A Victoria-based Kwakwaka’wakw artist has painted a mural on Pandora Avenue with the goal of bringing a bit of light to what can be a dark place in the city.
Alex Taylor-McCallum was surrounded by art at an early age.
His late grandma was a collector of Indigenous art and West Coast prints throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s, and throughout school he took art classes and started designing murals and canvases.
“I’ve been primarily teaching myself myself about our art, the old tradition of West Coast form line design and slowly, one piece at a time, learning about the stories behind them and really painting pieces that honor my ancestry as a Kwakwaka’wakw, Nuu-Cha-Nulth person” he said.
Taylor-McCallum is now three years sober from alcohol, which helped inspire the mural after his aunt, who works at the Cool-Aid Society, asked him to design the mural for their Pandora location to help brighten up the area and contribute to the Indigenous community that frequents that area of Pandora, and the tenants that live in the supportive housing units in the area.
“It truly is one of the ways I’ve been able to connect to my culture the most with learning the stories behind these designs. These stories contain metaphors that we use to kind of live a good healthy life and know the difference between right and wrong,” he said.
The painting features a two-headed sea serpent that represents two sides in life, the positive and the negative, and the “balance that we need to live in between these two sides of life, especially in sobriety.”
There is also a raven, that represents bringing light to the area and the community and the surrounding area, based on old stories in which ravens release light into the sky at a time where the world was dark.
He hopes to start seeing more public art and Indigenous-inspired art throughout the city, especially on Pandora for inspirational impact for those who are struggling.
“This mural really represents the balance that we need to maintain. It also represents strength and hope,” he said. “The raven has the ability to change its features and so to me, that really represents a transformational shape, shifting change that is representative of recovery.”
Read More: Victoria artist receives medal he designed after completing ironman
