Community expresses feelings through artwork

Heavy showers and autumn winds were not enough to deter budding artists from making their individual mark at an original community art event recently.

Locals and visitors alike were given an opportunity by Mangawhai Art Society on April 29 and 30 to paint their reflections and thoughts of the area on small cutouts of Mangawhai’s iconic symbol, the stingray.

The ‘mini-rays’ will then be mounted on two larger stingrays already attached on an outer wall of the Moir Street Art Gallery, to form a community collaborative piece of art.

Stingray Project coordinator, Rosina Kamphuis, says the event received a ‘very positive response’ with interest in the project and art community shown by people of all ages and localities.

“Absolutely marvelous. From nine o’clock Saturday morning, it was a full-house,” she says. “We had just over 100 mini-rays cut and half of those were used by Saturday midday.”

People who attended were encouraged to contemplate and visualise what they believed was precious about Mangawhai, Kamphuis says, to widen their awareness and make a conscious connection to the environment.

“It was lovely to see families working together, the children have been totally absorbed in their creations,” she says. “Parents don’t often get an opportunity to relax and paint for themselves as they’re so busy and some artists deliberated for hours over their work.”

Once the colourful mini-rays have been through an anti-vandalism process and compiled, participating artists will be invited to attend an opening of the completed artwork, an expression of how the community feels about ‘Magical Mangawhai’.