the good old days in murals - part 2

A week ago I posted part 1 of these murals, on display in Sooke, British Columbia. Now, continuing on in our journey to the past (via the Sooke Agricultural Historium, Sponsored by the Sooke Fall Fair Association, created in 2008 by airbrush artist/muralist A.J. [Allan Wesley Johnson]). Descriptions of photos are copied from tags on the mural wall.

Threshing oats on the farm of Ralph Strong on Church Road in 1940.

The cattle farm, at the far end of East Sooke Road, looked across at Whiffen Spit, 1918.

 

Alexander Gillespie family of Glenairley East Sooke with pigs Biddy and  Isobell in 1918.

 

George Throup rolling oats with his oxen Plug and Buck on the Throup farm in 1890.  

 William Henry Anderson is plowing on the Malahat Farm in 1914 on one of the first tractors in Sooke.

Marnie Campbell smiles as she tries to milk Daisy at the Davidson farm, in Otter Point in 1947.
 

Percy Clark and Marjorie after their wedding on their way to their new house at the top of Shirley Hill, 1914.  

The fillers are not to be missed either—little paintings the muralist threw in between the photos:

 

 

Rooster and tools

The Sheep Spud

Seagull

 Cat and milk can

What a wonderful project! Thanks to the folks in Sooke for a heart-warming meander into the past.

the good old days in murals - part 1

On our summer holiday we visited the town of Sooke on Vancouver Island. While driving around the town I spied what looked like pictures from old photo album only they were wall-sized! Imagine my delight to discover two entire walls of these reproductions.

I'll share those beautiful and nostalgic murals with you today and next Tuesday. I have captioned each mural with the information displayed beside it.

Loggers using springboards and crosscut saws felled these giant douglas fir trees by hand in 1900.

Mr. Wes Carscadden mowing oats on the Murray farm located at Murray and Goodmere Roads, in 1920.

Woodside farm, established in the 1860s by the Muir family has consistently remained agricultural.

A Jersey cow, vital to the farm in the 1920s resided at the Milne farm.

This barn, built in 1932 at Woodside farm, is a landmark along west Coast Road. Photo taken in the 1970s.

Hay load on the farm of Herb Blythe, in the Kemp Lake area in the 1940s.

Sooke Farmers Institute Exhibit, displayed in Victoria, in 1910.

Margaret Dunbar, during the apple harvest at the family dairy farm, Dewdney Flats, in 1926.

Kay Welsh sitting on a 1929 Studebaker, in 1948, with bountiful potatoes grown on the family's Grant Road farm.

Cluny McPherson (left) and Victor Willerton planting potatoes at the old Adolphus Poirier farm, Otter District, 1988.

Here is a little information about the collection and artist A.J.

I'm trying to figure out why these murals resonate with me so. It surely has something to do with the independent spirit and perseverance that ooze from these pictures. Perhaps it's also because I grew up on a farm and know, at a gut level, what it feels like to care for the earth, work hard, and feel pride (good pride) in the results.

My favourites are the two girls—the young girl (Kay Welsh) perched proudly on the running board of that posh Studebaker between bulging bags of potatoes, and the woman (Margaret Dunbar) with her work-worn face, hooded eyes, and slightly worried expression, posing for just a minute before she carries on to deposit those apples in the cold room, perhaps, or the kitchen where floury crusts are already in pans and waiting for their filling of fresh-crop apples.

Come back next Tuesday for more murals of the good old days.

vehicle

White Rock, BC - mural

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: YELLOW (Flowers, Vegetables, Sun, Clothing, Vehicle, Toys, Blanket,...)

music

Mural - Commercial Drive, Vancouver, BC

Thursday Challenge

Next Week: LIQUID (Splashes, Pouring, Dripping, Waves, Wet,...)

music

Mural in a local coffee shop

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Thursday Challenge

Next Week: PEACEFUL (Relaxing, Harmonious, Friendly, Serene, Mild Weather, Calm Water,...)

school

Mural on the wall of a local secondary school. 
(Click on photo to enlarge.)

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: FUN (Festival, Fair, Carnival, Party, Playground, Dancing, Laughing,...)

food

Mural - Commercial Drive, Vancouver, BC

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: FACE (Portrait, Self-Portrait, Happy Faces, Emotions,...)

mural monday

It's been a while since I've had a mural monday. But if you like these audacious street paintings as much as I do, you'll want to wander over to my mural blog and feast your eyes. I'm currently doing a series on the murals of Vancouver's Commercial Drive (new postings every Monday and Thursday until the mural well runs dry).  

Here's a sample. Is it  gorgeous or what? Love the colors, love the location. Doesn't it just make you want to get out there and buy potatoes and green onions?

(Click on photo to enlarge)

hot

West Kelowna mural - fighting the Myra Canyon Trestles fire in 2003

(Given the news of the last few days - this seems like a perfect photo to include in this week's Thursday Challenge. Thankfully the situation has improved and most of the evacuees can have been allowed to go back home.)

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: EARTH (Sky, Clouds, Mountains, Rivers, Trees, Plants, Flowers, Rocks, Soil,...)

top 100 hymns

Sherry has tabulated the results of the 100 top hymn meme she got going some weeks ago. She's posting results throughout June. Keep track of the countdown here.

