Artistic artifacts: Teen taps into creativity to stay connected with his favourite museum

Jun 2, 2020

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By: Sonia Mendes

Ingenium - Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation

A colourful painting depicting two locomotives on a track, with a blue sky in the background. The words, “Visit our great exhibit – Steam: A World in Motion” are visible at the top.

Marcel’s promotional poster, designed to draw visitors to the Steam: A World in Motion exhibition at the Canada Science and Technology Museum.

A junior historian has been drawing and painting his favourite transportation artifacts while he eagerly awaits the reopening of the Canada Science and Technology Museum.

A teenaged boy wearing a purple shirt smiles and looks down from the camera.

Fourteen-year-old Marcel — who is on the autism spectrum — is missing his usual visits to his favourite museum, which is temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the interim, he is devoting a lot of time to capturing artifacts from the museum’s collection through his original artwork.

“He drew pictures of some of his favourite artifacts, like the model ships, the trains, and the little red Toyota he and his brother used to ‘drive’ many years ago at the museum,” explains his mother, Sue. “This long period of social isolation has shown me how much Marcel enjoys the vehicle exhibits at Ottawa’s museums and how very much he misses them.”

The family has been visiting the museum since Marcel was five or six years old, and the trains have always been his favourite. One of Sue’s cherished photos shows young Marcel’s delighted face as he looks at a locomotive with his father (see inset photo).

A little boy and his father stand on a raised platform, looking through the window of a locomotive at the museum.

A young Marcel and his father look through the window of a locomotive at the Canada Science and Technology Museum. The trains have always been Marcel’s favourite artifacts.

In recent months, Marcel began reading about the history of transportation in a DK Eyewitness book series. The books — along with his museum visits before the closures — inspired him to begin drawing the artifacts.

“We would go to the museum and visit the Into the Great Outdoors exhibition, for example, which includes early cars, tents, and trailers,” explains Sue. “Then back at home, he would put those artifacts into a historical context and use his research to draw the artifacts.”

A painting of two vintage cars on the road; telephone poles, mountains, and trees are visible in the background.

Marcel’s original artwork, inspired by photographs of Ingenium’s vintage vehicles sent by curator Sharon Babaian.

A painting of a red racecar; office buildings are visible in the background.

Marcel’s original artwork, inspired by a Toyota “build-a-car” interactive which was part of the In Search of the Canadian Car exhibition at the Canada Science and Technology Museum in 2010.

A colourful painting of three boats in the water; a large yellow sun is in the sky and birds are flying through the air.

Marcel’s original artwork, inspired by the national science and technology collection.

A colourful painting depicting a number of recreational vehicles in a grassy area, with a lake and trees in the background. The words, “Visit our exhibit: The Great Outdoors” is visible at the top.

Marcel’s promotional poster, designed to draw visitors to the Into the Great Outdoors exhibition at the Canada Science and Technology Museum.

A colourful painting of cars; a dark night’s sky with the moon and stars are in the background. The words, “Visit our great exhibit: Car exhibit” are visible at the top.

Marcel’s promotional poster, designed to draw visitors to see vintage cars at the Canada Science and Technology Museum.

A boy leans over his art pad, intently painting a colourful picture. A paint palette is visible in the foreground, and some flowering plants and a window can be seen in the background.

Marcel uses watercolour paints for many of his pieces, which focus on the transportation collection at the Canada Science and Technology Museum.

Connecting with a curator

During the pandemic, Sue began searching online for additional artifact images to feed her son’s passion. During one of her searches, she stumbled across a CTV interview with Ingenium’s curator of transportation, Sharon Babaian.

The news story showcases the museum’s CP 1201 steam locomotive, which moved into its new home in the Ingenium Centre in summer 2019.

A colourful painting of a large locomotive on a track; mountains and trees are visible in the background.

Marcel’s original artwork, inspired by the national science and technology collection.

“While we can’t visit ‘Marcel’s trains’ right now, we got to join Sharon as she explained the old train’s history to the local news crew,” says Sue. “I’m secretly hoping someone will coax her into doing a few more videos — to bring more of her gems to life.”

After watching the news clip with her son, Sue says Marcel asked if they could send some of his artwork to “the lady who takes care of all the vehicles.” When Sue reached out by phone, Sharon says the call was the highlight of her week.

“I was feeling quite isolated by the ‘digital’ distance imposed by working online all the time, so I was delighted to get a phone call from a visitor for whom the museum meant so much,” she says. “People like Sue and Marcel remind me of how lucky I am to be curator of our incredibly rich land and marine transportation collection.”

After their call, Sue sent Sharon an array of Marcel’s drawings and paintings by email.

“I was delighted and impressed with Marcel’s images…he captured the spirit of the objects so beautifully,” says Sharon. “I was especially taken with the locomotive images. The fine detail was there for sure, but so was a sense of grandeur and style. The locomotives actually seem to be moving and you can imagine yourself on a train behind them, speeding through the countryside. Definitely a cure for cabin-fever!”

A colourful painting of two boats in the water. The words, “Visit our great exhibit – Steam: A World in Motion” are visible at the top.

Marcel’s promotional poster, designed to draw visitors to the Steam: A World in Motion exhibition at the Canada Science and Technology Museum.

Marcel even created some promotional posters, which he says were designed to bring visitors back to the museum when the doors reopen.

“He’s 14 years old but in a way, because of where he is on the autism spectrum, he has a bit more of a young child’s mind,” explains Sue. “He thought, ‘Well, if we want people to come, I’ll make a poster and they’ll come!’ For him, that’s his way of reaching out and connecting.”

While losing the ability to visit their favourite places has been challenging, Sue says she’s glad Marcel is using artwork as an outlet during the pandemic.

“All of a sudden, everything that Marcel loved to do — swimming, camping, and visiting museums — was suddenly over,” she says. “Reliving his trips to the museum has been such a wonderful help and inspiration. He has learned a lot about the history of transportation, and now he is excited to connect with others and share his drawings with ‘people who love the museum!’”

Online art contest

In fact, Marcel isn’t the only one finding artistic inspiration through artifacts in the national science and technology collection. Following the museum closures, the Ingenium membership team launched an online Members-Only Artistic Artifacts Contest. Members were encouraged to browse Ingenium’s Collection Highlights, choose an artifact to draw or paint, and submit their artwork online.

More than 50 pieces of original artwork were submitted before the contest closed on May 10, 2020, and winners were announced in five categories. You can see the winning artwork — and the artifacts that inspired them — in this article.