strathcona:: tree shadows

On this first warm sunny day of spring [finally!] I went in search of some fitfully artful tree shadows - and other ephemeral exuberances...

Zig-zagging through the old Strathcona neighbourhood on my bike, the flower buds were literally popping open by the minute in the bright sunshine and the abstract sillhouettes of the still leafless tree branches shifted coyly with the sun - a profusion of intricate skiagrams on textured walls and painted surfaces, animating the quaintly charming houses on these most tranquil of inner city streets...

The ethereal blue dome of the Russian Orthodox church on Campbell Street merges with a clear blue sky through a veil of darkly lacing branches and a cascade of fresh spring foliage...

The first blossoms burst into bloom on this old cherry tree and the soft pink petals riff off the fading pink portico of this building on Keefer Street...

sullen monuments

In the graceless state of the semi-industrial eastside, I have driven by these two sites countless times and not given them too much thought...

but the recent installation of Ken LUM's pseudo-monumental EAST VAN CROSS glowing at the intersection of Clark Drive and Great Northern Way has enlightened me to examine more closely these odd and neglected "monuments" in the midst of an arid landscape of overhead Skytrain tracks and the nondescript commercial structures below...

 This monolithic stone stairway does not lead to some sacred temple or sweet secret folly, but the statuary lining the edges might have one believe that a grander pavilion perched above will reward the climb...

Turn around at the top and the view northwards is expansive across a desolate stretch of Great Northern Way and as yet undeveloped swath of prime inner city land...

 Go up the small hill [where the CROSS burns brightly] and turn left onto Clark Drive, and this strange little "square" is easy to miss tucked in as it is beside a car service garage on a non-pedestrian friendly street...

 The unornamented raw concrete structure embraces a round plaza sunken a few steps down - the perfectly trimmed shrubs have almost fully filled in the openings between the pillars, thereby obliterating the view of the mountains...

 The lonely pedestal in the center of the plaza is obviously missing a statue and the small plaque left on it only bears a mysterious date - the commemoration day of the site perhaps...

 As the skytrains swoosh by above every few minutes, the hollow mechanical sound fills this dejectedly hidden site as harshly as the half-hearted brutalist design of a monument that was once dedicated to, grandly enough, Christopher Columbus...