When the rain is unforgiving and the wind raging sideways, the goal is to get to Destination A and back to the car before umbrella and spirit go to pieces. Yet, on this torrential afternoon, I did stop, turn and go back to stare at a painting in the window of the Bau-xi Gallery.
Featured was a clunky black typewriter, much like the Underwoods that clacked into the night in Dad’s den. A muddle of thought blew up from the ribbon while hard-working ink leaked down from the cage.
I brought my sog into the gallery to learn more about the artist: Andre Petterson. Petterson, I came to discover, takes photos of classic iconography – typewriters, dolls, pianos, horses – then feeds them through his painterly imagination. “I pick an item that speaks to me on some level.”
The typewriter takes him back to his Grade 9 typing lessons. It was either typing or gym class. “I’m not a sports person. I’m a drummer, so I thought that would be helpful. I got to about 40 words a minute.” This particular old typewriter he found on a trip to Cypress. It was just sitting outside on the ground, next to a nondescript building. “I picked it up, put it in the middle of the road and started taking pictures.”