IF THE WALLS COULD TALK
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Publicly Supported, Not Publicly Owned: Why Murals Are Muralestate By Michelle Loughery Murals aren’t “just paint on a wall.” They’re Muralestate—place-anchored cultural property that holds stories, shapes how people navigate a neighbourhood, and quietly powers local economies. Even when public funds help present them, murals (and the oral-history narratives fixed within them) are not public-domain content. They’re protected artistic +
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by Michelle Loughery There once was a girl with coal dust in her hair and mural paint on her fingers. She came from Michel-Natal, a town that once sat proud in the East Kootenay mountains, until it was forced into silence — dismantled in the name of tourism and government progress. The community was relocated,
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These murals are not just art. They are history. They are heart. They are home. Michelle Loughery didn’t just paint walls—she uncovered the soul of a nation.
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To take an inspirational curious road trip is an experience that leaves brush strokes in your memories. The painted sunflower yellow dotted and solid lines, reminding us of the roads that were traveled before us, and the directional path for the future we can barely imagine. Standing on the dark pavement with the sculptural skies
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Audio episodes of the Stories of the Walls Authentic and Compelling. Honest and Real Each splash of colour is a line in a story about a community. Communities smaller than the world around them, yet filled with people and history as large as life anywhere In the world. Using streets, buildings and alleys literally as
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This is a photo of my home town. The wonderful small community that raised me. Michel/Natal. It had three names, Michel, Natal and Middletown. I was lucky enough to be named after the first, at Dawn: so Michelle Dawn is what I was called. My mom opted out of Sunny… yes as you can guess
ARTIST MICHELLE LOUGHERY 