re: workshop and cops.....

hello lovers,

here are some workshop photos from a recent arbour collective workshop. we were printmaking and painting on the walls. it was fun painting on the walls. i love it. anyway. it was a good workshop and i love building community and community arts based projects, they're so rewarding and awesome. it's hard to explain, but i often tell me i'm over myself as an artist and get more out of helping others. weird eh? haha. 

and then after the workshop, i saw a weird scene with cops and fire dept. attending to a passed out native dude on the sidewalk. they knew him by name, which made it more sad, or tragic. but they were nice to him and treated him like a human being instead of garbage, which is what i'm used to seeing aboriginal people being treated like by most. sigh. 

that's the effects of residential school, the destruction of aboriginal families, culture, language and community. it pisses me off when non-aboriginal people ask me why "we can't just get over it." think about the stuff i just said in this paragraph. i suffer from post trauma syndrome, i've seen a lot of horrible things in my life growing up, and i'm struggling to overcome this stuff every day. it's complicated. 

anyway, until next time,

chris. 

it was weird to go from an awesome workshop

to this scene on the way home.

at least the cops and the fire dept. treated

this poor aboriginal man well

and with dignity.

it made me sad to see him

on the streets like that. sigh.

re: coming home.....

hello lovers,

ahhhh, so you have seen the photos of the wild and crazy "crawling, weeping, betting," exhibition, festival and shows in vancouver, bc at the Unit/Pitt gallery/projects space. i'm not sure how many people were involved? 50? a 100? a 1000? it seemed like it at time, but it was brilliant. and damned.

so, after such a high, i have to come home to my smallish city in the southern interior of BC. kamloops, bc in fact, and it's quiet at night. painfully quiet. i'm often bored. and we've had very long winter, it started in October of last year, and we've had snow until the past week. imagine that. 6 months of snow. it drives you mad. plus the short days. booze helps, but even that turns against you after awhile. haha. 

but now that it's warming up, i'm out every day, hiking, walking, doing art outside, reading, taking photos, anything to get out of the house. it's a strange place, kind of bleak, not much art stuff going on unless you make things happen, which is why i started the arbour collective back in 2011 when i moved back from Kelowna, BC. 

i like it here though, something about this place, not sure what it is yet. 

it does fuck with your head though, traveling to other major centres in canada and then returning home to the silence. i've got my kids here, which is probably the main reason why i'm here still. i'm undecided about that one though. it's nice to return home and chill out and get outside in the hills or along the river, or going for drives. that's why when i'm in the cities, i rarely sleep, i'm out walking the streets, looking up at the towers, or down alleys, or wherever, seeking adventure, and stories. when i get home from touring i'm exhausted and often takes a few days to get back to normal. so now you see what i see when i get home. 

as it is getting warmer, i'll post some nicer photos tomorrow. 

until next time lovers,

c,

re: new posts....

hello lovers,

it's been quite awhile since i've been here. many hectic things have prevented me from posting as well as a general laziness i can't cop out on. haha. i think i psych myself out more on posting than the time and effort it takes to post new stuff. plus, sometimes i feel no one reads this stuff anyway, so why bother? haha. but when i look back to stuff four or five years ago, it's interesting, to me, what the heck i was doing back then. i've got a shitty memory. i'll admit it. so i think blogging is important that at least.

well, the kids are still asleep, it's 6:45 am and i'll post a few pics from the past few months or couple months at least. i had a really big show with David Mackintosh, co-found of Battery Opera, at the Unit/Pitt galleries the past couple months, and i've been trying to kick start contracts and generally get paid. check it out here!

http://www.helenpittgallery.org/exhibitions/past/crawling-weeping/

some flicks from that show!

i sort of snuck painting on the walls

of the Unit/Pitt early one morning.

