ART...looking at the public art fence.

An unexpected pleasure of transition.

It started out as a security fence and then one day, Cameraman came along and added a great photo of the Big House as it stood in 2014.  "Public art on the fence", what a great idea I thought.  So I added ACCEPTABLE REASONS TO CRY IN PUBLIC -- poetry about life.  Apparently I wasn't the only one to think this was a great idea as I noticed on another site visit someone decided to add these stickers.

In the spirit of art additions to the fence, I decided to make another contribution, Ken Foster's piece I acquired a few years ago.  Our paths happened to cross when I was on my way to a City of Vancouver, Arts & Culture meeting held at the old Woodward's site.  Ken was selling the DJ spinning and since it was on a City of Vancouver sign, besides it being a great painting, I felt it appropriate to buy and take to the meeting.  It was one of those meetings where the faces had changed but the message from the art community was always the same... displacement of artists and the threat of affordable artist studio/production spaces.

Since the fence was growing in the celebration of art it now seemed fitting to add it to the viewing.  Sharing art is something I can never get enough of and it makes me happy to watch people coming by to take a peek.

PEOPLE, PLACES, THINGS...

Why post on Monday's?  My Dad used to like getting important business done on Mondays so it's a  nod to his work ethic.  People, places and things, can influence each and every one of us in special and different ways.   Our family has not celebrated father's day since 2001, the year Dad passed, but in many ways every Monday is a kind of father's day. 

When someone passes I believe the best way to celebrate his or her life is to take note of the people, places and things they valued.  Yesterday's Father's Day caused me to pause and think about this and how happy my Dad would be to see this project unfold.  I feel blessed to able to celebrate some of those values, while still on the planet to note them.  

This post is about those people, place and things -- hard work, family, success (that came through fish, etc.), quality, perseverance and fierce determination as a force of love.

Hard work:

Family:

Success:

Quality:

Perseverance:

Fierce determination as a force of love:

and a little magic through the rain drops...

Community -- feedback so far is 100% positive, bring on the pink!

When passing by Project 851 there's some exciting changes developing at the Big House particularly on the gable,  trim and siding . The fascia and soffit will be changing to match the present evolution, in other words, here comes more  creamy tomato sauce.  All sorts of positive feedback are coming my way like, "it's coming up roses", "salmon house on the hill", "house of salmon", "candy ville", "pretty smarties", "soooo contemporary", "yeah to the pink", to name a few.  

Posted on the Blog February 26, 2018  I teased about color and that we'd go with grey.   Marianne introduced both pink and green as possibilities  when we began our discussions of color choices for the  Big House.  A longtime resident of the neighbourhood, Esther Rausenberg, told me that back in the day many of the chinese residence  painted their houses pink.  Well the choice then became a no brainer, this would be a nod to Mrs. Lau who had lived so many years at 851 Union.  There have been many nods to the past on this project and so far it's turning out very nicely.

(photos from Feb. when artist friends, Richard Tetrault, Maureen Sugrue and Leonard Brett came by to help me with picking a pink from the narrowed down palette of pinks) -- it was a very bright day in the snow!

Here we are months later with the real deal with great feedback from the community! Thanks to my friends, team players and family for their input.  (It's ALL been positive so far, so I'm not asking anyone else hahaha).  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

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)