New murals unveiled in “Art Alley” in Amherstburg

Dylan and Dennis White created a new mural on the back of the BeaverTails store.

A pair of new murals have been unveiled in Art Alley.

The alley, which runs between Ramsay St. and Dalhousie St. and in between Richmond and Murray St. businesses, now has two new murals. Amherstburg artists Dennis and Dylan White have completed a new mural on the back wall of Beavertails while Michigan artist Kevin Burdick completed another across the way.

Dennis said they were approached by Peddie about adding another mural to the alley. He said they met with Beavertails co-owner George Winter and decided to create a “Canadian scene” on the back of the store.

“The wall was a little rough,” said White. “We had to prepare the wall (before painting the mural). It took us five days start to finish.”

White painted the Beatles-themed mural on the rear of the neighbouring Musicland building. He said there was consideration to keep going with that theme but they knew another business – which turned out to be Beavertails – was coming in so they held off on that idea. He said they were glad to create a different type of mural.

“It’s nice to brighten up the wall back there,” said White.

While painting their mural, White said he and Dylan met Burdick while he was painting his mural across the alley. He said they exchanged information and it could lead to future projects.

Kevin Burdick created a new mural last week in the “Art Alley” in Amherstburg’s downtown core.

“It’s good to meet other artists,” he said. 

White said they encourage other artists to interact and that could lead to different types of projects. One project White would like to work on is painting a mural on the back of Thistle Masonic Lodge No. 34. He hopes something can be worked out to create art on the rear of that building, believing it could enhance the alley.“It would be nice to see the whole area with artwork,” he said.

The support for the current murals in the Art Alley has been tremendous from both the community and local businesses, he added. Without the support of local business owners in the area, the expansion of local art projects may not have happened.

Burdick has his own business known as Scrap Designs and lives just south of Flint, Michigan. Art Crawl committee chair Richard Peddie has a nephew who lives in Michigan and is familiar with Burdick’s work. One thing led to another and Burdick came to Amherstburg.

Burdick said he will return to the Amherstburg Art Crawl, which will be held July 18-20.

Noting he went to art school, Burdick said he fell in love with street art after seeing it and believes now is a “golden age” for street art and murals. He now travels across the United States painting murals, and comes to Canada as well. He has a painting in Windsor but most of his work is in Michigan and has work in 20 U.S. states.

The new mural has family ties.

“It’s loosely based on my son,” he said. 

The mural features the saying “Art is the Answer” and shows how imagination and art goes together. He said while given a few ideas, he was largely able to create his Amherstburg mural with his own design. Most of it was with spray cans and it took him three days to create.

“Everything is coming out of (his son’s) imagination,” said Burdick.

Burdick said it was his first time in Amherstburg and enjoyed it.

“Everyone has been super welcoming,” he said. “The people have been awesome – the stereotypical Canadians. Super nice.”

New murals unveiled in “Art Alley” in Amherstburg

By Ron Giofu