David had no idea what i was going to do

(i think!)

but i got the keys to the gallery and arrived at about 8 am

and started painting.

it's an allegorical painting. 

this part shows my throwie style

and leaving kamloops, bc

running away to vancouver, bc back in 1986

that's my little silhouette leaving the mountains/valley of kamloops, bc

with the owl pictograph watching over me

as i enter the forests.

moving through the forests i go through a charred and burning

landscape, the desert, or semi-arid desert of the interior

plateau of southern british columba. 

it's bloody hot here and kind of looks like new mexico.

i enter the blue and white mountains of the coast

hitching all the way down to vancouver, bc

and descend into the city.

which i painted gold, silver and copper to represent 

the wealth and promise it holds

but for the most part is a lie.

as the exhibition/performances/dance/music and booze

went on for 7 weeks, we invited artists and guests to attack

and paint on the wall. so all the other stuff you see

was added by guests.

it was awesome to paint on the walls of a gallery

even though i probably wasn't allowed. haha.

i also found their beer stash and drank about 8 beers

in the 4 or 5 hours it took to paint the walls. haha.

i don't think keith or brynn really cared about that. 

well, the kids are waking up and i was right

this is a pain in the ass to do

just this little part took half an hour. fuck.

i'll add more photos later. 

adios,

cb

re: death and being good.

Hello lovers,

it's been awhile, and oh how i've missed you. let me explain i wasn't ignoring you but rather the world and you are part of that phenomena. ah death, that concubine whore, that star fucker, that satyr, that door we are all going to walk through one day. yes, think about it. one day you are going to die. i am going to die. everyone we love and hate dearly are going to die. why be born then? why all this fuss? and what lays beyond the temple of death? no one really knows, but i'll tell you one thing. i believe in ghosts. 

last night i had a visitor, it woke me up at around 1:30 am. i thought i heard one of my kids call out, and having crashed out on the couch watching "american dad" episodes, i jumped up and groggily stumbled down the hall to their bedrooms. first the girls, soundly asleep and snoring gently, and then my son, who was cocooned up in his favourite blanket also snoring soundly. then i heard strange sounds. like barefoot footsteps on the floor in the hall, so i jumped out, and then heard rustling sounds and other strange noises around my apartment. i opened the door to the storage room and look around, nothing, then the hall closets and finally went into the kitchen and finally the living room. nothing. 

"Fuck it," i thought to myself and went back to the couch and decided to play some guitar, so i plugged in a guitar and picked up my handy zoom recorder and over the space of an hour, laid down some sweet riffs. basically the skeletons to 4 new songs. riffy and melodic, fast and heavy. simple and understated. my favourite way. haha. but as i played and got lost in the groove, every now and then i'd hear a voice, a soft one, and footsteps and rustling sounds, like someone flicking the pages of a book, but i figured i had a visitor, and the kids were safe, so to hell with it. i'll shut up and play my guitar. 

finally i crashed around 3 a.m. this morning and woke up sharply at 6 a.m. and felt fine. refreshed. so i started the ritual of getting my kids' lunch together. i will say i did a quick sweep of the house again with a flashlight to make sure everything was good. it was, and i made my coffee and thought about this blog, this life, and you. 

and the passing of phillip seymour hoffman. 

such a shame. he was a great actor, truly, because he could inhabit the spirit and soul of a character so thoroughly that he moved from film to film, role to role with what appeared to be natural born ease. leading men, a dime a dozen and hollow headed to boot, can only be the good guy. rarely do we get a complex good guy with an ugly core. it just doesn't happen. good guys have too much to lose, their looks, their wealth and their ladies, or men in the rare instance. haha. 

ultimately, residing in the shadows takes its toll, this much i do know. i took a year break from digital art, my bread and butter, and dived whole heartedly into graffiti art, drawing, painting photography and just living in the sunshine again instead of living in the shadows as i have for the past 6 or more years. more importantly, i took a break from making art and writing about the residential schools, racism and trauma it has caused and created in my family and life. i had spent the better part of 5 years making films, art and writing about it all and it was killing me inside. 

