Métis artist Destiny Swiderski transforms back alley into award-winning 'connector'
Destiny Swiderski lives to create whether it's tending to an acres of blueberries on Vancouver Island or designing and installing massive public art projects.
The 36-year-old Métis artist's latest work occupies a previously bare wall connecting the relatively new Michael Phair Park with Beaver Hills House Park that's been at Jasper Avenue and 103rd Street for close to 40 years now.
Swiderski remembers being presented with the artistic challenge.
"I had this site; it was a dark alley. It was really important for me to create a sense of safety at night and to create a story."
In the mural, more than 150 copper silhouettes of Bohemian waxwings swoop over a lodgepole forest.
Swiderski says she put her heart and soul into a project that took a year from conception to completion.
"This piece was not just going to be about me, it was going to be about the community at large and what they had to say."
