19 September 2019 – Two walking women meet one walking man.
Not any old walking man — this is Walking Man (Howard Street, Glasgow), by Alex Tedlie-Stursberg.
Thing is, we’re not in Glasgow. We’re in Eihu Lane, downtown Vancouver — specifically the two blocks of this commercial laneway, wedged between Alberni & Robson, that lie between Burrard & Bute.
It is a very busy commercial lane.
More than once, we have to summon our inner gazelle & leap to safety. (Not as gracefully as the gazelle, perhaps, but with the same sense of urgency.)
It’s worth it. We are walking the City’s new Canvas Corridor — 45 murals adorning back doors and vents, in a laneway project involving downtown business associations, the City of Vancouver and 27 artists (culled from hundreds of applicants via the Simon Fraser University School for Contemporary Arts and the Vancouver Mural Festival).
There are delicately haunting doorways (I Hate Rain, Nadia So) …
vibrating doorways (Holy Mountain/Man, Adam Rashid) …
two-fers …
and even four-fers.
There’s a city on the tip-tilt (City, Jag Nagra) …
and a sraight-up heart …
with, just like it says …
Enough Room For One More (Justine Crawford).
We laugh and point and compare/contrast and leap out of the way of trucks and leap back into mid-lane and, finally, realize it’s time to put on our skates (with Skatemail man, Graeme Kirk) …
and leave the alley.
So we follow that cement mixer as he pulls away …
and get one final treat.
Just look what he was obscuring
Hello Malayan Tiger, thank you Elaine Chen.
(And yes, this is the twice-promised post, about the rendezvous I was rushing to keep when that panel of VSE hand signals slowed me down.)
Catherine Winckler
/ 19 September 2019Once again, just a wonderful end of day treat to vicariously walk along with you via this post!
icelandpenny
/ 22 September 2019Oh Catherine, you warm my heart. What a lovely compliment. I am so happy to be among your end-of-day treats.
morselsandscraps
/ 20 September 2019Great. All the murals curated in one place!! You have a real knack for writing up such things – you frame and shape, you don’t just bung ‘Em all down.
A question for you. What do you call them if they’re painted all over a bus shelter???
icelandpenny
/ 22 September 2019Somebody a while back, maybe you?, directed me to images of those Aussie painted bus shelters. They’re amazing! I can’t think of a suitably catchy name for them, alas… BTW, the artist seems to have arrived in the Blue Cabin, I saw someone moving about as I walked by a few days ago
morselsandscraps
/ 22 September 2019I’ll check out the website. No newsletters have appeared in my inbox yet.
Aussie toilets are muralled too: are Canadian ones?
icelandpenny
/ 26 September 2019only by very unofficial graffiti-scrawlers, usually creating long sequences of commentary on the inside of toilet stall doors…
Lynette d'Arty-Cross
/ 20 September 2019These are so terrific and it’s also such a great project! 🙂 I love the one more heart painting. Thanks for sharing this great walk. 🙂
icelandpenny
/ 22 September 2019it’s the 3rd downdown alley getting a paint job, after Alley-Oop and Ackerman’s Alley; seems there will be more
simpletravelourway
/ 20 September 2019What a treat! Lovely photos of those great images.
icelandpenny
/ 22 September 2019I can imagine you bopping down that alley … so lad you enjoyed the e-bopp!
bluebrightly
/ 26 September 2019What fun!