re a few close ups of the walls...

hello lovers,

a few close ups of the walls at the unit/pitt gallery in vancouver, bc. by now, all this work is long gone, sanded down and repainted by Brynn, one of the coolest gallery assistants i've ever met. 

don't ask about the art, i only know Take 5 did the cool wildstyle piece and Bracken did the cool ovoid looking alien things. not sure who did the thunderbird or ocm, but i was told it was the same person. very cool stuff.

it was really amazing to paint on the walls of an art gallery. liberating. the last few shows i've curated have been all about disrupting the played out and boring gallery rules. art should be visceral. dirty. not all clean and sterile white wall gallery standard shows. so done. so lifeless. so soulless. so lame. i'm from the streets, and the underground, and i want art to move from the confines of a canvas or a frame or a project and move along the walls and into your mind. 

street art is perfect for that in galleries, and it is here today, gone tomorrow and i love and loathe that aspect of it. it takes so much time, effort and MONEY to get good at it, and then some dumb ass toy comes along and wrecks it. or some graffiti task force jackass comes along and blands it out with monkey shit green, bored suburban house wife beige, and battleship grey......

anyways, happy monday people,

cb

OCM did this i believe.

kamloops own TAKE 5

did this, a legend in the graffiti scene

nationally even.

i think david wrote stuff on the walls.

cease wyss did this stencil

from the thunderbird restaurant. 

part of the original piece i did

fire is cleansing

it represents many things

in this piece.

bracken hanuse corlett

did the circular UFO things and 

left behind these two.

keith higgins

CEO, COO, CFO

and ruler of the Unit/Pitt domain

and you get a sense of the scope

and size of these works.

that's my kyoti throwie bomb

in front of Mt. Peter and Mt. Paul

in Kamloops, BC.

the green line represents the pulse

the heartbeat

and it got slower

as it left the land and the forest

and went into the city.

most of my work has visual metaphors

so if you  know that much

you can see that much more

in my work

i like to layer things 

and make people work for it.

i did.

until next time lovers,

cb

ps: it's nice when projects come together

my whole life people said

i'd never be where i am today.

fuck you

good thing i didn't listen. 

re: final night of "crawling, betting, weeping," at the Unit/Pitt.......

Hello lovers,

how i've missed you. here are some performance flicks from the final night of the "Crawling, Weeping, Betting," exhibition, performance series, and so on. it was amazing and i bet we had about 100 people there or so. each one was wild and unpredictable, full of energy, madness and fun. i never want to do an exhibition the same way as long as i live.

and to think this all started out because david and i couldn't find a sober clown. so we figured we'd create an opportunity for a sober clown to appear but it didn't happen. so now, we focus our energy on europe. we figure there's some 500 million people on the continent, or so, and better chances of finding a sober clown. plus, you can tour canada ten times, and it gets to be the same old same old after awhile. i haven't been to europe for some time, so it is time to do some research and development for a new series of shows. wish us luck.

and thanks for coming, i missed you dearly,

cb

on the left is 

max murphy

 saxophonist extraordinaire. 

baritone sax. 

heavy metal. 

david mackintosh 

singing the blood song

to get the blood flowing

and the drinks moving

a friday night ritual

that launched the cabaret

it got better and stronger 

by the end.

and he loved it

i think. 

captain, booze enthusiast, author

raconteur, scoundrel, and a man

born at the right time

and the wrong time.

max givn'r on the sax.

there were also two drummers that night.

epic.

sommelier david mackintosh

free booze was given 

on the friday cabaret nights

based on the stories told.

veda hille was storyteller

the last night

and she's in front of dave sitting

slightly to the his left.

she told a great coming of age story

of her daughter. 

as a father of 3 or 4 girls

i can relate.

on the opening night

we had most of vancouver legends

"the sons of freedom,"

and it was rawk!!!

special thanks to david mackintosh

for inviting me to collaborate 

on this amazing project

he said it was something he's been

wanting to do since the 1980's.

and special thanks to all who participated

the dancers

the storytellers

the artists

the musicians

the people who came again and again

thank you

it was an amazing experience.

chris bose. 

re: unit/pitt and battery opera show continued.....

hello lovers,

ahhhh winter, it's still snowing in kamloops, bc, and we still have snow on the ground, but the sun is shining and we've got that "golden hour" of light as i type this out. the kids are eating and i thought i'd take a minute or two to type this out.

here are some more flicks of the vancouver show with david mackintosh.

the final night of performances, music and stories. it was amazing. i was there for the opening night and the closing nights. how it worked was thursday night, 11:30 to 12:30 was a "witching hour" solo performance opportunity for an invited guest artist. they would do what they wanted for an hour inside the unit/pitt at 236 pender, un-interrupted from the audience, who had to stay outside and watch voyeuristically as the artist did their thing.

friday nights 10 - 12 pm, were a cabaret style performance opportunity with guest musicians and a storyteller sharing some story of their choice as well as dancers performing reinterpretations of the 12 stories/poems david and i told in the book published for the event, "crawling, weeping, betting." which were based on our experiences in vancouver, bc.

saturdays, 12-5 pm were guided tours throughout the vancouver based on the 12 stories in the book we published. they were amazing. i was told people wept, or got emotional when the guides took them on various routes through the city and read or told the pomes and stories from memory.

it was an amazing experience, one i'll never forget, and one i wish to repeat now in europe.

gotta go, the kids are done breakfast and demand attention. haha.

kids.

cb

Various Vancouver, BC, photos from the end of February 2014

while shutting down the exhibition at the Unit/Pitt gallery.

