flames

I asked the driver if I could take a photo of his car, and he was all, "Surrre." and "I'd sure like to have a photo of you" and "where do you live?". And I was all disgusted but put up with it so I could take the photo, but then I was kind of wishing the guy's sparks from his cigarette would fall into the engine and maybe the car would go up in flames for real. No, I didn't really think that, but gees, sometimes these old dudes can be such pervs.

Duncan Mall

The Duncan Mall makes the Kingsgate Mall in Vancouver seem glamourous. Two Saturdays ago I was in there to buy an iPod at Radio Shack (now called the Source, but I prefer Radio Shack). I was feeling quite dejected and lost that day, and I found myself in the Duncan Mall and I realized that the Duncan Mall was like a perfect reflection of how I was feeling inside, all brown tiles and closed down shops. The main tenant of the mall is WalMart which is building a brand new store across town, and I was wondering what will become of the Duncan Mall without WalMart? Will it become a ghost town mall? Will the Dollar Store and the shoe store and the Ivy Green Restaurant leave with it? Well, luckily I took these photos just in case, to document the mall before WalMart left and after WalMart left.


What will become of Baron's Jewellers where I bought that special crystal deer for my mom one Christmas and that store San Francisco that was all the rage when I was eleven and has a whole naughty section with mugs with butts and penises and such and jokes written on them? Oh yeah and Orange Julius which was my first job as a fourteen year old juicing oranges and burning my wrists on the hot dog twirling special oven thinger.


But one thing can be said about the mall, they know how to maintain law and order. Especially when it comes to sitting on the planters.

old mannequins of Ladysmith

she is just ecstatic for rugs

pink pegboard is her background

broken fingers She worked her fingers to the bone

Dreaming of escape options and scenarios

it's bertha!

24" x 24" oil on panel
I don't know this lady's name, and neither does my mom, but she kind of looks like a Bertha. She is panel #4 out of 9. Norma on the bottom right is #9, and Roxanne on the top left is #1 position, so the order is starting to come together. Holy Jeepers, only 6 more panels to go. Good lord! The next panel is of the exact same woman but at a slightly different scale. good lord. But it's fun. I think I need to fix her glasses.



Actually, when I first started this painting, I found it very interesting as a line drawing, and I could see so many possibilities for adding an abstract pattern in the background, and doing her face out of different colours. I still think it's a little more interesting than the completed one. But I'm kind of a slave to my 9 panel project now, and to doing pretty straight-up representations. But I think when all nine panels are complete, it'll have an abstracted quality to it- I hope! We'll see. Also, the clothing is being painted pretty flatly, so it will have an abstract quality, I think.

French Fry Nostalgia

Do you remember the good and terrible old days of high school at lunch time, when you would walk into Downtown Duncan with those girls Allison and Jennifer Cucksey and all you could afford to buy was either french fries and gravy at the Arbutus Cafe or a cinnamon bun at the Greenhaven Restaurant? And you would buy the french fries at the Arbutus, and they would bring out those paper table setting thingies that go underneath your plate. And then they would give you crayons to colour on the place mats [oh yeah, that's the name of those thingies]? I remember. And do you remember colouring on the place mats, and then the fries and gravy would come, you would add ketchup and salt, and then when you were finished your crayon paper placemat drawing had grease and ketchup and gravy and salt and a water-cup ring on it? I do remember.

And so the other day I saw those two girls at the Arb eating french fries and they looked older than high school, but maybe not much richer than high school because the one girl has only the french fries. And then came the french fry nostalgia. And so I asked if I could take their photo and they seemed happy. And I knew just how they felt sitting out there on the Arb patio eating those fries on top of a coloured-on placemat.

Woodlawn Restuarant

Duncan has a lot of Chinese food restaurants per capita. I think it has 5. This is one of them. It used to be called Peaches and Cream and it had a peach and white coloured decor. I've seen people eating here before, but today, nobody, maybe 2pm is their slow time. Sorry Woodlawn Restaurant.

electric (that's the name of it)

Did you know that you can click on the image to get a larger view.
This is my painting I completed last weekend. I've been working on it since before May. It's oil on canvas approximately 17" x 15". I made the canvas from left over pieces of wood from the school year, that's why it's so small.
Here is a detail of the corner. In this photo the red lines look red but really they are flourescent pink, but I couldn't get a good photo of it.