The curvilinear art of Canadian painter Alex Janvier is perhaps ranked among the most distinguished art in the world of modern Canadian art, and modern art abroad for that matter. I should confess however, that I'm one of those people who wouldn't know art if it were hidden in a pile of shiny steel balls on the side of the highway! Still, I'm sure I could spot a Janvier from an arena's length away with my unaided eye.
In all seriousness, I grew up seeing one phase of Mr. Janvier's career unfurl in a flurry of sweeping lines and patterns that challenge the eye and capture the imagination. More than a few prints of his originals hang in the Cold Lake regional hospital - the same hospital where I was circumcised after converting to Judaism in my late teens.*
His latest commissioned piece, "Iron Foot Place" is soon to be entombed in a section of Edmonton's new hockey-game arena known as The Winter Hard On.
Upon the revealing, Twitter's #yeg echo chamber was experiencing a leap frog like procession of excitement and praise for the $0.70 million dollar masterpiece. Soon after the announcement of its official selection for the rapidly integrating Rogers Place breezeway, the salivating Edmonton press were quickly competing to see who could type 'aboriginal' the fastest.
Though no art critic am I, I do know enough to know that one cannot fully appreciate any original painting or sculpture from merely looking at a digital picture of it.
My thing has always been music, but, sadly, Jimmy quit and Jodi got married. We sure did a great deal of tripping-out over plans to take Edmonton by storm with our unique brand of psychadelic rock music back in the day. We were loud and stoned anyway.
I'll be honest. I prefer the avant garde when it comes to paintings. While Alex's style never really spoke to my particular senses, I applaud his successful career all the same, and I am pleased to see that he's not showing any signs of slowing down. He's really old!
If anyone from Edmonton is reading this, here's an idea to jot down on one of those City Lab postcards your mayor is stashing around town:
1) Prop up a whitewashed 30' X 30' board against a wall somewhere - maybe Rexall Place.
2) Enlist a group of minor hockey players with hockey sticks to line up thirty feet away.
3) Position a few high speed video cameras to record the action from different angles.
4) Have a volunteer ready to dunk 300 or so tennis balls in pails of different coloured paint, and toss them into the line of fire one by one.
5) Allow time for paint to dry while editing the video footage of the event.
6) Call the resultant abstract piece "Slapshot City", and have all the kids sign their names to it.
7) Display "The Making Of Slapshot City" near the finished piece on a big flat panel display.
8) Don't forget who came up with the idea! You heard it here first!
Hey... you're welcome, Edmonton!
*I'm kidding of course. I'm still a Christian Gentile despite undergoing the surgical removal of my toque in my late teens.
In all seriousness, I grew up seeing one phase of Mr. Janvier's career unfurl in a flurry of sweeping lines and patterns that challenge the eye and capture the imagination. More than a few prints of his originals hang in the Cold Lake regional hospital - the same hospital where I was circumcised after converting to Judaism in my late teens.*
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| Can't recall the title, but this is one of my favorite Janvier paintings. |
His latest commissioned piece, "Iron Foot Place" is soon to be entombed in a section of Edmonton's new hockey-game arena known as The Winter Hard On.
Upon the revealing, Twitter's #yeg echo chamber was experiencing a leap frog like procession of excitement and praise for the $0.70 million dollar masterpiece. Soon after the announcement of its official selection for the rapidly integrating Rogers Place breezeway, the salivating Edmonton press were quickly competing to see who could type 'aboriginal' the fastest.
Though no art critic am I, I do know enough to know that one cannot fully appreciate any original painting or sculpture from merely looking at a digital picture of it.
My thing has always been music, but, sadly, Jimmy quit and Jodi got married. We sure did a great deal of tripping-out over plans to take Edmonton by storm with our unique brand of psychadelic rock music back in the day. We were loud and stoned anyway.
I'll be honest. I prefer the avant garde when it comes to paintings. While Alex's style never really spoke to my particular senses, I applaud his successful career all the same, and I am pleased to see that he's not showing any signs of slowing down. He's really old!
If anyone from Edmonton is reading this, here's an idea to jot down on one of those City Lab postcards your mayor is stashing around town:
1) Prop up a whitewashed 30' X 30' board against a wall somewhere - maybe Rexall Place.
2) Enlist a group of minor hockey players with hockey sticks to line up thirty feet away.
3) Position a few high speed video cameras to record the action from different angles.
4) Have a volunteer ready to dunk 300 or so tennis balls in pails of different coloured paint, and toss them into the line of fire one by one.
5) Allow time for paint to dry while editing the video footage of the event.
6) Call the resultant abstract piece "Slapshot City", and have all the kids sign their names to it.
7) Display "The Making Of Slapshot City" near the finished piece on a big flat panel display.
8) Don't forget who came up with the idea! You heard it here first!
Hey... you're welcome, Edmonton!
*I'm kidding of course. I'm still a Christian Gentile despite undergoing the surgical removal of my toque in my late teens.
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