athletes or other individuals with special talents ... they do it for the love of the game, not necessarily for the rewards and recognition.
