A prominent North Shore artist is mourning the impending demise of one of North Vancouver’s most visible murals.
Jane Clark won a competition in 2009 to adorn the 2,000-square foot cinderblock wall of Hesp Automotive at the corner of Esplanade and Forbes Avenue with Spirit Corner, to celebrate the 2010 Olympics and creation of the Spirit Trail – and to make beautiful a wall that was a magnet for particularly “disgusting graffiti.”
Clark donated her expertise but hired a painter and an assistant, and rented a pneumatic lift because “at 80-something, you can’t do that without somebody else there.”
The city sponsored the work, as did the Squamish Nation and members of the community.
The building now faces demolition and redevelopment into a new campus for private school Alcuin College, pending a public hearing and vote by council Monday night. Clark said she doesn’t take issue with the rezoning of the property, although she questions the wisdom of putting a school next to a blind corner that drivers tend to speed around.
Instead, she’d like to see the work somehow preserved. She’s offered to reproduce it on another wall nearby the trail for the cost of materials alone but despite several sit-downs with the mayor, no options have been found.
“Any wall that’s near the Spirit Trail would be fine,” she said.
The lay public may not realize it, but artists still have rights to their work, even after it has left their hands and the greatest sin of all is for it to be destroyed.
“If I had a painting of even four feet by eight … and if somebody bought and they destroyed it, they would be ready to be sued for that,” she said.
While society generally may not be familiar with artists’ rights, they do benefit from it.
“If it didn’t, we wouldn’t be able to see any of the great artists of this world. We wouldn’t have probably a single painting anywhere. There would be no museums. There would be no great art galleries. There would be no great murals on buildings. Rome would have nothing worth going to see,” she said with a laugh. “If you use that argument, you wouldn’t have a world at all like we’ve got.”
Clark has had similar arrangements made for other Olympic murals she has done, including one that was reproduced for the Whistler employees’ lodge. She’d also be content for a large photo reproduction to be done and posted somewhere nearby. The mural, after all, is a reflection of the geographical and built features around it.
Mayor Darrell Mussatto said several options are still on the table
“We’re checking with our public art people … to see in what way can we commemorate the mural. We could take some pictures of and see what our options are. Can we reproduce it somewhere else? Can we have pictures made of it we can have archived?” he said. “She’s amazingly talented and it’s been a very well received mural. … If there’s someone who has a site that’s appropriate, we’d love to hear from them. I’m sure we’d be able to help with the funding if it came to that way.”
Clark said she will also be pursuing the matter with the Squamish Nation, which is currently working on plans with the city to allow the Spirit Trail to cross their lands at the Mosquito Creek Marina.
