A giant mural that\u2019s coming to life at the SummerlandLegion will invite viewers to step into striking scenes from Canada\u2019s military<\/p>\n
history.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Artist Timothy Searles \u2013who was commissioned for the job by the Summerland Legion \u2013 came up with the concept for the mural by blending photographs, paintings, and historical propaganda. As a history buff, he wants the images to remind the present generation about the brutal sacrifices that had to be made by fellow Canadians just generations earlier during the First and Second World Wars.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One scene illustrates soldiers storming Juno Beach, another shows them emerging from the trenches into no man\u2019s land.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, as an ex-reservist that\u2019s insane, and at a walking pace,\u201d Searles said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, since the mural will be on display outside of the Legion\u2019s Rosedale Avenue location, which is just a few blocks away from Summerland Elementary, Searles won\u2019t be making it too graphic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ll notice there\u2019s no violence really going on, at best some smoke.\u201d<\/p>\n
It accurately depicts the planes, ships and landing craft that were used by the Canadian military.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a Hurricane there, that one\u2019s a Spitfires,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Other military references include the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France; the ruins and rubble of a city that turned into a battlefield; and soldiers marching into Holland through the Scheldt on their way to liberate the Netherlands. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI want people to look at it from a distance and see something that is obviously honouring Canada\u2019s service to the world. And if they stop they see little vignettes and realize, \u2018hey there\u2019s a little story going on.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI want them to see what their grandparents and great-grandparents did in the past to help the world become a better place.\u201d<\/p>\n
It pays tribute to Indigenous soldiers and the nurses who retrieved the wounded.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Legion and I both wanted to make sure that women were represented in this for their role, because the First World War basically paved way for how the military treats wounded men on the field \u2013 their survivability rate increased massively when they\u2019re in there,\u201d Searles said. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout those women, way more men would have died. These women came out and picked up the men from just behind the battlefield, so these are some of the female field medics,\u201d he said while pointing them out.<\/p>\n
The mural also has a few landmarks local to Summerland, like Giants Head Mountain and the historical Morton Hall.<\/p>\n
The project is nine panels, each 8-feet-by-4-feet, for a total of 288 square feet. The project has been his full-time job since April 18 and he expects to finish within the next month.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be where you are today, this very moment \u2013 whatever is running through your head \u2013\u00a0 a part of Canada\u2019s history is this, to get where we are.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A giant mural that\u2019s coming to life at the SummerlandLegion will invite viewers to step into striking scenes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[92,17,33150,33152,33151],"class_list":["post-85449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-art","tag-canada","tag-mural","tag-public-art","tag-visual-arts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}