This past Sunday I took a walk from the lively and vibrant east side of Rue Saint Catherine up to the darker industrial side of Montreal. Rue Saint Catherine is considered the "main" street of Montreal, but unfortunately most of the main drag is under construction. Half the street is upturned - you can't go walk there during the day without taking ten detours around the rubble and hearing the roar of jackhammers and bulldozers. It looks as though an air raid struck the city - it's a mess, you get the idea.
But dear reader, if you're ever in the area and the mess is cleared, I suggest you take a long walk down Rue Saint Catherine. You can find anything and everything just on this street. Shops, cinemas, restaurants, galleries, and son on. As an artist, what appeals to me is the architecture of these churches (and there's more than a few on Saint Catherine) - these gargantuan steeples and statues that loom over every nearby shop. Every side and every corner of these buildings is cut with intricate design, every window is placed with such harmony and symmetry that even a non-religious observer looks on with awe.
Even more exciting than Montreal's architecture is Her graffiti, and once again, Rue Saint Catherine is just the place for that. As you can see from the photos above, obviously not all this graffiti is illegal - these murals are done in plain public sight. Some companies will actually commission artists to spray paint around their stores. It acts as a landmark. It draws in a different crowd. Montreal even has a graffiti convention every year called Under Pressure, where graffiti writers show off their talent (legally) on local buildings. Graffiti is just another medium for self-expression, but because it was misused and laws were put in place that gave graffiti this negative stigma of crime and vandalism, it's an unexplored medium in most major cities. Perhaps Montreal is ahead of its time in embracing this graffiti culture.
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