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Vol. 16, No. 36, Wednesday, August 4, 2021 www.LamontLeader.com
Mural artist attracts attention of Andrew family for passion project BY JANA SEMENIUK Robert Murray’s life-like artwork has beautified fences, public buildings, garages, interior walls, and most recently a passion project for the Cholak family in Andrew. “We’ve always wanted to do something on the side of our garage,” explained Sally Cholak, who looks at the garage from her well manicured backyard. “I kept seeing Robert’s paintings on facebook so I messaged him.” Murray’s paintings usually depict random scenery with animals, buildings, beautiful sunsets or rolling green hills with shady trees and flowers. What Sally had in mind was more than simple scenery on her garage; she wanted Robert to paint her family’s third generation farm from a photo. “My mom still lives out there,” Sally said with tears in her eyes. “It’s where I grew up.” Murray, 61, credits his own mother for kickstarting his mural painting career. “It was 17 years ago, and my mom was living in a senior home with a boring foyer wall on every floor. She asked the manager if her son, who paints, could paint a mural so she could see something besides a bare wall,” he said. “The management were so happy when I was done that I wound up painting all 13 floors.” Murray added that his mom and the murals are still there today. “They asked me to come back because they had to do renos on one floor and they removed some of the wall which removed part of the mural. So, I came and re-painted it,” he said. “Seeing the old murals was like seeing an old friend. I had forgotten what I painted. It was delightful and I felt very happy.” Murray explained how his mural painting has been a side job until recently. “I spent 43 years in the oil and gas industry as a territorial sales rep,” he said. “I went full time into mural painting about a year ago.” Murray said art has been a part of his
life since he was a child. He added that spending two years as a missionary in England after college allowed him to devote some time to his art and develop his cartooning skills.
“When I was there, I spent a day every week doing cartooning and had enough material when I came home to publish two books. They are humorous cartoon books. A sarcastic look at mis-
Artist Robert Murray adds details to a garage mural for the Cholak family of Andrew. Photo: Jana Semeniuk
World famous academic, Mundare native, dies at 95 on his first day of school, “I told my BY JOHN MATHER Albert Bandura, one of the most mother when I got home: ‘I’m not famous academics to ever come from going back, they speak some kind of funny language there.’ My mothAlberta has died at age 95. er replied: ‘I think that’s Bandura was born English.’ And sent me back.” in Mundare to immigrant Further when Bandura farmers and went on to revgraduated high school, his olutionize social psycholoparents told him “You gy. A 2002 analysis by have to decide what to do. the Review of General You can stay here, go Psychology deterfarming, play pool, drink, mined Bandura was the or get an education.” After fourth most-cited psycholoAlbert working in the carpentry gist of all time, one spot Bandura trade in Edmonton and then behind Sigmund Freud. on the Alaska Highway, The Stanford University psyBandura found himself at the chologist and Order of Canada recipient died in his sleep at his California University of British Columbia where home on July 26, the university report- he fell into the field of psychology and graduated in 1949. ed July 30. He joined the Stanford faculty in He was an author and contributed to hundreds of academic papers and 1953. It was reported he often visited more than a dozen books. Bandura was the youngest of six Mundare and that the community children, born in 1925 in Mundare. His holds a place in his heart, before he father was a Polish railwayman while gave up air travel. Bandura became an Officer of the his mother, a Ukrainian immigrant, worked at the local store until they Order of Canada in 2014 and two years later received the National Medal of could afford a homestead. Bandura’s formal education began Science from President Barack Obama. He leaves behind two daughters and in the one-room schoolhouse in two grandchildren and was predeMundare. In an interview in 2014 he reflected ceased by wife Virginia.
sion life,” he said. “I also published another book called ‘Seek the Geek’ which is like a Where is Waldo.” Murray met his wife shortly after returning home. “We met on a blind date and married in 1983,” he said. “Today we have five children and six grand children.” Although Murray has called St. Albert home since 1986, he frequently finds himself in Lamont County spreading joy through his paintings. “I was fortunate to be in Lamont to do artwork for the past couple of years. They are a great community,” he said. While Murray has painted murals on the side of the Lamont Lions Club, the water reservoir, Fire Station, and most recently the bottle depot, he said his biggest challenge was a request to paint the side of the Lamont Arena. “I was approached by the Town of Lamont to paint the arena and I was taken aback. I thought, ‘I can’t paint that... it’s huge.’ But I said ok and then I was terrified,” he said. Murray explained the painstaking process. “The whole wall took me about six weeks in the evenings as I was still working my day job. I painted in the evenings until the sun went down,” he said. “It’s the largest one I have ever painted. It took gallons and gallons of paint. I was lucky enough to have an agreement where I could rent a lift to go up and down and not mess around with scaffolding. It was great.” Murray said that even after completing the project he could not believe he did it. “It was surreal. Did I paint that? It was massive. I still had doubts even after I finished,” he said with a laugh. Murray added that he enjoys the customer’s reaction to his artwork. “It’s the best feeling when they tell you its better than they anticipated. Its very satisfying,” he said. Murray’s stunning life-like artwork was featured on CTV news last June. In addition, his paintings can be seen on his facebook page as well as his website mastermurals.ca.