When I was in Ottawa for the Ottawa International Animation Festival last September (hey-- wasn't I supposed to write more about my trip?), I found myself practically living on Rideau Street, walking back and forth from my hotel to all the screenings. I saw a lot of the same things on a daily basis, but I never got bored by it all. Being in a new city, everything caught my eye. One morning, I saw this wall from across the street and I immediately made a beeline to it. It was a wall with (fairly) recent buffs of graffiti tags. Yes, you know that I was thinking, especially since I wrote about that short film The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal, last March. I approached the wall and began to take some photos.
Further down the wall, I was aiming my camera for the shot you see above and just as I was about to click, I felt a shadow pass behind me. Turning around, I see this older woman smiling and saying something to me. At that moment, I was listening to my iPod, so I immediately pulled the earphones out of my ears to hear what she was saying.
"That's really interesting!" She repeated it so I could hear.
"Yes, it is, isn't it?" I respond, smiling.
As she was walking away I found her taking a second glance at the wall, giving it a nice long look. The thought of this woman looking long and hard at something that she probably passes by every day, never really paying any attention to it, never giving it a second thought -- to know that she was now seeing it with new eyes, made my day.
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Be sure to check out my Flickr. I've uploaded tons of new flicks, most of which are of graffiti and street art, along with various other oddities that might've caught my eye in both Ottawa as well as here in Atlanta. I've also created a new Flickr set called street gallery showcasing these pics all neat and purdy for you. Flickr knows how to treat you right.
Just a heads up: I've been experiencing some odd Blogger kinks this past weekend. This post keeps disappearing for some reason (this is the third time I've had to post it) -- any other Blogger having this problem? -- Ward
It's the third time it's appeared as a new post in the RSS feed...if that helps at all.
ReplyDeleteI noticed some nuttiness last night. I couldn't get on to any Blogger site for a couple of hours. Once I was able to access any blogs, I couldn't leave any comments on 'em. Everything's cool now. Weird.
ReplyDeleteI love finding the beauty in often overlooked things.
ReplyDeleteThere's a Peter Gabriel song that has a line that I've always wanted to keep true in my life ...
"I want to stand and stare again ..."
Sometimes we have to ... stop ... stare ... take it in.
Good stuff, Ward.
Yup,it happened to me too. Thank goodness the Blog ppl are doing something about it. I couldn't write more than a sentence per paragraph b4 it dissapears on me.I had to do it a bout 3 times the day b4 and 3 more times today to get a decent post out.As you can see for yourself on my latest post. Yep,I definitely had more to say but Blogger just wasn't co-operating.
ReplyDeleteOh and great post btw. ;)
nice shot there!
ReplyDelete