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?
Mondays are just young Fridays
Commencement of an idea: a blank canvas.
What you think and what you believe, at times, are on non-collinear planes.
Separate thoughts.
The concept is not clear, but there is a distinct vision. Time is required to sort out the polarities.
I know I need colour, right now, to breakout of the homogeneous pattern of darkness I have settled into; a forced change might best state the obvious.
An interruption at least, a new perspective at best. Figurative or metaphorical, abstract thought equals diversion.
Random colours introduced, aware of the concept, but more or less tentative. Time is required, further consideration, to see what will dominate because, proportions aside, each colour is equal.
The divergent nature of complimentary contrasts is not colorfast.
My mood or mindset, over time, will sort out what goes where. Spontaneity has its place but has yet to show itself.
It is a process as much as it is progress.
No concern yet with accomplishment because, some days, simply picking up the paintbrush is as much an achievement as anything.
Thinking is believing.
07/31/2023 j.g.l.