Hinge Park

     I'm currently volunteering at a summer school and today we went on a fieldtrip to Hinge Park! The program this week is currently focusing on creative arts & writing so the main activity of this trip was to walk around the scenic areas and draw what they saw. Their sketchbooks had prompts of what to draw, such as something tall or something interesting.

The first place we went to was Athletic Way, where there are these two huge bird statues. The first prompt was to draw an animal. Most of the children drew these, real life birds, or dogs being walked by their owners. 

One of the last prompts was to draw something colourful. Obviously, the teachers intended for the students to draw this piece of art but a lot of them sped through the assignment and by the time we arrived here, they were already done LOL so they all just ended up playing inbetween the tiny spaces. Vancouver definitely has a lot of interesting art.

A brand new seven-metre-tall outdoor sculpture has been installed on the edge of Olympic Village at Hinge Park.  Called Human Structures, the sculpture consists of 64 brightly coloured metal cutouts in the shape of human figures, stacked one on top of the other. The meaning is hard to miss.  In the sculptor’s own words, the artwork represents “humanity connecting to humanity,” across all racial and ethnic lines and other divisions. The figures are designed to look slightly “pixelated” (with rough, square edges), which adds to the symbolism.  We all share photos with one another on computers and these photos – wherever in the world they come from – are all composed of the same underlying unit, the pixel.  - Inside Vancouver

We then visited a community garden where tons of vegetable plants were growing. Though most of the other plants were dried out, this bright sunflower stood out to me the most. We used to have a huge sunflower growing in front of our house. My mother's friend even picked the seeds in an attempt to grow her own.

During free time after lunch, the kids got to play with bubble blowers and my sister pointed out one that was just laying on the grass. I admired it for a while, took a bunch of pics, and showed it to a girl in my group who then stomped on the bubble with her foot HAHA. In the end, all of the students became fascinated with this man-made river think. They tried to build a dam out of rocks which did hold the water back but then it overflowed. People even had their dogs standing in it!

Overall, it was a super fun day and less tiring than expected haha. Being around false creek and seeing the breathtaking landscape really made me appreciate the beauty of Vancouver. It also made me feel like a tourist in my own city, which my dad says we need to do more often and I totally agree.

What are your favourite spots in Vancouver/your city? 

XX, Melissa♡