fish in a bucket and an art battle

© Joan Mostad 

On the mist soaked Saturday morning this past weekend, kids and their families lined the streets to watch figures clad in clear plastic ponchos march in the parade for the annual summer community festival.  The local garbage truck was all scrubbed down, and after a preparatory cigarette hastily smoked while waiting for the parade to being the two riding in the dumpster took on the roles of Oscar the Grouch and a Blue Rat.   The local Indo-Canadian Sikh Association danced along in the brightest costumes, so very vibrant in contrast to the lingering and mournful wail of the much loved bag-pipes and the local hockey team kept the morning beer drinking moderately discrete.  

© Joan Mostad 

Kids laughed and clapped and got soaked before heading off to find some meat on a stick and other festival favourites. 

© Joan Mostad 

I sent my Chicken-Little home with DH and set up what turned out to be an enormously successful event.  The Fast and the Furious Paint-Off.   Set up on the sidewalk under the cover of a storefront awning, three contestants at a time faced off against each over in a mad competitive art battle.  The goal of which was to complete a painting in 20 minutes.  Paintings were displayed and the public voted on their favourites.  We ran the artists on the hour and on the half hour,  with an intense 10 minute scramble between painters.   The crowd swelled respectfully silent around the painters and in the end we had a collection of artists works to donate to the community.

© Shawn Thomas

It was crazy, and crowded and I was not as well organized as I could have been – but somewhere in the end it was perfect.  The rain let up and held off until the last set of painters, and I received almost nothing but complements for the event.  Now a deep breath in… and a deep breath out.. .another successful event for the Arts Council!

© K. Lyon 

© K. Lyon 

Sunday brought more mist into the harbour,  as we headed out for some fishing fun in the kids Bull-Head derby.  I felt honoured to teach three little ones as well as my own about the joys of catching “pile perch” off the end of the dock.  The excitement to be had in watching a small fish in a bucket is never to be underestimated!  Although it ended in a torrential downpour the smiles made it all worth while! 

© RiverWalker Arts