Vancouver mosaic

These scenes of multi-race, -age, and -ability are painted on the wall of a cultural center on Main Street in Vancouver.

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Orgosolo murals - 3

Our final two murals from the village of Orgosolo, on the Island of Sardinia, Italy.

It would be interesting to know the story behind the mural directly below. It appears to be a strong message, not completely lost in translation.

Photo © 2012 by T. Fisher (Used with permission)

 I love the mother-earthiness of these stylized women. On another site, this mural is captioned:"Botero-style painting devoted to women, mothers and workers."

Photo © 2012 by T. Fisher (Used with permission)

Orgosolo murals - 1

Orgosolo murals - 2

Orgosolo murals - 2

More murals from the village of Orgosolo on the Island of Sardinia, Italy.

I love the feeling of family and community these communicate. Though different in style, they both exude stability, tradition, determination, stoicism, and, the bottom one especially, a little outrage? 

Photo © 2012 by T. Fisher (Used with permission)

Photo © 2012 by T. Fisher (Used with permission)

See Orgosolo Murals - 1

Two more murals from Orgosolo next week.

Orgosolo murals - 1

A friend of mine recently traveled to the Italian island of Sardinia. She came back with some mural photos from  the village of Orgosolo. Many thanks, T.,  for allowing me to post some of them here!

First, a little bit about the Orgosolo and its murals:

Orgosolo's mural emerged in the late 60's. It was during the time when Italy’s “economy miracle” collapsed by massive strikes and social unrest. Especially, the later 1973 oil crisis abruptly terminated this economy boom. Thus, murals became a major expression of the social discontent.

The first mural in Orgosolo was carried out in 1969 by Dionisio, an anarchist theater company in Milan. She questioned: "What is the role of the island in the Italian government's policy?”

After the idea of mural spread into this small village, a local teacher, Francesco Del Casino, played an important role. The early works were carried out by his students. Later on, more experienced workers took the job, making the murals more elaborate both in the style and in the content.

Francesco Del Casino will be the instigator of most paintings of the village of Orgosolo. One of his major motivations was to get students involved in politics. Therefore, murals were featured by the oppression of Nazism, struggling for liberation, unemployment ratio and education problem. Even though many kinds of topics were introduced, political events are still the major topics of the mural. - From the Wikipedia article "Orgosolo Mural in Sardinia" (paragraphing added).

"Enjoy Orgo-Solo" - Photo © 2012 by T. Fisher (Used with permission)

Photo © 2012 by T. Fisher (Used with permission)

See more Orgosolo murals in this photo essay.


More Orgosolo murals next Monday.

Celebrating Vernon's cultural melting pot

This mural celebrates the many cultures that make Vernon home. Included are (left to right) Chinese, Eastern European, Scandinavian, English, Aboriginal, East Indian, Japanese and Belgian. Pierre Eliot Trudeau, the Prime Minister who initiated many of Canada's multicultural policies is pictured on the far right. He died during the painting of this mural.

Unfortunately, in these photos the trees in full leaf hide many of the faces. I guess I'll have to come back in winter when the trees are bare to get the full effect.

Multiculturalism Mural - 2000

The mural is located at 3101 32nd Street, East-facing wall.
Painted by Michelle Loughery and her band of artists.

prairie life

As we drove up and down the streets of the various towns and hamlets on our recent trip back 'home' to the prairies, I was, as usual, attracted to the murals. They are all over!

The Saskatchewan town where my husband grew up, Blaine Lake, has some that weren't there the last time we visited.

These first ones are downtown. They illustrate scenes typical of the prairies and the activities of the people. My favorite is the outdoor skating scene, which brings back memories of skating on the dugout.





This painting of Jesus the Good Shepherd is on the Blaine Lake Gospel Chapel.


This striking depiction of Blaine Lake in its grain elevator era is painted on the back of the arena. When I was taking the photo, being careful not to stray off the sidewalk, the lady who lived in the house directly behind me popped her head out her front door and in typical prairie-town fashion invited me to come onto her property to take a better picture. I did - and this is the result (thanks again!).

mosaic murals

This gorgeous mural titled "Trust" was put together by Lewis Lavoie and is a mosaic. It is made up of one-foot-square tiles, each of which is by a different artist and a picture on its own. It was unveiled at the Cochrane Ranche House, Cochrane Alberta, last week.

Check out the mural's web page. There you can view the individual pictures by clicking on the mosaic squares. Mr. Lavoie lets us in on some of the secrets of creating such a mural here.

The site links to other mosaic murals as well. Mr. Lavoie is presently working on a new mural called "King of Kings" and is posting his additions to it weekly.

Finally, here's a You-Tube of Mr. Lavoie, creating "The Creation of Adam" (about 2.5 min.).



Thanks to Joyce, who gave me the heads-up on these amazing works of art!

propaganda

I snapped this picture of the mural on the wall of the North Poplar Fine Arts School in Abbotsford just over a week ago. I like the art but the subject matter not so much. It's predictable and politically correct to the point of being propaganda in my books (with its cultural diversity and ecology themes - not that I'm against those things: I'm not). This is typical of the murals seen on school buildings around here.

Mural on the ceiling of a smoking room