ninme

Wheat & Weeds quotes a couple of fantastic knock-downs of all our favourite painters of light. Sorry, Painters of Light.

I admit I laughed heartily at the news of his DUI the other day. Especially since he was originally pulled over for not drilling holes for a license plate through the front bumper of his Benz. THAT’s when the cop asked if he’d been drinking.

Yesterday we were walking up Robson Street (main shopping drag downtown) in Vancouver, where there was a man in an South Asian squat over an 8.5×11″ printout of a portrait of a young woman by (Raphael?) one of the Renaissance masters and an enlarged reproduction, perfectly rendered, in plain chalk, with a chalk note (in beautiful, clear handwriting) in the pavement introducing himself as a Chinese artist and thanking people for encouraging him to do better and improve. He had an open suitcase for people to throw coins in (and they did) but nowhere did he ask for money. And there was a CROWD of people around him. So I said to Peter, “See, there’s a guy creating something that’s actually beautiful, and everyone’s stopped in their tracks,” and he laughed, ruefully.

I’ve always thought if people saw more Raphaels, they wouldn’t buy so many Thomas Kinkades. But who knows.