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1867 Portage Avenue
Location Map
Roof Photo courtesy of Mandy van Leeuwen.
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Location: N side bet. Collegiate & Ferry; West & East Face (high)
Occupant: Mike's Place
District: St. James
Neighbourhood: King Edward
Artist(s): Mandy van Leeuwen, Jennifer Johnson
Year: 2002
Sponsors: Take Pride Winnipeg!, St. James Village BIZ
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Mandy van Leeuwen: "It's a whimsical type scene of a fisherman fishing for Sturgeon;
Catching a Sturgeon in Sturgeon Creek. You see the Old Mill Creek building there
(which is located by the hospital on Sturgeon Road). We didn't achieve as full a
potential as we would have liked because of the stucco which was difficult to work with."
John Steel (St. James BIZ): "In the 1700s and 1800s that creek was full of Sturgeon. Of
course sturgeon never jump out of the water in fact they were bottom feeders, and when
you hook them they fight for the bottom and don't want to come up at all. But for
showing the fish in the Mural, we thought 'aw, so what!' We wanted to illustrate the
sturgeon and the best way to do that was jumping out of the water!"
Jennifer Johnson: "It was very hot on the roof. The only thing I craved there was ice cold
water, something with water and because everything melted."
The artists completed the West wall first, but encountered unexpected delays before
being able to paint the East wall. They needed the permission of the next-door
neighbour, a bank, to go up on their roof. Jennifer: "It took us 6 weeks to get up on this
roof, before we had approval. They needed our liability insurance papers, to contact head
office to check with insurance companies. We were more than accommodating we were
willing to sign waivers we were covered through our own company as well as through
Take Pride Winnipeg."
Mandy: "The East Wall is kind of like a comic strip of elements of Barber Shop History.
The Tribune was a predecessor of the current day Winnipeg Free Press. We put that
there as an expression of the time we were capturing. At that time they used to pull teeth,
the antique equipment is there; as well as the other functions we associate with a barber
shop- a clean shave and a haircut. The traditional Barber Pole, The pride of the business
ownership, cleaning his chair. Barbershops then were very much a center of the culture
and community."
The Clients for this project were the proprietors, Mike and his son, Dale. "They were
both fun," says Mandy. The barber figure, while not a pure likeness of Mike, was based
loosely on him. "We added the waxed mustache that he doesn't have to help represent
that particular era, and we also joked that this other guy was Dale and we put the blonde
streaks in his hair because Dale has blonde steaks in his hair. We also put a pink pen in
his pocket to bug him, because they're so NOT feminine in their personality! We played
some other jokes on them while we were working there." Once they called him on their
cell phone on the roof and did a Bart Simpson style crank call on him. "We like having a
good time with the people we work with," chuckles Mandy.
The artists wanted to have something that represented the masculine interests in the
female form, also reflected in reading material sometimes found in barbershops, but
wanted to stop well short of putting a copy of Playboy in the customer's hands on the
wall. The silhouette of the woman (lower right hand corner) was the perfect answer.
Jennifer: "It's appropriate for a barber shop. It's tasteful, plus you don't see it right
away. And it's not meant to be seen by people who shouldn't see it"
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