A4 F R I D A Y, D E C E M B E R 2 8 , 2 0 1 8 EDMONTON JOURNAL CITY

K R I S F R I E S E N M U R A L L O CAT I O N S :
1. ALBERTA AVENUE FESTIVAL 10. OLIVER PAST AND PRESENT
MURALS Kitchener Park washroom
Alberta Avenue Community League 11411 103 Ave.
9210 118 Ave.
11. KOUTOUKI STREETSCAPE
2. ARIOSE Koutouki
Liberty Tax Service 10719 124 St.
10673 97 St. (two between two
12. FAMOUS FIVE MURAL
buildings)
Melcor Parkade
3. URBAN HARMONY 10027 102 St. (south wall)
Aurora Charter School
13. BEVERLY BEGINNINGS
12245 131 St.
Pioneer Jewelry and Loan
4. TEAM MARTIN 3906 118 Ave.
Avonair Curling Club
14. ALBERTA INDUSTRY
10607 Princess Elizabeth Ave.
Sun Life Place
Famous Five Mural: The very
5. BEVERLY HEIGHTS MURAL 10123 99 St.
Beverly Heights Community Rink 12 modern Conan helps out at a
15. OUR NATURAL HOME women’s rights rally.
10906 40 St.
Westside Automotive
6. SPORTSCASTERS MURAL 10010 168 St.
Capilano Centre
16. CHINATOWN MURAL
10005 50 St.
Gold Crown Jewellery
7. 50 YEARS AND COUNTING 10673 97 St.
Empire Collision
17. GRID LIFE
9000 60 Ave.
Peter Robertson Gallery
8. HOPE: ROUND DANCE MURAL 12323 104 Ave.
Noi Thai Restaurant
10724 95 St.
9. KIM FAT MARKET
Bridge to the Wall
9905 107 Ave.

FISH GRIWKOWSKY PHOTOS

10
Oliver Past and Present: Conan gets splashed in the outdoor
pool in Kitchener Park. 16
Chinatown Mural: The
barbarian is true to form
holding a severed head at
10673 97 St.

1 13
Aurora Charter
School 4
5
16
Kingsway Highlands
Mall Golf Club Rundle
11 2 8 Park
9
4 Team Martin: Conan
seems ill-impressed 17
with this Team 10
14
Martin curling 15 6
12 City Hall
match.
Westlawn Cemetary Capilano
Alberta Mall
Jack Horan Park Legislature

Argyll
Park
7

11
Koutouki Streetscape: Here he's in the distance in the Koutouki Mural 17
at 10719 124 St.
Grid Life: Conan rushes into action on the side
of Grid Life at 12323 104 Ave.

SOURCE: FISH GRIWKOWSKY, KRIS FRIESEN LORI WAUGHTAL / POSTMEDIA NEWS

‘I can put things in and ... no one would notice’

C O N A N F R O M A1
“I’ve always loved Conan the
Barbarian. I was kind of raised on
him, which didn’t always work out
as swords aren’t a great way to deal
with your problems.”
The idea of sneaking in barbar-
ians started on 95 Street with his
Hope Hunter Mural.
“I realized I can put things in
and probably no one would notice.
I thought, I should put in Conan.
He’s literally 20 feet in the air, you’d
have to get binoculars to see him.”
Sure enough, way up, a certain
longhair is looking out a window
at the action below.
“After that I was like, ‘Should I
keep doing this? What if somebody
finds out?’”
He laughs, and pauses. “Well,
OK, what if somebody does find
out? What are they going to do?”
So he just carried on.
Friesen doesn’t always throw
the sword and sorcery anti-hero
into his paintings. I once spent 20
minutes trying to find him in an
underwater landscape along the
LRT tracks.
“Sorry,” he said. “I enjoyed that
one so much that I forgot to put
him in.”
But, in general, if Friesen’s jag-
ged signature is on a painting, so is
the Cimmerian slayer of sorcerers
in any number of roles.
Besides the battlefield Conan,
he’s terrorizing CFL players in a
sportscasters mural, hanging out
in cosmopolitan Greece, and shov-
elling the snow with a battleaxe
on the side of a rink in Beverly
Heights.
But these aren’t the only liber-
ties Friesen has taken. At one point
in John Milius’ 1982 film, Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s Conan is asked
by a fur-wearing general, “What is
best in life?”
The tower of muscle replies:
“Crush your enemies. See them
driven before you. And hear the
lamentations of their women.”
Friesen has eased the warrior-
thief into the 21st century, though,
on his Famous Five Mural at 10027
102 St.
“It’s time Conan became respect-
ful of women,” Friesen says. “So
he’s in a rally for women’s rights.”
The artist notes, “The modern
Conan has come a long way.”
fgriwkowsky@postmedia.com