A newcomer to the local art scene will be putting a fresh face on Okotoks’ downtown.
Months after submissions were first requested, a design from 28-year-old Okotoks area artist Derek Birkmann has been chosen in a mural contest put on by the Olde Towne Okotoks Merchants Group.
The emerging artistic talent, who has never had a show of his work at a local gallery, said he was delighted to be selected as the painter who will bring a new look to the west wall of the Re/Max building on Elizabeth Street.
“I was very pleased,” he said. “I know Okotoks has a lot of great artists. I’ve been to Altitude Art Gallery and I have seen a lot of the work from artists around here. I was very excited to be chosen and honoured.”
Birkmann made a design submission to the contest shortly after the Olde Towne merchants announced they were looking for a new mural.
The artist said he was able to set his concept in his mind quickly.
“I knew very early on what I wanted to include in the mural,” Birkmann said. “I really wanted to try and capture the small town feel of Okotoks. I really wanted to showcase a lot of the most recognizable parts of Olde Towne. I also wanted to give it a warm family feel.”
Birkmann explained his mural concept is an assemblage of elements regular downtown visitors should know well.
“It will have the clock tower and some of the more recognizable older buildings downtown,” the artist said. “The Olde Towne logo is going to be kind of a prominent factor in the finished product as well.”
The painter is a new face on the local arts scene. He graduated from Ontario’s University of Waterloo in 2005 with a Major in Fine Arts. He moved to Okotoks with his girlfriend just last year and recently made an address change to an acreage just three minutes from the town limits.
Birkmann explained he’s had the chance to paint murals before in Ontario but now the artist welcomes the chance to create a lasting one in his current hometown.
Dr. Marco Bregliano is the newly appointed president of the Olde Towne Okotoks Merchants Group. The veterinarian at the Elizabeth Street Pet Hospital said the four months it took the group to select the winning mural design was mostly just a case of many other things being on the organization’s plate.
“As members, we meet once a month and we do table quite a few things to be discussed for each meeting,” he said. “And we did have to wait until all the submissions were in.”
Bregliano said at the end of the decision process it was down to a couple of top contenders.
“We narrowed it to down to two entries,” he said. “They were fairly close in quality. However, in the final vote only two members didn’t select what was ultimately the winning entry.”
There is no timeline in place for the completion of the new mural, which will replace the destinations of the world themed work that’s currently on the exterior of the Re/Max office.
Birkmann said he hopes to get going on it as soon as the weather gets warm and stays warm on a consistent basis.
