Title:  Boat Pose Yoga Bear

Materials: Bronzed wood cellulose

Description: a bronze version of an original hand-sculpted wood cellulose yoga bear statue.

Location: Inglis Trail at Stewart Road

Date: 2022

Artist Statement:

For over 10 years now, my yoga bears have enabled me to use my passion for art, wildlife, and especially bears all in one: by using their comical characteristics I hope to create more empathy and undo some of the negative emotions bears seem to evoke in people. They are more than willing to coexist with us and we need to embrace that.

I have been a wildlife artist for over 30 years now and bears continue to be one of my favourite subjects to work with. After moving from the foothills in Alberta to Vancouver and then, in 2018, to the Sunshine Coast, I took up yoga and this ended up being the trigger to me creating bear yoga statues and also finally becoming a full time 3D artist.

To witness people’s responses to my bear statues, and see their subsequent smiles, is key to my continued joy to create more and different bears!

Artist Bio:

(Soon to be based in Gibsons) artist Karin Taylor splits her time between Vancouver and Davis Bay.

Karin creates hand sculpted Yoga Bear statues as well as wildlife and coastal paintings in acrylics and mixed media. She started out as a watercolour artist in the early 90’s.

After emigrating to Canada in 1997, Karin became known for feather art which was part of the Western Art Show of the Calgary Stampede for over a decade and was featured in TV specials for HGTV and Chinese/Canadian TV.

Her yoga bear statues can be found in art galleries across Canada.

Artist link:  karintaylorart.com