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550 Sargent Avenue
Location Map
A Taste of Italy.
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Location: SW corner Sargent & McMicken; East Face
Occupant: Akin's International Foods
District: West End
Neighbourhood: Spence
Artist(s): Tom Andrich (Eclectic Fine Art)
Year: 2002
Sponsors: Take Pride Winnipeg!, West End BIZ, Neighbourhoods Alive! (Manitoba)
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Tom Andrich: "I came out to the wall to meet the owner, Mrs. Maria De Nardi. It turns
out I had taught her son, Tom at J. B. Mitchell back in '78. She wanted something
showing the flavour and feelings of Italy."
"It was a nice wall, cinder block- as nice as working on canvas! I used projection on this
one; I did it in pieces. I adjust and shape it, too after I've finished projecting one
section."
"The Roman ruins at both ends are from one particular ruins site. I like the look of the
curved ruin and I used it for the left end of the wall. I'm really happy the way the ruins
on the left side turned out. I did this first because I thought it would be the hardest to get
a good feel for capturing the reflection in the water and the curve and the architecture."
"Since that garbage can is always there, originally I had planned to paint a bunch of
flowers in flowerpots on the garbage enclosure. I had wanted to but I ran out of time. It
undoubtedly would have required approval from the city, which would also have meant
trying to track down the right person and possibly having to deal with bureaucracy."
"I wanted people to get a real feel of Italy that's why I put the flowers around the edging
because they have and use a lot of wild roses the hills and the vineyards, white towns and
villages on the sides of mountains. There's the ocean and the blue sky because she
(Maria De Nardi) wanted it to be bright. I put Michelangelo's David in there because we
wanted the elements of Italy that people were familiar with; the Mona Lisa, Venice and
the gondoliers."
"I originally planned to have something from Verona because the owner really liked
Verona so I had a skyline in there of the city (see photo 2). After I'd done it I looked at it
repeatedly and in the last minute I decided it didn't work, the yellows and the Verona
skyline just didn't fit aesthetically with the rest of the art so I took it out."
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