Friday night this week saw Mr. Vancouverist and me at the East Side Culture Crawl with plans that were, as it turned out, a little too ambitious.
After a quick glance at the map on the Culture Crawl’s website, we decided that touring all the studios in two adjacent buildings in one evening was very doable. And so, we set out to first visit 1000 Parker, and then to check out the Mergatroid Building at 975 Vernon.
We never made it to the Mergatroid, instead spending nearly three hours wending our way through four floors of studios and workshops in the gigantic labyrinth that is 1000 Parker.
In our time there we were thankful to run into only one pretentious asshat artiste, and only a few of middling talent. There was plenty of middling plonk on offer, accompanied by food that ran the course from Brie to Cheesies, with almost every studio welcoming, hospitable, and very crowded.
Vancouver, it seems, loves the Culture Crawl. And east side artists and artisans, it seems, are happy to forgo what could have been valuable creative or recuperative time in order to welcome Vancouverites into their studios. This year marks the tenth for this east side event.
Here are some of the highlights of our tour of 1000 Parker:
Red Star Furniture Design
James Esworthy’s work is knock out gorgeous. Breathtaking. And did I say gorgeous?
J. D. O’Connor Design
A distant and filthy rich relative has recently died and left you enough money so that you are now filthy rich yourself. Do not pass go. You no longer need the two hundred dollars. Instead, go directly to J. D. O’Connor for all the incredible millwork for your new custom kitchen and your library, too. It will be as beautiful when you pass on your riches as when you first laid eyes on it.
Straight Line Designs
We will forgive these talented folks for their contribution to the Spirit Bear inanity in which our fine city was recently gripped. Straight Line is fun stuff, well made. And we loved the little tike who was picking fart colours off the Pionite sample board while making fart sounds. We should all be so free, especially at the Culture Crawl.
Pouch & Couch
Pouch is not exactly art. They make bags for diapers, laptops, and other stuff. These durable bags are made from heavy vinyl, leather, with shoulder straps made from stuff that would work well in auto seatbelts. Cool selection of colours and shapes. Stylish enough for almost anyone.
Couch is the upholstery division of Pouch. Right now, they are making mid-century modern inspired armchairs, covered in interesting, tweedy fabrics, and stuffed with very high-density foam. We tried one and found it very comfortable despite its being somewhat low slung. That will soon be remedied with the addition of wooden rockers–definitely a chair for all reasons.
Doris MacDougall
We liked the custom finishing work that Ms. MacDougall and her partner Michael Fitzsimmons do at next-door Zebo designs. But I was far more taken with her paintings. Painting is what she does to relax after a busy day. Amazing what one can accomplish if one simply stays away from Second Life, C-Street, and other time-eating pastimes and focuses on creating.
Janice Wong Studio
Janice Wong, perfectly attired, perfectly coiffed, and perfectly charming, had many small dreamily beautiful monotypes and paintings on display. Her work is very evocative of something deep within me that I can’t quite figure out, at least not yet. Her book, Chow: From China to Canada, Memoirs of Food + Family, was also discreetly on display.
Trevor Jansen Photography
Jansen’s display was limited to a collection of portraits and another of playfully erotic work. His work is bright and sunny, and he pushes the colour as far as he can without distorting the nature of his subjects. I was struck by how happy everyone looked in the photos Jansen had selected. Clearly, he is a photographer who knows how to connect and have fun with his subjects.
Street Stories
These haunting black and white photos, and the simple poignant stories that accompany them, provide a stark glimpse into the realities of living, and being trapped on, the streets of Vancouver’s Downtown East Side. The photographer, Shannon Loewen, spent many hours over many months talking with and photographing her subjects, and tells their stories simply, honestly, and without judgement.
Our visit didn’t even scratch the surface of the community of more than 200 artists and artisans who are in some cases thriving, and in other cases struggling, on Vancouver’s proud east side.
No Comments so far
Leave a comment
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>