If I had a million dollars

I remember when Canada’s Barenaked Ladies produced this song we all dreamed of what we could do with a million dollars. I’m in Vancouver doing a workshop. Vancouver has the highest real estate prices of any city in Canada. A garden shed would cost you over a million dollars and a detached crack house 1.6 million dollars. Actually I’m staying in a friends one bedroom condo which has the million dollar price tag. It’s hard to imagine a person in the arts living in this city without having 3 or 4 jobs. Not a place for little ole moi.  Rural Ontario is looking better and better.

We went down to Granville Island which is a happening spot on the harbour front that has long been the home of Emily Carr School of Art and Design. There were some sexy little house boats nestled along the shore and low and behold a cement factory. What that real estate is worth would be mind blowing. I’d sell the joint pay a few bills, move to Aylmer, Ontario and make pots till all the money was gone.  What was nice to see is the paint job on the silos. Art can change the entire face of industry. I wasn’t the only person that stopped to photograph the cement trucks . They are even smart enough to have artists painting flower boxes, mail boxes and empty walls. This way they look like art instead of some bad tag from someone in a hurry to deface an empty space.

Here is a picture of my friend Cheryl who works 3 or 4 jobs to live in Vancouver amongst her arts peeps. A big salute to Cheryl who gives so much to Ceramic Arts in Vancouver without much well deserved recognition. People like Cheryl are in many arts centres making sure the glazes are made, the kilns are working, the space isn’t a pig stye and people go home happy.  People that know who the worker bees are celebrated Cheryl's

B-Day with flowers.  A tip of my fedora to you Cheryl.  That'a a helluva smile and a even bigger laugh- har, har, har, har.  Cheryl long may you run!