I went Ambleside Park in West Vancouver and took some new pictures of the Guardian Totem Pole and some photos of my painting "The Guardian Welcomes the World"
My Painting "The Guardian Welcomes the World" was sparked by a photo that was posted online by funologist Jay Simons. I loved his photo and decided to visit Ambleside and take some photos of my own of this incredible totem pole. I met many visitors from around the globe at the popular ocean park. Ambleside Park is a popular park. Visitors come to stretch their legs and exercise their dogs while taking in the view of others doing the same across First Narrows on the Stanley Park Seawall. Children with their shiney buckets and shovels play in the sand while others fly their kites. Despite it being January it was a beautiful day and I met many international visitors telling me how welcoming our city was.
Inspired I went home and drew sketches for the new painting. The painting is in oils and for those that understand oil painting they know there is a lot of waiting for the paint to dry moments. Everytime I sat down to work on the painting a great smile seemed to permeate my whole being. I loved working on this painting.
Once it was done I revisited Ambleside park. Took some pictures of my painting with the Guadian Totem Pole and talked to more visitors from around the Globe. The Olympics and the Paralympics are over but there is a great legacy that has been left behind.
When I got home I went online to do a little research on the totem pole. I went to the Discover Totems website and they did not have any photos of the pole. I couldn't figure out how to send them some photos as I would freely share the ones I had. They had posted two videos both of which I enjoyed very much.
One Video on the opening ceremonies. This was the first time I had seen any of the opening ceremonies as I don't watch TV and there was not much on the internet. I was proudly in awe at seeing the welcoming totems rise and welcome the visitors. And to see all my first nations brothers and sisters dancing under the dome warmed my heart. It felt like a great redemption for my people and the people of Canada. opening ceremoney video
The other Video I found on the Discover Totems website was the Video Tour of Four Host First Nations Pavillion at 2010 Vancouver Olympics - Global TV profile of the Four Host First Nations Pavillion, and interview with the CEO of Four Host First Nations organization, Tewanee Joseph. I was thinking it would be wonderful if the Pavillion could remain after the Olympics is over.
