Other Places, More Sculptures Part 5

The waterfront was behind me and I was now in the last leg of my walk. Just a few sculptures to find in the downtown section and I would be back at the hotel. Good thing too. I had received a message that the group would be going on a wine tour in about an hour. Checking my watch I saw that if I timed things right I would get back in plenty of time to spare. I headed along Bernard street since there were a couple there, and I would circle back towards Water street along a path to catch a few more.

First up after I passed "Sails" was whimsical piece in design and name. "Dancing Pedestrians" was between the sidewalk and street and the sculpture lived up to the name. Of course I don't think I have seen that many dancing pedestrians. Then again I live in a large city and the most we do is bob and weave around each other.


Across the street in front of a coffee shop was a piece called "Tree Scape". Stone pillar that tried to evoke a sense of a tree trunk. Rather smooth with a notch taken out of a side.


Luckily that the Kelowna downtown area is small. The next piece on my agenda was "Working Man". I like bronze pieces. They tend to hold up better over time then most other type of sculptures I have seen. This was one of a typical labourer sitting down waiting. Helmet on his knee and work box within easy reach when he was ready to get up.



Just down the street is another piece. I don't know what it's called, but the best guess I can tell from the map I was able to find is "Aborvitae". I could be wrong, and if anyone out there knows for sure, please let me know. It looks like a tree down in bronze cylinders. It's older then some of the sculptures I saw and the weathering on it was really interesting and added to the look.


A short walk across the street and three more pieces to go. By the bus stop hub for the city was a steel piece called "Running Man". Three silhouettes of a typical looking business man interlocked. As a typical business men he appeared in a hurry.


Across the street was what could be called the town clock. It is titled the W.A.C. Bennett Memorial Courtyard & Clock Tower. Pretty straight forward I think.

And the final piece I saw that trip was called "Circle of Friendship".

A very small piece overall. But very appropriate for the location. Just to the east of it, and I mean just east, was the entrance to a Zen Garden. I was running out of time, and it looked like something was going on. You can see two girls up to something in the left of my picture. From what I gathered from over hearing the group talk, it was some kinda of Anime fan get together. Zen, Anime, seems like a good mix I guess.

So that was my trek through Kelowna. Like I said, I go anywhere and I can find public art. I will return another time to show pictures of the winery we visited. Now that was an interesting experience. Best part about long walks? When you are done and can relax.

Paladin Phil

Other Places, More Sculptures Part 4

Well, I had left Okanagan College campus and I was on my way back downtown. By way of a different route. There were a couple sculptures that I had to find and I had the map to follow. Thank goodness I had that map otherwise I may have missed some. I almost missed one though. It took me a little while to find where it was. I walked up and down one stretch of road past a couple of shopping plazas and strip malls till I found it. It was a little easy to miss if you didn't know where to look.

The piece was titled, "Peopled Place Part 2". It didn't make much of an impression on me. The description of it is much more grand than what I found.

It seemed more a hodgepodge of items attached to a frame vertically then anything else. At least I found it. I was also thankful for one of many coffee shops in the area. I took a few minutes to relax and take a weight off of my feet before continuing my mission.

After my short break I continued on. I made my way to Abbott st. where there were two pieces. Well two in name, one was six separate pieces. I couldn't find how to access the location of one and my time was running out. I did find the other one though. It's hard to miss blocks of cement on the side of the street.

The piece was called "Timeline/Waterline". What it did was try to capture parts of the history along the waterfront of Kelowna. Each block was a piece of coloured cement that had pictures inset on the sides. The top had the look of beach sand rippled by water. I wasn't paying much attention to the first couple and I missed an important part of them. In the top of beach block was a bronze medallion that represented a theme that it was dealing with. One had a pocket watch, another had a coin, and another had a military cap badge. Wish I wasn't in such a hurry at the time.





