A colourful creation coming to life in downtown Vernon is paying omage to the Syilx First Nation.
Welbec Properties has commissioned a 220-foot-wide mural covering the north wall of the Service Canada building on 30th Avenue.
The initial plan was for the mural to include a fox, but following a suggestion from Vernon Council, it now features a coyote.
“The new mural on the north side of the Service Canada building is looking terrific, and we love the image of the coyote or Senk’lip in the Syilx culture,” the Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce said.
The Welbec-owned building is the old Bargain Shop which backs onto the former Vernon Legion site which is empty.
Mural artists are Lacey Jane Wilburn and Layla Folkmann. Based in Vancouver and Edmonton, the artists have produced 100 murals around the world, from a 4,000 square foot farm silo in Ontario to the Rogers Place hockey arena in downtown Edmonton.
The theme of the mural is, accordint to Welbec, to “express reverence for the local wildlife and beauty of the region, that is also bold, vibrant, dynamic and contemporary with vivid lighting effects to signal revitalization, progress and future-forward thinking.”
The project has strong support from the Downtown Vernon Association, which is allocating funds from the city’s Mural Maintenance Reserve to cover maintenance and upkeep for five years after the mural is installed.
The mural also includes apple blossoms on the left, representing Vernon’s lush apple orchards and fruit-bearing climate.
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