PA in PA, part 2 Victoria Quay

So, it occurs to me that my *first* posting in this project might, in fact, make more sense as the *last* stop on a total public art tour.  If we use a sort of a spiral to cover all the art pieces, it makes more sense to do this:

Which might make the initial introduction to this part a bit problematic, but you can probably figure it out, and here's a little geographic overview to give you an assist:

If we then toddle down Roger a ways from Echo Centre, and take the trail through the railway line and over the Roger Creek Foot Bridge, we come out near the Tim Hortons, and quite a feast of public art.  For one thing, if we look east up Johnston, a consulting and accountancy business has their west facing wall muraled with an orca (VV 6).

This particular mural is, again, one of the iconic images for Port Alberni, since it’s on Johnston Street, and everybody who is coming home from Tofino and heading for the ferry is going to see it as they pass.  (Mind you, they only get to see it when they are leaving, and not when they are coming in to town ...)

However, if we stay at that intersection, there is more to see.  For example, across the street from Tim Hortons is the dental office of Dr. Marlon Peter.  The front structure of the entrance, has a log beam construction over it, which easily counts as a piece of art.

But that’s not all.

On the north east corner of the intersection, we also have Ecole Alberni Elementary.  On the southwest entrance to the grounds, there is a collection of wooden shapes of salmon, that have been painted by the students, and are fastened to the fence at that corner.

At the south west corner of the playground is a wall that has primitive but cheerful murals with some simple sun, cloud, and rainbows.

The signage on the school itself is also quite artistic

Another entry in our garbage can collection, this one slightly more formal

If we keep moving down (west on) Johnston, we pass the Kuu-Us Crisis Center

and just across the Buy-Low parking lot from the school is another First Nations office.  The First Nations do an awful lot better than we Westerners do in terms of choosing, designing, and executing logos for themselves.  This logo is on this particular offices' windows, signage, and even cars, but the large one situated above the entrance is clearly visible from some distance away, and it’s lovely.

And, not too far away, this lovely driftwood orca

and, possibly even more impressively, a driftwood eagle

Moving down from that area towards the water, we find the newest (as of this writing) mural, at the Legion

and, situated across the street from the Legion, is a somewhat neglected couple of examples.  There is a lovely winged dragon

(his eyes light up at night)

 and also an homage to the transformers franchise

That’s right next door to one of the other pieces that is formally excepted as a mural, on the west-facing wall that forms the east side of the Pescadores restaurant parking lot (VV 5).  (It's one of Shayne Lloyd's, is a memorial to Janice Zanolli, was originally done in 1997, and repainted in 2017.)

If you wander down River Road (quite a ways), you'll find some more.

Some First Nations

... some fairly standard ...

... some primitive ...

... and some just weird.

But, of course, there is more.  If we wander back up to Gertrude, we will probably pass a bench in front of Archie's Hair Styling (artist: Chris Duncan)

another at Gone Fishin' (artist: Dan Rickey)

and might note the Blue Marlin of the Blue Marlin Inn.

and south a couple of blocks, we come to the famous J & L Drive-In.  Beside, and towering over it, is a mural on the north side of the building next door (currently housing HearingLife) (VV 9).

Actually, it's kind of tricky to get a picture of the whole thing (unless you've got a drone, I guess ...).

Kind of diametrically opposed on that block, over at the corner of Margaret and Southgate, is another mural not noted as such, at M & D Auto Parts, the west side of which is painted as (for some reason) a gas/service station labelled "Tenth Avenue Station."

Continue west down Southgate and we get to the Clam Bucket, which has a little sculpture out front

and a couple on the side

and, if we continue across the road and parking lot, we find the Centennial Bear.

Interestingly, Valley Vibes identified as a mural the sign adjacent to the north parking lot at Victoria Quay (VV 4).

However, they don’t identify what the parking lot is for, which is the Nuu-chah-nulth whaling monument.

True, the windows of the memorial have been somewhat neglected, and sometimes it’s not easy to see the sculpture inside, but it is a very impressive sculpture.

Right outside the monument are the "Welcome" totems

But continuing south down Victoria Quay we come to one of the landmarks that is used for directions around town.  People will tell you that Victoria Quay is down by the totem pole.  People will reference events at the totem pole.  People will talk about time periods as relative to the totem pole.  It's as if there was only one totem pole in all the world.  Well, this is the totem pole.  At the, well, it’s hard to call it an intersection, because Roger Street curves around and becomes Victoria Quay, but at this particular point, there is a park with a historical marker, talking about the original paper mill in the area.  There is, in the other corner of this small park, the totem pole.  When people in Port Alberni talk about "The Totem Pole," this is the totem pole (VV 18).