Well I made it to the actual lake front by the time I got finished with "Timeline/Waterline", and there were a lot of sculptures here to capture. Checking my watch I knew that I had enough time to hit the waterfront and then the downtown area. So I stepped up my pace and continued.

There were quite a few actually. I first came across the childrens waterpark. Here there were two pieces actually. One was on the map, and the other was just too hard to pass up. The one that was on the map was called "Grizzly Bears". On a sculpted concrete base, made up to resemble a rock out crop, were three bears. A mother and her two young.


Not bad, but I think it was made with the thoughts of all the kids that would probably play on it. Also in the water park was this.


I think it was part of the Ogopogo theme that is ramapant in the valley.

I continued along the boardwalk that went along the lake. It was a beautiful day and was perfect for the walk. I came to the next piece which was carved from the remanents of a cottonwood tree. One of many that had blown down in a windstorm from years ago. "Renaissance of a Tree" is a carving showing a peregrine falcon.



The next one I saw I have already discussed in a previous post. That's the cenotaph for Kelowna.

Well, I was almost done with the water front, and ready to head into town. there were two pieces left on the waterfront to see. One was of good old Ogopogo itself. It has been a fixture of the city for quite awhile. And apparently visitors always are getting their pictures while sitting on it.



And the last piece on the waterfront is "Sails". This piece is considered the signature piece of the city. It's iconic form and shape is used to identify Kelowna and is on practically all it's literature. The flowing shape is very eye catching and I can see why it has become the signature piece. Even at night it still catches the eye.



So next time I will finish up my tour of Kelowna's sculptures with the pieces along the downtown.

Keep walking.

Paladin Phil

Other Places, More Sculptures Part 3

So, I left off planning my walk for the next day. We were up fairly early. Nothing was planned for the conference to about 7 at night so we had the whole day practically to ourselves. Most of the group had no plans after breakfast, and they were planning on going to a winery in the early afternoon. So after breakfast I bid then adieu and headed out to find the rest of the sculptures on the map. Now, I knew this would be a long walk. To get to the first one I was looking at about a 3 kilometer trek then the walk back picking up most of the rest on my return. It wasn't that bad a day out and I was looking forward to it.

The first piece I was looking for was called "Time Piece". It was done by a student in Visual Designs at Okanagan Community College. It took me a little while to get there, but Kelowna in the main part is very flat. I am used to hills so it took me no time to get to the College. While I was wandering around the campus looking for the sundial, I stumbled across another sculpture. It wasn't on the map, and when I searched around it, I couldn't find a plaque anywhere. I snapped a couple pictures and carried on. I hoped that I would find someone that might have an idea on the name.


I finally stumbled upon "Time Piece in the central courtyard of the campus. Steel plates welded together, rusting in the climate. A rather nice look. It was shaped like an open book with the pages caught in mid fan.

At the back was the actual part that you read for the sundial.

I was wondering how you read the time, there were no numbers really obviously noted. Then I looked closer at the inside of the sundial and got my answer. The triangles at the base of the sundial, click on the center picture for a better look, were notched. Reading from right to left gave you the time. The furthest right had seven notches, and the furthest left had five notches. So if you read the time right when I took this picture, it was approximately.... Well, you can figure it out. By the way, I forgot to adjust the time on my camera when I traveled out there. So the exif data is a little off.
Now the mystery piece. I saw that there was a security guard nearby in a little kiosk, so I thought that I would ask him if he knew the name of the piece in the front of the college. He thought for a minute and came up blank. Lucky for me he had been there for awhile and knew a little about how things had changed over the years. Apparently the sculpture had been about 30 feet closer to the main road for quite a few years. At the time there was a plaque associated with it. Well about 5-8 years previous it was moved and a parking lot put in. When they had moved the piece they forgot the plaque that went with it. So for the moment it will remain nameless.

And with that I returned whence I came, back to the downtown core. Of course I took the long way around. I had more pictures to take, and sculptures to find. Since I rambled on here, I shall pick this up again tomorrow. Keep walking.