Full Moon, Sky, Os Gemeos, and the Colour Blue

Blue Monday has come around again, and with it, Smiling Sally's happy meme.  While blue isn't featured in every single shot I took yesterday, it did turn up in almost all of them.  These colourful balls were spread out on the lawn in the park across from our apartment.  I learned that there was an event called Awesome Race that would benefit  Loving Spoonful, an organization that provides free nutritious meals and nutritional counselling to men, women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Metro Vancouver.  Sounds like a good cause to me, and check out the blue hues coming through the vibrant mix of rainbow shades.

In the afternoon, the False Creek Aquabus carried us with our bikes and Black Jack, to the showing of "Giants" by Os Gemeos.  Some of you will know that I've been following that project since the new base colours of the Concrete Plant's silos popped into our view.  This link is a neat one, with a slideshow of photos that begin with the non-painted silos and continue to the finished project that includes an aerial perspective.  Bill and Black Jack.. 

 took this one-and-only opportunity to see one of the concrete plant's (blue) trucks..   

up close and personal.  I thought it was rather lucky to have two blue bikes, a blue fence, a bit of blue in the mural and a blue shirt in the photo as well.

 I've noticed from the beginning that the faces and details are not all smiley and perfect.  At that same link given above, you can hear Otavio and Gustavo speak.  One section of the video sticks with me: "We put our life there...  When you see our painting, you see us...  We like to give this to the people and we also like to give the opportunity to the people to play with their imagination.

The humanness of the giants, shown here in the best perspective shot I could manage with my 300 mm lens, always comes through for me.

A young lady, one of Granville Island's buskers, sang for a long time.  Not an easy gig, I'm thinking.  She was brave and talented too. 

 Since I couldn't, with my big lens, capture an overall view, I kept coming back to..

the details.  Although we could stand inside the concrete plant's grounds for the first time, there was a (blue) fence just in front of the silos.

 Sometimes, I could squeeze the lens between its openings, and sometimes.. 

 it was more fun to incorporate it into the view.  In the lower silos, the openings caught a view to the other side of False Creek.

 Well, Mr. Giant, your expression makes me wonder what you think of all of us.  I know your creators contributed their time and talent, but even with that, the expenses have been astronomical.  

Apparently, $20,000 worth of paint was stolen, a sad fact and one of several factors leading to the doubling of the original cost, now estimated to be $125,000.  The public is being asked to contribute.  I haven't done that and feel a bit guilty, but also a bit resentful that I feel guilty.  Here is another video.  Gustavio and Otavio are talking with a CBC reporter as they ride the False Creek Ferry. I wonder what you think about being asked to contribute to the cost of public art above and beyond the taxes you pay.  Perhaps, that will help me decide whether to make a small contribution to this art that has enriched my world and thinking a great deal.   

Bill and I talked, as we sat for close to an hour at the side of the mural, away from most of the viewers, waiting for Otavio and Gustavo to show up.  We were told they had gone for lunch, something that surprised me, given that the showing was advertised as a chance to meet the artists, and was to last from noon and 5:00 p.m.  On the other hand they had put their "blood, sweat and tears" into this work, and perhaps, asking them to also give of their "social" energy was more than they really wanted to do.  This morning, I went back through my photos and found the only ones that included the artists.  That day (August 20th), I barely realized that I was capturing them at work.

Gathering their paints  It's a long way down. 

Mustn't forget anything.  It's a long way down. 

A moment of thought here.  I wonder what is going through his head.

Stepping into the lift. 

A very friendly artist (I regret not asking his name) said yesterday that there are very few people in the world who could have tackled and completed a project of this immensity.  Good point.  I've thought about that statement quite a bit today. 

But to get back to the conversation Bill and I had yesterday.  We noted that the concrete plant's management people has made an obvious effort to create beauty where little can be found in an industrial operation.  They have painted their trucks in a variety of colours and images that capture even Black Jack's attention.  Okay, I lie.  There was probably something with edible potential (In her eyes) on the ground :)

Certainly, their trucks never pass by without a certain marvel at the many designs. 

And Bill wondered yesterday if the trees around the plant have been put there as a way of..

minimizing the uglier aspects of concrete and dust.  (You can just barely see the Granville Bridge in the background here.)

I was thinking of Smiling Sally's blues.. 

as I people watched with Bill.

Oh my!  I rarely covet clothes but I WANT those pants!

We just about gave up on meeting Otavio and Gustavo, and left to get our bikes, thinking it was high time to head to a café for some refreshments.  I took this from outside the plant.  Love the  greenery and trees with a few big wheels showing through.

This was my last shot of the mural, also taken from outside the plant.

We got our bikes, and Bill suggested we do one more walk by the concrete plant..  just in case :)  They had arrived.  I was excited to meet them but so were a lot of other people.  Though I did speak a few words to the twin on the right I still can't tell you his name, not because of the identical twin status (In fact, they are very different), but because they don't seem to want to be differentiated.  In one interview, they say, it doesn't matter who is Otavio and who is Gustavo.  In the end, I felt sort of like a starstruck groupie, and decided not to delay them further.  It is enough that I admire their talent, respect their hard work, and am enjoying the fruits of their labour.  I caught this photo as they posed for someone else.

I liked their hats..

and this t-shirt :)

Bill and I went to Cittadella Café afterwards.  We stayed until closing time and then finished our crossword on this bench outside the café.  It was a difficult puzzle and we were rather happy with ourselves.  We put this (blue) towel down for Black Jack, but she preferred to sit on Bill's knee :)

We arrived home rather late (again!) and the sky had begun to work.. 

quite a colourful magic.

We watched from the roof of our building..

where I struggled to come up with a light solution that would..

capture the atmosphere.

Much later, during Black Jack's final walk, I took the stadium,

the full moon, 

and the (blue) reflections cast.. 

by a small boat on False Creek.

Here is the bigger picture..

including one shot with nary a blue to be seen.

A slightly different view of the stadium,

and a final shot of the moon, with blue tint added just for Sally, concludes this post.  My goodness, I really did think this was going to be a short one :)  Thank you, Smiling Sally, thank you Bill for many treasured moments in our shared day, and thank you, Os Gemeos, for bringing not only colour but thoughtful representations of who you are to the world.