Layin’ Down Tracks mural reaches last stop

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This article was published 13/08/2019 (1714 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A mural that wrapped around 14,000 square feet of a South Point Douglas business was painted over Wednesday as the building’s owner looks to sell the space.

It comes with the territory, says the artist behind what had been one of Manitoba’s largest wall paintings.

“The way Buddhist monks wipe away a sand mandala after creating it, that’s kind of the way of the world of street art,” said Charlie Johnston. “You create something beautiful, (and) it exists for a time.”

Johnston said when he created the Layin’ Down Tracks mural in 2004 on the Disraeli Freeway building that housed Levy’s Leathers Ltd., the accomplishment was the peak of his career. Company owner Dennis Levy gave him free rein, asking only the mural incorporate music, because Levy’s specialized in guitar straps.

“It was a great opportunity,” Johnston said Wednesday. “It was like painting my Sistine Chapel. It was the biggest piece I’d ever done.”

He came up with a design that used the visual metaphor of laying down tracks to combine Winnipeg’s railway history with its music scene: train tracks and piano keys, locomotives and audio cables, all woven into a vivid tapestry.

“I really felt (it) epitomized the identity of Winnipeg,” he said. “So I morphed the two ideas into each other.”

Levy, who sold the business in January 2018, and is looking to sell the building, said the mural was exactly what he was looking for — but it’s time for a change.

“When I was in business, I had always looked at things that would make my staff feel special or give them a sense of identity,” he said. “Now, it’s time to move on. I’m no longer in the music business, so I don’t see the need to keep it on there.”

It is the second of Johnston’s murals to be covered up in less than a month: a towering portrait of Jesus Christ on the front of Transcona’s Tabor Baptist Church (finished in 2007) was painted over with a coat of grey as the church looks to rebrand itself.

Johnston said the city’s mural art scene has changed since he created the Disraeli Freeway piece.

“I’ve painted enough artwork to cover 11 acres. More than half of that is gone,” he said. “When I was doing this piece, I was seeking to set the bar — and that bar has been set, achieved and raised several times over since.”

Still, he said he feels the pangs of regret each time it happens: for himself, and for the community who enjoyed his work for so long.

“The core idea about public art and murals is that they are free to everyone and accessible to everyone,” he said. “That’s the gift of the project to a community — and when the piece gets lost that gift is taken away.”

caitlyn.gowriluk@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @caitlyngowriluk