I recently cancelled my subscription to my website. It's like getting a divorce, or selling that house. I have little interest in owning stuff, I prefer to find my furniture on the street corner, or at Value Village. It's just going to get paint on it anyways, so why bother? Besides, most furniture out there is saturated in bland marketing strategies that don't appeal to me. Perhaps that's why I don't like where my website was going- I do have a vision for it, but to stop doing what comes first- painting, involves a huge investment of time and money, both which are better spent with making my paintings better. Yet, that doesn't mean I won't have another in the future, change is good. Adapting to the situation, remaining open-minded about my surroundings is important too.
Recently I moved back to Winnipeg after living in BC for 8 yrs, and Toronto for another ten, because I crave change, I need to be refreshed every so often, and although I do miss things about both of these places, I know in the back of my mind I'll be back. So I'm here now, in what I refer to as 'the diaper rash of canada'. Having experienced so much more elsewhere, being here is challenging in it's lack of culture, hence I don't go anywhere. Even the Value Village stores lack the engaging, interesting artifacts I'm used to finding. There's too much of one thing, and nothing of everything else. Corner stores, open market stands selling locally grown foods, have been replaced by air-conditioned big box stores. Independent bakeries and butchers have evaporated, and art supplies are either too expensive or non-existent. Tim Horton's is at the top of the ersatz-coffee chain while Starbucks is frowned upon as being elitist.
I've been to one art opening here since October '09, it was pretty good to see what peggers are doing, however the impact of a very few noted artists kind of spoiled the ambience for me. Guy Maddin, who creates such horrible haiku noir-ish films including his most recent disaster, 'My Winnipeg' was shown during the opening, and it felt like bible camp.
The graffiti here is pretty good though, it gets me excited about doing my own work, I mean, where else am I going to see art that has any appeal?
