Vancouver SERIES - POSTER - VANCOUVER, UBC, SIWASH ROCK, CAPILANO (Vertical)

Vancouver SERIES - POSTER - VANCOUVER, UBC, SIWASH ROCK, CAPILANO (Vertical)Artist: Roy Henry Vickers Medium: Poster Poster Size: 44. 5" x 14. 25" Length of Images: 9" Orientation: Vertical Information A Poster Reproduction of the VANCOUVER SERIES featuring the images of Vancouver, UBC, Siwash Rock, and Capilano. Please note this poster will ship rolled in a tube. STORIES Vancouver I was looking at the stand of totems in Stanley Park and was reminded again of my native heritage. This caused me to reflect on an incident told

Information

A Poster Reproduction of the VANCOUVER SERIES featuring the images of Vancouver, UBC, Siwash Rock, and Capilano. 

Please note this poster will ship rolled in a tube.

STORIES

Vancouver 

I was looking at the stand of totems in Stanley Park and was reminded again of my native heritage. This caused me to reflect on an incident told to me by Chief Dan George.

As a young man, he had just lost a finger in an accident and had to row across Burrard Inlet, then hike up a trail through trees to St. Paul’s Hospital for treatment. He remembered looking West from the hospital balcony towards the Burrard Street Bridge and seeing the sunset on nothing but more trees.

From my vantage point, I turned and looked across the harbor at a different kind of forest, one of skyscrapers, towers of glass and steel. So many changes.

Today, hundreds of thousands of people live here, having settled from all over the world. One family who moved to this thriving metropolis was my grandparents, John and Sophia Freeman, and their eight daughters.

I dedicate this work, entitled Vancouver to the Freeman family.

UBC

Museums have always been very special to me. It is in these magical places that I have come to understand what a wonderfully rich heritage we have in the art and culture of the Northwest Coast First Nations.

The Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia was the place of my artistic awakening. It was here that I enjoyed my first large exhibition, appropriately called Beginnings.

Today, when I think of this setting, the image of the Haida Village comes to mind, and I am thankful to artists such as Bill Reid who have been a continual inspiration to me over the years.

This work is dedicated to our museums and the anthropologists, ethnologists, and archeologists who work in them and who continue to provide us with insights into ourselves.

Siwash Rock 

I was putting the finishing touches on Siwash Rock when I remembered a story from twenty years earlier about this famous landmark. I asked a friend, Ken, if he could remember the story.

Later that day, he presented me with a small book called The Legends of Vancouver by E. Pauline Johnson, which was the story I was trying to recall, The Siwash Rock. In the opening paragraph, Pauline Johnson said:

“...I saw it first in the slanting lights of a redly setting August sun, the littletuft of green shrubbery that crests its summit, was black against the crimson of sea and sky, and its colossal base of grey stone gleaming like flaming polished granite...”

I was amazed when I looked at the painting I was working on to find the similarity in the way we treated the same subject.

This, and other legends told to the author by Chief Joe Capilano, are worthy of being read over and over again.

I find a great deal of inspiration in them, but that is another story. This work is dedicated to the memory of Chief Dan George, who was a friend and source of great wisdom.

Capilano

The Capilano River flows to the sea at the entrance to Burrard Inlet. Fifty years ago, on the same day as the release of this painting, the Lions Gate Bridge was opened to traffic, connecting the north shore of Vancouver Harbour from the mouth of this river to the heart of the city itself. 

Standing in the moonlight and gazing under the bridge at the light of the city, I realized that despite all of the changes that technological advancements bring, there are some things that remain the same. The seasons come and go, and through these deep, dark waters, the salmon still return to the Capilano River each year to spawn. 

With this thought in mind, I would like to dedicate this work to all of the professionals and volunteers who have given so many hours to salmon enhancement programs in our province. Without their efforts, a major resource could very well be lost to us forever.