Are you finding many of your favorites on the list? I certainly am!

promptings top ten hymns countdown - 8, 7

(This is my second post of favorite hymns for Semicolon's top 100 hymns project. The first is here.)

8. "Be Thou My Vision" - 8th Century
Tune - Traditional Irish tune "Slane"

"In the eighth century an unknown Irish poet wrote a prayer asking God to be his Vision, his Wisdom and his Best Thought by day or by night.

In 1905, Mary Elizabeth Bryne, a scholar in Dublin Ireland, translated this ancient Irish poem into English. Another scholar, Eleanor Hull of Manchester England took Byrne's translation and crafted it into verses with rhyme and meter. Shortly thereafter it was set to a traditional Irish folk song, "Slane," named for an area in Ireland where Patrick reportedly challenged local Druids with the Gospel."

7. "Holy Holy Holy" - 1826
by Reginald Heber (1783-1826)

Reginald Heber, a graduate of Oxford and a friend of Sir Walter Scott enjoyed poetry. His desire to publish a collection of his hymns was nixed by the Bishop of London at the time, but Heber kept writing anyway.

One hymn he wrote, "From Greenland's Icy Mountains" expressed another desire of his, to go to "India's coral strand." In 1822, at age 40, he was sent to India to oversee the Church of England's ministries. One day in 1826 after spending hours preaching in the hot sun, he went for a swim in cool water, suffered a stroke and drowned. His widow discovered a collection of 57 hymns in his trunk. The majestic hymn"Holy, Holy, Holy" was one of them.

Here it is sung by Keith Green - another man who died in his prime.




Hymn stories are quoted or adapted from Then Sings My Soul by Robert J. Morgan.

hobbies

One piece of my collection of street art in megapixels

This Trompe L'oiel mural (located on 3301 Coldstream Ave., Vernon, BC, west-facing wall) shows a little boy looking through a broken wall into a museum. The "museum" mural shows women working in an orchard during W.W.II. The painting is so realistic, there are even parking stops painted into it.

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Thursday Challenge

Next Week: SOFT (Feather, Pillow, Cushion, Chair, Soft Focus, Soft Drink, Fluffy Animals or Toys, Hair,...)

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A bit more about my hobby - as I explained it in the opening post of my mural blog, Murals and More:

For years I’ve had a fascination with murals. I love the audacious bigness of murals and the way their presence adds interest and splendor to an ordinary street.

I also love observing the subject matter of murals, which is wide-ranging. Some are symbolic. Others tell a story or focus on a community’s historical events. Still others border on propaganda or advertising.

People put them up for a variety of reasons, it seems. In some towns mural-making is used to memorialize history or give artists a platform. Some cities put up murals systematically with a view to draw tourists. Institutions and businesses put up murals to illustrate their ideals or what they support. Sometimes city governments fund mural projects to give their youth something to work on. Other times shopkeepers put up murals to transform ugly buildings and attract customers.

Regardless of why they’re there, most of them are pretty easy on the eyes and the understanding. I think of them as the art of common people (though usually by uncommonly good artists). If murals were music, they would be folk, or jazz, or country and western.

I’ve taken photographs of murals for years – photos that have customarily moldered in albums or boxes. But now, with my digital camera and access to a blog, I can do more. Which is why I’m putting up this blog – to share my finds with whoever cares to come by.

There won’t be a lot of writing here – mostly pictures. I’ll try to tell what I know about the various murals, like their artists and the message behind the depiction. I’ll also give general locations. Mostly, though, I want this to be a light-hearted, fun place to ogle street art.

Port Hardy

Saturday & Sunday - Sept. 20 & 21:

We had booked a room at the Airport Inn in Port Hardy, so checked into our room, unloaded our stuff, then drove into town to look around.

We found a mall where we bought a few supplies, then wandered down to the waterfront. It was cloudy, cool and even threatened rain. In fact the late afternoon was so unphotogenic, I took no photos of Port Hardy's waterfront except for this sign board


and an eagle staring dolefully down at us.


The must-take of any town for me is its murals. On a much sunnier Sunday I returned to capture some of them.Here are a few you'll see around Port Hardy (subject - Orcas, of course!).






(I see that several of these murals were painted by Razmpoosh. More of his murals are on display in Agassiz, B.C.)

Courtenay and Comox

Friday, September 19:

We bid goodbye to lovely Powell River. A one hour and 20 minute ferry ride later found us docking at Comox on Vancouver Island. More to explore!



We started out by driving to the home of a writing friend and her husband, previously only online acquaintances, for coffee (thanks Austins!).

Then it was on to Courtenay. This interesting building in the old downtown area caught my eye. It is called the "Native Sons Hall" and was built as a tribute to the logging industry. Ceiling joists were made of 65 foot long Douglas Fir logs. The building is said to be the largest free span log building in Canada (whatever that means! - sounds impressive).


I also captured some murals around town.



In the evening we drove out to Comox, a city just around the bay from Courtenay, where I couldn't resist the boats reflected in the tranquil waters of the marina.


I love the sea - as long as I can have my feet on land!