Our Lady of Grace is a mural created by the artists Fluke, Guillaume Lapointe, Antonin Lambert, DoDo Ose and Bruno Rathbonef. The mural stands in the Notre-Dame-de-Grace neighborhood of Montreal, Canada. The first collaborative work by the the team of artists of A'shop, they were stepping out of their comfort zone, while showing the public the potential of graffiti artists and what they can do. Another purpose behind the project was to erase some of the gray of the city and as Fluke stated in an interview "Our city has way too much gray, so I hope this kickstarts a mural campaign. The architecture in Montreal is perfect for it."
The piece aimed to depict the Lady of Grace that the neighborhood is named for. The style is inspired by the Art Nouveau style of artist Alphonse Mucha. The mural has a symmetrical layout of panels where most of the painting is confined to. Aside from the woman and the tail of the bird on the left, which aren't only confined only to the frames of the panels. Most of the piece is done in warm colours with some cool blues and greens which create contrast. Six of the panels instead of depicting nature, depict key areas of the neighborhood. The pumpkins are also a part of the neighborhoods history as the marshy area used to be used to grow pumpkins. The only place inside the panels that is unpainted brick is the woman's front legs that fade from flesh tone to pure brick.
The history presented in the piece is very interesting, it aims to recreate the Lady of Grace the neighborhood is named for as well as some of the history of the area, which I feel it sucessfully accomplished. Something that I feel is very strong about the piece is the strong contrast, not only between warm and cool colours, but also in many other places. Such as the contract between, bare brick and paint as well as the past of Notre-Dame-de-Grace and the present. There is brighter colours in the panels that depict nature, making the more sepia toned city panels appear less immediately obvious in the composition, giving something interesting for the eye to notice and explore the piece for longer than a few quick seconds. I think the almost symmetrical composition of panels is very strong and helps draw the eyes even more so to the woman as she breaks the symmetry. There is a strong triangle created by the head of the woman and the two birds, which is enhanced by the woman's gaze that can be followed to the bird on her right, with both birds looking at her. Overall the piece is very pleasing to the eye and an excellent example that graffiti artists can be capable of something more classic. The idea's and themes come through very well and it is an excellent mural dedicated to the cities neighborhood.
