Posting a short time lapse and a few photos on the what is happening at the back of the site. It has been quite the "reality hit" of what something looks like on paper and what it takes to make that drawing a reality. Ever ask yourself "oh my, what have I got myself into?"
If you're asking yourself that question, in my opinion, it's safe to say you're living an exciting life and more than likely you're learning. Viva la Octopus!
What do I see when I look at art? There are lines, form, shapes and color that jump out and sometimes they create landscape, figures, abstract images and so forth. This is also found in everyday objects. At times, I play a game walking through the streets looking for one of these things to educate my eye at the simple act of close looking. For me, it's about the art of the everyday. You can go crazy if you look at too many things so focusing on one element of art makes you notice things that are easily missed.
The ECCS (Eastside Culture Crawl Society) is an organization dear to my heart for many reasons. In fact, I believe in this organization so much that I give it my time, energy and creative chutzpah. Every year the ECCS hosts an event called the Culture Crawl and the audience is the public -- people have told me they come from Abbotsford, Montreal, West Vancouver, Toronto, and even Internationally to catch this 4 day celebration of visual art, craft and design. If it's new to you check it out and join in the fun -- this year it's on from Nov 16-19th.
One of the reasons I love this organization is because it is has grown in professionalism over the last 5 year beyond expectation and yet has not creeped into the area of pretentiousness. It has been able to maintain it's connection to community spirit while continuing to have artists and public interact directly creating a very human exchange. It's the best way to experience and learn, and it goes both ways; artist learn from the public and the public learns from the artist. The exercise I use in looking for art in the everyday applies to focusing on experiencing the Crawl.
For this post I've decided to focus on the line. Here's a looksee at where the eye has gone in that respect.
As things progress at the Big House we find now is the time to include the Octopus. Our Octopus is not the kind one often finds written about such as in The mind of an Octopus ; where It's interesting to note that creature of the sea spend a lot of time taking care of their dens. Our creature at 851 Union, is to be a den of a different sort.
This creative design is the infill behind the Big House that is connected by a common mechanical room. We jokingly came up with the name of the Octopus yet when I read more about the sea creature it was enlightening to discover this 8 armed mollusc or cephalopod, has two forms of control operating in tandem; neurons in the arms and in the central brain. The mechanical room at 851 will be like the central brain and the Big House and Octopus structures will be like the arms -- at least that's an analogy I like to extend to the project.
There are so many layers of love encompassing this piece of land it's sometimes hard to know where to begin when writing. Focus can be a challenge so let's look at some images and let the layers of information start from the visual.
I laughed the other day when a friend said to me "Hey, Mira your doors open". I told her how odd it was to see the Big House look like a huge doll house at this stage and when I sit inside, on the chair that was left behind, and contemplate on the infill to come all I can say is "this is one layered learning experience". Learning about the pitt, markings, going from ideas to reality and layers are under the Octopus heading of this site.
While sitting in the chair left behind, I think about the people who came before, the ones presently involved and those to come. Aging in place is more than a concept.
Last week and when I went to pick up the time lapse shots at my neighbour Ewan's place, I thought about people coming together to share the eclipse experience. There was a gathering at the local park where I saw people with boxes on their heads, a few others with glasses that were sharing with anyone who didn't, and kids pointing out the moon shaped shadows from the trees. It was a moment in time during a historical event.
When I looked at the time lapse that had been captured during the last month something of interest caught my eye. Happy to share a short episode of progress at the Big House where the lady of stature is stripped of her shingles and left to grace us with her bronze tones of armour that come from trees that were growing over 200 years ago. What caught my eye in this time lapse was the falling light in the sky on the right side of the frame (9 nights in a row?) -- possibly shooting stars that we can wish upon? ...
Wishing you ecliptic moments and falling stars ( be they light from the sky and/or landing planes) in your community.