An 8′ x 24′ mural has been painted for the City of West Kelowna.
Rebekah Wilkinson, SWAC Vice Chair, said they wanted to celebrate West Kelowna becoming city, so they chose to donate a piece of art to it in the form of the mural, which will be displayed in the city.
“We wanted a project that we could pull together all of the community members, not just artists but also businesses to donate paint and supplies so this is a full community effort,” she explained. “The city was fully supportive, they said, ‘You paint it, you do it, and we’ll put it up.'”
In August, SWAC presented four mural designs to city council, all of which embodied the spirit of West Kelowna. Council selected the one they wanted, and it was painted on Saturday and Sunday at Culture Days. Matthew Brown came up with the design that was selected, and he described his inspiration came from a picture he took while hiking on Mount Boucherie.
“It’s a view of West Kelowna, of the lake and the valley we exist in,” Brown said of how it represented West Kelowna. “Then I had the idea that we could incorporate First Nations mythology into it. So the salmon, the black bear, the saskatoon bush and the bitterroot, which are the four food chiefs in Okanagan mythology. And since wine is such an important and symbolic element in the Okanagan, we started to put little references to all the wineries.”
The mural will now go into storage for winter, and will be installed in spring. The location for it has yet to be determined, although Wilkinson noted they have a location in mind and just need to finalize some details before announcing it.
