Ironclad Art

I haven't thought much about manhole covers till travelling in Mexico and South America. In Guaymas Mexico, while walking along the Esplanade, I suddenly came to a halt, I had somehow stepped into an open terracotta drainpipe and was somewhat shorter in one leg. We carefully pulled my leg out of the half-metre-deep hole to inspect the damage and I was relieved to find only scrapes and bruises and no broken bones. In Bucerias Mexico, Michael injured his foot on a piece of protruding rebar from a paved sidewalk. We quickly learned to walk more carefully, wore better shoes and discovered a variety of holes, crevasses, manhole covers and missing ones.

In our neighbourhood of False Creek, I spotted this eye-catching manhole cover and with further search found the artists, a mother/ daughter team of Susan A Point and Kelly Cannell. Both are Vancouver-based Coast Salish artist and their winning design as the new look for the storm sewer covers. A Point is a recognized master carver and has completed numerous major commissions including work for the Vancouver International Airport, the UBC Museum of Anthropology and the Smithsonian.  Cannell has incorporated painting and wood carving with traditional Coast Salish elements in her work. There are approximately 25,000 manhole covers in the City of Vancouver.