Surfacing Attention

Yesterday's picture became a topic of conversation.  The term I used for it is 'grunge'.  It describes abstract images based on everyday wear and tear - scratches, bumps, and bruises in the environment.  Peeling paint, rust and decay blossom into new forms.  To create these abstract images, one has to be on the alert in everyday places.  Often one has to use a macro lens and look really closely.  And there is the requirement to compose the image. Where are some of these places? The turquoise image is the edge of a donation bin box in my Toronto neighbourhood.  I found several of these boxes around Toronto, so have a mini series.  The one beside it is from the side of a transport truck.  What about the squares?  They are graffiti on a parkette chess table at Bathurst and Bloor.  The angel wings were on a Toronto city truck on Victoria Avenue.  I saw that truck a few times.  And the winter trees - a recycle bin that is bruised.  What about the Vogue Model?  She was on a pylon in the street in Montreal. The black, red and white peeling sign was a real estate sign in Grimsby.  The green bubbling paint was on a dumpster in Grimsby that had been set on fire.  Cement shows interesting wear, and the last image is a handicapped parking sign on the road.  The car wrecker's yard south on Victoria Street in Vineland had many old cars with good peeling paint, and the boat yard in Port Dalhousie has hulls with worn and weathered layers of interesting colours of paint.   The patterns of landscapes, trees, hillsides, clouds, and interesting curves and angles are consistent in the wear and tear.  Waves in the ocean and peeling plastic seem the same patterns.  Suns, moons and stars start to appear, along with rainbows on burnt metal.  Rust is its own topic - new rust makes the angel wings, so is highly desirable.  There are a number of rusty sheds in Niagara - particularly at Calamus Winery.  The Flat Rock Cellars has named one of its wines after its shed - The Rusty Shed. It has been an interesting exploration.  I named these series Urban Extractions and Surfacing Attention and wrote an article on the experience.  It is posted on my Redbubble site HERE.