I found an excellent site that tells about each mural in Chemainus (very interesting). These are the three I shot. To look at all forty-two, check out muraltown.com or from mural #4 on, just click on next mural.
MURAL 23
2.4M X 6M (8’ X 20’), CHEMAINUS MEDICAL CLINIC, ESPLANADE STREET
CHEMAINUS HOSPITAL
Painted in 1988 by Doug Driediger, Calgary,
The Artist
Armed with an Honours Diploma in Painting from the Alberta College of Art, Calgary native Doug Driediger opened his own graphics business right off the bat. He is an exacting artist who demands that a high degree of intensity and spirit show through in any of his work.
His mural depicting the Chemainus Hospital produced a “testimonial to a profession dedicated to preserving, enhancing and beginning life”, and is indicative of the painstaking details which characterize Driediger’s art. In bringing the characters of his mural to life, the people of Chemainus were as important to him as the paints on his palette.
Driediger’s paintings are featured in the collections of the Banff Rocky Mountain Resorts and the Thorn Hill Recreation Centre, and appeared in exhibitions associated with the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta.
The Art
In a composite of scenes, the Chemainus Hospital, built in 1899, sits majestically at the left of the mural. When built, it was the only hospital between Victoria and Nanaimo. It remains a strong focus in the community even today.
Some of the doctors, nurses, staff and patients from over the years are portrayed in the foreground across the expanse of the painting. From left to right are: Nurse Graham, Head Cook Chang, Nurse Johnson, Mrs. Ruth Heslip (wheelchair), Dr. Herbert Burritt Rogers, and Nurse MacDougal, holding an infant.
Dr. Rogers was the first medical doctor to work out of the newly constructed hospital when he began there in 1900. Before obtaining his medical degree from McGill University in Montreal, he had the distinction of being one of Canada’s earliest appendectomy patients. While working as a postal inspector, he again led the way, carrying the first official mail to Victoria on the newly completed Canadian Pacific Railway. He was a well-loved resident of Chemainus for many years and retired as the Medical Superintendent of the Chemainus Hospital in 1936. Next Mural >
MURAL 30
6.10M x 2.59M (20’ x 8’6”), CROFT STREET
THE LONE SCOUT
Painted in 1991 by Stanley Hiromichi Taniwa, Clanwilliam, Manitoba
The Artist
Stan Taniwa left Chemainus as a baby, evacuated with his parents and six siblings to an internment camp in the interior of BC during WWII. What followed was an extremely difficult time for Japanese Canadians. Taniwa’s father died, leaving a large family for his mother to raise single-handedly. The Taniwas settled in Thunder Bay, Ontario, where Stan originally studied architectural drafting.
When he undertook fine art studies at the University of Manitoba, it was to pursue an interest in ceramics. He began exhibiting his work in 1970, and has since shown his ceramic creations from Ontario to Alberta. Taniwa teaches and is a juror for the Canada Council and the Manitoba Festival of the Arts. He has restored an old brick church in Eden, Manitoba, where he has established his home and studio. Since The Lone Scout was painted in 1991, Taniwa has completed other paintings as well as continuing his work in clay.
The Art
Edward Shige Yoshida was born in Victoria, B.C. in 1908, and was raised in the quiet mill town of Chemainus. In 1929, he realized his dream in starting the 2nd Chemainus Boy Scouts, an all-Japanese Canadian troop and the first of its kind in the country. The delicate, porcelain plate quality of his portrait in the mural, The Lone Scout, belies the wit, energy and determination of this slightly built but significant character in the life of Chemainus.
Chemainus town was home to a community of 300 Japanese Canadians who had settled in the area between 1900 and the 1940s. Mill workers, fishers, business people and their families, all were interned after the attack on Pearl Harbour.
By a series of coincidences, Stan Taniwa came to paint The Lone Scout, and included in the background of the mural members of his family, then and now. Next Mural >
MURAL 4
8M X 4.4M (26’ X 15’), CORNER OF OAK AND ESPLANADE
THE HONG HING WATERFRONT STORE
Painted in 1982 by Paul Marcano, with sonVictoria, BC (now residing on Saltspring Island)
The Artist
From the hills of eastern Ontario, Paul Marcano's artist parents influenced their gifted son to create from his inner vision. Marcano's first project for Chemainus was to paint one-third of the grand Thirty-Three Metre Collage. Read about Paul in the Chemainus Festival of Murals book on sale in Chemainus.
The Art
Fong Yen Lew was known to almost everyone as Hong Hing, the name he gave to his store. Born in the late 1800’s, he came toCanada, and set up his business in Chemainus around 1915. His enterprise began as a laundry, but he later sold groceries, chickens and second-hand goods. Eventually, he expanded into bootlegging and running a gambling house.
Hong Hing was welcome everywhere in Chemainus, just as he welcomed everyone. His easy credit terms and kind heart probably lost him plenty of money over the years, but gained him many friends.
In the 1950’s, the opening of a government liquor store in Chemainus foretold the demise of Hong Hing’s establishment. His original building was eventually declared a fire trap and demolished. Hong Hing returned to China, presumably to die. But to the surprise of only a few who did not know him, he instead married a woman 40 years his junior, who eventually presented him with an heir.Next Mural >
My dear friend, Joseph.
