Spotlight on the Quidi Vidi Art Search: Artist Julie Lewis & City of St. John’s

Those hiking the Sugarloaf Path in St. John’s will notice a sweet new addition to the start of the trail at Quidi Vidi Village.

Julie Lewis’ “The Sugarloaf” is one of five new pieces of public art that adorns the scenic village as part of the Quidi Vidi Art Search. One of Business & Arts NL’s newest projects, the Quidi Vidi Art Search, launched on May 19, celebrates different aspects of the village (and Newfoundland and Labrador culture) in a fun and creative new way, while inviting visitors to explore and experience everything it has to offer.

Working around the province’s infamous unpredictable weather, Lewis has been painting and transforming several large stones which, when complete, will resemble a traditional Newfoundland blueberry loaf with boiled frosting, broken into oversized slices. (Learn more about Lewis and her piece here.)

Julie Lewis' concept drawing for "The Sugarloaf."

The community partner for Lewis’ piece is the City of St. John’s. Speaking at the launch event for the project, Mayor Danny Breen shared that public art is important to the City and something they invest in regularly, pointing to the new mural on Harvey Road (by artists Molly Margaret and Lily Taylor) as another recent example.

"Public art can add enormous value to the cultural and economic vitality of a community. It lowers barriers by providing free, public access to art, it provides professional opportunities for artists, and helps strengthen a 'sense of place,’” he said.

"The artists that have created these lively, captivating works of art throughout Quidi Vidi Village have made – and no doubt will continue to make – outstanding contributions to the City and province’s diverse cultural landscape.”

We recently caught up with artist Julie Lewis to learn more about her piece, her process and the power of public art. (This interview has been edited for length.)

St. John's Mayor Danny Breen speaks at the launch of the Quid Vidi Art Search on May 19.

Business & Arts NL: Did the concept for your piece “The Sugarloaf” at Sugarloaf Path come to you right away, or were there other ideas you were tossing around?

Julie Lewis: As a matter of fact, it hit me like a bolt of lightning…Sugar loaf really made me think about Nan's blueberry loaf. I've never been able to mimic as good a taste with any of the blueberry cake or the blueberry loaf, that's made by friends and relatives, every autumn into Christmas, even though I've tried every recipe under the sun. To me, there's something magical about somebody who can actually nail that recipe properly...So I feel like this is my way of maybe creating the ultimate sugar loaf that I'm not capable of baking near as well as all the generations parallel and ahead of us. They know how to make stuff taste so good, it’s borne of decades of experience.

Business & Arts NL: What was it like for you working on this project and what does it mean for you as an artist?

JL: So I think for me as an artist, it keeps my artwork out in the public, which I've always enjoyed. I'm the type of person that has stacks and stacks of artwork that I may or may not put up on social media because I like the tactile nature of artwork. And while digital is good, I always still feel like having a physical piece of artwork holds a different type of a presence in the world. The difference between people snapping photos, versus people developing silver halide film, and making sure that it goes in a frame, are two completely different things.

I'm getting a chance to interact with so many more people, hikers specifically, from all around the world, because they are taking the path as well, and it becomes a lot more interactive, and functional, and I hope that makes people happy. So I find a lot of the intense art production parts, that every artist encounters, are paid off by friendly faces. The dream is that later, as you are working past the deadline that you expected, if it's a work of art that you're doing for love, it does nothing but engage people because they see the real thing happening. So I think that's good, because it raises the art up a level because it becomes a public piece, in creation as well. And I think it’s lovely when that's treated organically.

Artist Julie Lewis stands next to her piece "The Sugarloaf" in progress, which she began painting in May.

Business & Arts NL: Are there any particular challenges you had to overcome while working on this piece, and any creative ways you employed to help overcome them?

JL: It's been interesting working on this project. I think the trickiest thing has been the question about the deadline. We are in Newfoundland. Whenever you do anything outdoors, you can throw a dart and hope it's going to land. But when you continually look at the forecast and see eight to eleven days of rain in the foreseeable future, it really makes it tricky. Our painting weather is July to September, generally.

When you’re anticipating: when is the ground going to be dry? When is there going to be more moisture in the air? When is the surface going to be warm enough? You have to be able to put the energy and the focus in, with the materials being used properly and making sure it's done right within the parameters of the Newfoundland ecosystem...painting on a wall is one thing. Painting on large stones, weighing thousands of pounds, is something else; I'm trying to jam myself in between the seats and the table. And fortunately I can be agile enough, but as other artists I speak to have mentioned, you have to get down on the ground and really poke yourself into corners...it is a very physical process.

Believe it or not, it's hard to land stones. A lot of the quarries in Newfoundland did not actually open up until the first of May. So when you put together plans for doing things when there's snow on the ground, you don't realize that having to move close to 3,000 pounds of stone from one end of Galway region to Quidi Vidi is a much larger feat than anybody would anticipate. Erosion awareness is a factor...An idea is one thing, but the realistic mechanics is something else. So the creative ways I've employed to help overcome is just patience. I have to have patience with myself. And I also have to be realistic.

Lewis hopes to have her piece (located at the start of the Sugarloaf Path in Quidi Vidi Village) complete within the next couple of weeks.

Business & Arts NL: What do you hope your piece will help contribute to visitors’/hikers' experiences?

JL: Well, the obvious thing is I sat down the other day with a to-go coffee and just imagined how it feels to sit there and actually have a meal or have a coffee or get a break away. And that's very important because when you have a functional piece of artwork, if it doesn't work, it's going to be pretty, but it won't work. So I was pleased to actually notice, just like in a restaurant, you can face one way and you're facing away from the city and you feel like you're outside of city limits. But when you face the other way, you feel a little bit like a king in a castle, because people can't see you, but you can see out. And another thing I noticed, even though I began painting it in May, on certain days it is a little hovel of heat. So even on a cold day, there were times I was painting and there was a big bank of fog coming out in front of me and I could see it, but I myself was in this warm little corner. So there's something really nice about having that experience.

Business & Arts has been wonderfully lovely. Lynn Panting did a great job of arranging so many moving pieces.

I also want to send a shoutout to Modern Paving. They did a spectacular job of bringing me down to the quarry itself, and giving me rock options.

Don Traverse over at Benjamin Moore Paint Shop gets a huge shoutout. He has always been a huge fan of and support in helping out with projects in the city and keeping a keen eye on artists as well. So when it came to this project, he actually came to me instead of vice versa...he was a really, really good help in offering resources, especially his insightful opinion, and his assistance on some things that we could do with anti-graffiti coating and doing things with the "pudding glaze" that's going to later go over the cake as well.

I'm looking forward to seeing the work in action, as a functional piece...I'm also excited to get the glaze put over...I want it to feel magical and I want families to be able to feel like they have a little taste of something fantasy land that they can physically put their hands on and get a few interesting photos...I'm looking forward to as well actually having the whole thing done on a sunny day and being able to enjoy and sit on the artwork.

According to the materials we're using, it should last for years to come. So I'm really keen on seeing pictures of how it's going up and people sharing what exactly they're doing, and drinking a cup of tea and having a mug-up on top of an oversized piece of sugar loaf.

Stay tuned to our Spotlight on Partnerships blog as we highlight other Quidi Vidi Art Search artists and community partners in the months to come!