"Bitch please,

I'm fabulous!"

a strange toy figure

in the display case at

"Golden Age Collectibles,"

on granville street. 

great comic store.

i also like "lucky comics," 

which is way down on main st.

the "loose moose," downtown vancouver, just off granville 

towards the granville street bridge, it's a heavy metal

bar and i drank with the band "children of bodom,"

a few weeks ago here. it was awesome, 

they drink like champs.

pretty much a great hidden gem in vancity

always blasting great music

and all food is less than $6.00

fuck. yeah.

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: stop motion

hello lovers,

here's a tuesday flashback video to earlier this year at 180 projects, SSM, Ontario.

enjoy.

cb

re: pose in south africa…….

hello freaks,

just thought i'd post this amazing video by graffiti artist pose.

boom.

it's unbelievable.

until tomorrow or next time,


cb


http://l-r-g.com/blog/2012/10/03/artist-driven-europe-tour/

re: kasto. stop motion style.

hello lovers,

how goes it in your world? all is well and auspicious i hope. i'm a little tired and ragworn in a bucket of mop water after a long day at the car wash in august, but i'm holding on. strand by strand. i could use some sleep. but that's later. 

in the meantime, check this dope video of Kast rocking a workshop we did this summer at Thompson Rivers University, in conjunction with the Kamloops Art Gallery. it doesn't get more legit than that to do graffiti. the photos were taken by shealagh dedelley and edited by yours truly. 

until next time lovers,

cb

re: grand forks.

hello lovers,

hope all is well in your world, i'm winding down a hell of a year in the arts and film, been on the road since january and have gone across canada and back. for some reason, i was in the west the most i have been in 7 years, and had over 6 exhibitions and so on. as well as about 100 workshops in the arts and filmmaking. 2 artist residencies and so on. 

just spent some time down in grand forks, bc, and it was awesome. a beautiful place, and the people were really nice. i made some new friends and had some great times and shot a great little documentary that's going to go into the art gallery along with a piece by terry jackson. there's some decent pizza at "Rumour's," restuarant that they sell by the slice in the day and have different deals throughout the week as well as great desserts. it's across from the high school. as well the "Station pub," has really good pub fare and the staff was really awesome and nice. i had lamb growlers a few times. awesome. then i asked if they could just make me a lamb burger and said "no problem," and it was kick ass. it also has a huge safe from the old days at the bar (2800 pounds, i guess 2500, pretty close!) and was the original train station in town. 

if you go downtown there's a coffee shop called "joga's," and they have great snacks and awesome coffee, as well, if you want kick ass coffee there's "Jitter's," beside the DQ and it is really good. Apparently there's a coffee wagon but i never found it, and it's a musician who supports his music habit selling the java and is very particular and passionate about it. i did have the coffee and it was the best. I went to a rock shop that was closing, sadly, bought scored some great deals on various rocks. there was also a pawn shop that was open late, i.e. after 5 pm. i also went for a couple awesome trips around town, up hardy mountain and got some great panorama shots of the valley, which runs East/West, and went to a creek/gorge (kettle creek?!) where one of Nicolai Tesla's 60 cycle tests was performed the first time. as well i went up to Christina lake for their open mic and heard some great music, including bob the lounge singer. 

anyway, that is just a bit of it, overall i had a great time, and yes, had some amazing borscht. 

peace out y'all!!!

cb

re: stop motion short

hello fans, freaks, lovers, haters, burners and winners,

 

a short stop motion which are getting really seamless.

 

 

it's my new favourite thing again.

 

 

cb

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

re: stop motion panorama....

Hey friends, fans, foe and lovers,

 

some stop motion from my time spent in grand forks, bc. it was an awesome trip, we made an excellent short documentary film and things went amazingly smooth.

 

 

i'll be uploading some of the things we filmed and worked on while i was there, the weather was pretty good, so we had awesome skies to work with and film.

 

until next time lovers,

 

 

cb

 

 

 

 

re: time lapse time!

hey freaks, fans, foe and lovers,

the time lapse madness continues!!!!!

hope you can dig it!

over the summer i tried to do some time lapse stuff with a go pro hero camera and it was just too
damn epic and didn't ever work out. but i've found a way to make things happen smoothly.

keep on keepin' on!

cb

re: time lapse 3

Hello freaks,

 

 

check it out! more time lapse video!!!

 

 

cb

 

 

 

 

re: time lapse....

Hello friends, fans and foe,

 

 

i was recently working in beautiful grand forks, bc, and had the amazing good fortune of finally getting some decent time lapse videos done. so, will be post them for your enjoyment.

 

time lapse is without a doubt, the dullest form of video to make, but the results can be epic. some of my all time favourite time lapses were done in breaking bad. so good.

 

 

enjoy,

 

 

cb

 

 

 

 

 

re: grand forks senior secondary documentary

Hello friends, fans and foe,

 

i've been away too long. my apologies on that, and i promise to be back more frequently and update more and more. there is a ton of new content i've been sitting on and i will start uploading.

 

cb