Arts Wells

We started the second leg of our journey at Arts Wells, the greatest little art fest going, deep in the heart of the Cariboo Region of central BC. It was an amazing weekend of music, painting, spoken word, theatre and so much more and a chance to hang out with old and new friends alike. The entire town of Wells becomes one large carnival like playground with 9 separate venues and close to 100 different performances spread out over 4 days. There is so much going on that it is difficult to take it all in.

For our part, Glenn and I painted a mural of one of our pipeline scenes from Kitimat on the side of our painting van affectionately know as the Great Grey Whale. The intent of the project was to bring awareness to the proposed pipeline project and to give people the opportunity to sign the van as an expression of their opposition to the pipeline. We completed the painting live on the street and even had the Vancouver based band, Fraser Union, perform a pipeline protest song up on top of the painting platform on the van while we painted. Way too much fun.

The Great Grey Whale with a fresh new paint job and friends. (L to R Glenn, Crystal, Peter and Jade) Photo C. Tremblay.

With over 400 signatures of support for our project on the reverse side of the van we reluctantly headed out of Wells and into the wilderness of Northen BC, back on the pipeline trail. It was going to be hard to fly under the radar now that the van was fully decked out and after the warm and loving reception of Wells we pondered what our fate would be as we headed north into the BC heartland.

Wells from Across the Bog (8x10) oil on panel, P Corbett