MOOSE JAW — Local artist Trea Stafford, with help from mentor Mark Gilliland, is once again brightening the Moose Jaw Public Library children's section with a window mural, space-themed to go along with the exciting summer program grant that the MJPL has received from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
Stafford has been painting murals for the MJPL for several years now, contributing his design talents to inspire young visitors and to spark their creativity and interest in learning. He is a person with Asperger's, which means he has difficulties with reading social cues, understanding the unwritten social rules most people take for granted, and expressing his emotions in a conventional way. It's important to give people with Asperger's the space and time they need to process information and communicate in their own way, and to approach interactions with empathy and acceptance.
"Trea and I have done, I suppose about five or six murals commissioned by the library," Mark Gilliland said. Gilliland has been teaching art for people with intellectual disabilities at the Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery (MJMAG) for almost 20 years. He is also involved with a wide variety of other mentoring programs in Moose Jaw, including as head coach at the canoe and kayak club and president of the ACT/UCT club.
"The library has a theme of space and space exploration for the summer, so this mural is in keeping with that theme," Gilliland explained. "We're pretty pleased with it, we've probably put about 12 hours into it already. Today, we're gonna lay on some black, really make it dramatic with a black night sky, and we've got some kids from Southwest Daycare and Early Learning Centre coming to watch us work and ask a few questions."
Stafford designed the mural using the famous 1968 "Earthrise" photo from the Apollo 8 mission — the first human spaceflight to reach the moon. He also added a few personal touches, like a grinning sunglasses-wearing sun in one corner, a moon lander, and the International Space Station.
The duo paint for a couple of hours a day and are anticipating it will take about another week to finish.
"It's been called the most significant environmental photograph ever taken," Gilliland explained. "We've all seen sunrises and moonrises, but no had seen an earthrise until Apollo 8. ... Plus Trea's put his own whimsy and humour into it. The sun is obviously not a realistic depiction. And then we have an inspirational quote on here, and we decided on 'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.'"
"We enjoy coming down to the library because we get a lot of wonderful support," said Lucille Gilliland, executive director of Southwest Daycare and Early Learning Centre. "The last little while, we've been doing a space theme just like the library, and they've given us some amazing pictures and activities, and the kids love it. So, we've come down here to see what they're working on.
"It's amazing to see Trea taking his drawing and putting it into this mural, and it will help teach our children about our world and how to take care of it. Our kids all know Mark from all his community work and art activities, so they get to see the possibilities of art and what they can do and they get to talk with Trea and watch him work. And we like bringing parts of the community together and helping to support the library, so we're happy to be here."
