On a 36 hour art spree, I managed to coordinate a tiny weekend of back to back art shows and shenanigans. With work and derby strangling my availability to get away for shows, I was particularly excited when the planets aligned to cover 3 events on the same weekend. On account of such a momentous occasion, not only do you get to hear about the shows, but my adventures to and from as well.

When time is of the essence, you have to make a wise decision when it comes to travel. I got off work at 4pm and the first show, Silent Stories at Ayden Gallery, started around 7:30. Having made this trip many dozens of time over the years, I know that I have to give myself about 5 hours to drive to Nanaimo, walk on the ferry, bus to my home-away-from-home on Main, and get to the Tinseltown building. This kid didn't have 5 hours. With the cost of flying as low as it was, I decided to take WestCoast Air, the 20 minute flight from Nanaimo to the waterfront in Vancouver. I've done this a couple times before and let me tell you, I felt like a super classy broad, despite my chucks, trucker hat and raggy back pack. As always, the view flying into Vancouver is exceptional. I would highly recommend buying Lucky's for a week, save your moneys and take this flight! 

And because of this flight, I was able to make it to the house, get food and a Guinness or two in before heading to the show...which by the way, was AMAZING!

Headlining Silent Stories was Vancouver artist, Mandy Tsung with supporting artists, Derek Stefanuk, Tim Barnard, Matt Linares, Emi Kanomata and Russell Alton. 

The combination of artists for Silent Stories was a perfect marriage of details and flow from piece to piece. Mandy's work flanked the main walls to the left, overtook the entrance and surrounded the feature pillar as you stepped into the gallery.  At the entrance, on the right, I was greeted with the original Yoona 939. Though the print of this piece is captivating enough, the original, with all it's details, textures and semi-gloss, is breathtaking.

We all know by now that the soft glowing edges and immaculate shading details of Mandy's work are beautifully enhanced by the ornate details of Russel Alton's inking. 

You really have to get up close to appreciate the control that Russel has with his pen. There is an obvious partnership of trust and respect with each collaboration these two produce. 

The photos don't to the work any justice at all, but if only to encourage you to see them for yourselves. They are truly breathtaking and every time I am in presence of their work, I can't help but whisper, 'fucking hell that's good..'.

Here's one of my favorite pieces that Russel did on his own, he has such a way with words....

It was also great to see my old friend, Tim Barnard, who has recently moved to the Vancouver area and is finally enjoying the sand between his toes after years in Montreal, and traveling to various bits and pieces.

Tim recently came out with a 98 page book of his work, published by some other old friends at Anteism Publishing. Though the pages are smaller than the eye can really take in, on account of his exceptional line work, it is rad and very much worth picking up...especially with the limited edition of 100 copies.

There were lots of other new to me artists and fantastic works at Ayden that will be around until their next show with Taka Sudo, Lani Imre and Dave Barns, opening on June 17th.

Matt Linares I don't know his work but any robot with a fanny pack is awesome in my books.

standard late night diner...

So, moving on now to Saturday evening.  On my usual rounds, I stopped in at Antisocial Skateshop to say hello to Michelle and sus out some new shoes, bearings, a possible new deck and see what art was donning the walls of their mini-gallery at the moment.  Coincidentally, they were having an art opening that night as well and though Michelle encouraged me to come, she also knew that I had a crazy busy night ahead of me and I can always catch the next one. Sometimes these things are obvious, but it's nice to hear someone else point them out.  Their opening, by the way, was for Drew Mosley, an east coast artist who has the best write up ever and drew this awesome beaver!

...sad to say, I couldn't make it to the opening but I did sneak a look at the work and it was super fun! I didn't take photos...I suck.

The menu for the night called for a heavy dose of friends and I couldn't think of anyone better to drag around with me than Miss Jackie Picard, who also has a penchant for beers and art and suffering through the night with an achy back and tired eyes. We met, walked, skytrained and eventually made our way to JD's Barber shop in Gastown where Edison Rojas (super talented artist and exceptionally rad human) was having his first solo show of the year. It's Pop Art was, well, just that...literally. Stills of sections of soda-pop labels that were larger than life. Panels of vibrant colours filled the room, as did lots of people and though it was difficult to really get close to the pieces, you kind of didn't really need to as each one had such defining contrast and clean lines, high on the wall was forgiving enough. 

The nostalgic feeling of the work and the barber shop setting were perfectly complimentary of each other.

All the little circles you see were hand/tool cut by Edison...all of them! UGH!

Makes me thirsty!

Love this one!

Good peoples

The adventure continues as Jackie and I make our way to Granville St., the new location for El Kartel (formerly on Robson).

The opening was much less about the art on the walls (we've seen these masked men before) and more about celebrating the new (though smaller) store after many years, and beers at their former location on Robson St.  

However, the change of location (1007 Granville) has not discouraged their friends, fans and ambling shoppers looking for something rad and unusual.

Hey look... one of my favorite people...TAKA SUDO came out to party! 

Pablo and Alfredo toss out a shit ton of give-aways and prepare the masses for the party bus...

We debated on the length of our stay, beverage intake and method of departure. I'm pretty sure we abandoned all hopes of making it a reasonable night the moment the El Kartel party bus pulled up to take us to the Waldorf.

Poor Jackie.. she's so patient with me and these weird little adventures but in all fairness, she is just as much of an instigator. Anyway, we got on the bus...

I had never been to the Waldorf but have always wanted to go and since friends were hooking it up, I really didn't want to miss this. Pablo and Alfredo kept shit together and made sure everyone had a great time. It really was the perfect way to end the weekend.

Thank you Ken and the crew at Ayden, Chop and Mandy, Edison, JD's Barber shop, the El Kartel kids, Pablo, Alfredo, and Jackie!