'That sent my imagination wild': B.C. grandma paints 12-foot Star Wars mural with grandson

Sawatsky Sign-Off: Star Wars Mural Adam meets a Cowichan woman who created a 12-foot wide Star Wars mural with her grandson.

DUNCAN, B.C. — As Sandra Kroek cleans up the leaves in her back yard, she recalls when her children were little and rakes rarely just raked.

“If they could find a piece of wood or an old garden tool,” Sandra smiles. “They would turn it into a lightsaber.”

While Sandra will never forget how fun it was seeing that first Star Wars movie for the first time, the prolific artist always preferred wielding paintbrushes over lightsabers.

But then her kids had kids, and Sandra got to experience a whole new set of Star Wars movies with her grandson, Remington.

“It’s fun to sit and relax and watch the movies,” says Remington, before the iconic Star Wars theme erupts from their TV. “And see all the cool action!”

But even better, is that when the 11-year-old recreates the action with his grandma, he’s not having to resort to using old rakes.

Remington got a pair of realistic-looking lightsabers the change colours and make sounds during a recent visit to the Star Wars attraction at Disneyland. Around the same time someone in their family suggested combining his passion, with Sandra’s painting.

“So that just sent my imagination wild,” Sandra smiles.

What she came up with couldn’t be contained by a canvas. So, Sandra set her sights on a blank basement wall and started sketching a substantial celebration of Star Wars.

“It’s just crazy to watch how she sits there for three hours,” Remington says. “Just painting and painting and painting.”

Like Yoda famously said, “Do or do not. There is no try.” Sandra and Remington did what they had to do to create a portal into “a galaxy far, far away.”

After Sandra drew all the elements on the wall — from Darth Vader to Kylo Ren, Remington helped her paint them as accurately as possible.

“[He would say] it’s really good Oma, but that Storm Trooper wouldn’t be wearing that helmet,” Sandra recalls with a laugh. “So it was like, ‘Oh. Ok. I can fix that!’”

And once every detail was right, on not just the old characters (like Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia), but the new ones too (like Rey), plus the beloved bots (from C-3PO to BB-8) to their favourite flying ships (Millennium Falcon), they decided it was done.

“I stepped back and I looked,” Remington smiles. “And it was just ‘Wow!’”

While seeing the 12-foot-wide mural for the first time would make most us say ‘wow’, after spending 200 hours over 18 months creating it, this grandma and grandson feel grateful.

“It was fun,” Sandra smiles. “And it’s such a special time to get to have really good conversations, that sometimes can be very deep.”

“It was fun, talking and hanging out and stuff,” Remington smiles. “It’s just good memories.”

It’s like finding ‘The Force’ is with you, always.