He said he saw this back in October and had been meaning to post the photo of it. Which he did.
I also happened upon some similar works, likely by the same artist, in late November. And since David Scrimshaw was the first to discover and describe one of these things, I'm hereby defining a Scrimshaw to refer to "a guerrilla inspirational street art installation". And in keeping with my recent trend of ripping off blog ideas from David Scrimshaw's blog, I'd might as well post photos of the Scrimshaws I found.
This one is on Gladstone, just East of Percy--kitty-corner from the one David posted. It has a mirror on it (in which I've cleverly reflected a building that matches the background (hmm... the 'background' in this case is really closer than the image in the mirrors (hmm... lots of brackets here...))). The slogan on this one is "Today is potentially awesome!"
Potentially, yes, but it wasn't particularly so for me.This other one is also nearby, this time on Percy itself, but further down, at Powell in the Glebe. It also has mirrors and a positive message.
Being a grouch, I'm not a big fan of unnecessarily positive messages, but this one--"You're looking Sharp Today"--is a pun, which balances it out. The sharp shards of mirror also help.Whoever the artist is, first I apologize for not bothering to so much as do a simple google search to see if you've identified yourself somewhere. And second, keep up the good work dressing up the neighbourhood, but please apply a tone of dressing down in your future works.
Another street artist (or conceivably the same one) put something up on Elgin Street this past weekend, but unfortunately by the time I got to see it, it had already been vandalized. It looks like it had been in the style of El Maks' Tell Me A Story journals (Maks, were you in town? Was this you?)
All this has reminded me that I've wanted to make a swap box for quite some time, though it isn't exactly a priority for me. Maybe I'll make a few Scrimshaws instead, as I hear there's a big market for them overseas.- RG>
4 comments:
Why just copy an art style someone else is already doing? You have so many found objects you could create your own unique pieces distinguishable as GrouchArt. This is my challenge to you, sir.
The easy answer is so as not to unnecessarily reinvent the wheel (e.g. with Swap Boxes).
I think there are plenty of examples of unique creativity in the ol' blog archive. But I've never been consistent enough to warrant a "style" per se. (Nor, for that matter, do I consider myself to be particularly stylish)
Besides, I prefer parody, which requires both subtlety and a certain degree of mimicry. More on that in an upcoming post...
- RG>
It was Elmaks's art on Elgin Street. He left a note that it was there, but I didn't get to see it before it was vandalized either.
Ottawa just hasn't been the same without Elmaks's art.
Hats off to the Scrimshaw and Grouchos artists for trying, in their own small way, to fill the gap.
I love that street art with the mirror and humorous/positive messages on them! We need brighter stuff like that in Ottawa to keep people smiling.:)
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