QEPCCC Public Art: A mural by Kayla Whitney

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About

Kayla Whitney is a graduate of OCAD University in Drawing and Painting. She is also known as Koe Design, a passion project turned dream career with a focus on creating public art, engaging with communities to beautify neighbourhoods, and creating safe, inviting and inspiring places all over the greater Toronto Hamilton area. Public projects include the cities of Toronto, Hamilton and Collingwood as well as work for The Globe and Mail, Holt Renfrew, The YWCA, and many others. Her goal as a publicly engaged artist is to facilitate a safe, supportive and encouraging space for other artists, community members and the general public where they can come fully into their own unique potential.

The artist offers about her practice:

I am especially interested in creating community focused art. I love to create work that is for everyone; work that makes everyone feel good, represented, beautiful, at home, safe and welcome.

I’m interested in art as a way to express shared experiences of positivity and learning as they exist within community. I think we are one another’s greatest source of connection and inspiration and, to me, art is the perfect space for us to take time and notice this, to reflect on what we give to our communities, and what they in turn give us back. We all live within and amongst connection but to see it is to grasp it, this most essential and important truth. Community and beauty are synonymous to me and in my work I try and bring this out, to watch objects, colour, faces, actions, environments, ideas and spirit all become one as this is the way I experience the world, and I think the way most people experience the world. I believe it’s important to take the time to notice this, it helps us to live with a little more awareness and a lot more appreciation.

Organizer

Town of Oakville

The Town of Oakville is located on Treaty 14 and 22 lands, the territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, and traditional territory of the Huron-Wendat and the Haudenosaunee. Oakville is home to many different First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. A vibrant and impressive community within the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), the Town of Oakville is a beautiful lakeside town with a strong heritage, preserved and celebrated by residents and visitors alike. Since the 1800s, it has become one of the most coveted areas to live and work in Ontario, with 225,000 residents calling Oakville home. The town offers all the advantages of a well-serviced urban centre with first-rate facilities and amenities while maintaining its small-town feel.