After Edmonton fans raised funds for a Chi Pig mural in their city earlier this year, a sister painting project has now immortalized the SNFU leader in Vancouver's Gastown neighbourhood.
A larger-than-life mural of the late punk icon born Ken Chinn was unveiled outside the Cambie Pub yesterday (November 1), painted by mural artists Lacey & Layla following a crowdfunding campaign launched in September.
With the mural, campaign founder Jameson Trenholm, a bartender at the Cambie and a friend of Chinn's, sought to honour "a fixture in Vancouver's Gastown and [the Downtown Eastside] since 1990."
"Chi was not only a musician, he was a painter, skateboarder, fashion figure and one of the first openly gay Canadian punks in the scene," Trenholm wrote in launching the campaign. "Chi was a bright light in a neighbourhood riddled with addiction, mental illness, homelessness and poverty. In the streets of the [the Downtown Eastside] and Gastown, Chi fought his own battle with mental illness. Despite his demons, Chi still managed to inspire, empower and create."
Find shots of the completed mural below.
As Trenholm recalled to CBC News, "I remember [Chi] came up to the bar one time and looked at me and said, 'Jameson, you know what? Sometimes I get down and I get blue, but I know that I can go to any jukebox in the world and put in a dollar and play one of my songs and that can make me happy forever.'"
Chi Pig passed away in July at age 57. Tributes following his death came from Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong, Comeback Kid and the Black Halos, while listeners also campaigned to get him a star on Canada's Walk of Fame.
A larger-than-life mural of the late punk icon born Ken Chinn was unveiled outside the Cambie Pub yesterday (November 1), painted by mural artists Lacey & Layla following a crowdfunding campaign launched in September.
With the mural, campaign founder Jameson Trenholm, a bartender at the Cambie and a friend of Chinn's, sought to honour "a fixture in Vancouver's Gastown and [the Downtown Eastside] since 1990."
"Chi was not only a musician, he was a painter, skateboarder, fashion figure and one of the first openly gay Canadian punks in the scene," Trenholm wrote in launching the campaign. "Chi was a bright light in a neighbourhood riddled with addiction, mental illness, homelessness and poverty. In the streets of the [the Downtown Eastside] and Gastown, Chi fought his own battle with mental illness. Despite his demons, Chi still managed to inspire, empower and create."
Find shots of the completed mural below.
As Trenholm recalled to CBC News, "I remember [Chi] came up to the bar one time and looked at me and said, 'Jameson, you know what? Sometimes I get down and I get blue, but I know that I can go to any jukebox in the world and put in a dollar and play one of my songs and that can make me happy forever.'"
Chi Pig passed away in July at age 57. Tributes following his death came from Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong, Comeback Kid and the Black Halos, while listeners also campaigned to get him a star on Canada's Walk of Fame.
