An international mural artist is back home in the Tri-Cities and painting a new mural that could become a Port Moody landmark.
Ola Volo, who grew up in Coquitlam, has spent the last few days on a scissor lift painting a giant wall mural that covers the whole east wall of a new production facility for Rocky Point Ice Cream close to Rocky Point Park.
“We are thrilled to have her doing our mural,” said Jamie Cuthbert, owner of Rocky Point Ice Cream, who with his wife, Yvette, have become the local Willy Wonka’s of the iced treat sector.
They sought out Volo after seeing some of her work and believe her creativity and inventiveness matches their vision for the shop, which will have a retail component as well as a production facility when it opens a short walk away from their popular ice cream parlour.
When it’s complete, and a new walkway built, people will be able to get close to the mural and peek into the production facility. Cuthbert said one of the things that fired Volo’s imagination when she sketched out the mural was the fact she remembers enjoying Rocky Point Ice Cream when visiting the park as a kid.
But ice cream isn’t the only image that’s captured in the 180 square-foot mural.
Volo brings her folklorist style to the painting with a whimsical touch to some of the region’s most iconic creatures, including pigeons, named for Pigeon Cove on the southeast corner of the Port Moody mudflats, deer, which range in the local mountains and, of course, the bear.
Intertwined with the larger images are elements from the forest and outdoor life in the ocean-side city, including kayaking and sailing.
“I like story telling and would like it if people see something different every time they come and if children see something different from their parents,” said Volo.
Based in Montreal where she earned a reputation painting the largest woman-made mural in Canada on a building in the trendy Mile End neighbourhood, Volo has produced equally-charming murals in cities ranging from Los Angeles to New York.
But she’s happy to be home and close to family in Coquitlam after being separated from them for so long during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Originally from Kazakhstan and the daughter of Russian and Polish immigrants, Volo said her Eastern European background features prominently in her art. But not exclusively in that she said she hopes everyone who visits the Port Moody mural will recognize their cultural heritage in her art, which also represents the joy of human connection and just being alive in this part of the world.
“It’s a huge privilege to work with this concept of multiculturalism and really push it,” Volo said. “With the images of seals and the mountains and those aspects, I’m trying to bring together all the elements of the west coast.”
