The beach north of Vancouver’s Point Grey Road has long been a destination for taggers.
On weekends past, teens have marked it with inappropriate phrases and pictures.
But now two new residents to the area, Chip and Shannon Wilson, the founders of Lululemon, have commissioned a huge public mural to cover the wall. They own the house above the wall.
Seven well-known graffiti artists spent some time today working on the $7,000 weekend project.
“A lot of these artists that are working here today are quite well-known for their works in Vancouver and they were selected for their stylistic traits and their dedication to their craft,” says Scott Sueme, graffiti artist.
Shannon says there was a lot of blank space on the wall, with some “scattered scrawls”, and they wanted to make it beautiful.
The inspiration came when the Wilsons were on Bondi Beach in Australia. That area used to have the same tagger problem, until they fixed it with a mural.
The Wilsons chose graffiti because of the bright colours and because it is unlikely other taggers will destroy their work.
“These guys are all absolutely top-tier, top of their game and there’s a lot of respect in that sector, so there’s a code of ethics in place knowing that somebody’s putting up a really beautiful piece, you would never think of going over that with a little minor tag,” says Graeme Berglund, local artist and project organizer. “So we hope that this wall stays untouched for months or even years to come.”
The Wilsons can’t see the mural from their newly-built, $37 million Point Grey Road property and want other homeowners along the Sea Wall to maybe take up similar projects.
– with files from Darlene Heidemann
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