It's All Performance Art 31

The bus strike is off, and the union appears to have reached a tentative agreement with their employers, Translink, so we are emitting a collective sigh of relief this morning.  Yesterday, as I was riding the bus home from a meeting out in darkest Marpole, a young woman with long ultramarine blue hair took the seat in front of me and soon she was knitting.  I thought, what a perfect way for a woman with blue hair to pass the time on the bus, with knitting needles at the ready.  I didn't get to see what she was knitting, nor what colours, but it really doesn't matter.  There is something comforting and consoling about people doing creative things on public transit.   Their having brightly coloured hair is a bonus. 

I generally don't do art while on the bus.  It's too difficult because the ride usually isn't smooth and I don't want to inconvenience the people seated next to me.  And I usually don't want to attract that kind of attention in such a crowded space.  Sometimes I read, often I look out the window or look passively at other passengers, but never staring, not even at the most interesting, because that would be creepy.   Sometimes conversations with strangers happen, which is also enjoyable. 

There is something consoling about making art, especially in public spaces.   It is a revolutionary act.  It is a way of flipping off the death culture that we are living in.  It is rather like singing, only it's done silently and with  colour and lines.   I tend to wince and cringe when people call art a hobby.  Art is not a mere hobby.  Art is a celebration of life.  Art is a declaration against mindless consumerism (unless your sole interest as an artist is in making a bundle off your work, then you really should think of doing something else, like maybe work in a shoe store)

I really don't know if I will ever sell another painting, and really, Gentle Reader, I don't care.  Early in my career, I was exhibiting wherever I could, and I did well in sales.  It still wasn't enough to pay the bills, and I always had to have some kind of day job going, even if it was just cleaning houses,  Now, I don't have time or energy to promote art as well as making it.  I don't have the connections, and I no longer care.  I just want to do it, making art, and keep on doing it, keep on making art, until by the time I am done and pushing up daisies I will have littered this entire earth with my drawings and paintings.