New Roadsworth street stencils

A couple of years ago a renegade street artist known as Roadsworth was getting in a lot of trouble for his creative additions to the Montreal street scape. A crosswalk became a row of birthday candles, the dotted yellow line in the middle of the street became a zipper, and streetlights sprouted electric plugs. For some reason there was a big fuss about all this, and it's been a while since I've seen any of his "public mischief".

The new batch that appeared recently on rue Ste. Catherine looks somehow sanctioned in a way, slightly more socially concious and slightly less amusing for amusement's sake. One of my favorite is this vegetable garden, with plant markers reading "Trottoir genetiquement modifie" (genetically modified sidewalk). Nearby an alligator crawls out of the sewer, a trio of vultures waits for shoppers to drop, and the an intersection box (as in "don't block the box") becomes a swimming pool.

Visual notes to myself

This is a selection of photos that I have taken as visual notes to myself. I take pictures of colors, patterns, and compositions that I want to remember but don't have the opportunity to draw on the spot.

Old and new walls in Montreal

There's a lot of ongoing construction in the Place des Arts area (a.k.a. the Fur District) in Montreal. My favorite construction site has a backdrop of impromtu street art. While admiring the spray paint work, I noticed the ghost of a previous building, which left its trace on another building (which i'm pretty sure is historically protected) . I saw in an art and design magazine that there is another building like this in Montreal's Old Port, where the trace of the old building is accentuated with brick and stonework. Anyone know where this is? I'm on the lookout for it... meanwhile, here's a selection of the new additions to the wall:


Some good faces in this one.

I like the unfinished sketch at the top of this panel. It adds to the feeling of the space as a process.

(Thanks to Mu for the generous loan of his photos)

CUBA! at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

I just saw the exuberant exhibition of Cuban art in at the Montreal MFA, and was impressed by the way the art and history of the island were interwoven so cohesively. The show ranges from landscapes of sugarcane and sea, to political posters, to the journalistic photos of Walker Evans, to contemporary video installations and the collectively painted Salon de mai mural (1967) (see below). It explores various notions of "cubanidad", on both the personal and national level.

A common theme was the insularity of Cuba, and the importance of the sea in identity. This idea is expressed very well in the poem "La isla en peso" ("The Weight of the Island") by the poet Virgilio Pinera:

"...sintiendo como el agua lo rodea por todas partes/ mas abajo, mas abajo, y el mar picando en sus espaldas/ un pueblo permanece junto a su bestia en la hora de partir/ aullando en el mar, devorando frutas, sacrificando animales/ siempre mas abajo, hasta saber el peso de su isla/ el peso de una isla en el amor de un pueblo."

As a frequent visitor to Canada from the south, I was surprised by the lack of politics surrounding the show, and the true focus on the art (appropriate for a museum, I suppose). What did remind me of the political side was the fact that I was unfamiliar with most of the artists represented (Maria Madelena Compos-Pons was not included)such as the Cuban-born French painter Wilfredo Lam.

Cuba! Art and History from 1868 to Today
at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Until June 8, 2008

Sarah Malakoff, photographer

I make notes of artists whose work I like to return to for visual inspiration, and Sarah Malkoff is one. Here's a few interiors from her website. Some recurrent themes are empty chairs, patterns, quirky spaces, and unexpected details. I find her sense of color to be very delicate and somewhat unexpected, and the stillness to be engaging rather than chilly.