Thinking about my goals for the year. . . .

I created this art work for the January-February 2005 issue of Somerset Studio magazine, but the resolutions (create, travel, love, etc) are pretty much a continuous part of my life. I have a huge list of things I want to write this year, I want to make more time for art, I want to do some travelling within Canada with my husband and daughter this summer, I want to nurture friendships and family relationships, I want to include more music in my life (relearn how to play the guitar, for example), I want to pay attention to the world around me, overcome a few obstacles, take a few risks . . . (and do a few other things I’m not quite ready to commit to writing yet) . . .

How about you? Any resolutions you want to share?

Some graffiti is just plain ugly vandalism, with no display of creativity (the tag and run variety). But some adds a touch of colour and character to stretches of drab urban landscape. The graffiti in the header at the top of this blog, for example, lends a feeling of life to a strip of characterless industrial buildings along the Skytrain line. The wild blackberries that threaten to swallow the graffiti, add another dimension, insinuating nature’s presence back into the scene.

To get the  photo for the header, I had to jump a ditch, walk along an overgrown stretch of abandoned train tracks and push my way through some bushes. I’m not sure what the few people who noticed thought I was doing. I also took this dumpster and Skytrain photograph (one of my favourite graffiti photos) near that same spot. What do you think? Vandalism or art?

When I came across these pink hearts painted on a blue dumpster near my house, then discovered pink hearts painted on other blue surfaces, I couldn’t help smiling and wondering about the whimsical artist who was compelled to go out in the middle of the night and clandestinely paint hearts all over the neighbourhood. Intriguing things happen in the city at night (aside from drug dealings, etc.). There’s a whole other world layered over top of the day-time one — populated by roving raccoons, coyotes and graffiti artists……