Our capital city, Regina, Saskatchewan, is commonly referred to here as “The Queen City”.

The settlement was originally named “Wascana”, which is Cree for buffalo bones. In 1882, it was renamed Regina (Latin for queen) after Queen Victoria who was the reigning monarch at the time. The original name is preserved at Wascana Lake and Wascana Park, which are both significant green areas within the city.

Regina, correctly pronounced here as “re jie nah” (with emphasis on the middle syllable) has a population of around 250,000 and for a small city by most standards, it has a good variety of unique areas to visit. I’m hoping to feature several of these areas next summer.

One has to pay attention to catch the many murals and other outdoor art displayed in different locations throughout the city.

My feature photo is just one example of this. I was photographing other things on the street when the patterns on the ground of this alley caught my eye. As I looked closer, I noticed both black and white and coloured murals painted on the side of the building on the left. The people walking, the strings of lights overhead, and the newer high rise in the background in contrast to the old building in the foreground, although very “busy” for a photo, all seemed to work together, so I shot a few photos of the scene from a few different angles. The angle of this photo best captured the murals.

Photo Note: Because the scene was already very busy, I chose black and white rendering for this photo. It seemed to tone it down a bit and it suited the old building in the foreground.

“Street art is nothing else but urban poetry that catches someone’s eye. Being a street artist is impossible because the city itself is the artist. Street art is a collective thing, participative and interactive …”

Christian Guémy C215