Salmon Arrows Mural at UFCW 1518 - Qaqayt/New Westminster

The "Salmon Arrows Mural" was conceived earlier in 2019 in collaboration with UFCW 1518 and the City of New Westminster. It wasn't long ago I made a wish to paint giant salmon in the sky. When the opportunity came across my desk to paint a mural on this GIANT wall, I went to work designing a salmon-arrow layout for the building using photos of the building. A design was submitted and approved and I got to plotting and painting using a projection system to start the initial layout on the building. The 'Salmon Arrow' design represents the ancestral instinct and ceremony of wild salmon traveling to the ocean after reaching maturity. This design concept came to me after spending time at various spawning grounds around the region and witnessing this important part of the salmon life cycle. In the space there this mural sits the design also represents a directional nod to the ancient site of 'Qaqayt', a fishing spot located just across the river.

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In all the mural took 12 working days over a period of a month when the days were sunny enough to paint. 

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Much thanks to UFCW 1518, The City of New Westminster, Simon Kinotropy, the helpful people at Dulux Paints in Langley + Burnaby stores and to the Qaqayt First Nation on whose traditional territory this mural is situated.

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The mural is dedicated to my son, Emmitt.