SOME PEOPLE SURPRISE YOU

     I taught with a woman for around 20 years. We'll call her Sharon. Sharon was a physed. teacher and a good one. Sharon coached all girls teams at the school .

    For all those 20 years she never taught anything else. Sharon  didn't teach any options. The only time I know that she spent time in another field is when she came with us on an outdoor education   field trip. We were probably short a female supervisor so Sharon  was conscripted. 

    Sharon's been retired for about 15 years and I've only seen her once. I met her in the library when we were both getting books. 

    Lately one of my friends was asking if I knew Sharon. She told me that Sharon sings in a ladies singing group and is a great singer. Not in my wildest dreams did I think Sharon was a singer. 

    My friend went on to tell me that Sharon paints...watercolors. Sharon put on a show of her own in a local art gallery. Again, I had no idea that Sharon had talents in art. 

    So there I was thinking that Sharon was a one trick pony and could only teach physed. It would have been interesting to have seen Sharon in a music class or art class. 

    Some people really surprise you. 

More Garden Party

      Our city has a very active arts community. There's all kinds of music from a small symphony orchestra to senior jug bands. Two theatre companies are active and the college puts on many plays in their arts program. And then there's the visual artists. This group has their own center and gallery. They conduct many classes and artists use the facility to do some of their work as in kilns for ceramics. There are several excellent galleries in town.

     It seems to me that there's a quote something like "You can judge a society by the way they support their artists." Our artists are very active. I hope that they are supported. I was part of an art show once and a surprising number of works were sold.

     So at the Mayor's Garden Party the other day there were four artists doing their thing in an effort to publicize the local arts council. The director had forgotten her camera so since I was standing around,

Calligraphy

    I was conscripted to take some photos so that they could be used in their newsletter.

    I know that some of the bloggers I follow are artists. They are all interesting.

Solid Statements

    Sometimes art pieces make a very strong statement.

    We recently had a creation put in a major park that depicts aboriginal culture. The creation was long in the planning and aboriginals were in the loop from the beginning. 

     So the piece is to depict native elders telling stories to other members of the group. So how did they depict people ? With huge boulders. Why boulders? Arrangements of stones have been found a various places on the prairie. For some of these stone arrangements aboriginals still remember the meaning. Other arrangements have been there for so long that nobody knows the meaning. So in this piece the elders are sitting in the center of the circle in a haphazard order. The listeners are sitting around the elders in a circle.

I hope you can make out the elders in the center.

The elders sit in no order

    It's hoped that younger aboriginals will see the creation as part of their culture and feel good about how they were taught. For the rest of us we can appreciate how aboriginal culture, history, behaviors and technology were taught to their people.

    It's a strong statement about where we fit in.

This was hard to photograph as it should be shown from above. 

Be-Bop

    Sometimes I need a little help with my appreciation of art. Here's an example.

This is Be-bop

Be-bop was done by Richard Tosczak 

This is a playful piece with movement that goes one way and then another.

     
      This is welded steel and is to indicate strong fluid motion.(I read the book!) 

       It is an attractive piece and if you look at it for a few minutes you will definitely start thinking.

      I hope you enjoy this piece.

Reflecting on Ghosts

   The response to the ghost series of post I have done was both surprising and knowledgeable.  I had never done a series of posts before. I'm pretty loosey goosey when it comes to blog topics.

   I got the idea for the posts when I admired some of the statues in photos I had seen on various blogs. I was envious of the art shown on some posts and thought we didn't have much art here so I began to look.  When I looked I found much more than than I expected. For the statues , I've driven by them many times . Once I walked and took photos the Ghost statues became much more meaningful. The ten statues were done by six artists. Two artists were local people and the other four were from Alberta. The statues were funded publicly by groups . The city agreed to place  the statues at chosen locations and then look after them.

    Many of you were interested who the sculptors were. So here they are.

Reaching Out - Elden Neufeld

Waiting for Gordon- Brian McArthur

Choices - Barbara Paterson

Reverend Leonard Gaetz - Robert K. Spaith

Let the Music Play - Patricia Galbraith

Francis the Pig - Dan Mozdzendski

Hazel Braithwaite - Alan Hendersen

Francis Wright Galbraith - Dan Mozdzendski

Sound the Alarm - Robert K. Spaith

    Now when I took photos of the statues I ended at the library. Our librarian is retiring so I thought I would ,as a joke, take his picture with the ghosts. He wasn't in so spoiled my plan. I talked to him later and he didn't miss a beat and had ideas for more ghosts .He said , "How about the first paid librarian we had?" The first librarian was 17 years old and a real flapper. Her father was the library board chairman. Then he referred to Sound the Alarm which is right outside the library. He wanted to know if the two horses ever had names. If they don't have names he wants to run a contest for kids to name the horses.

    Ideas for ghosts are endless. We are only limited by the amount of money we have.

Ghost # 1

     I've found a few new blogs to follow lately. Some of these blogs have been showing some very fine statues in their cities. I like art, I like sculpture that decorates the  city landscape.

    Now I envied these people with the great sculpture in their cities. I thought my small city didn't have much.   I knew we had a series of statues called a ghost project. I have seen all of them but never taken a good look at them. I decided to photograph the ten ghost statues. This series was made to represent various figures which have been important in the history of our city.

    People in the community get an idea for a sculpture and they fund raise and get the piece produced. The city then finds a good place to locate the statue and also looks after it.

    Then I got the idea that they would make blog posts. So here I go. I will be including a ghost statue every once in a while. When I researched the ghosts I found much more art. Some of it I had forgotten about and some I had no idea that we had it. 

    The first statue that was produced was of the man who started our city. So Leonard Gaetz sits at the corner of Gaetz Avenue and Ross Street which is the center of the city.

Pitching a new idea to promote the city.

Thoughtful

Think about it