PROGRESS (on the heels of art)

Last week the Big House has gone through care and attention in the fine tuning department as we get ready for dry walling.  Fingers crossed this week the Octopus will start growing a roof.   Unforeseen circumstances have resulted in a tad bit of a delay on that front.  So, with eyes wide open,  we look forward to the metal growing and spreading across that amazing architectural design.  Bring on the metal head Octopus!

But speaking of metal, take  a look at what happens when your Contractor is an artist.  It's a shame to cover this up with drywall don't you think?

Oh,  it's so beautiful and I love it!!  Art on the art wall --I might just have to get these photographs made into prints for the art wall.  Another option might be to add them to the slowly growing public art fence. ( yes, it's true there are now 2 posters of acceptable reasons to cry in public -- smile)

ART... wow, this weekend was exploding

There was the ROVE, PARKER ST. SALON, and the ARC GALLERY SHOW, ahhhh and the Equinox opening of Sonny Assu's new work on paper.  Oh and the KW Studio's had an opening/ launch of their new space at the Woodwards site.  Wow!! That was one amazing transformation of a space for culture.   It's so awesome to see Vancouver coming alive in this way with such rich art right in or close to the hood.  I was able to take in 3 of the 5 happenings in and look forward to catching the others when possible.  

The Parker St. Salon was fun and it was great to see Eastside Culture Crawl Artists running and pulling together a weekend event.  Friday night there was a buzz travelling the halls of 1000 Parker St. with artists mingling with friends.  I only wish I had more time to look at the work and explore the perspectives of the artistic talent.

KW Studios opening launch highlighted space, music, dance performance and visual art all in one pow of an opening.  A great community celebratory event!  Here are a few pics.

The ARC Gallery show was dear to my heart as it invited the community as well as found it in their capacity to give back to the ECCS (Eastside Culture Crawl Socitey) children's program Studio 101.  I enjoyed exploring the gallery and work by 30 artists and felt the love they were giving back to the community.

Why do I love art so much?  Maybe because, Art is an expression of humanity and by enjoying art it keeps one grounded to enjoy humanity in the everyday as often as possible:  like good food, conversation and company...

Viva la art, viva la nature!

PEOPLE, PLACES, THINGS... breath in calm, breath out insulation!!

As Reece, has said, "Everyday is a festival in that house!!"  ...and this week was no different.

 It was completely an Alejandro Jodorowsky moments as the insulation went into the Big House.  I walked around the site with Rock n' roll playing in one place, then turning a corner and hearing La Bamba and the El Salvadorian dudes laughing while working away.  Every once in a while one or the other would  give out a yelp of glee or a  "owwwwww la" ...  I kept thinking they were calling me when they said Mira, which means to look in Spanish.    You can imagine how many times my head was turning once they found out my name actually is Mira!! hahaha.   Oh also I  can't forget to mention the  pregnant women who on late night walk with her husband and baby stroller  broke into the site so she can use the port-a-potty.  True dat, and this was also the week more public art showed up on the fence in the image of a sasquatch. Ya, I think it's fair to say Holy Mountain ain't got nottin' on the shenanigans at project 851.

Insulation alone is now blowing my mind.  Who knew there were so many types?  There's at least 5 types in the house (my terms not the boring construction terminology):

Creamsicle:  (hard like a frozen cube)

Bubblegum: (knock on that jaw breaker)

Icecream Sandwich: (this puppy is hard -- the chocolate sides are thin and the icecream thick)

Blacksheep of the family: (love the mix of this soft sheep)

Whitesheep of the family: (sista from another mother)

and a little Cotton Candy: (fluffy but don't eat it!)

Viva la fiesta and house building festivals.  Hope you had a great long weekend.

COMMUNITY -- whaaaaat? vs. let's all get along

This week I watched an exceptional series called "She's Gotta Have It" by Spike Lee.  Fort Greene, Brooklyn is where it takes place and once can see similar issues to our community.  This is just one of the reasons it makes it easy to fall in love with the work, along with the layers of messaging.  I had to chuckle when I walked down Hawks Ave past the pilot shooting in the hood, thinking about how we are constantly facing the cross over of real life and non-reality or reality projected through media becoming more and more of a constant.

She's Gotta Have It, is a Spike Lee re-make of Spike Lee's early work of the same name -- going from a movie to a Netflix Series.   There are so many issues discussed in the series like the  the Free Female Black Form, sexual identity, racism, gentrification, art, street art campaign "My Name isn't...", classism, feminism and so on.  Some of the magic moments come through in the poetic language used;  the weaving of messages in Episode 1 that comes full circle in Episode 10 (summed up nicely in the confused Art Critic, Julius Kemper's line "I want to know who she is?";  the evolution and challenges of life/identity in the visuals of the street art campaign leading to Nola Darlings path to freedom, to name a few.  One of my favourites is a line that repeats "you gotta get your shit together" delivered with wisdom from the place of a Grand Dame. 

The bottom line is that "She's Gotta Have It" deals with empowerment and worth watching over and over again, in my opinion.  For this weeks blog, I decided to take a page out of Spike Lee's series and how he plays with the Intro.  Usually, it's something you skip once you start getting into a show but in this series Lee plays with the visuals of the community and the photos of the people there are not the same in every intro. 

So here are some photos of the folks in this hood, some passing through, some returning to fond memories,  while others are deeply rooted threads in the fabric (not going anywhere!!).

Photo credit:  black and white of Mrs. Lau (the old chinese lady) by Esther Rausenberg                                                                                    Note: History of the Big House -  May 16, 2016  (under heading of Big House)                                                                                                       Octopus drone shot  -- Oct. 16th 2017 by Eesmayl Santos-Brault