Continuing to walk east on Roger, as it curves around from Victoria Quay (and passing the Mars Bomber model again)

the first intersection we come to is the intersection of Roger, Gertrude, and Stamp, and we have the Best Western hotel.  This is probably the largest of the murals in town, occupying pretty much the entire height of the hotel, and the part of the building that contains the emergency stairway for that end of the hotel.  The three sides of this part of the structure are completely illustrated with Della Falls (about sixty kilometres out of town, roughly ten kilometres northwest of the northwest end of Great Central Lake) (VV 10).

And, if you drop in, there are some interesting pieces in the foyer.

Across the street, unacknowledged (and possibly difficult to see with the maples planted in front of them) are two metal sculptures given temporary display space by San Group, and placed on top of the berm around the property, of a sea turtle and a humpback whale.

And, just a little ways up the street, there are other, smaller additions as well ...

If you are taking the Great Spiral Route, next you probably want the Rotary Arts District and Harbour Quay.

Public Art in Port Alberni, introduction and overview

https://fibrecookery.blogspot.com/2023/08/public-art-in-port-alberni-introduction.html

Sunset

 

Sunset

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PA in PA, part 1, Echo Et Cetera

There is, according to local legend, a mural project in Port Alberni.

(Then there are those like one person I talked to about this, who have lived here all their lives, and had no knowledge at all about the murals around town.)

There are, indeed, various pieces of public art around the town.  However, unlike Chemainus, there is no particular plan or project intending to promote, or direct, such murals, nor is there any particular theme or plan to such art in Port Alberni.  (Well, here is one "origin" story.)

Nor are all of the murals, murals.  There are a number of murals, but there also are a number of pieces of art that are considered part of the project, that are not murals.  And a number of the murals are not particularly mural-like.  So, it might be more accurate to say that there is a good deal of public art in Port Alberni.

Valley Vibe magazine, which is the local arts periodical, published an issue dedicated to the murals in its winter 2023 issue (that is, the first issue in 2023).  Unfortunately, the magazine was not particularly helpful in describing where the pieces of art *were*, unless you already knew where they were.  So, I am attempting to rectify that shortcoming with this piece, giving a rough list, and some pictures, but more in regard to pictures in context and situ, rather than pictures of the artworks themselves.  The intent here is to give directions as to where you can find different pieces of art, if you want to make a tour.  (As an offshoot of this project, I'm also offering to guide walking tours for various groups that might be interested in such an event or activity.)

The Valley Vibe list, which comprised nineteen pieces, was kind of interesting not only in non-mural items that were included in the list, but also in terms of very similar pieces of art, which were *not* included in the list.  I will point out some of the additional pieces in here as well.  In order to give the broadest possible reference, I will refer to the items that the Valley Vibe issue described by the number they were assigned in the magazine as, for example, VV 18 for for "The Totem Pole."  (We'll get there, don't worry.)

The Valley Vibe list was also not particularly helpful in terms of making a circuit and reducing the total trip time, in case you wanted to take in all of the pieces of art.  Therefore, I won't follow the sequence of their list, but more of a geographic sequence and series, which allows for a single walk, drive, or circuit, around the town in order to cover as much of the artwork as possible in a reasonably short distance or time.

We need to nip down Burde to 8th, to start off:

Since we are heading up Burde, let's start just a little further back, and note a reference that might be either a celebration of the local wildlife, or a warning about it:

(I must admit, every time I come around this corner I get a bit of a start ...)

Nearby is a nod to Port Alberni's industrial heritage.

We start our walking tour walking east up Burde Street.  Yes, we are heading into the middle of nowhere, and we will have to come back the same way.  That’s just the way it is, and this particular mural (or, actually, series of murals), is not on the way to anywhere else, or from anywhere else, so we might as well start here as anywhere else.  (Besides, this is where I live.)  We are headed to Arbutus Drive, and Fernwood Lane, and Griffin Park (VV 17).  These murals were done by students at ADSS (no, not the old one where *I* live, the actually currently existing one where students go), and tell a sweetly simple story of a baby otter, who gets separated from, and then reunited with, his family.  I suspect that you would have to know First Nations legends and characters to fully understand everything that goes on, but it is cute.  I wonder, looking at the series of pictures, whether individual students got individual panels to illustrate, or that individual students got individual characters to illustrate, and created those characters on each successive panel.  There are some differences in the styles of the characters, but the individual characters seem to have consistent styles throughout the series of pictures.

