McBride artists leave their mark

By Spencer Hall

McBride artists and residents celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Whistlestop Gallery in June with a public art project which includes banners featuring the work of local artists and the installation of two painted benches outside the visitor centre.

Unveiled on June 7th, the project — titled Living Stories of the Robson Valley — features five styles of banners, each telling a story that has shaped the community of McBride or surrounding areas in one way or another. The banners are now displayed along Main Street.

The project was the brainchild of Gallery general manager Dannielle Alan, who said she wanted to tell the story of McBride and the surrounding areas through public art.

“A community defines itself by the stories it tells about itself. And stories told through art and culture are inherently positive. So, when you get to use art and culture and people to tell the story of who you are as a community, it’s going to be a better community,” Alan said.

Alan told the Goat the project was made possible by a $38K grant from Destination BC as part of the organization’s visitor experience enhancement program.

Banners adorning Main Street

The banner painted by local artist and McBride councillor Glen Frear shows an aged cedar tree in the ancient forest. While Frear’s other works of the ancient forest are typically of the forest floor or the large trunks of the old growth trees, for this project he wanted to show the top of the tree from the perspective of someone looking skyward.

“It’s homely,” Frear said in the pamphlet about the project. “It represents perseverance and strength in the face of adversity. I can relate to the tree.”

Another banner, painted by Simon Williams — a school principal based out of Edmonton who lives in McBride during school holidays after purchasing a property in the community with his wife — showcases a view of Bell Mountain from horseback.

The painting was created from a photo provided by local equestrian Michelle Rejman and is dedicated to the memory of her father Dennis Rejman, who guided Williams and his wife up Bell Mountain the first time the couple went up the mountain.

“His quiet confidence and deep knowledge of the valley helped open this landscape to us. This painting is a tribute to his generosity, steadiness, and love for the place he called home,” Williams said in his project write up.

The third banner features the photography of Darwin Paton and shows a stunning drone shot of the Goat River Trail. Paton said he uses photography as a way to record the beauty of British Columbia’s varied landscape and the creatures that inhabit them.

“My goal is to capture the essence of fragility in our environment without impacting the subject matter that I am presenting. Using this approach I present moments as they transpired; for that is all they are, moments of experience we are lucky enough to bear witness to,” Paton said.

The fourth banner, painted by David Marchant, tells the story of Belle and Sundance, two horses rescued from Mount Renshaw by a group of volunteers from the McBride area in December 2008.

The two horses — a three-year-old mare and a 10 to 15-year old gelding — were found freezing and incredibly malnourished after being left for dead by their previous owner. Rescuers braved the – 40°C weather to dig a one kilometer path in two-metre high snow to rescue the horses, who were later nursed back to health and adopted by new families. 

Created by former Whistlestop Gallery chair Sheilagh Foster, the last banner shows a hummingbird feeding on lilacs and is dedicated to Curtis and Bonnie Culp, a pair who were a “dynamic force” in Dunster for many years, according to Foster.

Bonnie cultivated many different types of lilacs on the property, which attracted hundreds of hummingbirds. Curtis then became a certified hummingbird bander, capturing the birds, placing a numbered ring on one of their legs and releasing it, allowing researchers to track the bird’s movements. He also wrote the booklet Hummingbirds of the Robson Valley.

“Bonnie and Curtis Culp worked tirelessly to nourish their community and family with food, skills, and beauty from their Dunster property on the Fraser River,” Foster said. 

The project also included the installation of two wooden benches painted by Jayden Richter and their artistic partner Rozina Shaw. The benches themselves were built and designed by Adrian Hooper, Darcy MacKay and BRKH Custom Woodwork.

“Rozina worked with Jayde to showcase the community of Dunster with love and humour and to tell of the partnership between horse, rider and mountain trail. A partnership that has persisted for over 100 years,” Alan said. 

Whistlestop Gallery employee Athena Caputo also came into her own during the project, discovering her passion for research, storytelling and design while designing the webpage. Alan said Caputo worked tirelessly researching, writing and rewriting the stories that were then told by the artwork.

“Athena spent an enormous amount of time speaking to people, researching stories, writing stories, sending them out for accuracy and corrections and then rewriting them,” Alan said

“It is said that Odysseus wept when he heard the poet sing of his great deeds abroad because, once sung, they were no longer his alone, for they belonged to everyone who had heard the song. So this is us, singing the song of the Robson Valley through art and story,” Alan concluded.

To find out more about the project, visit https://www.whistlestopgallery.ca/livingstoriesrvs.