New Metrotown mural showcases community, diversity, and nature

Burnaby residents living or visiting the Metrotown area can now see the new mural by Vancouver artist Paige Jung on the side of the Sleep Country building at 4568 Kingsway. The previously bare grey wall has now been transformed into a garden scene with members of Burnaby’s diverse community floating in greenery under a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. 

The work was funded by the City of Burnaby and the owner of 4568 Kingsway. The City of Burnaby provided $7,000 in funding from the Mural Grant Program. The mural’s palette is a soothing combination of greens, blues, white, and brown. 

Before Jung’s mural, titled Head in the Clouds, covered the wall, it was a dreary sight in an area that lacks green spaces. This stretch of road is defined by high-rises, wide roads, and traffic congestion. 

“The highly visible walls of 4568 Kingsway have an extensive history of illegal graffiti. The creation of a mural at this location presents an opportunity for beautification that is generally respected and not vandalized by those in the graffiti subculture,” said a council report from July 8. 

Jung first started creating murals during the 2021 Vancouver Mural Festival. So far, she has created seven murals throughout the Lower Mainland, several in the Strathcona area, one in Surrey, and now her largest mural to date in Burnaby, Head in the Clouds. “I like to describe my work as very community-focused. I love drawing people of diverse backgrounds and different ages and being in community together. Most of my murals have some sort of depiction of people coming together, whether it’s over food or it’s just being together,” Jung told the Beacon. 

“In this mural, there’s a bunch of people in nature, kind of getting lost in thought. I love to illustrate people in that way, and for people who are passing by to actually feel represented in the work and inspired by it and maybe even see themselves in the artwork,” she added. 

She created the concept sketch in one week and submitted it to the city for feedback and approval in June. Then, she painted the mural in 13 days. The whole project took less than three weeks from start to finish and was completed in early July. 

Jung was working in communications in 2021 when she decided to become an artist full time. 

“It’s been a cool whirlwind and a change of career, but I’m very passionate about it, and it’s been really good so far,” she said, adding that being self-employed can be challenging. “I always tell people that I do more admin work than you would think.”

Since 2021, she has been doing commissioned illustrations for clients, and during the summer months, she also paints murals. Her process for each of her pieces begins in her sketchbook. 

“I think it’s very important to keep a messy sketchbook, something that you’re not too precious with, so I definitely have gotten to a good process where when something that inspires me, I try to record it in the sketchbook or have some notes about it, just something that offers me a messy place to think and be inspired,” she said. 

When it comes to murals, the scale of the work means she must see the wall beforehand to assess how she will implement her design concept. After creating an initial sketch, she uploads it to her computer and modifies it digitally. The next step is creating a “doodle grid,” something she learned from other muralists. A doodle grid involves using spray paint or chalk to create doodles or write numbers directly on the wall as reference points for when she starts painting. 

“It will almost look like someone just graffitied the wall,” Jung said. 

Jung then takes a photo of the grid and superimposes it on the digital concept sketch to help her place each element of the painting in the correct area on the wall. She then sketches the artwork on the wall and fills it in with acrylic latex paint, her preferred medium for murals. 

Jung usually works alone on murals, but sometimes her partner and friends drop by to keep her company. She says her work sometimes draws comments and questions from passersby, too. People often find her work confusing in the early stages, she says, but once the painting starts coming together, it sparks curiosity. 

“Generally, the further along the mural is, people will come to talk to me,” she said. “I’ll usually have a lot more conversations and people are very kind when they’re passing by and are just very encouraging.” 

Once the work is completed, her art becomes part of the cityscape, which anyone can see and enjoy.

“I’m very honoured, and I feel very blessed to be able to do this work on such a large scale and have that wall to create. I feel like I also had a lot of creative freedom with that project. That was really refreshing. I think it’s cool that people see my work on that scale,” Jung said.

This piece was made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.

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