A giant phantasmagorical wonder of whimsy has been created at an out-of-the-way place by the Powell River artist known as Catnip.
Catnip, whose real name is Stefan Fogarty, recently finished one of the largest murals in Powell River on the concrete wall of the Townsite treatment plant at First Beach south of the mill.
“I kind of call it galactic renaissance, sort of cartoon galactic renaissance,” said Fogarty of his signature style. “My style is kind of bubbly, but then the themes are a bit more heavy so it plays off on each other that way.”
The overarching seriousness to Catnip’s crazy concrete canvas is in its name: Warrior.
Catnip said the story is about a heroic journey in a world where warriors champion the aspirations of humanity. In that perspective, the huge mural is a depiction of the heart of a warrior for peace.
He does not know the exact dimensions but said he paced it out to about 170 feet and eyeballed the height at 16 feet, about equal to the scale of the recently completed mural on the back wall of Powell River Public Library by Luke Ramsey and Meghan Hildebrand.
Catnip shows freestyle wizardry, painting with roller, brush and spray can, and the effect is an hallucinogenic wonderland, like jumping into the chalk sidewalk paintings that the title character, Bert and the children do in the timeless movie Mary Poppins.
“I had a few sketches and things, little ideas, but as I went I let it show itself to me and worked with the wall,” said Fogarty.
With its burst of colourful goddesses, birds robed as sage scholars, a dove of peace, unidentified flying objects, an indigenous drummer, fireballs, Gaia, water, giant whale, hieroglyphs and flowers everywhere, the wall is both turbulent and peaceful.
Before embarking on his warrior quest to do the mural, Catnip, who said he took his moniker from a quirky childhood memory, asked City of Powell River council for permission to do the piece and it was given unanimous approval.
He spent almost eight hours per day for close to three weeks and used his own money for the entire project.
“I got recycled paint and spent a bunch of money,” said the artist. “I just wanted to do it because it’s a bigger scale than I normally do. I’d like to do a lot of these giant murals.”
He added that he wants to paint even bigger ones, coming up with his own themes and colouring the world.
That his warrior is destined for the wrecking ball does not phase him. The Townsite treatment plant will be decommissioned to allow for City of Powell River’s new wastewater treatment facility.
“This building won’t be around forever; they’ll probably demolish it. I just wanted to put something up just temporarily,” he said. “The medium is ephemeral because eventually it will wear down. It’s temporary and kind of a part of the whole thing.”
