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save me

save me; mixed media on cradled wood panel, 24 x 24 inches. The string series continues.

For an upcoming show at Dwell

* * * * *

As you get older, you become less and less invested in things and places. They become, hopefully, just things and places.

When I take something away from Oona -- a toy, a remote, a sock, a staple gun -- she reacts like some Frenchman watching the German army parade down the Champs-Élysées. When I was fifteen I turned down a twenty dollar offer for a Streetheart album (vinyl, Drugstore Dancer) because I'd just won it in a draw at a dance. It had to be magic! For my thirtieth birthday I bought a pair of hundred-dollar pants (Pierre Cardin) because a purring girl told me to. Later on I wrote a poem about it.

Clearly all these things are insane. Also clear is the fact that I am not yet well, because I *really* hate the Shopper's up the street from my studio.

The vibe in there is right out of the office scenes in Joe Versus the Volcano: lemon-dimmed florescent lights that wax and flatten; leaking clusters of disarranged Queen's students lining up to buy eighty dollars worth of cosmetics; and a staff that always reminds me why travelling freak shows went out of business.

I went in there last night to mail off some books. The fellow behind the postal counter -- think here of a Japanese Noh mask, only more disturbed -- punched away at the computer with all the enthusiasm of a dwarf trying on a leather diaper. Fourteen dollars, he said.

I looked down at the packet envelope, only slightly bigger than my hand. No thank you, I said. And walked out.

Comments

  1. Beautiful
    work
    thank you for sharing

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love the painting

    I think you might need a holiday

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  3. perfect! and I love this painting :)

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  4. The painting is fantastic. Shoppers sounds grim, is it a place?

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  5. Anonymous2:51 pm

    I have been there with the saying no thank you, and walking away. It is ridiculous the costs...don't get it. Meanwhile the two parcels that arrived to me from the US each are the size of pumpkin, and cost a buck each in postage. Super awesome painting as always.

    ReplyDelete
  6. wonderful painting. Shoppers indeed sounds like the kind of place we love to hate! I love that you let the guy go through his tedious job only to say "no thanks" !! I will tell you a funny story about my dearest now departed Da. He loved a joke. He also liked those warehouse stores. Kind of a love hate relationship. He liked to get a lot for a little but you suffer in those gigantic mazes of canned goods and surly help. He was in line when the pimple-faced teen cashier put up his sign and said..sorry everyone.I am going on break! The woman ahead already had unloaded her cart to be rung up. She left it all there and walked out. My Da took all the canned goods out of his cart and put them on the floor and everyone behind him followed suit.. and they all walked out. Canned goods were rolling all over.

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  7. i hate!that shoppers-2 times now and i think that midget is takin my stuff!
    dwell-one of my fav places to pick up sumthin..
    but i havent gotten my invite!?hmmmm?
    and the piece...but again -exquisite...goin to count pennies.
    do u take canadian tire $?

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  8. I have had the same issue with the local Shoppers post office - and now drive the extra few kms to the *real* post office. They probably charge the same exorbitant rate but I get some satisfaction knowing it's been calculated right!

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  9. the holiday suggestion might not be so bad :) i like the painting a lot.

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  10. Oh, Gosh, this painting is stunning! beautiful!

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  11. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNbTC6xLVg0

    I can't vouch for that video quality because I work for the internet gestapo and they don't let us play at work.

    ReplyDelete

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