decay in the core

The old Capitol Theatre
London, Canada 2008

I went into to the studio here in London and seemed to have secluded myself for the better part of a decade.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve lived in New York as an artist in residence with CrossPathCulture. I’ve worked in South Africa on a major project for a few months. I’ve been to London to see the Tate Modern. I relaxed with my family in Portugal, Vermont, and Ottawa. I hiked through the beauty that is the Queen Charlotte Islands Canada (Haida Gwaii) with my wife, as well as cruising the West Coast of Canada from the border of Alaska to Vancouver. I have visited Spain and the beautiful city of Seville. My wife and daughter went to Morocco. In simple words it is not as if I locked the door of the studio and did not come out because of a Rip Van Winkle deep sleep (sleep is good).

What I mean is that while I’ve been living in London Canada, I’ve secluded myself from downtown London where I spent my youth. Sure, I’d go downtown from time to time for an exhibition, dinner or an event but I haven’t really ambled around the core streets in the daylight. Like most I’d often just drive to a suburban mall and shop there. When in New York I’d be out much of the time but here in London I very much lived like a hermit.

I went downtown today to jury a student work to receive a small prize for a 2nd year Fanshawe College exhibition. While downtown, I noticed that the much of what I loved about our centers architecture has fallen into decrepitude or changed into a post-modern nightmare of generic modern buildings none of which has any lasting beauty. It made me sad for the buildings.

I love my current job as student consultant and graduating student instructor because it took me downtown. Sadly / happily, it opened my eyes to the decay in our core.

Gerard