This also might be the time to point out that there are certain artworks that are artistic, but definitely don’t make it onto the Valley Vibes list.  There are, for example, some garbage cans, which were probably my made by the metal work shop at the high school, and decorated by high school students.  They may not be *great* art, but they are art.

Next, we come to come back out down Burde Street (noting a fish down an alley on the way)

 and it probably makes the most sense to head north up 16th and Woods and Wallace to Echo Centre, in order to pick up a few artworks that are also somewhat out-of-the-way in a great circle route around the town.  At the Kiwanis Park there is another example of the garbage cans

and, nearby, a simple but striking piece

Slightly more hidden is a birdhouse

Just around the corner, this lady has, despite limited space in a rental situation, created a community-building porch, a garden, and created some lovely art, as well.

You might have to take a jog down Redford to catch a nod to the days when Port Alberni was, itself, a tourist destination:

Then you might have to jog *quite* a ways down to tenth, to find this hidden in a back alley near the main intersection

and this is even more hidden

In between them, you might want to visit the police detachment:

A little farther along Woods, a series of faux birdhouses that aren't exactly public, but visible

and another very nice birdhouse that might be slightly more functional.

As we go by Wood Elementary, there are some butterflies that are colourful from the street

but much more lovely from the school side

and, a bit further down the fence, there is a school of fish.

Nearby, another in our garbage can collection, at the Gyro Skate Park.

Interrupting our study of garbage cans, we head north to Roger and east to the Multiplex and North Island College.  At NIC, we find the last of the "Volunteer Spirit" mosaics, this one about the future:

I'm big on volunteerism, so I'm really keen on these.  Almost next door, at the Multiplex (but rather hidden away, from the casual searcher) is the present:

There are a couple of garbage cans on either side of the Echo Centre: one slightly off the south east corner

and another directly behind the centre to the north.

The Echo Centre itself is home to at least three pieces of art, two of which made it into the Valley Vibes list.  One is mounted on the outside of the museum wing (facing south), and appears to be a kind of representation or reproduction of petroglyphs in the area, such as the ones at Sproat Lake (VV 19).

The other on the Valley Vibes list is not, actually, a mural, but a wood carving of rather large size, and is mounted in the atrium which holds the entrances to the museum, the library, and the recreation centre (VV 15).

However, just outside that atrium, mounted on the west wall of the museum wing, is the first of the  "Volunteer Spirit" mosaics, "Past."

These are not on the Valley Vibes list, and I’m *really* not sure why not.

If we then head up towards Roger Street (passing another nice example of art, which was probably not included simply because it is a logo for the Sunny Apartments)

at the intersection of Tenth and Roger, on the west side of a little strip mall, is another, and possibly most Port-Alberni-ish image in the series, that of the Martin Mars flying boat/water bomber (VV 13).

The Mars bombers Have been based at Sproat Lake for decades, and are definitely part of the icons in the town.  The Junior B hockey team in town is called the Port Alberni Bombers, and a number of local artists, over the years, have done various representations of the Mars bombers in action, either picking up, or dumping loads of water

and it even makes an appearance in more than one of the other murals (VV 1).  There are, additionally, models of the Mars bombers that have been created and mounted around town.

(Okay, this one is a little suspect as to form, but I think the colouring is pretty indicative.)

Kitty-corner across the intersection of Roger and 10th, we have signage for the Jumping Slug Community Cyclery

and also West Coast Combat Sports

both of which, despite the commercial involvement, are worthy of inclusion not only due to proximity, but on artistic merit.  (The West Coast Combat Sports sign is also signed on the other side.)  (No, not of the wall, of the building.)

A bit of a ways south on Tenth, there's another piece that isn't exactly public, but visible, and a cheerful piece to end on.

And another, not public, but definitely art, and often seen in this vicinity.  If you manage to catch Robbie, get the background on the imagery, and the stories behind it (artist: Robbie Van).

This should be about eight kilometres and take about two hours.  A couple of other sections should be about two hours and five kilometres.  The whole thing would be about twenty kilometres, and take about eight hours.  (For those of you dismayed by those distances, my grandchildren could walk five kilometres and think nothing of it.)  (When they were *five* ...)

Public Art in Port Alberni, introduction and overview

https://fibrecookery.blogspot.com/2023/08/public-art-in-port-alberni-introduction.html

Sunrise

 

Sunset