On Sunday, October 5 we revealed a beautiful new mural, called “Growing Together”, which is now mounted on the exterior south wall of our hall, facing our native plant rain garden.
The mural was designed by artist, Chris Olguin, who is a resident of Highland Park. Multiple volunteers collaborated to paint this colourful art piece within the design that Chris created and bring it to fruition. The large mural shows a woman whose peaceful, smiling face is raised up to the sky, with her long hair flowing out behind her, highlighting different connected elements of nature: water, a starry sky, the sun, mountains, birds, pollinators, and native plants. In the bottom right corner of the mural, you can also see the woman’s heart is growing in her chest.
As Chris stated during the reveal, the mural is designed to show “our deep connection to nature” and how “what we do affects nature and how we are affected by nature.” The mural represents the inter-connectedness of the ecosystem. Native plants, such as those represented in the mural and those planted in our rain garden, work efficiently together to help prevent flooding by better absorbing excess rainwater, and providing food and habitat for native birds, bees, and butterflies. If you want to learn more about rain gardens, please visit the website of the organization that worked with Highland Park to design and plant our rain garden, ALIDP (Alberta Low Impact Development Partnership).
If you want to learn more about the benefits of native plants, there are several sites that can be found with an internet search, one of which is the City of Calgary’s site: https://www.calgary.ca/water/programs/yardsmart-native-wildflowers.html.
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