Obey The City – Montreal Walls – Eleven

See more of Montreal Walls…

So much of the city has changed in my lifetime. Take this wall which now overlooks a small parking lot. Once there was a building that housed on its main floor, various music oriented pawn shops and stores, a refuge for musicians from all over the world visiting our city in its heyday of clubs and music venues. Connected to this lower floor were arguably dubious residential apartments variously housing bands, artists, and an assortment of Bohemians, judging by the evidence of the pungent smokes and cacophonous sounds regularly emanating from the decrepit windows. In the early eighties, when our curiosities bolstered our courage, we would occasionally venture up back stairs and enter undeterred into these dens of creative explorations. In some sad turn of events, shortsighted language laws shut down the best international, used book store, also housed in this series of buildings, limited the purchasing power of the music stores, intimidated some of the influx of Bohemians, and starting a downward turn in the creative Mecca that resided hidden behind the dirty, poster covered walls of these older buildings. However, at its heart, Montreal is Creativity! That spirit simply moved onto other underground and back alley regions of the city (and now storefront studio spaces). today, these creative enclaves continue to move from area to area. While I currently need a lot more observing time to recognize them then when I was a wide eyed teenager, I see them everywhere and get filled with hope for the artistic community I am so proud of. The city is creativity and always finds voices (sometimes very famous ones, like the Shepard Fairey OBEY logo) to remind the world that Montreal wants us all to remain creative!

I particularly love the way our city’s marketing (clearly appropriated from I ❤️ NY) juxtaposes the OBEY mural and a couple of local tags (FLEK & GUEST). To me, it feels like the city is speaking its mind.

More to come…