CANMORE – As a born and raised Canmorite, Jillian Amatt was honoured to give back to her hometown.
Amatt, along with Chris DeCap, completed a mural at the Canmore Legion overlooking the Cenotaph.
After more than 100 hours of work – which also saw some delays as colder and rainy weather struck Canmore – the final product will be a lasting memory of Amatt’s and DeCap’s art.
“It’s the ultimate privilege. I feel so honoured to be painting in Canmore, not only from being from here, but also at the Legion which is one of the last local strongholds in the town,” Amatt said outside the Legion, during a brief break from putting the final touches on the mural.
“There’s a lot of friends of parents and people I grew up with who come here. It’s really nice to be leaving a mark at a place like this. It’s a very happy experience.”
The pair was first contacted by the Legion in 2019 about doing a mural, but Amatt and DeCap were about to travel to Africa and the COVID-19 pandemic further delayed the creation.
The two returned to Canmore in the spring, where they’ll be housesitting until mid-August with an expected return to Europe, and are looking for a venue to display their work, the process and where they’ve travelled in recent years.
Amatt said they aimed to have something more solemn, with the mural featuring poppies and a repainting of the cenotaph to make the names more visible and eye-popping paint.
“We wanted it to be solemn, yet happy,” she said. “Mostly with our art we try to spread joy. Most of what we paint is super colourful, happy. We didn’t want to make it too sad.”
Amatt wasn’t an artist by trade, but moved to British Columbia in her early 20s where it “sparked artistic visions.”
However, it wasn’t until the two began travelling full-time that art became a more dominant part of their lives.
DeCap is a tattoo artist by trade, while Amatt had experience with 3D art and pottery. The two sold or donated all their possessions in 2017 to head to Costa Rica.
It was there they had a hostel owner ask if they could paint a mural in exchange for free accommodation.
“We were like, sure, why not? We went for it, did it and from that point, we realized we were trying to be full-time travellers and find ways to save money and travel cheaply and we realized our artistic skills could be translated for food and accommodation,” Amatt said. “We started offering our services to hostels and restaurants and as we travel we’ve been painting murals around the world.”
Since then, Amatt and DeCap have travelled to South America, Europe and Africa. After spending time in places such as Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Mexico, Turkey and Uganda, the two found a spot in Kikorongo, Uganda near Queen Elizabeth National Park and close to the Democratic Republic of Congo border.
In Kikorongo, they helped fundraise to assist with food and water for the village, which is still using a more than 8,000-litre water tank.
The mural will be highlighted at the Legion for the foreseeable future, with Amatt emphasizing the excitement of leaving something in the community she was raised in.
“We see our art as a way of spreading love through the world, so spreading love through art is our tagline. It’s taking us to all sorts of interesting places and getting to know locals and staying in areas for a long time.”
For more information on Amatt and DeCap’s travels and art, visit: https://artisticvoyages.com/.
