The UpLift! Jasper Mural Festival is once again leaving behind multiple murals throughout town, including one on the Telus Wall (203 Miette Avenue) facing Miette Avenue and the new Fire Hall.
This butterfly mural was created by Mackenzie Brown (a.k.a. Kamamak), a First Nations Cree artist from the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation.
“The mural is really a story of balance,” Brown said.
“On one side, we have the butterfly, and then on the other side, we have the moth. And actually in our Cree creation stories, we believe that the moth gave up its colours to make the rainbow and that butterflies had the ability of going through darkness and coming out bright and beautiful. So, that’s why I used the colours that I did.”
Brown has previously created a mural at the Jasper-Yellowhead Museum and several others in Calgary and Edmonton, plus some art installations in eastern Ontario.
“I was just really excited to be able to make something permanent here in Jasper,” Brown said.
The rainy weather required Brown to do some storm dodging, but the process went smoothly otherwise.
“When it rains, you just take a break and then you come back,” Brown said.
“It’s a little bit chilly, but that's the mountain weather anyways.”
Tyler Toews completed the first mural of 2024, which can be found at the top of the stairs to Rockaboo and Sunhouse.
SATR, a street artist from China, created a large mural at the Jasper Downtown Hostel and Source For Sports Building Wall at 402 Patricia Street.
The concept is inspired by the animals SATR saw on a trip to Jasper last summer, with the elk being the most prominent.
Jerry Rugg (a.k.a. birdO) has been wrapping a mural around the Maligne Building, commonly known as the Dental Office Building.
Rugg is a multidisciplinary artist based in Toronto and is known mainly for painting large-scale murals of surreal geometric animals.
In addition, Hong Kong artist Kristopher Ho created a small hidden mural located at the back of Astoria Hotel Jasper.
