Illustrated City Part 15
Here Lies the Thane of Goblin Hall
For me, walking into a place where a street artist has left his or her mark is like stepping into an artist’s canvas. Entering the secret spaces used specifically by graffiti writers can sometimes be like entering a fantasy realm.
It’s exciting. My heart does indeed thump harder in my chest. I get strange sensations on my skin.
I’m a lover of speculative fiction and spaces like these fuel my imagination.
Although I don’t make the sort of art they do I arrive with my camera to admire the work from among them that I think is best, and record the places that have been used as open air studios. This is my playground.
If only more others could see the beauty that I see.
Landscape Photography
Grounded
I photographed these ice-fogged trees only a minute after the one used in Steadfast in Dormancy. Both scenes and pictures inspired me to write free verse poems on having strength of character. Trees tend to do that quite frequently with me.
What I started off writing for this image didn’t end up as a poem. Instead, it transformed into a short introspective list of how to develop and sustain strength of character. Not anything that I would consider genius just some fundamental rules for living that I was raised with that, although I’ve lived by them for most of my life, I’ve never written them down before. Rules that I know work from a lifetime of experience.
“Firmly Rooted and Growing with Strength” was a name I thought to give to the image and treatise because I thought “Grounded” would be too common. In the end; nevertheless, I settled on the less long-winded title.
- Rule No. 1: Never repeat your mistakes; this applies just as much to your relationships with acquaintances, friends and family members as well as everything else, and of course requires being able to recognize and admit to your errors.
- Rule No. 2: Strive to forgive yourself and others; if this is truly difficult and not in any way due to your own stubbornness, see rule number one.
- Rule No. 3: Avoid allowing yourself and others to compromise your virtues and ambitions; denying your oppressors the freedom to put you down and hold you back is not an act of betrayal but an act of standing up for yourself.
- Rule No. 4: Strive to live with good purpose and let this way of life shape your goals; of course this requires knowing the real difference between right and wrong.
- Rule No. 5: Dream; others will try to steer you away from this practice but do it obstinately for dreaming is the mother of ambition.
- Rule No. 6: Strive to eliminate all addictions and suppress compulsions; you are your own worst enemy and are doomed to failure without self-control.
- Rule No. 7: If anything you think of doing is not firmly rooted in simple logic, don’t do it; why complicate your existence with things that don’t make sense?
Illustrated City Part 14
Call to Action
Some of the most impressive street art affirm life, and inspire quality of life.
Artist Notice of Inquiry
Have Guitar Will Travel
This post is specifically directed toward the members of Hamilton Artists Inc., and other artists who are joining the HAI and may read this.
I am a new member to HAI, joining just in late November 2012 before their seasonal hiatus; therefore, I have yet to get acquainted with other members. As the HAI has recently announced their request for submissions for their 2014 James Street North Show, I’m hoping to submit an exhibition proposal. Unfortunately for this lone wolf, HAI has stipulated that “there will only be 2 person or group shows in 2014”; mum did say that “no man is an island”.
So, I’m looking to submit to the artists call with one or more other members or prospective members. This is my ambitious and creative means of doing so.
If you’ve surfed through this blog, the Hammer Home Project blogs, MOF’s main website or Facebook Fan Page (scroll through the blog roll) and you’re interested in sharing exhibition space and time with me, please don’t be shy, contact me and say, “Hi!” and let’s get our heads together on this.
We’re going to have to work fast as HAI reminds us that exhibition space is limited. We had better submit soon.
I hope to hear from you!
Allan Hamilton
Phone: (905) 523-1839
e-mail: allan@modesofflight.com
MOF Gets another OLBA
From on High
It’s about time I got around to this . . .
Thank you Emi Valdarquis of Screwiness-O-Rama as quite a while ago he nominated MOF for the One Lovely Blog Award (Emi has already scrubbed the actual page on his own blog in which he nominated me, that’s how long it has been).
OLBA
Apart from his incredible photo blog, Emi also has one of the best and most affable Street Photography community pages on Facebook called Group SP/12. If you’re a street photographer’ pro, novice or experienced amateur, join the group and contribute. Otherwise, certainly show up from time-to-time to see the work that everybody’s doing. Those who merely admire the craft, and find inspiration from the output of this photographic art are always welcome.
Here are the acceptance rules for this award:
Thank the person who nominated you and link back to them in your post (and put in the logo);
Done, with great pleasure.
