Kamloops Art Tour with Chris Bose

Transcript Chris Bose: So I'm here at the Kamloops Friendship Centre. Kamloop's Aboriginal Friendship Centre, which is on Palm Street. The address. I think it's 125 Palm, something like that. Yeah. 125 Palm street. So this is a mural I did. Geez. I don't know, 2016, 2017 a while ago. It's held up pretty good. It was a commission by Lii Michif Otipemisiwak, a Metis child and family services organization. They commissioned me as well as the fine people here at the Friendship Centre. So it was nice. I used to come here a lot when I was young teenager, wayward soul, because it was a safe place. They had programs, they had food. There used to be a drum group here, big drums. So we'd sing pow wow songs and Secwepemctsin songs and Nlaka’pamux songs. So yeah, I was really tied to this place in my youth growing up. I don't know what they do now. I'm not sure. I think they want to, uh, get rid of this old building and put up a new one. Cause it's all patchwork of different. I don't know, buildings and stuff, so I don't know how relevant or what the heck's going on here anymore. But anyways, this mural, um, there's a portrait of an Indigenous person with purple regalia painting on their face and a crow. The person was an influence from Aboriginal artist Aaron Paquette out of Prince George or not Prince George, Aaron Paquette from Edmonton is now on Edmonton City Council. He's a really good artist. So I asked him if I could use that to start off this mural and then there's a raven and then there's a loon. And then flowers flowing across the entire painting. It's about 50 feet long, probably. So there's flowers to represent Metis. And that's the wind. They're on the winds of their seeds and the flowers and vines to represent change of seasons. And then there's a big medicine wheel on fire. I don't know why I did that actually. Nigel Szigeti did. He helped me paint this as well as the, the youth from the Friendship Centre and elders from the Friendship Centre and LMO. Yeah. You can see casts. I mean, Nigel's clouds, it's kind of his trademark on all my murals. There's a couple of bison, so we've got some east, east Eastern, uh, Woodlands, Cree style, and then some Prairie shout outs and sweet grass and a wolf to represent Inuit. And it's hidden in the mural, but some kid wrote fid on it, silly kids, and then there's a nice, beautiful tree. And then there's Tsilhqot’in/Secwepemc pit house or keekuli. Then I've got a Metis sash and an empty spot where I was going to put who did all the work and all that sort of jazz. But the people that were doing , commissioned me, couldn't get it together to tell me what to paint. So I just had to leave it empty and it haunts me. I think I'm going to come back and ask if I can fill it in properly, but we did this in the summer and it was hot. One of the funny things that happened is I typically you'll draw out a mural concept and then just change it and adjust it for the people who commissioned me. So once this one got approved, it's really flowy, lots of flow. And I really like it. It's a really bright, beautiful mural. Anyways, I was outlining the mural one, one Monday in late July or something. And, uh, this guy called the cops on me cause he thought it was doing graffiti on it. Like what at one in the afternoon? On a Monday. Give your head a shake pal. So I had to go get the people inside the Friendship Centre her to vouch for me. It was funny. But anyways, yeah, we painted here every Tuesday and Thursday for a few hours. It was a lot of work. Um, we put up safety cones and had a high vis vests cause people go flying through here. So we almost got hit once. And uh, I would typically come first thing, 10 or 11. I know first thing. And, um, just make sure that there's no needles and pipes, broken pipes, glass pipes, and stuff around, make sure it's safe for the kids and the elders. And yeah, it was cool. It was a really fun community experience. All my community art or all my artists is community-based these days. And I love it because it brings people together, creates dialogue and tell stories, have fun, create memories. So it's really cool. I love that. One time though, we were here. I was, I was here with my daughters, Tater (Jayda) and Ava, and, uh, we were painting cause they've been helping me since, I don't know, seven and nine to start painting murals. So, um, yeah, we were sitting here. We had our little table set up and we had all our paint and we had some lawn chairs and stacks and we'll just painting with everybody. And these cops come screaming up in front of this Friendship Centre and all jump out and hands on their guns and move inside the building. Like what the hell? And my daughters were like big eyes. And I'm like, don't tell your mom, don't tell your mom. It was funny. I don't know what happened inside the Friendship Centre, but apparently it was urgent. And I think they hauled out some guy who was just having a hard time, but you know, life's an adventure. You got to explore it and experience it. So yeah, this is this mural here at the Friendship Centre. Uh, come check it out. Now I'm going to go to the other one behind Kamloops Immigrant Services. So kukstemc and thanks for coming, Homet7 Homet7, kukstemc. Thanks again. Bye-bye.

