BEAR 148

2024

Bears and humans need to coexist; they are greatly misunderstood. Media has portrayed these magnificent wild beauties as beasts. This Project is about a bear, a bear with a low temperament and who really enjoyed dandelions. 

I was working in Canada House art gallery as a gallery prep. One of my many jobs is to unpack painting. I was unpacking the general wildlife painting, the one that is just a pretty picture, by page ough and I was a bear smiling at a yellow flower. I couldn't help but see that before then it hit me, bear 148.

Bear 148 was a long time local to Banff, everyone knew her. She spent her mornings in Vermillion Lake, afternoons around the rugby field. She wasn't a problem until some hikers with an off leash dog. Which is illegal in a national park. The real trouble is when she started to make her way over to canmore.

She loved to eat dandelions by quarry lake, a popular swimming spot for families in canmore. Canmore isnt a national park, it's just on the border of banff. Canmores conservation is Alberta Parks which has different rules and regulations. The rules of our society, colonial rules, are so confusing not only to a normal person but especially to animals. If you go here you're safe, but if you cross into this forest, you're not. Bear 148 was not aggressive.

At The end of her life she was killed by a hunter in BC when she was relocated 200 km from her home. Where the body of her remains unknown. Bear 148 remains a poster child for a desperate change for wildlife policies. 

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