Take 27 artists, working seven days a week for most of March in a forgotten room underneath the old library building in Gibsons. Supply them with fabric and tough exterior rhinohide paint in a bold colour palette: orange, red, yellow, green, blue, purple with black for accent. And what's the result? - about 70 colourful banners that will hang throughout Gibsons in May.
Banner project co-ordinator Connie Johnston is pleased with the project's progress that began last fall as a Town of Gibsons initiative with a call to the public for designs. The submitted ideas, drawn in miniature, were blind judged - the jurors did not know whose idea they were selecting.
"Only a few of the designs are from known artists," Johnston said. "Most are people trying it for the first time."
The designs are projected to scale and then traced on to fabric which hangs in wooden frames for ease of painting. Both sides must be painted. In some cases, the designers could not follow through to paint their own banners and a few volunteers stepped in to paint for them. One artist, Vicki Wright, painted 13. Johnston completed eight herself. The boot camp for banner artists generated a lot of enthusiasm for the project.
"You know, I've been here every day since March 8, but I was never reluctant to be here. We've all gotten to know one another," Johnston said.
"It makes such a difference to paint together," added veteran banner artist Greta Guzek. "You can feel everyone else's energy." Why is Guzek, a professional, volunteering her time to paint more banners?
"It's a matter of community pride. It makes you proud of your town," Guzek said.
The designs are simple shapes with no detail because the finer points cannot be seen from street level. In some cases, the same design has been reproduced in varying colours. There is no theme this year.
"If you give a theme, you're not allowing artists to do what they do best," Johnston said.
What appears are images of the community: boats, gulls, fish, herons, mushrooms, trees, even a golf course and a fanciful mermaid. Johnston, who co-ordinated the banner project in the early years of 2000 before moving to Edmonton, has had a chance to observe street banners in other communities.
"It wasn't the theme I noticed, it was the colours - they were almost a theme in themselves," she said.
As the project draws to a close, she and volunteer Deb Sneddon leaf through the pile of completed banners to show Coast Reporter samples of the work. Close up, the colours pop out, vivid and gorgeous. When hanging in both Lower and Upper Gibsons, they will present a unifying look to the town.
They will likely hang for two years this time, going up in May, then taken down in winter, cleaned and repaired, to be re-hung next summer. After that, they will be put up for auction with the proceeds going back into future banner projects.
