Watertowers Eclipsed

The town watertower was recently pulled down. I love industrial remnants. The town of Chesley was full of them until a recent "cleanup" resulted in their removal for the most part. Of course many towns have replaced these ancient monoliths with more modern variants. Save the watertowers.

Blue Poles

"Into the Blue" 2005 by Shayne Dark, outside MOCCA on Queen; made of ironwood painted blue.
"Blue Poles" by Jackson Pollock; painted in 1952.
"Colour Barrier" 2005 by Paul Richard James; Oil on Canvas.
Blue Poles, part of a playground complex in Trinity Bellwoods Park in Toronto.

Haystacks

Haystacks or UEA

Early summer always brings out the best in the UEA, or Unintentional Environmental Art category. A little Andy Goldworthy http://cgee.hamline.edu/see/goldsworthy/see_an_andy.html, a little Richard Long. I especially like the new white plastic shrinkwrap that covers the haystacks on the funkier farms. These look like giant marshmallows dropped from the sky. I'm waiting for the hot pink wrap a la Christo. http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/si.html

Temporary Parthenon

Cardboard model of the Parthenon made while at OCA in 1984. I would love to make hundreds of these things and place them all over the place. My son and I used angel molds in the late 1990's in Toronto to make gold angels that were then placed in tiny niches in Toronto, or left on the street. Last time I looked, some of these angels still sit, protected. The gold spray paint we used on the plaster angels have a nice green patina.

Athena Nashville

The Athena Nashville sits within the Nashville Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee. This full size replica of the Athena Parthenon and the Parthenon itself was built for the 1897 as part of a Centennial celebration. Originally the structure was built using temporary materials and these materials were replaced by concrete and cement in 1920. It seems that Nashville was considered the Athens of the west during the 19th century. What happened? The pediment reliefs were created using molds from the originals in London.
It is pretty cool to see how the original was interpreted in this version. Our modern banks and government buildings often mimick the classical style to construct some sort of continuity.
The original Parthenon had painted columns, and was in fact fully decorated with paint. It seems that even the figures themselves on the pediment were painted in realistic flesh colours.
http://www.northernfern.com/parthenon/

Britpop Art

Painting by Will Ayres
I really enjoy looking through the Britart website http://www.britart.com. For people looking for affordable art on the internet you can't beat this stuff. In comparison to what you end up looking at on e bay, this work is of an extremely high quality. e bay seems to be flooded with cheap knockoffs and factory produced paintings. It is difficult to understand why it is so hard to find good work anywhere on e bay.

Creepy Window Display #1

This was a display using old Barbie and Ken dolls to represent a square dance as part of the Chesley Homecoming celebrations. Some interesting hair styles here & isn't that Donny Osmond on the right?

The Doctor's Office

The Doctor's Office series by Laura Loucks
Some interesting details here. Laura Loucks is a grade 7 student and spends quite a bit of time creating these fascinating panels. Note the graveyard, what looks like a morgue, the dog throwing up, and the number of needles that are depicted. As well, there seems to be a section devoted to coal mining that includes an elephant. There is some resemblance to Richard Scary in these works, but perhaps overlapped with a Twilight Zone Episode.