St. John's artist gives Duckworth Street a mummer makeover

A St. John's artist is brightening up a stretch of the downtown, one colourful mummer at a time.

Doug Bird has been gluing his wooden creations to the wall that fences off a vacant lot on Duckworth Street as part of a project born, in part, out of impatience.

"I made them at Christmastime, and I'm really not good at saving things for a year," he said.

"I looked at this big green wall, and I thought, I'm going to make a performance piece out of this. And it's working out very well, actually."

Bird has installed about a dozen of his mummers so far, each painted in eye-popping shades of purple, crimson, turquoise and more.

The folk artist, who runs a gallery out of Elaine's Books on the opposite side of the street, has been eavesdropping from the store window to reaction from passersby.

"People are stopping, smiling, taking pictures. I'm very pleased," he said.

Bird doesn't have permission, per se, to be gluing his mummers to the wall. The lot used to house a law firm before the building burned down in 2010, and no one has stopped by to tell him to take them down.

"I think it was Norman Mailer who said, art is worth a little risk," he told CBC Radio's On The Go.

"It brings a little colour. It's high-quality graffiti and performance art."

While he has only about six or seven more finished mummers to install, Bird is considering continuing the piece to span the entire fence, approximately 25 metres.

While happy with the project so far, he does hope it manages to bear the elements and city bylaws and last until at least the city's mummers parade in December.

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