Graffiti Research Lab

Like any work of art, when graffiti is done well, it's a thing of beauty.

Now that the City of Toronto has heightened the bylaws under the Graffiti Abatement Program, I've been noticing more and more dreary patches of grey on the way into Union Station. All those colourful tags are being covered up by someone who clearly doesn't know how to handle a roller, and things are looking worse that they did 6 months ago. I usually like Mayor Miller, but I'm not convinced that this type of censorship (along with his anti-postering by-laws) will reduce crime.

Graffiti Research Lab's colourful answer to 'urban communication' is brilliant. Their LED Throwies video is a beautifully romantic approach to reclaiming public space. (Or, for something a little more punk rock, check out the Electro-Graph.) Let's hope this NYC idea catches on up here...

Ideas

You never know when the next great idea will fall from the sky, so I rarely go anywhere without a pen or paper. (I used to come up with some brilliant thoughts lying in bed at night but it really started to cut into my sleep time, so now I try to schedule my brainwaves between 6am-10pm.)

This past Friday I was wandering around the Interior Design Show, penless, paperless, and full of thoughts that needed to be documented. I’m not sure what brilliant ideas were lost at IDS but I’m quite sure most of them hit me in the Studio North section. Ken Gangbar, Pascale Girardin, Arounna Khounnoraj, Tanya Lyons…all of these artists are so innovative in their use of materials, and I find it very refreshing to view traditional craft mediums in non-utilitarian ways.

“Design Bungalow” seems to share a similar aesthetic and has written very eloquently about three of the artists mentioned above. Have a peek…
(pictured above is a paper wall sculpture by Khounnoraj. And yes, the photo was stolen from her website.)

Somewhere between Guelph and Georgetown...

...the train passes through a tree-lined corridor with banks rising up on both sides of the rail. The individual trees that populate this stretch are quite tall and slender, but because they're so densely planted, an intense vertical pattern is created as the train whizzes by. It's especially interesting in the autumn when the whoosh of the train disturbs the fallen leaves, creating a cyclone of colour, or this time of year when the ground is covered in white. The thin silhouettes look like slash marks made with a calligraphy pen. I always make a point of raising my head along this stretch...it's always worth a look.

A few flakes for inspiration

Inconspicuous snowflakes have been falling from the sky all day. The kind of snow that only seems to exist on the set of a movie...sparse and weightless, as though time is somehow moving in slow motion. It adds a certain sense of grace to the landscape and I could stare out the window for hours.

The last time we had any sort of reminder of winter must have been back in December. I recall driving along the 401 on Boxing Day, thankful to be sitting in the passenger seat as gigantic, chunky flakes flew into the windshield at hyperwarp speed. Yum!

February

We've got Black History Month, Library Lovers Month, National Condom Month and National Wildbird Feeding Month. Throw in a few groundhogs and a box of chocolates and you're all set.