More Art in Public Places

I am very attracted to seeing art in every day life, rather than restricting it to museums or homes. You can tell a lot about the values of a place by how much public art they display and what kind. So I think I'll continue with that theme here.

We are on Vancouver Island for the rest of the summer. These first photos were taken in the small town of Duncan, which is decorated with dozens of totem poles all over the town. These are large sculptures of symbols and/or animals carved on wooden poles carved by indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest.

A double header! Both a mural and a totem pole

The main street

The old train station 

We like to hike and try to do this every day. We're in Nanaimo right now and these sculptures are in parks near the house we are renting. None of these are authorize sculptures, just things people have done or tacked onto trees.  

The guy that tacks up these owl sculptures is very prolific. I saw owls in two different parks here. 

This appears to be a professional sculpture. Sorry, I didn't read the plaque at the base. 

We are spending a week or so around the city of Nanaimo, which is a nice little city with a busy harbor. Not an industrial harbor but one used for seaplanes and ferries to outlying islands. Here are some art pieces from downtown.

There used to be a foundry located here. 

It's a city with a lot of harbor traffic to offshore islands. Of course there would be a mural of ocean critters. 

That's me at the Nanaimo harbor sitting on a giant dungeness crab

Tribal art. First Nation (Native Americans to us) fishing in a canoe. 

Love- always a nice notion. We have a Love sculpture in downtown Scottsdale. 

There is a festival going on this weekend. The World Championship Bathtub races where people race in motorized bathtubs. Tonight was the start of the festival with a rock concert (6 hours), food kiosks, and lots of people watching. These gals, a huge picture frame with the festival in the background- my contribution to the art of Nanaimo.