Wednesday, August 16, 2023

Kingsway Mural


Jackson's General Store took over the old Y. Franks heating business at the 1490 Kingsway a few years back, after leaving the block between Kingsway and Fraser, along East 15th.

A couple years ago someone kicked in one of the storefront's large windows and, as is the case with many street level businesses in the city, the cost of replacement remains greater than a same-sized piece of plywood.

In response to these anti-social behaviours, Mike Jackson did more than replace his window with a piece of plywood; he commissioned a mural series. 

Yesterday I noticed a new mural going up. The studio behind (and before) the mural is stringcreative, and its principal, Sabrina Anne Modder, is on the right (above); Akira beside her.

As with many painted murals, a grid is used to upscale the source drawing; in this case, a still-life of symbols: a crown (the "king" in Kingsway), fish (after the historic spawning creeks that led up from the False Creek waterway) and a line in red that is the road known today as Kingsway -- what was, prior to European "contact", a Coast Salish subsistence and transportation trail, a trail that, in the 20th century, had a modern grid of streets and avenues imposed upon it, making it that "difficult" and "eccentric" road some of us continue to get lost on, complain about, as if it's the street's fault it's diagonal.


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