Art is everywhere, if you choose to look.
Lately, as the weather becomes a slightly more pleasurable each day, I am taking the opportunity to get back out on the streets of Toronto to observe what really happens here.
Last Thursday, on the way to an appointment, I was fortunate to notice something I had never seen before.
Just about any day you’ll find Ross Ward hunched over on Yonge Street tending to his art. The ‘Birdman of Toronto’ has been a fixture on these streets in various locations for well over a decade, and during each day he crafts, and sells, palm-sized birds.
Once only a hobby — this is now more than whittling — Ward carves out shapes of common birds from reclaimed wood. There is always a piece in progress, and always a small flock for sale on his concrete workspace.
Perhaps in our day-to-day journeys, we don’t look close enough at all the people. We don’t often observe enough to see art just happening here and there on our landscape. I’ve wandered this street how many times and only last week did I notice the man. I saw him again on the weekend.
Appreciating the beauty of his work, I bought a bird as a gift for someone . . . or maybe a souvenir for myself to one day remember my time in this city.
Couldn’t we all use more memorable hand-made art?
Mistakes
Do you prefer pencil with, or without, an eraser?
For me it is an easy answer: I prefer the eraser attached.
I know I make mistakes and admit it freely; an eraser gives me the opportunity to catch them when I can. I believe a pencil with eraser qualifies as the original word processor, allowing for convenient and effortless correction without losing the flow of your writing. Having to put down the pencil to pick up an eraser is an interruption, and who has that time when writing a heartfelt poem, love letter, or shopping list?
I will still use a pencil sans eraser, but my writing is more timid and less carefree. It’s almost like writing with a pen (where your mistakes will live on forever).
Just as there is a certain charm to a pencil, there is a certain magic to an eraser.
09/02/2018 j.g.l.