Remembering war - part 1

The west and south-facing walls at 3203 - 32nd Street display a truly spectacular 300-foot mural. The images show Vernon's participation in both WWI and WWII and depict the various armed forces. This is the west-facing wall

World Wars - West Wall (2001)

by Michelle Loughery & the company of artists

Theatre, anyone?

Attending plays, concerts or moving pictures were what Vernonites did for fun in the early 1900s. This mural celebrates the first production, "The Geisha" put on by the Vernon Musical and Dramatic Society.

The Geisha (2003)
by Michelle Loughery & Company

Located 3106-32nd Street, north-facing wall

Celebrating winter

This mural commemorates cross country skiing and the Sovereign Lake ski area. In 1939 the City of Vernon donated a log cabin at Vernon Lake to the local ski club founded by Carl and Flora Wylie (pictured beside the cabin in the mural). The lake was later renamed Sovereign Lake after avid skier and citizen Bishop Art Sovereign. The mural is located at 3109 32nd Ave., west-facing wall.

Sovereign Lake (2005)

by Tyler Toews and Steven Skolka

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.

1912 "Man of Machines"

Frank Reynolds owned a farm equipment dealership on 30th Street from 1905 - 1912. This mural depicting Vernon's "man of machines," his staff and a car from the Vernon Auto Company were painted by Michelle Loughery and her band of merry painters in 1999.

Frank S. Reynolds Warehouse - 1999
3103 - 30th Street - North-facing wall

Fire Brigade

At first the Vernon fire brigade had only leather buckets with which to fight fires. An insurance company prompted them to purchase a hand-drawn engine equipped with a hand pump. The vehicle in the mural - a later upgrade - has a motor.

"Vernon Fire Brigade" - 1999
3002 - 32nd Ave., North-facing wall

War Posters

These poster murals are also from Vernon. They're drawn on walls near the cenotaph. Their messages obviously come from a different era.

Wartime efforts

A whole street of buildings facing the cenotaph square in Vernon has paintings in memory of wartime. These can be viewed from Cenotaph Park - 31st Avenue and 30th Street. Again Michelle Loughery was the lead artist.

In Memory - 2001

Unfortunately there was a truck parked right in front of the handsome soldier, so I only got a very oblique shot of him.

I love the amazing sky in the mural below.

(Click on any photo to enlarge)

Alice Parke Diaries

Alice Barrett Parke's daily journals were the inspiration for this mural. In 1891 this Port Dover, Ontario resident moved to the Okanagan Valley to be a housekeeper for her brother. She married Harold Parke, a former Northwest Mounted Police officer and wrote in her diaries about work, health, religion, race and gender relations, and women's lives.

Her diaries later became the book Hobnobbing with a Countess and Other Okanagan Adventures: Diaries of Alice Barrett Parke, 1891 - 1900, edited by Jo Fraser Jones.

Alice Park Diaries
2002 by Michelle Loughery lead artist
2910 - 31st Avenue in Vernon.

(Click on photos to enlarge)

I like the handwritten journal page background and granny glasses. I wonder, when she was writing those diaries, did she have any idea they would someday be published?

Vernon murals

We spent a few hours last Saturday mural hunting in the Okanagan city of Vernon. (Yaaay - new murals at last!) Vernon's mural project, which consists of 27 murals scattered throughout the downtown area, is described on their website:

The mural project was a multi-year collaborative effort which included both a youth employment and revitalization strategy. Initial core funding came from Human Resources Development Canada as part of a job creation program.

Over 54 youth were hired and gained valuable life skills and real work experience. Many of these youth have gone on to rewarding careers. Two of the youth, Steven Skolka and Tyler Toews have created their own company called Canadian Murals. ...

The mural project created pride in our heritage and was a catalyst for revitalization of the heritage character of Vernon's downtown business center.

In the days ahead, I'll be posting my photos of these murals here. Today we begin with the mural "Shuswap and Okanagan Railway" created in 2000. It is located at 2899 - 29th Street and Michelle Loughery was the main artist.

Shuswap and Okanagan Railway

This spur of the CPR was begun in Sicamous in 1890. It reached Vernon in 1891. Though it was officially called the S&O, it was nicknamed the Molasses Ltd. because people said they could make the trip faster by foot.

(Information about the murals comes from The Heritage Murals of Downtown Vernon website.)

Amateur muralist

(Sorry, but we're really scraping the bottom of the mural barrel here...)

These are murals I painted quite a few years ago, when I was in charge of the kids' part of our church's missionary conference.

This mountain village represents a mission compound in Venezuela.




And this, of course, is the jungle.

Dutch Mother's Restaurant

The street wasn't the only place we found murals in Lynden.

We had lunch at the Dutch Mother's Restaurant. Our table was in a room with this streetscape mural.


These fine folk keep an eye on the clientele in the buffet area.

Tulips, clogs and windmolen

Lynden Washington has a delightful mural wall on Front Street. Not surprisingly it's on Dutch theme. When we visited, about two weeks ago, the town was gearing up for Dutch Days, thus the sideways view of the first panel (there was a tent in the way).

Click on any picture to see a larger view.

Sound of silence

Do you hear it? Silence. No more music. When I checked the Sonific website this morning, after noticing my player hasn't been working in the last few days, I discovered that it is no more, due to music licensing issues. I'm sad. Explanation is here.