I’ve just published a new novel about a street artist, the semi-fictional Rabbit. The book’s been getting amazing reviews. Then the other day Banksy tweeted about it. Nice! But this series of posts isn’t about the book. It’s about the artists in my part of the world who inspired Rabbit and make him “semi-fictional”. Artists whose […]
Tag: Art
As It Is: And/Or/Neither/Nor Work by Andrew (A01) Owen
Andrew (A01) Owen was a huge influence on me during the writing of The Blue Light Project. His street activity was high during the months I was writing and researching the book, primarily in the form of 1:1 scale “re-photo-cubic-surfaces”. I became very intrigued by this practice and by this artist. Over the following years, […]
Naturally Hazardous
Feminine beauty is, by virtue of having no definition, controversial. Hold up an image you find exemplary and expect to get everything from murmurs of approval to charges of sexism from virtually any random sampling of people. Beauty, it seems, will always be more of a question than it is an answer. The photographers in […]
Cinema Salon September 7th – Vancouver
Timothy Taylor presents THE THIN RED LINE Tuesday, September 7 at 7:30 pm Director: TERRENCE MALICKCast: Nick Nolte, Elias Koteas, Woody Harrelson, Sean PennUSA, 1998, 170 minutes// BUY TICKETS Once a month, Melanie Friesen invites a distinguished guest to present his/her favourite film. After the screening, audiences and guests have the opportunity to discuss the […]
V-TARP: The Vancouver Transit Adspace Reappropriation Project
So Banksy declares street art dead and apparently nobody was listening. JermIX certainly wasn’t. Working with UK import Vegas – a stencil artist of remarkable skill – Jerm has launched what many consider his most aggressive campaign ever. VTARP, it’s called. Vancouver Transit Adspace Reappropriation Project. Which sounds like a black line item in the […]
Rabbit Receiving his own Information
On a gig for Western Living Magazine, I toured the Willamette Valley recently. Lots of gems to discover there, like Whole Hog Wednesdays at the Dundee Bistro. And of course several hundred small, high-craft wineries that produce the amazing fruity, farmy pinot noirs of the region. But I particularly enjoyed “meeting” the mascot of the Scott Paul Winery. […]
New Cameraman: The Coin of the Realm
Brilliant street artist Byron Cameraman hits “Granville Rise” again. What I love about this piece is it’s power to demonstrate just how beautiful filthy lucre can appear. If we did not find it beautiful – that is, if we didn’t exalt money aesthetically and otherwise – you could argue, “Granville Rise” itself would not exist. Up close, the hugely magnified silver dollar reveals all […]
Ladies and Gentlemen: Kevin House
The title of Kevin House’s new show – tonight, that is May 6, 2010 at the Red Gate Gallery at 156 West Hastings Street at Cambie – is telling. It’s the grouping title, you could say, of a whole group of strange and wonderful pieces that House has done about Vancouver at some unspecified point in its just-pre-Modernity. […]
Notebooks: The Blue Light Project – A01
A01 is one of the artists I followed around during the writing of my new novel The Blue Light Project. His work impressed me hugely in a number of different ways. The first and most obvious way related simply to how prolific he was. The photo above is from a series called Local Photo Posters. At the time […]
Notebooks: The Blue Light Project – Take5
Take5 was one of the first street artists I became aware of, during the writing and researching of The Blue Light Project. He was doing a serie of these beautiful chief’s head posters and stencils in the neighborhood around my office. There were many more than the map shows, but this reflects my dawning awareness that […]