Paint the Rails project to bring life, colour to six LRT stations

Walls of art will have murals telling the stories of city, lead painter says

A Canada 150 legacy project will help brighten up a few LRT train stations around Edmonton.

The Paint the Rails project has the John Humphrey Centre and Edmonton Transit Service teaming up to have permanent art installations in six LRT stations around the city.

The first mural, called Returning Home, will be painted at the Churchill LRT Station, in the concourse level near the Art Gallery of Alberta entrance.

The lead artist working on this piece is Carla Rae Taylor, who said the murals being created are telling the stories of Edmonton and the greater story of settlement and reconciliation.

“We’ve been collecting stories from community members, artists, historians, knowledge keepers and boiled down those ideas into some images that we’d like to share,” said Taylor, who grew up in Yellowknife, N.W.T., and draws much of her inspiration from nature.

“It was incredible being an artist in Yellowknife … it’s very cold and dark in the winter and what I’d find is the community would come together and make music and art and we’d carve out these warm little spaces,” said Taylor.

The mural will have two main panels and then extend through the concourse of the LRT station.

Taylor, along with her mentee Dana Belcourt, will be working on the mural at Churchill station throughout the month and into December. The public is encouraged to talk to the artists while they’re working.

“I’ve done a lot of live painting. It’s been great to create art while people come up and talk to me, I feel like it influences the images in subtle ways and you can see the energy express itself through the piece,” Taylor said.

This is just the first stop on the Paint the Rails project. The next piece is going to be a collaboration between Taylor, Belcourt, AJA Louden and Matthew Cardinal. That piece will follow the spiral staircase at the station.

Murals will be painted at other LRT stations including Clareview, Coliseum, Corona and Kingsway.

IAN KUCERAK Carla Rae Taylor paints the first mural for the Canada 150 Paint the Rails legacy project in the concourse level at the Churchill LRT Station on Sunday.