Under a welcoming July sun and next to a calm, shimmering strait, community members, artists and travellers from around the world have been turning out to leave their mark on the 13th Roberts Creek community mandala.
Organizers of the annual public art re-genesis say this year's event is bringing back everything good that has made the mandala a Sunshine Coast landmark since 1997.
"It's just one of the best representations of community that I've ever seen, honestly, and I'm a traveller," said Erica Snowlake, co-founder, hostess and "everyone's fairy friend."
"At the end of the day, this is probably the biggest community painting in the world. I've never heard of anything else like this. It's a little top-secret, you know?"
Inspiration for this year's design comes from the ocean and certain recent catastrophic events that threaten it. Pictured in the design are orca whales, turtles, salmon, seals, eagles, ravens and other sea life.
Rob Marion, designer of the massive mosaic, said an encounter with whales this year and the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico got him thinking.
"I saw a pod of whales out here this year. Right there," he said pointing just west of the pier. "Nobody was even believing me, so I found some binoculars I could see that it was orcas and I said 'OK, I have to do something with this.'
"This whole oil spill, even though it's thousands of miles away, it's a real wake-up call," Marion said. "So I thought it would be kind of a prayer for the ocean, to get people thinking about it on even a subconscious level. It's a challenge to do something like this."
That prayer, Snowlake said, is something meaningful that goes into every one of the 450 tiles painted by people who know the inherent value of the ocean.
"We want to heal the ocean, and this is our community's focus. We're an ocean community here. We depend on the health of an ocean," she said. "This is for the orcas out in our ocean and the grey whale that's been coming to visit us. I think that's a message and this mandala is saying 'we hear your message.'"
In celebration of the mandala's 13th year, the design also includes 13 moons representing the lunar calendar. Each moon is being painted with scenes that represent Roberts Creek during each phase of the lunar year.
Notable guests this year included Doug and Helen Roy, royal sovereigns of the Gumboot Nation and former residents of the Creek for decades.
"They sat and held court for an evening while we were painting. That was a great blessing," Snowlake said. "She's snarky as ever too."
Sherry Bloom, a San Diego resident whose son, Jeff, lived on the Coast for nine years in the '90s, timed her visit to B.C., in part, to come paint a square on the mandala.
"I just thought that would be worth while seeing again. It's so creative," she said.
Bloom had a small glitch in her tile, accidentally painting outside the lines, but was able to salvage the piece.
"I was making a rainbow. A little kid next to me said 'oh you did a trout' and I said 'yeah, I did a rainbow trout," she said. "Aren't they fabulous?" Bloom added, gazing on the rest of the colourful tiles.