but i was hollow, and there was pressure to create new shows, new art, new poems, new stories and films to go along with it, and after awhile it all became counter productive and i knew if i didn't stop i was going to die. so i stopped, and began living again, not in a wind-bag, bullshit kind of way, but i started doing graffiti and street art and drawing in sketchbooks and doing workshops with youth and painting outside in the sun, in the rain, in the cold and the warmth. it was social, i met other artists and writers, it was and remains a positive force in my life. art crimes. hahah.

a day painting with my friends is like a day fishing, we draw, paint and bullshit about art, life, women, music and everything. suddenly it wasn't just me rotting away in my mind in a lonely apartment, missing my kids and wondering what the hell i was doing with my life. don't get me wrong, i'm no saint, but i do know what's good in my life and i work hard to protect it each day. 

until next time lovers,

cb.

1st new digital/photo work

in a year. 

happy new year lovers. 

re: living dead girl.....

hello lovers, leavers, winners and sinners,

it's so strange and interesting a piece of art can change. when i started this piece, i had a definite idea of what i wanted, now i'm not so sure. we'll see what happens.

until next time, stay dangerous,


cb

re: reworks in progress....

hell-o winners, sinners, lovers, leapers and strangers,

thanks for dropping by, i'm gong to be really pushing myself as an artist this year, i need to develop new techniques, as well, i need to figure out an exciting way to display my art in exhibitions besides printing them up, framing them, and slapping them on a wall. i mean, why go to all this trouble making crazy art and displaying it the same old traditional way. i need to build machines. make each one an experience.

well, my goal is to post something every day this year, let's see if i make it!

hope all is well in your world, things are just fine in mine.

cheers,


cb

re: a good year lays ahead of us....all...

hello friends, fans, foe, freaks, foe, lovers, winners and sinners,

we've survived yet another doomsday, another year, more lovers, more sinners, more winners and more losers i'm sure.

in the meantime, i'm sure the chick chipping awayyyyy at the ice will be again chipping away at my heart, my head and my soul.

or not. meh.

either way, happy new years lovers, haters, freaks and geeks.....

remember, jealousy rots your soul and love does too.....

cb

re: 200th post!

hello friends, fans, foe and lovers, as well as gamblers, boozers, sinners and winners!

this is my 200th post of the year!

yay!

i knew i could do it!!!

thanks for believing in me and my art and even being interested!

if you ever want some art, contact me and i'm sure we can make a deal!

in the meantime,

the image above is one of my father. the only image i have of him.

i made the art to only start making sense of our complicated relationship and getting over the abandonment issues i had with him. one start in the long journey of life and forgiveness.

until next time lovers,

cb

re: new art!

hello lovers,

new art.


cb

re: one more blackout.....artists design....

one final blackout artists poster, thing, shirt design. decadent and debauched.

just the way it should be. well, sometimes. haha.

cheers,

cb

hello friends, fans, foe and lovers,

hope all is well in your wood of the necks. things are fine in mine, but i'm bored as hell. haven't been doing art lately, self-imposed exile, but i'm back at it and excited.

and i'm looking for a drummer. someone who can play decent heavy stoner rock style like below link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuRKRFjm-HA

in the meantime sinners and winners,

enjoy some new art.

cb

re: selling lies disguised as truth. or trust.

if i won ten or twenty million dollars i'd take some serious time off and heal my body.

over the past 4 decades or so, i've beaten the hell out of it.

i'm starting to notice it.

in this form, this reality, i'm not going to last forever.

and i'm getting real tired of jumping through all these bullshit hoops to just do what i want to do that i would do just to cover my bills. but i'm getting older now and think of my kids more.

sigh.

i work and slave to change the cultural landscape of canada and to provide for my family. while bankers get richer, businessmen get fatter and politicians lie deeper. sometimes i just want to say fuck it all.

until next time lovers,

cb
ps: obviously, by the video, i don't take myself that seriously. but i rock. haha.