We’d like to wish you all a happy and restful holiday (we will blame it being belated on the blanket of snow and cold that has descended on the region). We hope you’re warm and safe.

AND here’s our latest in our ongoing weekly posts focusing on Welland based artists, artworks in the city of Welland, and how these help to define the cultural landscape of the city and region.

With our weekly posts about Welland artists and significant artistic works in the city, WCN is continuing to highlight the Welland Murals.

TELL ME ABOUT THE OLDEN DAYS | DAN SAWATZKY | 1989 (located at 201 East Main Street, Welland)

Dan Sawatzky is primarily a self-taught artist, who has been described as a creative force and a visual storyteller. There’s often a whimsical quality to his creations that focus on preserving everyday, humble objects of our heritage (his other contribution to the Welland Murals is also an everyday scene that acts as much as a moment of memory as an artwork). Sawatzky is unique in that he is one of a handful of artists who has made a career as a full time mural painter (In 1991, for example, he painted 14 murals in North America and Japan).

This mural depicts the arrival of immigrants in Welland circa 1910.

Sawatzky’s murals are focused upon colour and light, rather than intricate detail, to suggest mood and locale. Many of his public art works are focused upon how best to tell historical stories pictorially.

You can see much more of his work – in a variety of mediums – here: https://www.imaginationcorporation.com/

Follow WCN on social media and sign up for our newsletter. We will continue – both in partnership with groups or overcoming apathy from others – to platform the issue of the Welland Murals, and to push forward in using this situation as a lever to improve civic commitment to culture (and ensuring that responsibilities are met, and will be met, in the future).