Organizers, artists and partakers of the 2024 UpLift! Mural Festival are soaring on the thermals of another successful celebration of art in Jasper.
The festival, now in its third year, has brought more vibrancy to walls around the community. And because Parks Canada has softened its stance on formalizing the process of rendering murals on Jasper buildings, stating recently that “Parks Canada will ensure that murals are formally permitted within the [Town of Jasper Architectural Motif Guidelines],” the 2024 festival has continued with none of the bureaucratic hitches that organizers feared might hinder it.
As such, four muralists out of nearly 150 artists from across the world who applied to beautify Jasper’s streetscapes were selected to leave their marks alongside past painters. And now that those impressions have been cast, The Jasper Local caught up with the artists to learn more about them and their inspirations.
Animal Instinct
Hailing from Guangzhou, China, along with revitalizing dozens of walls across her home country and Europe, SATR (@satrxx) previously painted a mural for the Chilliwack Mural Festival. Her newest piece, in Jasper, depicts a massive, mystical elk and adorns the Everest building next to the Jasper Downtown Hostel (400 Patricia Street). SATR told The Jasper Local the image was inspired by her last road trip through the national park.
“We saw a lot of cars. They seemed to be waiting for something. So we stopped as well. I saw this elk slowly and casually cross the road in front of a car—it was like something out of the movies because I’d never seen an elk in real life,” SATR remembers.
“The feelings it gave me were majestic, calm and peaceful with the nature. It was perfect. So I wanted to record that moment and bring it to Jasper.”
SATR discovered the Uplift! Jasper Mural Festival on her last visit to the town—seeing the incredible work done by Fluke on the Koebel building adjacent to the TGP parking lot.
“I was very impressed by his work,” SATR said.
After some rudimentary research, SATR discovered the UpLift! festival. She wrote to organizers Logan Ireland and Oliver Andrew to inquire about being involved. The rest is art history.
“For me, it’s an ideal place to paint because the animals and nature and all the things that I love are here.”
The Butterfly Effect
Many Jasper locals are familiar with Mackenzie Brown-Kamâmak (@kamamak_art)—she and her mother Matricia operate the Warrior Women collective and drumming group in Jasper.
In Cree, Kamâmak means “the butterfly.” Mackenzie’s Uplift! mural reflects this namesake; it’s now represented as the colourful design on the side of the Telus building, on the corner of Miette Avenue and Geikie street.
“In a way, it’s a self portrait,” she said.
The mural’s day and night scenes reflect the balance we need in our own lives, she added.
“Butterflies go through periods of darkness but they come out bright and beautiful. So the understanding that we go through periods of turmoil and periods of joy and that balance is what makes life.
“When we go through the hard times we have to remember that the good times are coming, and when we go through he good times we surround ourselves with a circle of support to help carry us through those bad times.”
She said the position of the mural on the Telus building is “perfect.”
“You can see it from the information lawn, you can see it from the school, and it really invites people into that space.”
Mackenzie said the design was deliberately created to encourage viewers to take a selfie with it.
“You can have a butterfly head, or you can stand in front of it and, if someone takes a photo from below, you have butterfly wings.”
A Bird in the Hand
This is birdO’s first time flapping around Jasper but the avian-inspired muralist is already chirping about the town, and has a friend he wants to refer for next year’s Uplift! event.
birdO (real name Jerry Rugg) started his career as a graffiti artist. After flirting with trouble with the law, he tightened things up, eventually finding work in advertising and the corporate sector. That was eight years ago. He’s since been painting murals full time, all across the world.
“I like to go big. Just work, work, work. Because that’s what’s fun for me,” birdO said.
Here in Jasper, birdO had the challenge of painting not just one but two murals on Connaught Drive’s Maligne Building (414 Connaught Drive)—the first on the wall next to CIBC, and the second around the back, in the alley.
The Saskatchewan-born, Toronto-based artist liked the idea of his Jasper murals being connected as two vantage points—in case the viewer passed one wall by.
“I like the idea of the hummingbird being the glue between the two walls, and it will look like it’s from the same hand.”
Why the hummingbird? Is it because the timing of the Jasper UpLift! Mural Festival coincides with the annual return of the rufous and calliope hummingbirds in Jasper (or are we just trying to promote clicks to our awesome hummingbird content)?
“They’re not the most prevalent creature but I really gravitated to it from an artistic perspective—the colours and the textures.”
Melt out
Tyler Toews has created what can be undoubtedly be called the coolest mural in Jasper.
Toews’ (@canadianmurals) depiction of a melting block of ice popping out of the wall upstairs at the Patricia Street Mall (610 Patricia Street), seemingly vanishing right under the viewer’s feet, was the first mural completed of UpLift! 2024. Toews, who ski guides in the winter, painted his piece—fittingly titled Melt—in less than a week after leading clients across vast snowfields in the Yukon.
“The topic [climate change] affects me directly in my other career as well,” the Nelson-based artist said.
The melting ice block—jumping off the wall in the third-dimension, thanks to Toews’ use of the Trompe-l’œil technique—drips incessantly in front of renderings of Jasper National Park’s most well-known water reserves, the Athabasca and Angel glaciers. Depicting those glaciers as they would have been documented a century ago was a deliberate choice, Toews said.
“I want my art to ask questions, to make people think. I don’t have the answers but I can create awareness and create conversations.”
Cameron Jackson // cj@thejasperlocal.com
