Muralist’s art ‘weapon of mass creation’

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Charlie Johnston has been at it again. This time in the West End.

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Whenever he strikes, a colorful menagerie of characters, action and story, usually one of huge proportions, is left behind.

Think back, have you ever driven or walked by the Hydro Building depicting two children gazing at a blue sky with fluffy clouds in the Polo Park area? Charlie.

The massive street car in a 1930’s scene at St. Regis Hotel downtown, Charlie.

A horse race (Portage and Simcoe), Lionel L. Fitzgerald (Portage and Maryland), Italian soccer, Valour Road veterans, dancers, wolves, race cars, bees, soldiers, local celebrities and historical figures. Charlie, Charlie, Charlie, Charlie.

He has over 50 murals in Winnipeg alone.

He has hundreds scattered on buildings all over Canada, the US and even in China.

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He’s created roughly 11 acres of mural art in his career.

All this was unknown to me, as I stood one day contemplating one of his most recent fanciful works on a Sargent Ave. brick building, I decided there that I would make it my mission to get ahold of him.

I had questions…. a curiosity that grew every time I saw this mural…a sleepy gigantic mouse in pj’s, a tiny freaked out purple striped cat, a complicated machine coming out of cheese holes, and a wacky looking lean man in pointed shoes, green jacket, goggles, wild white hair under a top hat ringed with random items.

His hands are holding the handle that would manipulate the machine to lower a tiny mouse trap hanging above the mouse. Crazy!

Looney tunes! A page out of a children’s book by a master illustrator, but WHAT was it about?

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I pulled open the office door on the other side of the mural…of Five Stones Inc. and chatted to the owners, Stephanie and Travis Unger. Do you know what this is about? No, they said, the artist is Charlie Johnston though. Look him up! So I did. And I found out who that man was on the mural, the one with the intense eyes looking through those goggles, pointed shoes and top hat.

It was Charlie.

“Coffee?” he offered, after sweeping up dry pine needles off the floor, bare socks making headway up the stairs. I had dropped by for a chat, and was familiar with houses like these. I live in one similar…the style from 100 years ago, a two story Winnipeg century house. Lots of story here, memories, character. Like the owner, although Johnston isn’t 100 years old.

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I spied another mouse in the room. Did I mention he also sculpts?

“This mouse is part of my Wonderland series sculptures,” he said. “I have a rabbit I’ll show you later in the other room.”

Wonderland, ah yes. Now I realized what I was getting into. The world of Charlie Johnston, the brain behind the paint and brush.

He started mural craft in his 20’s, breaking into the world and work of silk screen billboards after graduating from the Fine Arts program at the University of Manitoba. Construction jobs followed after that. Electrical work. Painting. Installing steel structures.

“This was not my calling and I was left wondering what I was doing this for.

I realized later, I was learning fundamental skills of my life work,” Johnston remembers.

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The 90’s saw him shift into more designing and setting up scaffolding for painting bigger and bigger murals on outdoor buildings.

“A Better Mousetrap,” the mural on Sargent Ave is the second mural of a three part series of his ‘Wonderland’ theme. Sponsored by West End city councillor Cindy Gilroy and West End Biz, he spent four Saturdays in a row, painting and chatting with those stopping to watch.

The first in the series, “Fractal Tea Time,” can be found on a building in Selkirk.

“One man stood to watch for a while, and then went home to bring his son. They both stood there to watch!” he said. “It’s all about attitude,” he continues, “I’d like to think the murals bring that feeling of life and vibrancy to the streets. It invigorates the streets with creativity for anyone to experience. It’s kind of like setting a tension trap out there…it grabs your attention away from whatever you are thinking about and puts you in another place, puts you in Wonderland.”

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“Real art is about transformation” he says, “I like to take the thought process to another level. The power needed to create is greater than that to destroy. Like my logo, of atoms spinning around protons and neutrons at the center. Art is the weapon of mass creation.”

His weapon of mass creations around the city, province and the country are set to last for at least 75 years, with the type of paint available these days.

That is enough time to inspire many generations of artists old and new. One of his favourite jobs is to collaborate with other artists or children in school projects.

650 children in a science school in Calgary were guided by Johnston through a project that each one saw an ugly building they walked by everyday to their playground, transformed into a multi level colorful “Urban Universe.”

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He is sure they will never forget their experience, and hopes they realize the world around them as a canvas (or brick wall) just waiting for the creative touch of their creative minds and hands.

Driving home after meeting Johnston, I passed at least five murals that I now knew as his.

The mystery was solved in “The Better Mousetrap,” and I was discovering my mind was a whirl, kind of like his signature logo… of atoms, neurons and protons…the creative process humming.

To check out Johnston’s many murals in Winnipeg you can find a listing in themuralsofwinnipeg.com (Charlie Johnston C5 Artworks), or follow his Instagram account (c5charlie).

— Bev Solomon is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Leaf. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

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