16" x 37"
Mixed media, wood, oil, encaustic elements
Mixed media, wood, oil, encaustic elements
This poem made me think of Gastown as a magical little berg and I wanted to cast my own spell to help put this kind of energy into the community. I adapted the text of the words below to our neighborhood, embedded the affirmations deep within the work, and the little girl sprang up as if summoned.
Would you believe, that here, in the unseen, just a breath away
from "there," in time and space, we have gardens with such sweet fragrances they actually caress passersby? That we have melodies so rich you can actually see them dancing through the air? And colors so exquisite they tickle all of your senses?
That there are planets where everyone knows each other's names? Where flying comes naturally to all? And some have moons that hum lullabies each night?
Yet as spectacular as the infinite choices are, would you further believe that there's still quite a queue, several moonbeams long, to get back "there"? Where for every heart beating, there's a legend in the making.
You have no idea
©Mike Dooley, www.tut.com (printed with permission)
A child waits alone in the dark while the moon hums lullabies. Gastown is its own world day or night. Encaustic elements in the work portray decay and change, potential physical weathering over time. Working intuitively, I have no idea why I thought sugar coating Gastown was going to tickle anything. We’ll see…..
Luchia Feman 2010
artforeverybody.com
artforeverybody.net
read more, see companion pieces here........
I was first introduced to the concept of ‘open air prison’ in a random encounter with a BC Housing employee working in the downtown east side. We had picked up our library books at the Carnegie Center at Main and Hastings and were threading our way through the mayhem that is a constant in that area. The comment was referenced to the way he’d just been treated by the library employee. A month later I heard something similar from a street vendor who complained of literally being forced to live in the area, and of having to line up for food as though a ‘prisoner’.
Most recently I came across a ten-minute video clip promoting a book called, ‘Marching Powder’ [1], on Bolivia’s San Pedro prison, and was struck by the similarities to my neighborhood. Termed the craziest penal system in the world, San Pedro’s prisoners and their families are free to come and go within the prison limits. They support themselves interacting and conducting business with locals and tourists, producing and selling drugs and other commodities. Halfway through the viewing I realized this is an exact description of the infamous alleyway directly below my apartment, behind the intersection of Carrall and Cordova Streets.
This is my love story with Gastown, - Everybody does know your name - Everybody is here - All of us out here in the Open Air……...
“Everybody Knows Your Name” and "We have Gardens so Fragrant" Mixed media, wood, oil, encaustic elements, 16" x 37" each
I was first introduced to the concept of ‘open air prison’ in a random encounter with a BC Housing employee working in the downtown east side. We had picked up our library books at the Carnegie Center at Main and Hastings and were threading our way through the mayhem that is a constant in that area. The comment was referenced to the way he’d just been treated by the library employee. A month later I heard something similar from a street vendor who complained of literally being forced to live in the area, and of having to line up for food as though a ‘prisoner’.
Most recently I came across a ten-minute video clip promoting a book called, ‘Marching Powder’ [1], on Bolivia’s San Pedro prison, and was struck by the similarities to my neighborhood. Termed the craziest penal system in the world, San Pedro’s prisoners and their families are free to come and go within the prison limits. They support themselves interacting and conducting business with locals and tourists, producing and selling drugs and other commodities. Halfway through the viewing I realized this is an exact description of the infamous alleyway directly below my apartment, behind the intersection of Carrall and Cordova Streets.
This is my love story with Gastown, - Everybody does know your name - Everybody is here - All of us out here in the Open Air……...
[1] © Copyright Rusty Young
