The Paint Your Faith Vancouver mural is almost ready for its big reveal, Wednesday, April 28. Even though it has rained nearly every production day (this is Vancouver after all!), the artists have been working hard right through it.

Ann Shin, the director of a documentary being shot about the project, wrote on the Paint Your Faith blog, "Faith47 is almost finished her inspiring centre piece for the wall mural. Indigo’s 9-foot image is finished of a girl blowing a dandelion, the fluff transforms as you follow it across the mural. Titi Freak is almost done his favela/people paintings, and Peeta has started on his second piece."

The artists' collaborative work is a stunning, one-of-a-kind mural which is already sparking conversations about the meaning of faith among passersby in the neighbourhood and those who hear about the mural on-line. When the Vancouver Sun called it a "a large religion-themed mural" and an arts blog mistakenly reported the artists were all Christians, a discussion about faith, spirituality, and religion was sparked even among the artists themselves.

Paint Your Faith is all about creating this kind of dialogue. Art, especially public street art, has the power of sparking conversations about values, beauty, and meaning. When this art has "faith" as its theme, the discussion intensifies as people search for the right words to describe something that is deeply personal, yet universal at the same time.

The Paint Your Faith project makes art part of the dialogue, and lifts up The United Church of Canada as a gathering place for people to connect and share with each other in their exploration and experience of life, faith, and spirituality.

Paint Your Faith is sponsored by WonderCafe.ca and First United Church Mission. Like these two ministries, Paint Your Faith is an expression of The United Church of Canada's desire to connect and build relationship with those who don't normally attend church. Keith Howard, Emerging Spirit's executive director, said in a statement released to the press, "Paint Your Faith reaches out to people in a new way, using cutting-edge urban art in ways that people perhaps would not normally expect from a church."

Upcoming Paint Your Faith Events

Wednesday, April 28 - 10:00 a.m. Press event and mural reveal, at the wall (55-57 W. Hastings Street, Vancouver).

Saturday, May 1 - 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. Paint Your Faith Youth event. Members of United Church youth groups and others are invited to Ayden Gallery to tour the mural, meet several of the artists, and create their own aerosol art. For more information, email Emerging Spirit.

Follow Paint Your Faith online: www.paintyourfaith.com

Or at Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr

Paint Your Faith Press

Amazing photos of the Paint Your Faith mural in progress by Clayton Perry Photoworks.

Vancouver Sun: International Aerosol Artists Brighten Downtown Eastside.

Wallfarmer[dot]ca: The United Church of Canada and 4 Global Aerosol Artists Collaborate to Create One-of-a-Kind Street Art Installation.

Granville Online: Muralists Challenged to "Paint Your Faith" on Vancouver's DTES.

Straight.com: Mural Soon to Express Faith in Downtown Eastside.

Vandalog: "Paint Your Faith" Project, Canada.