Life’s For the Living

Like Stephen King wrote – over and over and over – “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” I’m not Jack, but you get my meaning; there is so much more to this co-op than just working. Banff is a beautiful town. We’ve got towering mountains, dense forests, a veritable rainbow of plants, a zoo’s worth of wildlife, and all the wandering space a person could ask for. In spite of all of that great stuff, I dislike most activities that get you up close and personal with them, especially hiking. Mom used to drag my sister and I up This Mountain and to That Pass and to this day I can think of no crueler punishment. That’s not to say I dislike the outdoors flat out, because I don’t. I just like it from a lazy point of view. Down here. In the valley. Like, on a patio with a pint and a pal. A lot of the people who come to Banff are either mountain folk or party people. Me? I’m a foodie.

I know I’m not a visitor here, but for the sake of my point, just go with it.

And boy, does this town deliver. We’ve got the classic local’s haunts Melissa’s (best breakfast) and Tommy’s (best pub food); We’ve got foreign flavour joints like The Gate (Irish), Masala’s (East Indian), and Tooloulou’s (Cajan); And we’ve got hidden gems like The Mac Lab on Tunnel Mt and Barpa Bill’s on Bear St. Seriously. This place is the bomb. Realistically, summertime is best time to be in Banff for one very simple reason: The Farmers Market. Oh yes, we have one too. Why I mention this is because my schedule here at the gallery gave me Wednesdays off clear through the summer, which is when the Farmers Market sets up shop in town. And I love em for it. One of the really great things that I fully intend to exploit this summer is that I can drive down, grab a pulled pork sandwich and some fresh BC cherries, and head out to Johnson’s Lake, my favourite (actual) watering hole in the valley. It goes without saying that the water in this neck of the woods is cold. Very cold. But I’m going to say it anyway.

The water is cold here. Be careful.

Me in Two-Jack Lake. Not even 5 minutes and my toes went numb.

But Johnson’s isn’t that bad. It’s not a terribly big lake, and it’s not fed by a glacier (bonus!) so by mid-afternoon the top couple of feet are pretty warm and good for swimming. Plus the road out there is stunning. Rain or shine, summer or winter, the Minnewanka Loop – Minnewanka is a lake – is always beautiful. It’s a nice way to kill a couple hours with friends. Drive out there and BBQ some hotdogs and just hang out around the water. Or even just go for a post-dinner drive and watch the way the setting sun plays with the mountains. Banff in the summer is candyland for people who like being outside, even lazy bums like me.

I’m a good driver, but I’m a better passenger.

With A Little Help From My Friends

Miss, please don’t touch everything.

I have now been working at the gallery for just shy of a month and let me tell you I could swear that I’ve only been here 5 minutes. But according to my – frequently edited – calendar that seems to not be the case. You know that old cliche “time flies when you’re having fun”? Well in my case its more like “time flies while you’re not paying attention to it.” Allow me to clarify…

Anyone in the working world worth their salt will be able to tell you a dozen and one horror stories from previous jobs they’ve worked over the years. Chances are those stories will include over-exaggerated anecdotes about how they lost track of how many times they prayed for the day to end so they could go home and watch TV. About how Jim from down the hall drives them up the wall and how does he still work here?! And the classic; the boss is a sadistic psycho. And yes, I have a few of these as well. Guilty. But, and I thank my lucky stars, this will not be one of them.

This branch of Mountain Galleries has at this exact moment 3 full-time employees and 2 daily shifts between us. What this means is that every week, Thursday through Monday, I get up, putz around the house for a while, walk to work, and spend the vast majority of the rest of my day alone. That walk to work though is one of the best parts of my day. I’ve already said that I’ve lived in Banff my whole life, but that doesn’t mean I’m not awestruck every time I walk out my front door. Cascade and Rundle Mountains are constant travel companions and aside from the odd deer or elk I walk my commute free from the bustle of the downtown core.

Even at 11PM Cascade likes to remind you who’s bigger

But I had a point to make…. I think.

Ah yes! My coworkers.

Now this is a little bit of an unusual situation, in my opinion, because I am so used to working with or around a large number of people. But now I only see my coworkers for an hour every day. 1 hour. And it isn’t even both of them, its always just one or the other. One of the unexpectedly great things about this set-up is that we never run out of things to talk about! And boy, do we like to talk. I like to joke that we three would make the most entertaining sitcom ever: the experienced salesman/artist, the mountaineering Ontario transplant, and the local chick. Like any good sitcom, we have our colourful rotating supporting cast of characters taking the guises of artists, clients, and lost hotel guests just looking for the way out. I call dibs on the copyrights. We have a lot of fun at work, which is important in this field because it is so easy to get discouraged or intimidated by what it takes to stay afloat in the commercial art world. There is a certain amount of pressure put on us to always be professional and courteous and good salespeople, and it was this impending pressure that had me so worried before I started. Have you met me? I mean, my go-to work bag has a sugar skull Storm Trooper helmet on it. You’d be hard pressed to find me wearing shoes that aren’t Chuck Taylors. In my spare time I read 1980s fantasy novels and watch black and white Beatles movies. I am a nerd working in an art gallery. And I love it.

