Accomplished printmaker Ericka Walker is putting her artistic abilities to work on a grander scale as she completes an aviation mural on the Abbotsford Legion’s back wall.
The mural is connected to Walker’s Great Experiment exhibition at The Reach Gallery Museum. The Great Experiment presents an impressive selection of large-scale multi-coloured lithographs and explores the relationship between war-era propaganda and continued notions of patriotism, industrialization, and capitalism in North America.
The exhibition’s title refers to an essay, penned by American John O’Sullivan in 1845, which popularized the notion of manifest destiny. Images of industry, agriculture, and warfare mix with fragments of text drawn from a variety of historical sources. In Walker’s work, these calls to action are both familiar and obscure, leaving us to wonder about the value of their supposed moral authority.
Walker, born in America but now teaching in Nova Scotia, has been assisted on her mural by two local emerging artists, Alisha Deddens and Meshaal Alzeer.
“We’re getting a lot of positive responses,” Walker said. “There is a lot of feedback because of where we are.”
Mural painting is a new part of Walker’s portfolio as an artist and she is enjoying the social aspect of working outdoors where people can comment on her work.
“It’s nice for me to engage as an artist,” she said.
Walker will host an artist reception/talk at the legion (2513 West Railway St.) on Thursday, July 20 at 4:30 p.m. Light refreshments will be served.