Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Train Art


Recently we were in Whistler BC, home of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Our daughter decided to show us some unusual art in an even more unusual place. Way off the beaten track, in the middle of a beautiful west coast forest, lies a train wreck from the 1950's. Over several decades, many artists have graced the interior and exterior walls of the train cars that are wedged between the trees. It's so colourful and  organic, with trees and plant life growing on and in the cars.



Whistler has a lot of artists, but also a lot of mountain bikers. A crew of die hard bikers have built ramps and jumps starting with the car at the highest elevation and continuing down through the train cars, like a crazy obstacle course. We didn't see any bikers while we were there but kept an eye out for bears and cougars. The whole thing had a haunting kind of beauty to it, and certainly a lot of history. I kept trying to figure out what decade the various pieces of art had been painted.  The total quiet and peace of the forest combined with the street art painted train cars and the obvious force of the derailment, gave it a surreal effect. We're still talking about it!
Share/Bookmark

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing these great pictures, Claire. Very different! ...Art certainly comes in different ways...the bikers add to the fun of this place by adding the ramps...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello Claire,
    thanks for the kind comments.
    I really enjoyed the photos of the "train" of art!
    Here there are also many graffiti panels, some are great!
    A big hug

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm so glad you enjoyed the train art Hilda and Antonio. We consider seeing the train wreck and the graffiti art, a highlight of our trip!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Interesting because we can call it as a "recycle art" , I want to have the chance of paint some graffiti in a train who is abandoned near of my house

    ReplyDelete