The Artist
From the hills of eastern Ontario, Paul Marcano's artist parents influenced their gifted son to create from his inner vision. Since then, Marcano has developed into an interpreter of life, and his repertoire ranges from surrealistic landscapes to fluorescent images and self-portraits. He is also a musician, having recorded an album entitled "Islands in Space", which he calls the "auditory version of my vision".

Marcano's first project for Chemainus was to paint one-third of the grand Thirty-Three Metre Collage. The final product there convinced Festival of Murals organizers to commission him to do a second, and then a third mural. The precision of his trompe l'oeil effect of the Hong Hing Corner Store, and Locomotive No. 4 crossing the bridge are fine examples of his meticulous style and skilled use of the airbrush.

The Art
Thundering across a log bridge over the Chemainus River is Locomotive No. 4, an 80-ton Porter 2-6-2T, once the pride of the Victoria Lumber & Manufacturing Company's Copper Canyon Railway System. Chemainus was the delivery point of the first, the last, and the longest enduring rail logging operation in British Columbia.