A Fine Arts and Media instructor at College of New Caledonia will add some local colour and culture to the Winter Olympic Games In Vancouver.
Kim Stewart, commissioned by Coca-Cola to do an art piece for the games, unveiled a unique Coke bottle Thursday in Vancouver.
The fibreglass replica, standing six feet high, is red and white with black ravens flying up through a bubbly, floral world.
The giant bottle, illuminated by a solar panel inside, represents the Metis culture caught between First Nations and Caucasian people," said Stewart.
"It's a refinement process. The Metis didn't fit in, but now we do and have found our place In Canada," the Metis artist said.
Last spring, Stewart responded to a call by Olympic sponsor, Coca-Cola, for its Aboriginal Art Bottle Program designed to reinterpret the contoured Coke bottle. The idea is to celebrate the diversity of Canadian Aboriginal art and culture with the world.
During the Games, the bottles will be auctioned off to collectors from around the world and proceeds will go to Vancouver 2010 Aboriginal Youth Legacy Fund to support sport, culture and education initiatives for First Nations, Inuit and Metis.
Stewart was among 15 chosen from 100 applicants by Coca-Cola which provided base bottles in whatever medium artists wished to work with.
She asked for six-foot high bottle which was delivered to CNC and then on to her Salmon Valley studio where she "took traditional Metis floral designs and modernized them on the computer."
The most difficult task was "figuring out how to insert the a green energy solar panel in its interior," she said.
Overall Stewart is happy with the way her project turned out.
"It's great to be acknowledged as an intellectual and talented person who has worked on a display so others can see it, and it's great to be connected to so many amazing Aboriginal people."
Stewart said she'll pass on her learning experience and process to her CNC students.
"If they can figure out a sketch, they can figure out a Coke bottle."
--btrick@pgcitizen.ca
