ART in Everyone

l'art pour l'art Feeling inspired lateley by small reassurances of the resilience of the creative spirit. How amazing! Despite the posverty, alienation and suffering, people still feel the need to create. These simple rock stacks in an empty lot in Boyle Street are easily overlooked, but once considered, are a poignant reminder of the basic human need for beauty and the impulse to create. Even without any resources, people will find a way to build, to share their art with the world.
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BACK WORDS // LOVE LETTERS

It is curious how the visual culture of different cities evolves. Sometimes it takes visiting another city to appreciates the distinguishing features that make each one unique. On a recent trip to Toronto, I was struck particularly by the quality and craftsmanship of the commercial art, being the typography nerd that I am. These vestiges of an earlier time have survived the march of progress and in some cases have been restored or replicated. It is a beautiful way to incorporate the human touch into the urban landscape and we would do well to take note.
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BACK WORDS // HAPPY EASTER

It is easy to forget that a wilderness existed among us. Animals and Plants that lived here long before a city took root, and will last long after people are gone. They lay in wait for the day they can come out of hiding, when we stop building up and tearing down in endless cycles of growth and decay. These creatures will survive us despite our incessantdesire to hunt, cut, cull, castrate, excavate, extract, exterminate, harvest, slaughter, slash & burn, poison, drain and otherwise destroy the place that belonged to them in the beginning. Sometimes I imagine what this land would have looked like two million years ago. I think of a pristine mess, sublimely unspoiled and unidealized. It is not a pastoral prairie scene. The grass is high and full of unknown dangers. The river is fast and clotted with rocks and branches. The banks are caked with mud. Some people look at this picture and see a garden pest. Others think of Easter or the trickster. For me, this rabbit, rangy and restless, is a humbling reminder of the history of this place, and the resilience of nature.
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BACK WORDS // Sight for Sore Feet

A burst of colour brightens an otherwise dreary Spring day – Snow-swept and slushy. The mural appears on 95 street, close to 107 avenue, on a long circumambulation that takes me through downtown, Chinatown, Little Italy, and eventually, back to Alberta Avenue. A smile crosses my face as Stripedscape by Grace Law fills my field of vision with 30 feet of saturated stripes, making me momentarily forget my saturated socks. Standing and staring at the painting for several minutes, likely causing passersby to assume I was another local eccentric, I could appreciate the size of the artwork and the great amount of work that went into it. According to the artist, the mural is "a colourful scene that embodies the diversity of the area that is so close to the heart of the city of Edmonton." The stripes are also meant to represent cooperation and peace.Sure enough, this mural was created with the help of many, and would not have happened without The Places.
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BACK WORDS // FELLOW FLÂNEURS UNITE

Alex Hindle and Leila Sidi are not your everyday Photographers. They travel tot he liminal spaces of the city that most people never let even their minds wander. "Crimes of Adventure in the Polaroid Apocalypse" is an exhibition of photographs that document the decay of urban industry in "the city's rich margins and their scribble scrap of rust bucket huts and train yards." "Crimes of Adventure"will introduce you to a different side of the city; a foreign-looking place that these artists became intimately familiar with. Their work chronicles their experiences, "telling a story that dissects the nature of dereliction, loss, and the powerful and fluctuating essence of places."
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