Graffitti: The Tivoli Street Art Project

The Tivoli Theatre was a built in the late 1800's in Hamilton, and was at first a carriage factory until 1924 when it became a combination vaudeville and movie house.  It remained a movie house for 71 years, until in 1995 it became a venue for live shows, from music to plays.  This is how I remember the Tivoli theatre.  I started acting in community theatre in this building.  I was in a couple of musicals including Jekyll and Hyde: The Musical, here.  It was my favorite place to act; it had an old vibe-- and I may or may not have pretended to be part of Phantom of the Opera while lurking its halls.

I remember the hoopla about the plans to demolish the theatre.  Its roof had collapse, and the 3rd floor had to be removed.  It was structurally unsound.  The city had hoped to save the theatre, but it was demolished (along with the record store I worked in next door.)

 
Where it once was, there is an empty lot, that the Hamilton Police Department, and the neighbourhood association have turned into an improptu little parkette.  How it did this was through the creation of the Tivoli Street Art Project.  It became sanctioned to create street art and graffitti in this place, instead of people illegally creating a space for, well graffitti in this space.



How the project works, is every so often (I'm not sure of the schedule, its not monthly anymore) the walls of the old theatre are re-decorated by local artists.  Its done during a street festival we have in Hamilton every month called James North Art Crawl.  People are encouraged to watch the artists work on the new pieces.  I like to go and take pictures, to have a record of the murals that have been created in the space. 



I went for a walk to check out the murals that are up right now; our SuperCrawl is coming up, and I have a feeling that the mural will change!  I really love the murals that are on display right now.  Although I wish that the theatre was still standing, the art on its walls is a nice memorial.

Nothing to Say

I'm a bit of a blabbermouth.  But every once and a while, I have nothing to say.  Is this common for bloggers?  I am usually willing to talk (and write) about everything and anything; but lately, I have been coming up with fewer and fewer things to share. 

Its not because I'm particularly busy.  Although I am busy, I've always made time to update my blog.  I guess its because everything that I've been doing as of late has had to do with school and work.  I don't usually like to blog about work, so I haven't had much to say about anything else.  As you've read, I am not in love with the conflict that is happening between my union and the government.  So because I am so disheartened by that, I've stopped talking about it with non-teachers altogether.  I know that's not fair, but I'm sick of defending myself and my profession.

I also have been getting some not so nice emails about my blog here.  I'm torn between publishing them here and writing and open response, or just ignoring them.  Really, these emails are turning me off blogging.  I'm not going to quit, but I'm not impressed with these responses.  Jerks.

Maybe this counts as a type of writer's block.  But, I can think of tons of things that I could write about and do, I just don't want to right now. I don't know.  Maybe its just a slump.

What you you do to get over the hump?

Street Art: Peace Stencil

I came across this little dude completely by accident:  I was walking down the street in my neighborhood, and this dog was sitting on the sidewalk.  As I stopped to take a picture,  I didn't realize that the dog was off its leash... at some point the dog came over to me.  As I was taking a picture, I didn't see the dog and-- with a yelp (from me and the dog) I fell over on the sidewalk.  I was okay, the dog was ok, but as I tried to get up, I noticed a little stencil near the ground.  And there was "the little peace dude" (at least that's what I called it when I showed it to my partner later that night.)  This stencil is really small, probably about 5 inches high, and right on the bottom corner of a huge building.  There are other stencils on the wall, which is probably why I never noticed it.

Street Art: "Be Happy" Stencil

There is a prolific stencil artist in my neighborhood.  And I love what they do.  People have really strong opinions about graffiti and graffiti art-- and that's cool.  But you can't deny that this little stencil can make you smile... I found it while I was having a really bad day, and it perked me up. I love the nice surprises you can find when going for a walk.