Oscar Peterson Mural

I drove past this mural, created by Montreal artist Gene Pendon in homage to Oscar Peterson
 - no place to park. This was shot through my windshield at a red light. It's not the best angle.

Oscar Peterson, who grew up in this area, was a world renowned jazz pianist. You can read about him here.  I had a the privilege of hearing him in concert many years ago and have a number of his CDs. Montreal was a hotbed of jazz in the 20th century. I recently co-wrote a blog post about a CBC multi platform production for education: Burgundy Jazz. You can learn more about Oscar Peterson as well as other Montreal jazz musicians and also learn about the community that spawned them.

A picture book also recently came out which touches on Peterson's childhood: Oscar Lives Next Door. You can read more about it here.

Here's a video clip for you
Salute to Bach - Oscar Peterson Trio
(apologies if the ad plays first)

Looking at the Past

I was headed to a recorder lesson, but got there early, so I strolled through the neighbourhood. There are many murals giving us a glimpse of the past. I felt like one of the ghostly red figures peering in as if through the mists of time.



I only had time to capture a few before I went off to my lesson - another way of peering through time as I am playing early Italian baroque music, trying to understand the style, the rhetoric and hopefully, bringing a bit of the past to life through music.

Mural in the Passageway

Mural in the Metro, a photo by susanvg on Flickr.

Whenever I take the metro to concerts in the church in Old Montreal, I take a passageway that goes below a main street. It was always a bit unsavoury. The walls were a textured concrete - very cold and grey looking. Homeless people sometimes used the space to sleep in. For some months as I walked through, to my delight, there was baroque music playing on speakers as I walked through. It seems it was to discourage the vagrants from hanging around.

When I walked into the space, It had been transformed. This mural livened up one wall.



And all along the walls, bright colours had been painted between each of the ridges in the concrete. The wall seems to change from grey to colour depending on the angle from which you view it. What a difference - like the film, The Wizard of Oz, the grey world had been turned to colour.  The mural and stripes, is by MU, a group devoted to creating outdoor art in Montreal. It was designed by Philippe Allard and is called Printemps (Spring). The baroque music is still playing. I just might have to go back and linger to enjoy it all!

Mural Festival

Mural Festival, a photo by susanvg on Flickr.

Photos: July 12, 2013

A mural festival was held on St. Laurent Boulevard a few weeks ago. A friend of mine and I decided to take a walk and explore the results.



One parking lot was surrounded by murals on every un-windowed wall. Enjoy - I know we did!









A macabre themed mural over the tombstone cutter's site.



And for a little fun - what do you think these signs mean?Answers here

******
More murals can be found here  in my Flickr account
About the festival
About the muralists

Definitely NOT Florida

Definitely NOT Florida, a photo by susanvg on Flickr.

My car dealership moved and with my brakes making a grinding noise, I paid the new location a visit. On my walk to get the metro I passed this building - a palm tree mural on the side of a place that features nude dancers - definitely not the most scenic (at least for me) part of town.

Small Town Barber

Small Town Barber, originally uploaded by susanvg.

We went for a walk in another small Ontario town - this time Alexandria. The town has some older buildings. This little barber shop was located next to the swankier Esthetique and Spa. Not far from here was a mural depicting a barber shop - but it looked much larger than this building could hold.

Mural in Quebec City

Mural in Quebec City, originally uploaded by susanvg.

The shadows of scaffolding left from Quebec's winter carnival cast patterns on the mural. But the mural itself has layers of history - like shadows of the past visiting the present. While men in 19th century garb look out from a balcony, a young couple from today kiss passionately just around the corner. Sometimes I feel that way as I look at a place and see it through the eyes of my past.



In daylight, the physical shadows disappeared, but the layers of time remain. Many things happen in one place over time. Imagine the astonishment if these figures of the past could see the present.

Decay

Decay, originally uploaded by susanvg.

I love street art - murals that cover otherwise blank, concrete walls. However, I don't love what happens to it. This mural is on the side wall of a building that houses a club - a music venue. At the level of pedestrians some of the plaster has pitted and the wall it has been attacked by graffiti. I know I have railed about this before - but I just don't get how it is OK to damage the creation of another person. The artwork adds colour and delight to the city, in this case celebrating the use of the building. Graffiti tags are just self-serving, advertising that the spray painter has passed by. I do make a distinction between tagging and graffiti artists. The latter have created some interesting images (and yes sometimes they are elaborately done tags), but they don't do it on top of someone else's work.

Lasting Impression

Lasting Impression, originally uploaded by susanvg.

It's always fun to come across the unexpected. This mural is quite new. I checked out Google streetview and there was graffiti on this wall. Funny how a physicist has become an icon - his image recognizable by many people. Today it is the popular culture icons who are recognized by most people. Who are the people you would like to see remembered from today? How can we raise the profile of the thinkers so that they reach the radar of today's youth?

Mar 27/10: Sidewalk

Mar 27/10: Sidewalk, originally uploaded by susanvg.

We took a drive through a few small towns in eastern Ontario. I was struck by how few people were out on the sidewalk. Walking through Maxville, we came across this mural of the town in 1906. People were out and about. We live in a culture of cars. We saw people drive up to the LCBO (liquor store), charge out of their cars straight into the store, then out again and back into the car with their purchases. No more strolling down the street and chatting with a neighbour. The car becomes essential as the local grocery stores and pharmacies close, driven out by the larger chain stores in a nearby town. The cores of these towns have been gutted of the conveniences of local stores.

Day 338: Oh Canada

Day 338: Oh Canada, originally uploaded by susanvg.

Once more I was going through a train station - this time Central Station in Montreal. On the north and south walls, up high, there is a frieze with words from our national anthem (the south end in English, the north in French). It depicts the many activities and jobs Canadians participated in at that time (the late 1930s to early 1940s) - everything from families reading to loggers to cowboys.... People at leisure and people at work.

I was struck in this photograph by the difference in values between that time and ours. People are actively doing not passively sitting watching others do as happens now with television. The mural, juxtaposed with the Macdonald's sign - to me the epitome of the shallow values of today - where it is not quality that counts, but speed and gimmick, where everything is predictable with no room for creativity - a cut and paste society.

Time to stop and admire and hope that we will once again value the ordinary people and stop our cult of celebrity and consumerism.

I tried to find out who created this mural and believe it is Charles Fraser Comfort.

Day 280: Urban Art

Day 280: Urban Art, originally uploaded by susanvg.

So often, driving in the city, I see walls spray painted with graffiti. While some of it is creative, most of it is just tagging, which to me is a totally self-centered activity. I always love to come across a mural painted on the side of a building; this is a new one for me.

In my youth, the only wall murals were giant advertisements. I photographed one several months ago. Now there are a variety of murals around the city, some, like this one, conceived as a whole and others done by talented graffiti artists. They do add life to the city.