Blogging is hard work!! Ha! I missed a day so don't shoot me. But I needed one day to visit a close friend of mine and his fiance and had no internet. Am I forgiven?

So today we got up early and I spent the morning in West vancouver in coffee shops chatting about the mural at the games. Lost of interesting chatter about it. Then we went off to the venue and found the mural room packed with large groups of students who were being shown the mural and then going through workshops in front of the mural. The instructors did a rap/poetry session which was done as a collaborative with the students and they used the mural as a symbol of how to collaborate. Unity through Diversity. Too cool...

Then we went off to see the Olympic Flame, meet up with CTV and the Vancouver Sun. Media is starting to line up. Its exciting!!

Must admit Vancouver is alive and it feels very friendly and spirited. I se only the good. When I can see so many people from around the world gather together in such a positive way it truly is wonderful thing to experience. Reminds me of the night of the unveiling as so many of the artists came from so many regions and from so many varied backgrounds and had such a great time through one unifying event. The world needs more of this...

Oh Yeah----http://www.muralmosaic.com

WE DID IT! The unveiling went off without a hitch today! It started with a lot of preparation getting ready for the big crowd expected and sure enough it arrived. The mayor of West Vancouver made the official welcoming on behalf of the Olympics and the city and thanked all the artists for their contirbution to the true Olympic spirit. The artists , VIP guests and friends and family watched as the mural was unveiled to gasps and cheers!

I have posted only a few images tonight as I am exhausted and my video below has a sampling of the day. More images will follow but I am thrilled to say- KUNAMOKST is now unveiled!!!!!

We worked our butts off from sun up to sun down and got the mural hung!! All is set to go and we are very excited. There is a buzz in the venue and already they are saying this is their number 1 feature. Pretty wonderful to hear all the positive comments today.

Things went smoothly although the load in was hard and I must have nicked my hands five times and felt like everytime I stopped bleeding I'd nick my hand again. Luckily my life of a million injuries has trained my body to heal quickly so as fast as I cut myself just as quickly I healed.

Paul and I slugged away with some help from the Centre's staff. We hauled the mural up two flights of stairs, built a wall, then carefully placed all 231 paintings into place. The mural looks AMAZING!!!

We were incredibly excited about how the day was going until I spoke with the media consultant and she shared with me the news of the tragedy on the luge with the athlete dying. It was quite a shock to be in an environment of so much excitement and positive energy and then to learn of a young man losing his life in such a horrible way. I send my prayers out to his family. I can;t imagine the loss.

On other notes I watched the opening ceremonies!!!!!....from my parents home ;-). They were amazing!! Except for the unfortunate technical difficulties and poor Wayne Gretzky having to hitch hike a ride on a truck for 100 km's to light the outdoor flame. Let the games begin!!

...and tomorrow...let the mural be unveiled! I can not wait to see all the artists celebrate over a year and a half of artistic creativity and hard work combined into one beautiful mural! I am so proud of all that contributed and all that have been so supportive since day 1! It is going to be a great day! SEE YOU THERE!~~ 3:00 p.m. -Spirit Square- West Vancouver BC info at http://www.muralmosaic.com/

We MADE IT!! Today we arrived at the Vancouver mural site safe and sound! It was another long day but we pulled it off without a hitch. Glenn Madsen with the West Vancouver Centre greeted us and we were made to feel very welcome and they are VERY excited to have the mural as part of their Olympic venue. We spent the afternoon going over the venue and planning the set up for Friday. We will begin the set up at 8 a.m.. Both Paul and I have to stay at our families homes which are in Port Coquitlam and Abbotsford so we have a bit of a hike in the a.m. So tomorrow we leave our temporary homes at 6 a.m. and spend the day getting ready. The coffee will be an absolute delight tomorrow morning thats for sure.

So tomorrw we will give you step by step set up fun time photos! Looking forward to showing you the mural as it comes to life...but not the whole thing!! too bad for you hahahahaha ....you have to wait one more day!! The fun is now about to begin!

