If you are looking for a new coffee shop to try in Vancouver, do check out Re-entry on Main Street near 28th Avenue. I can’t recommend their coffee personally (because I don’t drink it) but I’m told it’s really good. I had an ovaltine, because I was impressed they had such a thing on the menu, and was treated to a “pull-apart” made of the most divine flaky and buttery pastry I’ve ever had the pleasure to eat. Seriously.
This was taken about a month ago. Benoit contacted me about photographing him and his wife Julie shortly before she was to give birth to their first child. We discussed a few ideas beforehand and Benoit requested I use some of my favorite tools during the shoot – red fabric, the holga camera, and cross-process film. It was a pleasure to work with them on this shoot and the results were very pleasing for all three of us.
Yesterday I decided that if I ever have loads of cash I am going to open an artists’s resource centre. It’ll be a place where people who are in the process of working on a show can come and borrow things they need, like a ladder, matte cutters and other framing bits, random tools, and whatever else I can think of. I’d also have a driver service available for those in need of a car or van to assist in picking up materials, or delivering work somewhere. There would also be a driver, for people like me, who don’t drive.
If I really had the money I’d also start a scholarship for people in need of a little extra funding to put together the art show they’ve always dreamed off and can’t afford to do without help. It sure ain’t cheap to make art, especially when you’re into doing things in a stupidly complicated way like I am….sigh.
While I’m remembering, I thought I’d post some links to a few of the galleries and artist’s work I saw in Seattle a week and a half ago. I took the above photo with the Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim as I was wandering around Pioneer Square looking for galleries.
Paintings by Flora S. Bowley – I love the colours, layers, and textures in her work, but none of it comes across very well in the photos online.
Sculpture by Paul A. Metivier and paintings by Glenn Ossiander – I felt like this show was made for me to see because the paintings were all red, and most of the sculpture were of crows. Again with the online photos the viewer doesn’t get the full effect of the paintings’ colour, texture and the layers of paint.
Oil paintings on paper by Joanne Hammer – I was only able to take a quick look through the gallery because I arrived at closing time, but I wish I’d had the chance to look again.
A good article from the Tyee about Alan Sirulnikoff and his photographs of Vancouver graffiti. I like the collection of photos in the online gallery accompanying the article.
I put these three shots together a few days ago, and now that I am looking at them again I’m not sure I like it. These were taken at the Ballard Lochs in Seattle. The spirals are a series of ten metal sculptures installed near the fish ladder, and the fish were viewed through the underground windows just below. It was wonderful to be so close to these large fish, and watch how powerfully they swim.
It was lovely to have some time off last week and get away to Seattle over the weekend. I was in the mood for art, so I made a point of wandering through a gallery dense area of the city – Pioneer Square – when I arrived on Friday afternoon. It was a very inspiring walk, and I’m hoping to post a few links work I saw when I get the chance later. For further arty inspiration, Hendrik and I visited the Olympic Sculpture Park and the Seattle Art Museum on Saturday afternoon. My favorite works from the park are the very clever Love & Loss, a beautiful stainless steel tree (Split), and the greenhouse containing a nurse log sustaining life as it would in a forest.
The last two images from my manipulate landscape series, created for the Utata summer project. It feels good to stretch my creative wings.
I am very happy because my family sent me the new Harry Potter book for my birthday. Too bad I will have to wait until next week before I can start reading it. I’m sure it must be a crime somewhere to not drop everything and immediately start reading the last Harry Potter book.