A Vancouver Travelogue
I took this photo in Water Street, Gastown. If you’re a sucker for love like I am, go further into the DTES and you can find more professions of love. In fact you will not only find a singular “I” that loves you, but a collective “we”.
Megaphone wrote lengthily about the “I Love You” and “We Love You” tags that have sprung up here: Who Loves You, Baby? Explaining Vancouver’s most ubiquitous graffiti.
Lots of love going around Vancouver these days!
Finding love in the least likely place.
The Love Police on a street corner. (West Pender and Richards)
I realized I haven’t done an “On the Street” post in a while. So here’s one I shot on my recent trip to SF.
Pictured above is LEBO’s handiwork which was commissioned by Hotel des Arts. It’s been up for a year and is part of the artist’s Fatboy and the Holy Trinity series. The piece showcases a sketch of a boy tied to an atomic bomb or an atomic bomb tied to a boy – whichever way you want to look at it. What is interesting is the heart painted on the atomic bomb. A bit ironic to have a symbol of life and love on an icon of death isn’t it?
LEBO explains his inspiration in the video here: LEBO studios
I lucked out finding LEBO’s work by doing the touristy thing and visiting Chinatown. The hotel is located on Bush Street just a few steps away from the Chinatown gate.
I always get excited when I find graffiti that has meaning and is not just an act of self promotion. When done the right way, graffiti essentially is a free art show which everyone is welcome to enjoy. The discovery of it, the nuances in art and its reflection on society also adds to the excitement.
LEBO’s work fits well with the edgy image of the hotel. All the rooms in the hotel are painted differently by various world-famous artists. I have seen pictures of the rooms on the hotel website but I’m curious to see it firsthand. If anyone has stayed there, let me know what it’s like!
If there’s anything you cannot miss doing this week it’s visiting the Vancouver Art Gallery.
The Modern Woman Drawings by Degas, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec and Other Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay, Paris is on its last week here. After September 6, the rarely seen drawings will return to Paris.
Presented are nearly 100 works curated by Isabelle Julia of Musée d’Orsay. The collection features one of my favorite paintings: Edgar Degas’ The Star (1876-77 c.) or so I hope.
Reflecting the changing social roles in society, artists began to portray women with an increasing level of individuality and independence. Pictured in the café or in the street, in the boudoir and the bath, lounging or reading, and often unaccompanied by men, these depictions of often anonymous women departed radically from the traditional portrait genre and historical conventions that had relegated women in art to images of virgins, saints or idealized allegorical figures. [via Vancouver Art Gallery]
Vancouver Art Gallery
750 Hornby Street, Vancouver BC V6Z 2H7
Hours: Daily 10 am to 5 pm; Tuesdays until 9 pm
Fees: Adult $22.50, Seniors $17, Student $16