Transcript Chris Bose: Okay. So I'm at the Free Wall, which is on the North Shore of Kamloops. The Free Wall means that anyone can come and paint. And that's what I'm doing. So I'm going to paint a quick skull. That's the sound of the spray paint And above me, you can hear traffic on the Overlanders Bridge and it's yeah, it's loud. I'm shaking the white paint right now. Get it started. I've painted here a few times. Legally. Cause it's legal. It's an entire, anyone can come and paint here. Okay. So we gonna try the skull right now. Okay. I've got the skull done. The white. Now I'm going to add some of the black and uh, yeah. We'll see how it works. How it looks. Right now, there's a memorial piece up for Ian McKee. I don't know what they wrote, but yeah, it's interesting. Okay. Time for the black. Check. Pretty simple. It looks a bit toyish but it's not bad. So there concludes my painting, the Free Wall, at the Free Wall because it's bloody cold. So yeah, I'll take a picture of the skull. I did. I did some diamonds a few weeks ago, so it's beside the diamonds and there's a kid I was working with who has been, uh, he's he paints wav or JPEG. He's just starting out. And he's one of my students at the Kamloops Art Gallery. I do a workshop series there for youth. And, um, part of it was to come here and paint. So we've been here a few times painting under the auspices and permission of the Kamloops Art Gallery and the City of Kamloops. So yeah, they support some cool stuff every now and then. It gives kids something to do, keeps them out of trouble. Learn the rules of the street. And yeah, there you go. This is their Kamloops Free Wall. So there's a section for up-and-comers often called Toys because they're still learning how to play and this, and you can see it. It's like really amateurish looking stuff. And then there's the Kings and Queens and that's on the other side and that's the really dope, tight looking stuff. So yeah, there you go. That's a couple of things you now know about graffiti. It's expensive and it takes time. Um, I use all kinds of paint, but all of it, graffiti paint, which is manufactured to a higher standard, higher pigments, UV resistance and all that jazz. And, um, it's made by graffiti artists for graffiti artists. So it's got really high pigment. Goes on smooth. Looks great. It's good stuff, but it ain't cheap. So yeah, there you go. I'll take a picture of this and continue my walk to the murals. kukstemc. Thanks for coming. Hope you enjoy it.

Transcript Chris Bose: All right. So I'm here at my favourite viewpoint chair bench in Peterson Creek Park. Can hear a truck easing its air brakes, which is against the law in a community. Um, that's the Trans Canada Highway below me. I come here a lot. You can hear lots of people in the park. It's really beautiful and tranquil except for the traffic noise, but it's got amazing views and it's an easy walk. It's nice and relatively flat. They've put down a proper trail for people with mobility issues. So wheelchairs can actually make it in here. I was here for the launch of that, I guess. I don't know, three or four years ago. Maybe more, I dunno. And, um, yeah, from this bench, I've got a stunning view of the north, the mountains, Mount Peter and Paul respectively, and then Strawberry Hill further to the left and the Indian Reserve. IR1 Tk'emlúps. I think it's called. Then if you look to the west a bit, you'll see the North Thompson River with a couple of bridges, a train bridge, and a auto bridge. And then, um, Batchelor Heights, all these, this development on a hill. It's crazy. And, uh, yeah, I have a lot of good memories of this park and Mount Peter and Mount Paul. I'll tell you one. So Mount Paul is the smaller mountain overlooking the industrial park on the Rez. If you sit in this bench and you look straight ahead, you'll see it. It's got a lot of, um, shale rock and land. Like it's a lots of, uh, small pebbly shale stuff in the face of the mountain. And then you can sort of see at the base a huge gray water tank, but the mountain itself is it's a two hour climb. You wouldn't believe it looking at it, but it is. Um, I used to go up there a lot. And, uh, one, one story is, uh, during Kamloopa Powwow, God, geez. Years ago, 20 years ago, um, I climbed it and I was at the top and you could hear the powwow singers moving, blowing on the wind. So you'd hear this haunting powwow music coming from the arbour down below. And it was really cool. It was a hot day too, cause it's always August long weekend. But it was a beautiful hike. You've got these stunning views once you get up there. People still hike it, but it's technically, you're not supposed to. Um, because there's all this development there now, like Sun Rivers Golf Course and all these ugly, rich people, houses, bougie apartments and stuff on the Roz while, you know, there's housing crisis for Indigenous people. So anyways, yeah, I climbed that mountain many times as a young feller oh geez. I used to climb it easy. Now I don't think I could make it unless I went in a helicopter. One other story is one time I went up with my friend, John Treichel0 And he's an amazing guitarist here in Kamloops. Find him on YouTube and Marty Ylatalo who I believe is the seventh son of a seventh son. It's unreal. And I guess that's supposed to be a really powerful thing. And he's an amazing drummer. I was in a band with him a couple of times and did some touring and stuff. Like he's a really chilled out hippie dude. He's really cool. So anyways, John and Marty and I climbed Mount Paul first, the smaller mountain. And you go up the side, up to the top and I think we probably smoked some cannabis if I'm not mistaken. And then we were going to climb Mount Peter, the taller peak. And, uh, we saw a bear. There's kind of like the saddle in between the mountains. I call it a saddle. It looks like a saddle. And, uh, it's huge. It's like a kilometer and uh, it's all grassy, you know, sage,. Not even sage. It's all, uh, grass, grassy grasslands, but there's a huge boulder in the middle of it. And, uh, there's climbing notches put in it. I think it was probably used for ceremonies at one time. But anyways, he saw this bear and it started coming towards us. And so we climbed this rock and it was a hot summer day and we're sitting there and we're throwing our sandwiches at the bear to get it to go. And it was a big cinnamon bear. Like it was huge, not quite a brown bear, but massive. And we were like, holy shit. So after a while it left us and we just sat there imbibing. And then, uh, once, once it was gone, we felt confident enough. We climbed down and then we hit Mount Peter. And, um, it was a great day. It was a full long day though. Like I was, I was exhausted. And how you get down these mountains is you literally take a running jump and down the front face where all the free rocks are, you literally run and jump and it's like powder skiing, like your feet sink foot into it. And you just, it takes 20 minutes to get down. So that's what we did. We went down Mount Peter, which is really dangerous, but there's tons of goat trails up there and all kinds of stuff. It's really amazing. One of the best hikes in town. So yeah, I've had a lot of good times. Good memories. All right. Well, I hope you enjoyed that. Chris Bose. kukstemc for listening and looking at the photos and I hope you can make the journey through the park, lots of views and viewpoints and benches throughout. Um, yeah. And it's really safe and it's easy to go through it's wheelchair accessible. So there you have it folks. Kukstemc. Take care, have a wonderful day.