Watch for hourly updates at http://twitter.com/philalain

Once my cell phone is in range again that is!

http://www.muralmosaic.com

PHIL ALAIN and Mural Mosaic - Road to the Olympics

Wow...long day! from 8 a.m. Wednesday morning until 4 p.m. in the afternoon loading up the van then got on the road and drove as far as we could until 11 p.m.. We are becoming "tetrus" champs with our packing abilities when taking our show on the road. Who would have thought we could fit so much into a cargo van. Paul Lavoie and myself set off today to get the mural set up in vancouver for the unveiling before Saturday with Lewis Lavoie and his family coming on Friday and bringing anything we may have forgotten. Or should I say that we WILL have forgotten. It was a busy day dealing with media, the planning committee in Vancouver at the venue and pretty much everything else. The drive was pretty good. More or less uneventful except for a truck driver who was swerving everywhere. We thought he was drunk but when we passed him it turned out he was just busy doing some work on his 17 inch screen computer while he was driving. Silly us bothering him driving while he worked away. Ran into some snow but not too bad. Stopped in Clearwater for the night. Its great as the hotel LOVES Christmas. Decorated Reindeer , Christmas trees and choo choo trains adorn the hotel. No cell phone service but we have internet so I can blog for you! Tomorrow we take vancouver by storm!!! Keep sending the good vibes so we make the last half of the trip safely. Here is a video of our adventure today...

Kunamokst on the road to the Olympics

Today was a hectic day. It was the last day we could formally plan to make sure we had all that we need before the drive begins.

Our hope is to leave tomorrow and drive at least half way. There is snow and rain in the forecast for the mountains so we will make sure to take it easy. We want to make sure we get there in one piece. Also of course get the mural there in one piece as well...or should i say in 231 pieces. We made a little intro to the unveiling though for you to enjoy! Watch right to the very end of the clip!! Wish us good luck on our travels and we will see you all in Vancouver for the big unveiling!!!

Robert Bateman Rod Charlesworth
Charity Dakin Michelle Grant

Well its late and I am trying to get my blog in for the day. We have decided to leave one day earlier for Vancouver to be safe so the workload today was a bit heavier. I fully expect tomorrow to be even more so. We spent today making signage, making sure we had all the tools to build the mural wall, double check all the paintings and anything else we could think of...which seemed to be never ending. At the same time some media popped by and did some interviews as we packed. So needless to say it was a full day. We had full intentions of posting a video today but time just didn't allow it. Not to mention dealing with emails, making sure all our angles are covered when we arrive in Vancouver as far as accommodations and loading the mural in etc. Luckily so far all has fallen into place. We always wish we had an extra week (or two) but we don't. Just days now until the big day so no sense wishing for options we do not have. So rather then blogging too late tonight I better get to bed and put in a good shift tomorrow. Lots of people counting on us so rest is probably the wise move and get a fresh start in the a.m..

My goal is to show some good photos of us getting ready tomorrow. AND...a video.... :-).

Goodnight.

KUNAMOKST workshop from Red Letter Films on Vimeo.

Phil Alain- Kunamokst Mural Mosaic Road to the Olympics Day 6

Its Sunday....less then a week to the unveiling. I have decided this needs to be a day off as I will not have a day off now for almost three weeks. So its a great day to spend with my fiance relaxing and watching the super bowl. Yes...I am an artist who loves sports. So to have the mural at the Olympics this year is a double thrill for me. Tomorrow will be chaos at the studio though as we will only have two full days to get all the final details set. So on this day off I wanted to pick a handful of paintings from the mural to show some incredible diversity in the mural. These pictures posted here are only a small portion of the amazing art in the mural. Whats even more amazing is that all of these pictures can actually be combined together to make another even bigger unified image. WITH NO COMPUTER SPECIAL EFFECTS!! None of the artists knowing each other, none of the artists knowing what the big picture will be. All they know is their own style and their own voice will combine with others to make a powerful legacy to the west coast. Enjoy these few samples here then go to the website and randomly click on numbers. You can see every picture...without knowing what the big picture will be. Its amazing to enjoy each painting one at a time and truly appreciate each artists work. You can even adventure deeper as each artist has their web page listed by their paintings so you can see what they do when not working with us creating these murals. Enjoy....More Monday!!

http://www.muralmosaic.com/

April White

Ron Wilson Ray Martin Laura Levitsky Mark HobsonMichael Gerencser Mary ConleyDennis Weber Barry Tate

Working in the studio today doing the Olympic shuffle. What does that mean you say? Well...I guess its the same as butterflies in your stomach. Knowing we are responsible for representing over 180 artists work as best we can at an international event is a bit unnerving.But we also have done it before so there is the hidden confidence. But you never know what can happen. We have to drive through the mountains in winter time from Edmonton to Vancouver and will probably have to do it in one day so that itself will be a bit of a stress. There is no second chances to get the mural there so we better not have any problems. I will document the weather and the driving as we go. Say lots of prayers and cheer us on so it all goes smoothly.

