From Germs to Graffiti and Back

Hello friends, so nice to see you again:)

We have been sick! My poor little boy caught a cold (first one ever) at a friends birthday party, and it promptly raged through our family like wildfire. We're on the mend now, but it totally sucked. Worst part was watching my baby suffer and not being able to do much to help. I guess the upside is that he's added another block to his wall of immunity. We don't want to see another one of those for as long as possible, but as everyone knows, children are germ factories, so I'm sure this was just the first of many.

We finally made it out of the house for fresh air and we ran into these interesting images on the underside of a local train bridge. I couldn't get as close as possible to the top piece of graffiti - I had the baby on my back and there was a river between us and the wall - so the photo definitely does not show the amazing amount of detail included by the artist. The first piece is of the front end of an old car (reminded me of my family's boxy old Bonneville) under the word "Freedom," whose 'F' is overlaid with a 'D.' The second is of a large head (side profile) with an angel figure at the back of the head and a devil in front of the face. The second image had a note next to it stating "Portrait of the artist having a think. n.f.s." Very interesting and involved art. I think the same artist must have been responsible for both of the above pics, as they seem to have been done in the same style.

I love good graffiti... and am amused by bad graffiti. The wall across from the second image had a very quick and childlike "BC Bud Rules" scrawled along it.

Skip to the next day and I had forgotten about the graffiti we had encountered on our walk. I was thinking about the gnarly nature of germs and thought I'd look for some images online. Interestingly, I repeatedly came across a cool LA artist named Jamie "Germs" Zacarias. His work is surreal, involving numerous multi-tentacled characters, many of which wearing traditional Mexican wrestling masks. Through further digging I found this video (via YouTube) of an LA graffiti tour including the artwork of Zacarias, amongst others... which reminded me of the train bridge graffiti... and the circle was complete.

If you want to see more of Zacarias' intricate and highly amusing art check out his site at:

http://www.germs4u.com/

or a YouTube video tour of one of his solo shows:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qb0ZrX3Z8c

Take care. Talk to you again soon:)

Think Global, Art Local

Sledding by Ted Harrison

Golden Spruce Three by Dana Irving

Howe Sound by Dana Irving

Hi friends. I hope you are all well:)

In my wanderings around the internet this past week I have found a few samples of artwork that I must share with you. Growing up in Labrador, I felt very isolated from the rest of the world. We had no internet, and books and tv (with only french and english CBC) were my main connection to the rest of the world. The world I witnessed through these mediums was mostly very unfamiliar to me; places and people that could easily have existed on another planet; certainly not places I could or would ever manage to reach; certainly not places or people I could really relate to. The first time I saw Ted Harrison's artwork I was mesmerized. Not only were his paintings full of beautiful colours that defied the 'rules of nature,' they were of images that I could recognize, relate to and understand. The first painting above, Sledding, reminds me of the endless days my friends and I spent sledding on Johnny Hill, a favourite spot not far from my childhood home.

The following paintings are Golden Spruce Three and Howe Sound, respectively, by Dana Irving. The beautiful colour schemes, use of light and shadow and stylized images make Irving's work dazzling to me. Having moved to the West Coast, these are now the images I can recognize, relate to and understand. I am amazed by this artist!

I have been working away on a painting over the last couple of weeks, finding an hour here and there, mostly after Rowan has gone to bed. It has been a lot of fun, but as things have progressed from my original idea it seems that this canvas and I have found ourselves in an unplanned place. This is certainly not the first time a painting has led me into the unexpected; in fact, I find myself in this situation fairly often. I have come to believe that, at least in my case, the more I try to control every aspect of a painting the more likely I am to find myself in the middle of a difficult and disappointing mess. Kind of like my relationship with my hair most of my life. I have arrived at the conclusion that my ideas are just seeds that require effort, imagination, experimentation and flexibility in order to become complete.

I was wondering about this approach and whether or not I have just found a way to excuse myself from being more disciplined. I don't know the answer. I have read that Ted Harrison works in much the same way, allowing his creations to unveil themselves as he goes along. In any case, I think that if I give myself the chance I could find countless ways to undermine my creativity... so I accept my approach and continue on.

I will post pics of the latest painting soon, when it is complete. In the meantime, if you want to check out the stunning works of these amazing Canadian artists please go to the following sites:

http://www.tedharrison.ca/

http://www.danairving.com/index.html

Take care. Talk to you again soon.

Our Day, In Pictures

Hello friends, I hope you are all well.

I thought I'd keep it simple today and just post a few pictures from our quiet but lovely Tuesday. How was your day? Pics are from my iPhone, but not too bad. Light conditions make all the difference.

Beautiful blossoms lining our quiet street.

An empty lot on our street... hope they never fill it.

Asparagus, salmon and scalloped potatoes and turnip au gratin for dinner.

My handsome boys.

Things were quiet, but boy am I tired. Better catch up on some beauty rest tonight... after the game:)

Take care, talk again soon:)