Ever since he could remember, Kalum Teke Dan has been painting. But four years ago, his dreams were shattered when an illness prevented him from walking.
“For a year, I suffered and went into a bit of depression, thinking that I wasn’t going to make my career because of all this,” Dan said. “They told me I’d be in a wheelchair.”
Dan still wears a brace on his hand but he’s otherwise healthy again and his canvas is bigger than ever.
His art is one of 15 murals in the Beltline Urban Murals Project (BUMP).
“The image is called Sunset Song,” Dan said of his giant painting. “So he is singing the old prayers and stories from our culture.
“I painted that because my grandfather used to wake up early in the morning and he would be drumming and singing old songs.”
But this week, vandals stole the copper wire and battery from his hydraulic lift and graffiti was plastered on the corner of the building he’s working on. Dan said several other mural sites have also been targeted.
Calgary police told Global News they are investigating a theft, but had no information on potential leads or surveillance video as of Friday afternoon.
People stopping to admire the art in progress on Friday were dismayed to see the graffiti.
“It’s gorgeous. I think it’s really powerful and colourful,” said Trena Primmer of the Indigenous art. “It surprises me that a graffiti artist would vandalize art because it’s a form of art itself. So that’s strange behaviour.”
Those behind the mural project say graffiti protection coating will be applied to the finished murals. The hope is that the art will reduce the amount of vandalism in the neighbourhood.
“We just need more public art in the city. There are a lot of buildings that either have blank spaces or they’re kind of run down. We really just wanted to improve the public realm in the community and also, there are tons of talented artists that need canvases and need exposure.”
Dan says he’s not staying angry. Instead, the Alberta-born artist is using the crime to his artistic advantage.
“I’m going to put a river here in the corner,” he said. “I’m going to have a river covering the graffiti up, going down to the bottom, because water is life and I want to represent that, too.”
Despite the setbacks, Dan plans to be ready to showcase his art for the tour of the Beltline murals on Sept. 1.