Thursday, 6 December 2012

New Urban Series

I've begun a new series inspired by the city. Looking back on work in the past, I've always been drawn to the urban structure, urban decay, and the magical colours, textures, and visual density that occurs when years of people's marks and influence change the look of various thing around us.

Vancouver is a city with an unquestionable grittiness (quite a contrast to the bright, happy pictures we often see). The crumbling buildings and decay of the Downtown East Side (where my studio is) is a wealth of visual inspiration.

I've wanted to focus on urban decay and the city for some time. I started these pieces on wood panel and so far they are capturing a really awesome amount of attention. I'm really stoked to see this series start to develop.

These objects (like phonebooths) that sit idle and often unused..and collect years of writing, marks, stickers, etc. are a testament to the motion and activity around them. They sit there, collecting memories and watching out at the city that passes them by, slowly disappearing...

Yet they speak to the ever changing world of technology, social norms, behaviour and so forth.

Fascinating? They are to me :)