I know from my perspective this mural is going to be a very special one. We have had so many honors in our lives with the murals. international TV shows, magazine features and even a special moment with Queen Elizabeth II in 2005. But here we are now heading to be part of one of the biggest events in the world!!! Pretty darn exciting!! We are also thrilled because we have such an incredible team of artists in the mural as well. Roy Henry Vickers, April White, Judy Baca, WYLAND, Charity Dakin, Gordon Henschel, Keith Holmes, Kenna Fair etc etc and of course ROBERT BATEMAN who I am so honored to once again have in the mural. As we all know artists have incredibly busy schedules as it is so any artist taking the time to be in the mural is so appreciated. Mr Bateman has twice participated in our murals so for him to share his time twice is truly an honor. But these are only a few of the artists. There are over 180!!!! I always want to name them all as no one is more important then the other as each painting is necessary to make the mural come to life. So check out the mural team at this link herehttp://www.muralmosaic.com/Kunamokst/artists.html

So as a preview to the incredible art within the mural watch this video!! You will see that the mural is going to be pretty amazing!!!

http://www.muralmosaic.com

Gosh- I can;t believe how busy it is getting ready for the Olympics. On top of that i spent the last two days at the teachers convention talking about the murals and how they are great ways to unite people and are wonderful projects not only for artists but for students. Its great to work with students on these murals because no matter how small the contribution to these murals and no matter what the skill level- in the end all the students feel an incredible sense of pride and belonging.
I am going to post pictures tomorrow on the mural preparation as I go to the studio and put in a few hours on the weekend as time is running short until we blast off. Then the interesting photo's will start to come to life!

This is my day 3 and 4 countdown on the road to the Olympics...although the blog is still firing up on the interest level for my readers it's a very crazy interesting time with us. I am going to try to post a sneak peak preview on video of some of the amazing art in the mural.

Look for the goods tomorrow!! Keep checking mural mosaic for intersting updates too!! www.muralmosaic.com

Day 2 on the road to the Olympics. We are busy in the studio trying to get as much organized as possible. Contacting media, getting supplies ready, getting web design set....lots to do. While we do all of this we still have to focus on other projects as well so needless to say we are busy busy. West Vancouver is getting all set for the mural. now know that we will be setting the mural up on February 12th all day in preparation for the big unveiling day on the 13th. Conny Nordin from Galiano has been helping spread the word to the media of this exciting mural being unveiled. It is looking like almost 70-80 od the artists who helped create the mural will be in attendance at the unveiling which is phenomenal!!

There will be photos to be posted soon but here is a news clip from Can West that talks about the mural and the big unveiling coming soon!!

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/Mural+made+piece/2259623/story.html

The excitement is building as we begin the trek to Vancouver for the 2010 Olympics to unveil the Galiano Island inspired mural mosaic project KUNAMOKST! Its been quite a process. The mural project technically began back in 2005 when we unveiled the mural Buffalo Twins and it was shown in Vancouver. At that time we set a goal to unveil a mural in the Olympics and it was reported by CTV on a national news story. So since then we put pressure on ourseleves to acheive this goal. In collaboration with 180 extremely talented artists and the island of Galiano and the Galiano Inn spearheading the mural in to existence - we are set to unveil the mural at the Olympics before it ends up permanently on the beautiful island of Galiano.

Here is the CTV national news story from 2005:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYAXgMfmlZU&feature=player_embedded

The mural creation process began in 2009 but our first workshop was held on Galiano island at the Galiano Ocean front Inn and Spa and was an incredible experience. Here is how it all began in pictures:Artists Watch the Instructions For The MuralOUR YOUNGEST MURAL ARTIST WITH LEWIS LAVOIEIntroducing the mural with Lewis Lavoie watching onDistributing the panels for the artists to paint

Galiano Island is going to be a beautiful permanent place for the mural to rest. Check out the Galiano Inn's beautiful garden's....A beautiful mural should be in a beautiful place!!

So we are just gathering the mural and the wall we need to display it on and starting to pack to head to West Vancouver!!! More coming soon!! Follow us here as we head to the Olympics! Watch other murals come to life on our website here too- http://www.muralmosaic.com