Tag: Design

Green Owl Garage

On By ResaIn Alley Gallery, Graffiti Mural93 Comments

This owl was found on the side of a garage. I immediately thought of  Timothy Price from Off Center Not Even.

I know his owls are different, but Tim is the only one I know with owls living on his property.

Someone hewed down the dead tree where the owls made their home.

Tim made another nest, in the same area, with many attributes of the old nest.

He went toa lot of effort. Will the owls find the new nest?

I sure hope so! Thank you, Tim!

Pics taken by Resa – October 1, 2022

Toronto, Canada

The Artist(s) – unsure

Broken Heart & Broken Toe

On By ResaIn Designer's Anecdotes121 Comments

I worked as a Costume Designer in the film industry for 25 years. First as a stylist for commercials & rock videos, then eventually  designing costumes for  movies  and  TV  series.

Ten years ago my mom passed, and I took another look at my life. The decision was that I should try writing.  Skipping ahead, it seems that (usually humorous) anecdotes from my design life stand out. With encouragement from blog pals, I have been writing some out.

Broken Heart & Broken Toe

Just over a decade ago, I designed the costumes for a movie titled “Our Fathers”. It’s based on the book by David France “The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an Age of Scandal”.

     In this true story, Cardinal Law was the Church’s piece of hierarchy that covered up the sexual abuses of children by certain priests. It was very heartbreaking to work on this show: recreating pedophile scenes, depicting the turned upside down lives of victims & the denials by the church. Even the scenes of Cardinal Law testifying on the stand were not satisfying moments. Reality is: he eventually went to live in Rome, as a Cardinal, sanctioned by the Pope.

      Actual adult victims, survivors came to set while we were shooting. It was all quite eerily unnerving.

     Prior to starting prep on the movie, I read the book. It is the biggest hard cover book I’ve ever read. Humongous, I could barely hold it on my lap. The part of the book we made into the movie was a fraction of the book. The rest of it delved deeply into the Church’s very old history of sexual sins. It was bleak, even at the most optimistic points.

      One day, the book leapt from my lap, and attacked my right foot. It landed on the toe next to my big toe.  The toe broke. It’s possible that I accidentally dropped  the book.

     I hobbled through the ensuing 4 month prep & shoot with the broken toe taped to the toes on each side of it. There was constant pain, swelling & 14 or more hours to a working day. I had to buy sneakers in 2 different sizes, the larger size for my right foot. The doctor was adamant. I needed to put my foot up for a few weeks! I did exactly that after we were wrapped, & it eventually healed.

      In retrospect, I realize that nothing was going to stop me from helping to bring this story into movie format, and into the light of the many who didn’t know about it. I believed I was doing something important & good.

      In retrospect, I also think …. the book did attack my toe, after all.

The pic from the top of the post was the header for my writing blog, which is where I had originally written up this anecdote. This was much prior to my thinking of writing out more.

Anecdote & Photos © Resa McConaghy

Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan

On By ResaIn Faces, Street Art105 Comments

“If there is something to be changed in this world then it can only happen with MUSIC” – Jimi Hendrix

This is over a pub called “Pour Boy”.

I recognized Jimi immediately.

There was another face, but only a part of a face. For some reason, I got Robert Palmer stuck in my head.

This was my 3rd time here. It’s on a busy side street.. delivery trucks, cars parked or driving up and down, people galore. No room to take pics, until this day. I thought, I’ll grab Jimi, anyway.

As I was leaving, I saw this around the corner. Id never seen around the corner before.

Looks like Dylan to me!

Dead on, it did not make sense. I had to find the angle. Jimi recorded one of Dylan’s songs, “All Along the Watchtower”. I was angst over whose version to put here. Then I remembered Playing for Change. 🌟 Brilliant 🤩 A must see!

Pics taken by Resa – September 13, 2022

Toronto, Canada

The Artist: Unknown to me at this time

Poetess Jungle

On By ResaIn Murals121 Comments

First I gasped, at the beauty of the entire mural.

Then I singled out the face & said – It’s Holly, poet whose hair is “a tangle of stars”. Now she and her soft brown eyes are in a tangle of jungle.

If ever there was a mural as lovely as her poetry, this is it.

Love the tiger!

This detail, as well as the tiger’s stripes are painted in metallic gold and silver.

The shadows are painted on her face.

Some close up details.

Leonard Cohen recites words to a Joni Mitchell song. Herbie Hancock accompanies on piano.

It’s another kind of jungle: and deep in this jungle, in an alley, I found the jungle mural.

Pics taken by Resa – October 1, 2022

Toronto, Canada

The artists:

Post Dedication: Holly – House of Heart

Whorls of My Mind

On By ResaIn Street Art1 Comment

Okay, I’m way behind visiting blog pals! I dislike the reader, and prefer to visit your actual blogs. I need to try and catch up!

Charlotte Hoather’s Art Gown needs me to focus until I get a good start. After all, it will be the first Art Gown that I will be sending to someone to actually wear. She’s my fave soprano, and is the 1 person I know who actually needs gowns.

Drawings are done for the next Gowntoons instalment, on Art Gowns.

I need to work on the post, and AGM Holly’s input is critical. So, I need time for emails, critique and whatever else the 2 of us do.

Time – the most intoxicating perfume of all. With this time I’ll visit you from GLAM or from Art Gowns. I look forward to visiting!

When I return with my next GLAM post, I should be all cleared up….maybe.

Pics taken by Resa – August 2, 2022

Toronto, Canada

The Artist:

Unsigned, I think I know, but guessing is just guessing.

River Ghosts – Merril D. Smith

On By ResaIn Book Reviews106 Comments

“In memory of my mother, Sylvia L. Schreiber … your laugh still echoes.”

Merril D. Smith’s mother passed away in the early days of Covid, in the days when there was no holding of hands, no kisses, no embraces and a veil of lonely shrouding all hearts.

Nonetheless, Merril does not pour a bucket of inconsolable tears into her poems, but rather flows with a river, a river that has many rocky climbs to solid land and ancient trees reaching over its waters. It is upon this river she reflects.

I was 10 poems into the book. Then, on one of my street art hunts, I came upon this mini-mural. There is a constant flowing of blue, with abstract flowers and leaves. I thought, this is like Merril’s book.

To me the blue ribbon is the river, with all its tributaries. Everything else, each flower and leaf is a poem, an insight, or a ghost washing the shore.

The author uses many styles of poetic writing, to effectively create messages. Combined with familial love & experiences, her knowledge of history and adoring appreciation of nature, this book is a rendering of heart.

Always sincere, never maudlin, Merril’s poems have swept me onto the river of ghosts.

With the author’s permission, I get to include 1 short poem or part of a longer poem, in my review. After much deliberation, I have chosen:

One poem titled – In Memoriam: Their Names is “Inspired by the plague graffiti found on the walls of Cambridgeshire church”. I found the impetus evoking and the poem shivering my eyes.

Click on the ghost pic below and go read a fabulous article about this graffiti from 1515.

I’m sure you are piqued by In Memoriam: Their Names. So, to read this coup de maître, and the rest of Merril’s masterpiece, click on my last ghost offering below. It will take you to her book on Amazon.

OR, if you are boycotting Amazon (like me), you can buy a PDF, Print or Kindle copy from “Nightingale & Sparrow”. Just click on their moniker below, and you will be on its page. (They take PayPal!)