Thr33 Pairs of Shoes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe_tossing 

 

Shoe tossing, is the act of using shoes as improvised projectiles or weapons, is a constituent of a number of folk sports and practices. Today, it is commonly the act of throwing a pair of shoes onto telephone wires, powerlines, or other raised wires. A related practice is shoe tossing onto trees or fences...

 

...Shoe flinging or "shoefiti" is the practice of throwing shoes whose shoelaces have been tied together so that they hang from overhead wires such as power lines or telephone cables. The shoes are tied together by their laces, and the pair is then thrown at the wires as a sort of bolas. This practice plays a widespread, though mysterious, role in adolescent folklore in the United States...

 

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I found three pairs of sneakers hanging in trees yesterday. One pair was near the Library Loop bus stop on The Evergreen State College campus. The other two pairs were near the bus stop that is closer to my apartment across the street from the campus dorms. 

The positioning of the shoes reminded me of dance steps unhindered by gravity.



 

The Evergreen State Collage

I wonder if the owner of the lost wallet advertised on the yellow pages below lost their wallet while chasing psychedelic little pills and cherries the size of his head. Or maybe he dropped it while running from ghosts. Whatever the case he put together a captivating document asking for it back. And it made me think about the way that the bulletin boards on college campuses can make neat little snapshot collages of campus life and campus values.

 



Make Art

The following pictures are snippets from a chalk wall that was located by the Artesian Well in Downtown Olympia.  They were taken near the beginning of March and last time I looked the chalk had mostly washed away.  Someone involved with a homeless shelter/protest to city ordinances against sidewalk sitting/lying and camping on city property left a box of chalk on the ground with the words “Make Art” written above it. 

Pictures in Front of Olympia City Hall

In the words of one of the people I have recently interviewed—I have become interested in the “Kerfuffle” that surrounds the issue of homelessness in Olympia.  On March 12^th I was lucky to be dismissed from jury duty in time to attend a Thurston County Commissioners meeting in the afternoon—and I stuck around downtown Olympia for the rest of the day so I could attend a protest activity in front of the Olympia City Council prior to attending a council meeting. 

Homelessness was discussed at both meetings.  City ordinances banning sitting/lying on any part of Olympia sidewalks between 7 AM and midnight— and “camping” on any city property were a large part of the conversation. 

The anti sitting/lying ordinance used to apply only to parts of Olympia Sidewalks that were within 6 feet of a business—and it used to extend until 10 PM instead of midnight.  The changes took effect between January and February of this year.

I am currently working on digesting the information I received from the county and city meetings—as well as what I have gotten from interviews I have already had with community members who work with the homeless in Olympia.  I am in the process of planning more adventures into the kerfuffle. 

The following pictures show protestors gathered in front of City Hall.  Some images show a picnic blanket spread with food brought by and for the protestors—some of which were homeless.  Gathering and eating food from a blanket on city property constituted an act of protest because a ban on “camping paraphernalia” including blankets accompanies the anti camping ordinance.         

Evergreen Beach Pictures

It has been a while since I posted anything. But I have been taking pictures. These were taken at the Evergreen beach at night a few weeks ago. I walked down with my boyfriend, a couple of his colleagues, and their dogs. It was a goodbye party for someone who wouldn't be continuing to intern at the Washington State Capital over the remainder of the legislative session that should be over near the end of April. 

I need to get back and take pictures of the ruins of a house near the beach that has become a haven for graffiti art.  The darkness worked well in the following two pictures.  But it wasn’t any good for capturing wall art—or navigating crumbly cement.





One Last Mural From my Trip to Canada

http://www.gopherit.net/jeffhtml/jeffking1.html    

 

Born in 1961 in Grimsby, Ontario. Jeff King was one of those children who worried excessively about what he was going to be when he grew up. One night, a little voice spoke to him and it said "Jeff...... Jeff.... I want you to become an artist... I want you to paint marine wildlife". Jeff already had a great love for animals and marine life in particular. As the years passed, he prepared himself by becoming an expert scuba diver and underwater photographer. He began to paint everything he could get his hands on. But it was rough going. He practiced on gold fish, but the paint wouldn't stick. Tropical fish already were colorful enough and they were slippery to hold. The marine mammals were difficult to find and he was often thrown from the water or beaten with flukes (tail fin). Besides people seemed to like the beluga's white. Jeff felt by now he had misunderstood the voice that had inspired him so long ago?

 

After careful thought and deep meditation it came to him. CANVAS! yes I can paint marine life on canvas!....

This snippet doesn't precisely match the pictures that follow. But I love the humor in it.

 

I love when a mural comes with such detailed information.  Too bad websites don't always last as long as paint.

 

Visit to Canada

I found two Murals that incorporate graffiti writing. They are located somewhere east of Victoria BC's China Town. They are signed "Kwota," and dated "13". The level of detail in these murals gives me the impression that they were commissioned. There are links to other graffiti work that incorporates the word Kwota at the bottom of this post. Kwota is most likely the moniker of one or more graffiti artist/s.  More images can be found in a Google Image search for Kwota.

I like to imagine that only one person is using the word Kwota in their work.  If I could be sure of that then I could say that the pieces that I captured represent a major evolution in the artists work. 



 

This mural seems to say MATTER.

I'm not sure about this one.

 

http://graffd.com/kwota-tag/  

Kwota Graffiti image on Website That Maps Graffiti in Toronto

http://www.graffiti.org/vanc/vancouver_7.html

Kwota appears in graffiti image Copyrighted in 1997.  The Page name is Art Crimes: Vancouver 7.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26761583@N05/4149749917/in/photostream/

An image titled Kwota dc with the comment, “Get a new name, it’s already taken.  Since the early 90’s…”