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Artist paints Georgetown Bell box mural to include all walks of life

Kelcy Timmons Chan's life has given them a lens that sees the mosaic of the world, which is incorporated in their work
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Kelcy Timmons Chan with their work.

Artists are known to leave parts of themselves in each of their works, and Kelcy Timmons Chan is no exception.

Born in Hong Kong to a Cantonese mother and a German-American father, variety was already spicing up their early years. This gave them a lens on life that influenced all of their works, including one of Halton Hills’ latest Bell box murals. 

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Snow Day can be found next to the Georgetown Legion on Market Street. Mansoor Tanweer/HaltonHillsToday

Located on the corner of Mill and Market streets next to the Georgetown Legion, Timmons Chan's work is called Snow Day, embodying their spirit of diversity in infinite combinations.

“Essentially the box is an outdoor winter scene that includes various hills that people are skiing down, tobogganing, someone is ice skating and someone is building a snowman on the back as well,” Timmons Chan explained.

“In terms of trying to create inclusivity, there are obvious ones like having someone who is disabled included in the piece. That was very important to me; that there are more types of people, as well as different shades of people for that element of diversity.”

But the ethos towards inclusivity is not just skin deep for Timmons Chan. Less visible aspects can be building blocks of diversity and the artist aims to highlight them in their work. 

“Some people are not sporty. Some people are more creative. Some people don't want to do any of those things, but they still want to be included,” Timmons Chan said. “That is why I have those different nods to different people in the space. Also, different body types. There are many different kinds of diversity in our world and I wanted to hit as many points as I could think of.”

Timmons Chan has completed 10 works of public art. The 26-year-old University of Toronto graduate has one more work in Georgetown called Them Eggs. Located at Guelph Street and Alcott Drive.

The vinyl wrap work features eggs and borrows heavily from Timmons Chan’s childhood, but also provides a window into how they think.

As a bi-racial immigrant to Canada, their childhood classmates often referred to them as an egg, meaning white on the outside and yellow on the inside. The eggs in the mural all have the colours of the non-binary pride flag. Timmons Chan identifies as such. 

“When I was a child, it was very disorienting because when essentially people give you backhanded compliments all day, it's really problematic in a toxic way,” Timmons Chan remembered. “I use this symbol as a representation of myself as a person.”

If there is one goal they hope to achieve with their work, Timmons Chan says it’s to “heal the inner child of other people like me who experience that and still hold these traumas with them years later.”