Searching in the Backstreets

Every now and then, an artist feels a need to challenge the status quo - at least, I do. I was feeling the lag of several months of moving, preparing to move, waiting to move, etc. last year and my painting took a hit. With the inactivity, I somehow lost my mojo. Landscapes were still beautiful but did not stir my soul the same way. I was excited about our new little urban oasis we landed in just north of my favorite desert - Penticton - but by the time I was really landed, it was pushing into the dreary cloudiness of an Okanagan winter.

I hit the streets and trolled the back alleys, looking for inspiration. My phone was at my side and I drained the battery just snapping anything that caught my eye. Angles, patterns, people of the street. I was taken once again by the acute lines of urban landscapes. Designed by some architect, built with muscle and machine and pushed into the ever-changing city vibe.

I was looking for the emotional connection to ...... drabness. The people were in the center of it all, of course, some happy to smile, or some more inclined to grimace. Cocky, cool, confused. I did not want to insert myself into their living room or bedroom, so to speak, on the street, and held back, writing their stories in my head instead. It seemed too intrusive to paint these people of the street but maybe someday I will gain the courage to ask permission and run with it. Until then, I am left with hundreds of photographs of pavement and gravel, construction tangles and run down store fronts.

Perhaps these photos would be basis of a potential photo essay - a street photographer`s dream of his or her vision published for mankind. But, an artist who uses a brush stroke instead of photo shop can still publish pixels of intrigue that would garner fascination and storytelling on your wall rather than in a coffee table book. Or so I said to myself!

So started my new series - Exploring the Neighbourhood. This is not Mr. Roger`s neighbourhood - or maybe it is. I have not painted the heroes but I have started to capture the nooks and crannies of urban living - urban being a stretch as Penticton is a small town kind of city!

The grey drabness of concrete, pavement and gravel and the harsh angles of electrical cables and construction or demolition suddenly erupted into colour in my mind. I couldn`t help myself as I re-imagined the streets and rundown hideaways of our neighbourhood into fantasy interludes resonating the stories of those who wander through. Not to romanticize nor ridicule, but to assign hope and to recognize that the stories of their inhabitants are full of colour and light and excitement.

Of course, not all was inherently drab and depressing! I discovered design, humour and much of human kind intersecting with the industrial necessities and forgotten pathways

I have only just begun and I have not limited myself to alleys and the dark hideaways we never notice when strolling along to the next art gallery. But, I have tried to capture the growing, struggling, celebration of small city life. It is my replacement of gentrification - I want to paint the inhabitants into the picture and surround them with colour....someday. Not move them out.

Let me know what you think and if anyone has an idea or two of where to look next in this fair city.....you can trust me!!