A Journey Through the Past

I seem to be utterly unable to do anything or go anywhere without immersing myself in the stories other people have left behind, commonly known as “history.” So, naturally, when I started working at Mountain Galleries I went about squirreling out information about my new surroundings.

I was initially shocked to discover that the very first in the series of these galleries was established just shortly before I made my own entrance into the world. Spreading out from Jasper over the years, this Banff location set up shop in 2004, becoming the bouncing baby brother and rounding out the trifecta of Fairmont gems. I mean, come on, have you seen these hotels? They really are the closest thing we’ve got to castles in this corner of the world and they’ve stood the test of time brilliantly. But more on that later.

I knew from the word go that my new boss was the founder and visionary behind these galleries, as well as a well-established Canadian artist. What I’ve learned in the mean time is the huge importance the galleries place not only on the artists they promote, but also on the people who walk out the door with their art. I’m not a grasshopper in the commercial art world, I’ve been around the proverbial block at least once, and never before have I seen such dedication to clients who don’t often hold “membership” cards. It’s a great feeling to know that everyone who walks through my door is important and in turn it makes people excited to be so doted upon, even if they don’t walk away with a purchase. A dominating theme in my days is making sure people know our doors are always open to them, even if they don’t return until years after I myself have left. No wonder these galleries fit so nicely into these hotels.

Which reminds me…

The Banff Springs Hotel was built from 1887 – 1888 by this guy:

Sir William C Van Horne. Kind of. Van Horne was the president of the Canadian Pacific Railroad around the turn of the 20th century and when the discovery and booming popularity of the naturally occurring Banff Hot Springs demanded a larger facility to house guests he said

“Build it here.”

Right here.

and then left the head architect and his team to make it so. It took the team almost a perfect 365 days to build the Scottish-influenced wooden structure, and it officially opened its doors in the Spring of 1888. It was during this initial construction that the hotel gained an extremely unusual and horrifying architectural blunder: it was built backwards. If you’ve ever seen a photo of the hotel, present-day or otherwise, chances are its from a distance with the rest of Sulfur Mountain rising behind it. This famous postcard shot is taken from across the Bow River and is so often done so because that’s the front of the building. Oops. Even though the original wood structure was gradually replaced by concrete and stone over the years, and additions were added to make the back look more like a front, there was no way to wholly rectify that initial mistake. And so, appropriately striking the tone for the town that followed, this place remains a little off kilter.

What does that tell you about the people who live here, eh?

So This Is Home

A castle in the hills

As a third year History student on my second Co-op term I find myself on familiar ground; my own home town. Up until this summer my university life and my home life remained two very separate things. My falls, winters, and springs are spent in classrooms in the stubbornly un-Canadian warmth of Victoria, BC and my summers are spent in the defiantly un-Albertan mountain town of Banff.

When my first Co-op term starting winding down towards the end of April I once again set my sights on the Co-op job board and all its potential employers. Archival research assistant up island? Perhaps. Tour guide for the naval base across the bridge? Sounds like fun! But as fate would have it, I would ultimately choose the Sales Associate position for the Mountain Galleries at the Fairmont location in the Banff Springs Hotel. Which, let me tell you, is no small potatoes. The application process was a whirlwind roller coaster ride that lasted just over 24 hours, leaving me slightly stunned yet very pleased with myself. I psyched myself up for my fancy new position by purchasing a couple of outfits that would make me appear at home in the grand Banff Springs, when in reality I knew that I would be in way over my head.

And I was right. Even though I have lived my entire life in Banff, and just up the hill from this hotel, I was woefully unfamiliar with the idiosyncrasies of the building. That is, until I arrived for my first official shift. You see, dear reader, my first full shift consisted of my new manager showing me the vital things like where the washrooms and staff cafeteria are, how to work the basic computer programs, and what to do at the end of the day. After that, I was left on my lonesome for the remainder of the shift. I guess I have a trustworthy face. But in those short 8 hours all apprehensions and anxieties I had had about this job vanished into thin air. The gallery was calm and beautiful (hello, its stuffed to bursting with original Canadian art!), my coworkers were friendly and made me laugh, and as long as held my head up and looked like I knew what I was doing nobody questioned the presence of the nervous new 20-something-year-old chick wandering around.

Now, a bare week later, I am confident and sure of my place in my new surroundings and am excited about my summer as an ambassador not only for my town, but also for this new collection of art I get to look after and boast about.