The latest downtown mural will be a powerful ode to local waters.
Internationally renowned muralist Jason Botkin has been busy transforming a wall behind the Royal Hotel.
Water is central to the design he’s working from, created on his tabled. It features a kneeling figure thoroughly integrated with the land and water.
“The sky is a great big face, then the body becomes the shoulders of the mountains, with arms moving out,” the artist recounted. “His hands are in the foreground where they plunge into water, and the water will support the whole piece.”
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Amber Price, founder of the Chilliwack Mural Festival, said she discovered the “iconic” work of Jason Botkin last year, and started communicating with him to see if he could find a window to come to Chilliwack to paint a mural.
“His extraordinary talent is unique, and unlike anything I have ever seen,” she said about Botkin’s aquatic scenes and other sculptural designs that can be seen on his website.
His work is striking, geometric, spiritual, a touch psychedelic.
It’s the way his work pops in a three dimensional way that would lead some to describe the painting style as “sculptural.”
Montreal-based Botkin likes to travel, collaborate with other like-minded artists, and stir things up as an ‘artivist.’
Price said she made a point of taking Botkin on a tour of some local sights and landmarks across the Eastern Fraser Valley to get him situated after he arrived.
They checked out the Tamihi rapids, saw the Fraser River from the Agassiz-Rosedale bridge, and the Vedder-Chilliwack river system, all to get an eyeful of local vistas, mountains and waters.
“He wants to capture Chilliwack, and he’s doing that through outside eyes, which is very special,” Price added.
Two more mural artists booked to create works in downtown Chilliwack, and by the end of the summer, there should be three new pieces for people to enjoy.
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