“Spring Garden Busker Mural” – acrylic on wall. September, 2005
I did a bunch of sketches of a man playing violin across the street two years ago. It was during the art festival on Spring Garden Road. I did not get a chance to talk to the violinist after I had finished my sketches. I looked up and he was gone.
I transformed the sketches into a 3.5 foot by 8 foot mural on my live-in art studio wall. It took a week. Off and on.
Two months later, I went to visit friends of friends, and this man was sitting there in a chair in the middle of the room.
“Hi there,” I said, feeling very much like a fictional character, “I painted a mural of you on my livingroom wall.”
“What?” he replied, as any sensible, reasonable person would.
“You were playing violin two months ago during the art festival on Spring Garden Road! I made an abstract painting of you!”
His eyebrows were lowered the way that people lower their brows when they hear something bizarre. “What? Are you sure it was me? There’s another guy who plays there who looks just like me.”
“No, I’m sure it was you.”
(I’ve said, “No I’m sure it was you,” before and been dead-wrong… but this time I wasn’t.)
Someone had a laptop available. I showed him a photo of the mural, and he squinted at my bright work. “Yep… that’s definitely me alright. I’m the only one that plays left-handed and upsidedown. Ashley Macisaac plays left-handed and upsidedown,” said the fiddler.
“Does he? I’m left-handed, too!” I informed him.
We sat and smoked and drank for hours. He told me how he played the fiddle for six or more hours every day. He said it was a sinister instrument. He said the violin was the devil’s instrument because he could not put it down. As we pulled down the beers, we talked more about the sinister hand (left-handedness) and the sinister instrument.
Then I had an instant thought about the imagery I used in the mural of the man who had been a stranger. That’s why there’s a skull hanging over his head. That’s why there’s all that red and yellow sinister smoke. I get it now. I understand the mural better, now that I’ve met the man. His obsession with his passion. I get it.
I have another mural project coming up in the near future. I’m excited.
The Devil Went Down to Halifax
“Spring Garden Busker Mural” – acrylic on wall. September, 2005
I did a bunch of sketches of a man playing violin across the street two years ago. It was during the art festival on Spring Garden Road. I did not get a chance to talk to the violinist after I had finished my sketches. I looked up and he was gone.
I transformed the sketches into a 3.5 foot by 8 foot mural on my live-in art studio wall. It took a week. Off and on.
Two months later, I went to visit friends of friends, and this man was sitting there in a chair in the middle of the room.
“Hi there,” I said, feeling very much like a fictional character, “I painted a mural of you on my livingroom wall.”
“What?” he replied, as any sensible, reasonable person would.
“You were playing violin two months ago during the art festival on Spring Garden Road! I made an abstract painting of you!”
His eyebrows were lowered the way that people lower their brows when they hear something bizarre. “What? Are you sure it was me? There’s another guy who plays there who looks just like me.”
“No, I’m sure it was you.”
(I’ve said, “No I’m sure it was you,” before and been dead-wrong… but this time I wasn’t.)
Someone had a laptop available. I showed him a photo of the mural, and he squinted at my bright work. “Yep… that’s definitely me alright. I’m the only one that plays left-handed and upsidedown. Ashley Macisaac plays left-handed and upsidedown,” said the fiddler.
“Does he? I’m left-handed, too!” I informed him.
We sat and smoked and drank for hours. He told me how he played the fiddle for six or more hours every day. He said it was a sinister instrument. He said the violin was the devil’s instrument because he could not put it down. As we pulled down the beers, we talked more about the sinister hand (left-handedness) and the sinister instrument.
Then I had an instant thought about the imagery I used in the mural of the man who had been a stranger. That’s why there’s a skull hanging over his head. That’s why there’s all that red and yellow sinister smoke. I get it now. I understand the mural better, now that I’ve met the man. His obsession with his passion. I get it.
I have another mural project coming up in the near future. I’m excited.