Phil Irish

So, here I am publishing to the internet.

I am working as Artist In Residence for the City of Kitchener.
The studio is very public, where people can watch me at work. So I thought that I might as well reveal all, so to speak, on the internet.

Let's see what happens.

This image was used to promote my initial "Meet the Artist" gala, at City Hall. It was a festive event, which claimed some extra space toward the Rotunda Gallery. The Cartographers' Lounge was set up out there, and we put an easle with "Queen of the Forest" to redirect traffic flow, as the administrative tower emptied out at 5:00.

A highlight of the event was the live music, by Duncan Nicholls and Nathan Stretch of Almost the Answer. They were great!! With guitars, bass, and some sublte percussive bits, their songwriting and charm drew us in.

I think part of this gig is bringing spontenaity into a bureaucratic space, and that was happnin'.

Also: the event coincided with the opening at the Rotunda Gallery: Lindsay Chambers, "Familiar Spaces Between Unknown Places." To download an article on this work, click here.

This is a strange place to be making things. I don't know what effect this has on the work, if any. I seem strangely oblivious to all the governance going on arround me, as I zone into the painting task at hand.

Still, I have found myself singing Pink Floyd's "Money," as the cash registers run all day across the hall. As people wait in line to pay their utility bills, they can face the other way and get a good view straight into my studio.

I hope, amid all the regulation and structure of government, that I am able to add a humane and meaningful shock to visitors to City Hall. A way to place the word "City" in a broader context.

Interestingly, most of the maps that people are giving continue to have a nature-element, such as the Grand River.

The Cartographers' Lounge made a voyage to the Starlight Social Club!

It was a special benefit concert night, raising money and awareness of Doctors Without Borders. 5 bands took the stage, including NQ Arbuckle, Shannon Lyon, and Lynn Jackson. I particularly liked Sarah Hallman's ghost-vocal and electric cello thing, and also Luke Doucet's shiny white guitar, antics, and singing into a telephone. Man, could he play guitar.
The blurred out photo is the final jam session, with NQ Arbuckle and Luke Doucet.

The Lounge looked stylish, feeling very at home in that space, with the bar etc. I received some pretty strange maps from people --- especially the map on how to enter the storm-sewer system of Hamilton, and the diameters of the various pipes! Extremely strange! Will I have the courage to follow that one?

Saturday was the first "Follow Maps With Phil" Event.

I wasn't sure what location to pick --- I wanted to select a map that a) had a good story, and b) was clear enough to follow that people would actually find me. I selected a map drawn by Anna (whose ring I wear) to the Grand River Hospital in Kitchener. The story of this place is hugely significant to us, as it is the place where she gave birth to our daughter, and also where she was treated for breast cancer.

It is a powerful thing to do --- to sit outside a hospital for a few hours, drawing, and thinking about life. It reminds me of the memento mori tradition, such as placing a skull on your writing table to remind you of your frailty, the brevity of life, and to live with your own death in view. We've been able to romanticize the image of a skull, or a cemetery... but to actually sit outside that hospital, watching the ambulances leave and return with human cargo, was a powerful experience for me.

Hospitals have also touched pretty-much everyones lives. So, it is also a good place to have a conversation about life. A couple of people map followers found me there, bringing sketch book, or photographs to discuss.

Here is a generative question ---
how could a view of a hospital be represented, to highlight what the place actually MEANS in people's lives?
I was thinking about the blend of vivid humanity, and cold technology, that the place embodies. From a concern for efficiency and modern management systems, to compassion and the bodily struggle of individual people. It's no wonder that hospital shows are a staple on TV... what can painting say to this complex truth in our lives? I had so many ideas, sitting there for those hours, I don't know where to begin.

If you'd like to join me on my next "Follow Maps with Phil" day, or at least receive the map, email me at philirish@golden.net

We had another "follow maps with Phil" day.
This time, we headed off to "Memory Gardens," a cemetery near Breslau. The map was one from the Nidus Festival. The woman describes being reconciled to her father at her wedding, then proceeds to describe three deaths in quick succession - including her father and her husband. Her story of brokenness ends by crediting her faith in Jesus for pulling her beyond grief and pity, to a concern for others. So, intense stuff.

Three people came to visit, and two actually stayed for several hours. (One visitor is an artist of note, Marilyn Batte.) Three of us had wide ranging conversations ---

- deaths of people we have loved
- burial practices in different places, including modern Egypt
- hospitals (how they should be more beautiful to promote healing),
- parenting (how kids like to undress when they're little, and then don't for while, and then - as teenagers - want to get their clothes off again)
- commercial galleries... and the sales vs. grants question
- violence in Lebanon / Israel, and our feeling of being helpless... but a hope that art may contribute to the building of peace, one perspective at a time...

So, it was a fascinating time.

As for the view -- I wasn't sure what to paint at first. There are very few stones as grave markers. Mostly metal plaques on the ground, often with flowers in a vase on top. This creates an interesting rhythm of open space and flowers diminishing into the distance. But I was drawn to the statues of Jesus, because of the faith expressed in the letter. But how, HOW, to paint Jesus -- from the typical statue that we have all seen thousands of times? As I sat to draw, however, an amazing thing happened. The gardener pulled up in his cart, hauling a water tank, and hosed down the garden and the statue as well. Rainbows and golden shimmering light filled the air, dispensed from an industrial nozzle. Then, as quickly as he arrived, the gardener was gone. A moment’s apparition shed the most heavenly and most pragmatic light upon the Christ. This is one thing I love about following these maps: if I am at a loss, my patience and sustained attention is always rewarded by some surprising event.

The image above is one studio sketch, developed from that experience. I call it Christ and the Gardener.