Share seven things about yourself;
- I still like the name of this award.
- I still like the design of this award.
- I’d still like to know just how many of these awards are actually circling around the blogosphere.
- I still don’t know who created this award.
- I’d still like to know who created this award.
- If I could find out, I’d still nominate them for an award; maybe more.
- I’ve run out of things to say, again.
Nominate 15 or so bloggers you admire;
Okay, this time I’ll go the full 15, although I still think that’s a bit much. Call on them all at your leisure. They do make for impressive reading and viewing.
- Flickr Comments
- Russel Ray Photos
- Lily Petal
- Talinorfali
- Village Photographer
- Ruslan Golenkov Photography
- Hoof Beats & Foot Prints
- The eternal solitude of the restless Mind
- Sarah Irving Photography
- Fragments
- for the love of Nike
- A Word in Your Ear
- WISIWIS
- 87004 Photography
- gimletsand film
Contact your chosen bloggers to let them know.
Yeah . . . right!
Seeing as how these are all WordPress blogs, I’m going to let the pingbacks from the imbedded hyperlinks automatically do that bit of work for me.
Weekly Post Challenge: “Forward”
John Street Time Traveler
I shot this back in 2009, and it might be included in the Hammer Home Street Photography Project. As much of street photography mainly involves looking out for the mundane person, place, circumstance or thing that somehow becomes suddenly intriguing, sometimes it’s about keeping your eyes open for the peculiar. Capturing this moment was such an unusual occasion.
My wife and I stopped at a red light on Wilson Street while passing through Hamilton’s Beasley neighbourhood. As if materializing out of thin air, this man, dressed head-to-toe like he was coming straight out of the 1920′s, peddled into the intersection amidst the modern motor vehicles and surroundings. Even his bicycle had that early twentieth century look with the front wire basket, narrow rear-pointed handlebars, long fenders and large springs under the seat. This is not something you see everyday in Hamilton, and it made me feel like I was witnessing some kind of a time warp.
Making the experience even more exciting was the way that old-style bike seemed to be the man’s personal time machine, because cycling has always been an important form of escape for me ever since I was really young. Making the occurrence seem a little ominous, was that while this man looked like he was only a few years or mere days away from the Great Depression, the world was actually just starting to pull through the worst global recession since the Great Depression. The cyclist appeared like a silent yet loudly heralding horseman of the Apocalypse, perhaps famine. I had to capture this fleeting moment. I hastily raised my camera and started shooting.
It only took a couple seconds for the stranger to pass through the intersection, and continue his northbound John Street jaunt, seemingly vanishing as mysteriously as he had appeared.
Did I just see a ghost? I think some will suspect that this shot was either digitally created or that I had a model/actor ride on through. Neither is the case, however. This was an intriguing experience that caught me and my wife completely by surprise, and we were lucky to have been at that Beasley intersection when it happened.
Who are you, and
When and where did you come from?
Did Wells send you, and
Do you have a message for us?
Where are you going, and
What will you do there?
Will we see you in the future, and
Will we like the future we see?
Landscape Photography
Dreamland
My wife and I have friends who live in a part of gorgeous New Zealand where they don’t have the opportunity to drive to the beautiful snowy mountain peaks but they miss seeing snowy Canadian winters.
What do they do, they beg and plead for my wife to send them pictures of snow in Canada which prompts my wife to badger me to no end about making winter scenes. She knows that as pretty as I sometimes find winter to be it’s my least favourite season, I already have one colour and one B/W winter shot among my landscape collections and that so many people have done winter wonderland shots all around the world that I don’t feel like I’m doing anything original by shooting winter landscapes.
She’s my wife, so of course I relented. I did get in one last protest; nevertheless, insisting that I better make a shot that I think is worthy for the B/W fine art series.
Here’s the one I selected for prost-production. I truly hope it resonates with viewers as something unique. I must add that there have been a few followers of this blog that have asked me to show something like this, and more of my outdoor landscape photography.
The only trick with this image is that I didn’t shoot it in Canada. Kim and I have visited Amherst, NY many times, and we spent a day there after they had been hit by a heavy storm leaving their trees looking postcard perfect. There is still natural beauty in the semi-rural northern parts of this old American bedroom town.
Not a lot of photography of any kind appears to come out of Amherst so, for that; I may actually be breaking new ground. I hope this picture shows off the seemingly unsung beauty of the community.
TheMOFMan
2D visual artist specializing in illustration, photography and graphic design.
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