East Reservoir community mural

This mural was commissioned by City of Darebin council as part of a scheme to beautify a neglected part of East Reservoir.

My design combines the use of my own personal surreal imagery to convey an image that is a metaphor for diversity, and creative spirit. Like a lot of Melbourne, Reservoir has a very diverse community and history. This suggested to me the idea of many different stories all of which sit on top of the original indigenous story of this and all of our surrounding communities. There is also a very strong spirit of creativity evident in the Darebin area, and I wanted to bring all of these elements together in a single image. The design features a central figure with arms outstretched appearing to be in flight, the figure’s eyes are closed as if in a dream state. This being is intentionally a little ambiguous in terms of any ethnic background or skin colour – in this way it is a representation of humanity as a whole. The being is multi coloured and appears to be breaking apart into abstract colour shapes and tendrils – as though spilling out across the sky and taking a new vibrant form. The colourful being represents both the diversity of cultures in Reservoir and Darebin and also the spirit of creativity.

To the figures right are a number of my own ‘Solarquin’ characters that have featured in a lot of my recent mural work, they too are meant to be creative spirits and sources of inspiration, they are also in flight on top of large Mollusk shells powered by Yellow Gum tree branches – a reference to the local native flora (this particular species is very prevalent in and around Darebin). Last but definitely not least to the left of the central being is a Wedge tailed eagle. This represents Bunjil – the central character in the indigenous Australian dream-time creation story. If reading the mural left to right like a book Bunjil features at the start, referencing the utmost importance of indigenous culture and depicting the first Australian Story.