Pieces by the Greensville resident include the inspiring and wonderfully artistic sets at recent Rockton Agricultural Society (RAS) theatrical shows and the larger-than-life farm scene painted on the front of the Society’s Farm and Home building at the Rockton fairgrounds. The work for the Society is completely voluntary, but Intini has also done a commissioned piece that has transformed the living room of Rockton area residents, Judy and Gene Jones, into a tropical paradise. The mural, which covers the room’s entire east wall, measures 17 feet high and 10 feet wide.

Full of birds and animals, the mural depicts a Central American rainforest theme. Colourful butterflies, an armadillo, spotted jaguar, macaws and toucans, as well as an array of other native fauna, can be spotted amidst the lush greenery of the rainforest.

It’s an awe-inspiring mural and has whetted Intini’s creative appetite.

“I would really like to do more of the same kind of work,” she said during a recent interview with the Review.

Her first mural, a silhouette of her husband, Don, aboard his first iceboat skimming over the marsh at Cootes Paradise, is about 30 years old but remains a conversation piece when guests visit their Old Brock Road home of 33 years. Her work can also be seen on murals in the Hamilton Aviary in Westdale which houses a wide selection of birds, including parrots, parakeets, cockatoos, cockatiels, finches and doves.

The Intinis belong to the volunteer group, The Friends of the Aviary, dedicated to the preservation and advancement of the aviary and the care and breeding of its birds. As bird lovers, the couple and their daughter, 26-year-old Kyna, also belong to the Ontario Trumpeter Swan Recovery Group. Their work with the organization includes, banding swans at Cootes Paradise as part of a preservation program to track the birds’ whereabouts. Kyna, a fourth-year honours science student at McMaster University, is working on a thesis on the swans and their Ontario nesting sites.

While Intini worked as a commercial artist, including a 12-year stint with the former Claus Display Limited in Hamilton, she explained, “That was more bread and butter, rather than yearning to do the artsy stuff.”

Her desire to let her creative juices flow began early. “I always enjoyed art as a kid,” she said. She has dabbled in floral and folk art for the past several years and she also found other outlets for her artistic talents. She was a founding member of the Hamilton Area Decorative Artists Association 13 years ago and remains active with group today.

It was she and her husband’s involvement with the bird show at the annual Rockton World’s Fair that spurred her into doing more volunteer work for the RAS.

It took her three seasons, from 2000 to 2003, to complete the mural on the Farm and Home building. Measuring seven feet high and 41 feet across, the mural proved particularly challenging because she worked on it through all types of weather.

“It ranged from hot and torrid to frigid weather where my fingers would freeze,” Intini recalled. “Sometimes, the wind got so strong it would tear the palette right out of my hand.”

Last fall, when she was commissioned to do the mural for the Joneses, she jumped at the chance. “It was warm and inside. I didn’t have to battle the elements,” she joked. Her work began last September and was completed by November.

Intini hopes to do more acrylic murals at area homes and businesses. “It doesn’t matter how big the surface is,” she exclaimed, noting that her husband will make scaffolding for her, as he did for her work at the Joneses.

In recent weeks, Intini has been working on the set and hall decorations for the RAS’s second annual winter theatre to be held December 5 and 6. The show, “Mistletoe Madness,” has a medieval theme that prompted her to paint several colourful banners that will hang from the walls. Her husband is working on a castle gateway as part of the set.

Intini said doing the sets for the popular dinner theatres shows, staged every spring by the RAS, has been a lot of fun. She estimated it took her about 105 hours to complete the set for the 2008 show, “Winging It.” The set included fairies and sprites in a forest setting and drew a lot of compliments from spectators.

This year, Intini’s work as a volunteer for the agricultural group included taking on the role of stage mother. It fell to her to make sure that the volunteers in the cast, as well as the lighting and parking crew, were well fed before, during and after each show.

“It was a blast!” Intini declared. She is looking forward to the

upcoming Christmas show. “I keep on calling it “Mistletoe Magic” she said, adding that the misnomer seems appropriate because “everything connected with the show is coming together so well.”

For more information about the show, visit online at www.rocktonworldsfair.com.