There is art everywhere in Montréal.
There’s sculpture ranging from classical to contemporary, made from all materials and in all sizes. Along the Rues and Boulevards. In the center of the city (Ville Marie) and throughout Vieux Port. Jutting from buildings or perched on columns. In courtyards and on sidewalks. From huge to tiny. From commissions to improvisations.
And there’s painting everywhere. Walk up Rue St Laurent toward Mile End and creativity explodes everywhere, with giant murals across buildings, and amazing graffiti snaking down alleys, and on virtually every door or boarded up window.
It’s wrong to call most of the graffiti by that name. It’s not simple tags. These people can PAINT. There’s masterful use of color and shape, with ideas and composition, odes to cultural icons, and coded adventures that seem almost mythical.
It is mind-blowing to think that artists are cranking out such work at such a volume, buying their own supplies, perhaps sneaking to locations at night with ladders, and not for a penny, but just because they have to do it.
It’s an inspiration to be here.