While out walking the neighbourhood, some of you may have noticed a new mural that’s popped up by the club here.
The 30 foot graffiti piece has turned many heads – including ours – so we thought we’d reach out to the artist, Pat Lazo, (distantly social of course) to find out more. See below.
Enjoy!
Title- ” This Too Shall Pass”
Medium- Spraypaint on house wrap stapled to the fence at Darling and Ashland
Size – approximately 30 feet x 6 feet.
RVCC: Please introduce yourself:
Lazo: My name is Pat Lazo, I have been a Riverview resident for over 12 years. I am the Artistic Director/co Founder Graffiti Art Programming aka (Graffiti Gallery), I am a mural painter, artist, and tattooist at Osborne Village Ink.
RVCC: What inspired the work?
Lazo: We fell in love with the neighbourhood and the location of our home because of the proximity to the community centre, daycare and schools for our future family. I love hearing the basketballs, sound of tennis matches, baseball games, pucks against the boards, and kids playing in the playground. During the quarantine we don’t hear any of that and it is really sad. I felt the need to paint something to remind me to keep going, and I thought to make the message big enough for all the passers by to see.
“This Too Shall Pass” was chosen as it was something I would say to myself while my son was hospitalized when born premature at 25 weeks almost 4 years ago. He was hospitalized for what seemed like an eternity and came home after 115 days in the NICU at ST B. Many Riverview Healthcare workers park on our block as it does not have the 1hr times restrictions and I thought it would be a nice positive thing to see when they go back to their cars after a long stressful day at work.
I used spraypaint and in the back ground painted virus looking orbs and a darker background in the background at the beginning of the mural and gradually made it brighter with stars hearts and arrows to show progress closer to the end of the mural. I used approximately 15 cans of spray paint and took approximately 12 hrs- 15 hrs when my son was napping or after dinner during quarantine.
RVCC: Any key message you want the community to take away from your work?
I realize everyone was dealing with their own problems before all of this happened… those on their own could have been a heavy burden…. then add the issues a pandemic and all that comes with it. I just wanted to create a reminder to our community what I have been saying to myself “This too Shall Pass”
RVCC: How can people follow your work and where else can they see it?
You can find me on Instagram @patlazo @patlazoart or email me at patricklazo@gmail.com.