Sydonne Warren says she was overwhelmed with the volume of supportive comments on her striking artwork as it came together in 2023.

“As I was working on the mural on site, people started stopping or commenting on my Instagram feed just because of how large it is and they were commenting on the colour and flavour of it. As it got closer to completion I received more and more positive feedback,” says Warren, who was hired as the lead artist and worked with emerging artist Mide Kadiri on the community engagement and design.

The roughly 7-metre piece consists of images and scenes reflective of Warren’s interpretation of the community's past, present and future all accomplished in a super-hero graphic style.

Warren found out she was successful in her bid to be part of the project in May of this year. Part of the intricate process of preparation included engaging with community members and youth across the northeast to get a solid sense of how best to represent the community. While the conversations gave Warren the ideas she needed to get the project off the ground, it was one encounter with a local Blackfoot elder in particular that informed her work in a powerful way

“(The elder) had attended a residential school and had been profoundly negatively impacted by that but he was so committed to making sure the youth in his midst were not weighed down by his experience,” reflects Warren. “He kept emphasizing that his mission was to support youth in new opportunities and to shield them from having anger in their hearts. I was particularly moved by that and wanted the mural to embody a spirit of vibrancy and hope.”

City of Calgary public art project manager, Toyin Oladele says the bridge mural project is a bold symbol of celebration of the flavour of northeast Calgary.

"We created a whole Northeast Public Art Initiative to address what we found was a lack of public art in the northeast compared to other parts of the city, and this bridge mural project really nails it in terms of capturing the essence of community and the fact that the northeast has become synonymous with people from all different cultures living together in a colourful way," says Oladele.