In August 2019 I took some photos of graffiti murals that I didn’t understand. At first I thought it was a sentence, but I decided eventually that I was looking at a series of names. This week I noticed that all but one of those names have been painted over. The new murals are bright […]
While walking along the North Saskatchewan River valley yesterday, I was delighted to find some wonderful murals under the James MacDonald Bridge between Rossdale Park and Irene Parlby Park. The artwork is by Nomadic Alternatives.
Many of the murals in Legal depict people who lived heroic lives, and today I have chosen two people whose heroism has made them very significant in Canadian history. One heroic person depicted in the murals in Legal is Roméo Dallaire. He was the Force Commander for the UN peacekeeping force in Rwanda in 1993 […]
There are so many great murals in Legal that it is hard to pick out a few to show you. Today I have chosen the portraits of two more homesteading families. This first is of Joseph St Martin and Marthe Calage. Joseph was the stepson of Jean Calage (1848-1927) and the two men each paid […]
Following my first discovery of the town of Legal, Alberta, I decided to create a series of blog posts highlighting some of the many murals in the town and the history behind them. This is part two of that series. The mural that tells the story of George Bugnet draws attention to some of his […]
When first approaching Legal, Alberta, visitors can stop at the Ensemble-Together Monument that was created by Ernest Chauvet, welded by Louis Forcade, and painted by John Ellenberger. It has a Canadian flag at the centre and the flags of Britain and Quebec on either side. The monument affirms the cooperative spirit of 1775 when the […]
Until yesterday, I didn’t know I lived forty minutes away from the Mural Capital of Canada and the French Mural Capital of the World. And, it is wonderful! The town of Legal (pronounced lé-gal, not lee-guhl) is inhabited by 1345 people living in 448 private dwellings. It was established in 1894 by French settlers and […]
Good murals add colour and interest to an inner-city neighbourhood. I admire the designs and appreciate the amount of work that goes into creating them. It doesn’t matter what city I find myself in, I always come across murals that draw my attention and engage my thoughts. A few days ago, I came across a […]
My Friday walk around the neighbourhood brought a few messages to my attention. I saw these on 118 Avenue and they provided heartwarming messages of solidarity in a time of crisis.
Yesterday I discovered some new-to-me murals and a pocket dog park within one block of West Santa Clara Street between Almaden Avenue and San Pedro Street. I went into the dog park to take a picture of the mural and while there I made friends with Lucy the dog.
Here are a few more murals that I was able to photograph this week. It was a cloudy day but the colorful images actually stand out nicely against the gray background.
Here are some new and some new-to-me murals seen this week on South 1st Street in San Jose. I always appreciate the colorful creativity of the artists’ work and am often surprised by the imagery. When I was here last winter the site at 791 South 1st Street was a car dealership and the building […]
On 103a Avenue at the intersection with 100 Street, there is some interesting public art. I went there to take pictures of the murals on the front and sides of the Vignettes Building, and I was pleased to find behind City Hall a sculpture by Isla Burns that I had not seen before. As I […]
The murals on the sides of the disused movie theatre near me have been updated. I don’t know the artists’ names, but I hope their signatures are in these images. If you can tell me what “Check Rast Mayoe Esten Kame Tiket” means, I will include that information here.
Downtown Edmonton is a bit of a mess right now. It has been raining a lot and there are construction and repair projects going on everywhere you look. Trying to find your way around either on wheels or on foot is a bit of a challenge, but in doing so you might see some things […]
My oldest son treated me to lunch on Friday and afterward, we went for a short walk on 124th Street between 108th and 107th Avenues. It was a surprise and a treat to realize how many murals there are in that area. I always love seeing the variety of street art in Edmonton. The ingenuity […]
Jamie and I went for a walk downtown yesterday and in the grounds of the Alberta Legislature, we saw an interesting sculpture that was contributed by the Alberta Teachers’ Association. It represents the parallel between tending a garden and educating children, and it incorporates the poem The Garden by Rollie Pemberton. From there we […]
Two murals that I had not seen until this week both show images that are emblematic of Canada’s north; narwhals and magpies. Narwhals live year-round in the Arctic waters where gatherings of hundreds of them have been seen. Magpies live year-round in Edmonton which is now the magpie capital of Canada. They are very […]
The city of San Jose, California, was founded to supply agricultural provisions to the missions and presidios (garrisons that protected the missions) of San Francisco and Monterey. In the Parque de Los Pobladores (Park of the Settlers) in San Jose is a monument commemorating the first settlers to the area. It is composed of four […]
