Our “Artists’ Alleyway” is taking shape! Accomplished BC artist Sheldon Louis arrived in Peachland this week to begin his water-themed mural, sponsored by the Peachland Watershed Protection Alliance.
Sheldon’s statement about this work:
Artist’s Statement:
This imagery shows a young toddler making an offering to the water and salmon. This imagery
speaks to the instilling of traditional protocols and teachings and the passing down of
knowledge to our littlest ones. We as adults carry out these protocols of offering tobacco to the
water and our little ones watch and mimic and learn.
The imagery in the background is some stylized images of Siya (Saskatoon berry) the siya is a representation of youth. This also speaks to the teaching of young ones and also how the future of our water will be cared for by them and carried forward. The salmon in our Syilx culture represents the “getting it done” or “the
worker” and so this too speaks to the work and effort that is needed to care for our waters. I only used one salmon image to represent that all it takes is one salmon to come back to reconnect our waters and our people back to the salmon.
The red orche background represents our tulmin which is used for pictographs. The blue
represents the water. The orange line across the wall is an Earthline this represents the
land/earth. It outlines the young boy to show he and his energy is connected to the earth.
