Speaking of the Frameups,

Here’s some Follow-Up Flicks that I’ve been meaning to share for awhile!

They show the marvelous success of one of the three Frameups! All of the Frameups were removed fairly quickly, including this one. It was gone before I was able to return to the site to check up on it and take new photos. BUT THROUGH THE MAGIC OF PHOTOSHOP, you can see what it must have looked like while the Frameup was still up!

Since this was installed on a Wednesday, and someone has written, “Have a Beautiful Friday”; we can safely assume the frame and marker lasted at least 2 days.

Also, since the response to “Have a Beautiful Friday”- “OK ” – appears outside the of the frame, we can also assume that BOOKS caught a tag here before our responding person had a chance to respond. This would mean BOOKS left behind the marker after filling up the remaining frame space!

I was really worried that taggers would steal the markers. Free markers hanging from ad boxes don’t appear everyday, and they probably are a pretty tempting sight to a tagger… But BOOKS must have done his thing, and then left the installation intact! Bravo, BOOKS!

I was so happy when I saw the success of this Frameup. I love how after the frame was filled, people just kept on going outside its lines.

People are ready to engage in public space. They just need a little facilitation.

Last one!

This frame is the smallest of the three, and accordingly, it got the smallest marker- A twin tip sharpie- with a standard tip and an extra fine tip.

All of the frames were given a marker according to their size. The middle-sized one got a Super Sharpie Super Staunion, and the largest got a Sharpie Magnum.

Something like the three ages of Sharpie

So… I want all’yall to send me your love stories.

Here’s the deal:

I’m going to start building a lovers fence here in Toronto. I want to bring the culture here. As per Andrew’s suggestion, I’m going to use the fence around Grange park. It is a great idea for a location- as one side borders the AGO, and another borders OCAD. It is an arty, touristy location- with tons of fence space. The fence bars are a little thick, which will require largish padlocks -but all in all- an excellent site.

In this fertile spot, your stories are going to provide the seed which will hopefully sprout a tradition that will continue to grow on its own.

So, send me your stories and I’ll pick the bestest ones: the most romantic ones, the most funny ones, the most crazy, the most interesting, the most amazing, the most improbable, the most inspiring, the most everyday, the most heartwarming or heartbreaking.

Then, I’ll make a lover’s lock to match the story, (using your name and the name of your lover and/or/perhaps some imagery or elements from the story) attach it to the fence, take a photo, and put it up on the site alongside your story! ( I’ll drop you a line at this point to let you know I used your story, as well as send you a high res pic!)

SO- GUIDELINES.

You don’t need to be MARRIED, although some preference will be given to those who are- or have been together for some time. I thought about this for awhile, and the tradition seems to have been born as a ritual attached to marriage. The lock speaks to commitment, not flings. I want to stay true(ish) to that.

You don’t have to be living in TORONTO, although some preference will be given to those who are. I also pondered this for awhile, and decided to open it up to anyone. If anything, it might give you lovebirds a reason to visit us here! Besides, in other cities, sites for lovers locks are as popular with tourists as they are with the locals.

You must be willing to have your love story published on the INTERNET.

There is no DEADLINE. This is going to be an open-ended, ongoing project for Blade Diary.

So that’s it!

Please share your stories of love, and help warm Toronto up a bit!

Ah, and EDIT: It really should go without saying, but you definitely don’t need to be WAY HETERO to have your love story included. Homosexual love is just as welcome here!

A ’nunder one…

Hey, you know what’s exciting?

One of the great photos that Jessica Hayes (one half of Istoica) took of me in my “studio” is going to be in a show called 50 ARTISTS, 50 PHOTOS as a part of the CONTACT festival!

The opening is on May seventh, at The Barbershop Art Gallery.

Cool Beans!

Here is a fresh spin on an old idea of mine.

About five years ago I made three frames from crown moulding that I pulled out of a scrap bin. I painted them “Gallery White” and installed two of these “frameups” like so:

I think it’s pretty clear what I was going for there- A recontextualization of a slice of graffiti as some sort of fine art. You know- fine-ass expensive ol’ abstract art.

I also made one like this:

That one was meant to speak about photography, and the frame, and time… and kinda like Banksys this is not a photo opportunity, the predictable framing and photographing of landmarks.

This time around I wanted to do something new. Instead of framing graffiti that was already existent, I wanted to use the frame to actually create graffiti. If you look closely at the photos, you will see a nice, fresh, big ol’ Sharpie Magnum hanging by a string attached to the frame. I left it in order to facilitate peoples natural urge to fill in the empty space, once framed.

Hopefully people will act on that urge! I know I’m not the only one who feels it.

So yeah, if everything goes well, when the frame is eventually removed, there will still be a squarish bit of graff remaining!

…pretty interesting, I think.

I quite like the shadow of this one. It wasn’t expected or planned, but the way the shadow cast by the frame has such depth, and moves, and changes shape as the sun travels its course… it’s very satisfying.

Beautiful, really!

More soon.