Mural-Water Street

ARTIST: MIQUE MICHELLE
DATE: MAY, 2022
DOORYARD ARTS FESTIVAL and FESTIVAL INSPIRE

Mique Michelle, a Franco-Ontarienne originally from West Nipissing uses graffiti as a way to send a message and raise awareness.. She is convinced that murals, just like all elements of hip hop can offer solutions to stop the discrimination.  Michelle briefly studied culinary management at Canadore College and then pursued political science at Carleton University and the University of Ottawa.

As a métisse, Michelle says she experienced incidents of racism in her community. It wasn’t until she lived in France when she was given a can of spray paint at a protest that her interest in graffiti art started.  Michelle grew up about 45 minutes from Sudbury with a river in her front lawn and a lake on her back lawn — specifically the Sturgeon River and Muskasung Lake.  Given her deep connection to these two bodies of water, it doesn't seem unusual that she chose the Atlantic sturgeon as the subject of the mural painted on Water Street. The Saint John River is one of the known spawning locations for Atlantic sturgeon in Canadian waters.

The subject also fits well with how Michelle, a non-status Métis, thinks we should celebrate Canada. In her mind, we should celebrate “all the mountains, the animals, the fish, everything that we have that's already been here.