• Age: 13
• Grade: 8

In November of 2006, the Labrador Creative Arts Festival invited Lynda Faulks, a national award-winning art educator, to teach a short course in bas relief clay work.

In four days, nineteen inspired students had created nineteen Labrador-inspired tiles, something that usually takes a month to achieve. From January to June, 2007, Dorrie Brown, an art teacher in her own right, continued this project, carrying clay, tools and more inspiration to thirty-five other young Labrador artists, age twelve to eighteen, spread from Nain in the north to Cartwright in the south.

Uncommon Clay gives life to images, which gives life to stories, which whisper and breathe from walls that remember and celebrate.

Fifty-four young artists. Fifty-four tiles. Thirteen communities. Images of Innu, Metis and European heritage intermingled. This is the Labradoria Mural. This is the mosaic that is Labrador.

Each image has a story. These images, these stories, now in common clay, are forever. And these images, these stories, will be admired, considered, treasured, and heard by all who understand their uncommon nature.

Dorrie Brown has lived and taught in Labrador for over thirty years in the communities of Paradise River, Nain and Happy Valley-Goose Bay. She has been active in community arts initiatives and arts education, and won Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council's Award for Arts Educator of the year, 2008. The Labradoria Mural Project also won a Manning Award from the Newfoundland and Labrador HIstoric Sites Association in 2008, and the Zippie Ikkiatsiak Award in 2007.

Dorrie Brown's profile page

Uncommon Clay: The Labradoria Mural

In 2007, Dorrie Brown and artist Lynda Faulks travelled throughout Labrador teaching high school students how to create bas reliefs out of clay. Each panel would ultimately become part of the 54-tile mural entitled “Labradoria”, which was installed in the lobby of the Lawrence O’Brien Auditorium in Goose Bay. Uncommon Clay tells the story each artist conveys in their tile. This project brought together young Innu, Inuit, Métis and Caucasian artists for one purpose: to tell their stories of life in Labrador.

Brown won the 2008 Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council's Award for Arts Educator of the Year. The Labradoria Mural Project won a Manning Award from the Newfoundland and Labrador Historic Sites Association in 2008, and the Zippie Ikkiatsiak Award in 2007.