Sunday, June 21, 2009

Paris Air Show ( not quite there yet ) . . .

As mentioned below, I went to the Paris Air Show yesterday afternoon, and as parking is never easy there, I parked quite a ways away in the community of Le Blanc Mesnil, across the main road that goes by Le Bourget Airport, and walked over to the airport entrance. Going down a little travelled side street there I was taken with the colorful murals that had been painted on the long wall of a social services center. Life for many people in the northern suburbs of Paris is not necessarily very easy, social services are sorely needed. I liked this first image of people helping each other up a steep slope. . . many people in these parts have a hard climb in front of them to reach even a minimum level of subsistence.
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Questionable math skills here however . . .
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Chaud devant !
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Faces, some not looking too pleased about something ?
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I liked this panel on a number of planes ; the girl on the beach, "pour les grands" - for grownups, not sure what is on her shoulder there, maybe a bit of seaweed ? But especially at the right side here, looks like a red UFO coming in for a landing, hopefully bearing news from other planets, letting us know we are not alone here on Earth. . . (I saw not a single UFO around the Paris Air Show, which one could imagine should attract them like flies !)
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Open to all, all are welcome . . .
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At the very far end of the wall, the contributing artists had signed their names and nicknames. . . I was secretly pleased to observe that among them . . . there was a Toad !
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28 comments:

Loulou said...

Bonjour Owen! A couple of days since I stopped by... Good to be back and take some air (Paris fresh air...? it is still 45°C in Delhi...) through your magic lantern. Very nice series of walls, duo of purple and yellow in particular is shining! Looking forward to the after-preview-and-after-not-quite-there-yet :-)
Have a beautiful "fête des pères"
Loulou

The Panorama said...

I love this post. The graffiti is beautiful and describes the feelings of the artist very well.

alterdom said...

make the floor to the walls, again, thank you!

Steve said...

Those bright primary colours remind me of the Carribean... just the job on a grey British Sunday in June...

Batteson.Ind said...

What's going on with the dodgy maths picture? With the baby and the happy man and the maths and the things...??? It slightly worries me for some reason... Also like the blue girl on the beach, reckon she could have sneezed on her shoulder.... Nice paintings though.. I love coulouredyness!

Roxana said...

wonderful art, thank you for taking us for a stroll along these walls. i had to laugh at your comment: "Questionable math skills here however" - but perhaps it is only a protest against reality which forces us to accept its rules, to bend in front of necessity? and yes, this drawing is intriguing, why is that woman giving birth there on that table next to the math teacher? or is she supposed to represent life as opposed to the cold view of science? hmmm...

Hilary said...

Wonderful, colourful mural. I like your fun commentary with each image.

Thanks for your kind words left on my blog. I'm happy to have found yours in return.

LR Photography said...

I like this kind of work and paintings, great shots!

Lynne with an e said...

Gorgeous colours! Any one of these would translate wonderfully into a hooked rug. Maybe I'll pass along the link to my "hooker" friends (I've given up the hooking habit myself) ;-*

Jo Potter said...

Wow. You need sunglasses to look at these vibrant colours!
Excellent post Owen. Do you like the artist Banksy?
He is a mysterious, graffiti artist in Britain and nobody has ever seen him!
By the way thanks for leaving a good comment about Spindle Web.
I have just tagged you. If you have the time come and visit my blog and play!;)

swan said...

These murals do tell a story, I hope to be in France next year and am teaching myself French. Many blessings... I love the writing to go with the photographs.

ladydi said...

I have been meaning to send you the info (in case you don't already have it) for the Engergizer Ultimate Photo Contest. Your photos are amazing, and will surely win, and be published in the National Geographic Magazine! Just visit NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.COM/ULTIMATE and I'll be looking for you in the magazine!

Anonymous said...

Now those are the types of murals I love to see!!! So colourful and meaningful! These photos remind me of Jeff's latest photo, the amazing bright colours!

Margaret Pangert said...

Reminds me of the French movie Entre Les Murs (The Class), probably from the northern suburbs, too. Each different culture was very insistent on expressing itself. I was thinking the UFO might be a grill on the beach. The Matisses were half-and-half angry-glad, and the Modiglianis were neutral. What does that say? These shots are great--i do hope you make it to NatGeo!

jeff said...

J'aime beaucoup ces peintures "naïves" et très très colorées ! Celà évoque un univers très onirique et à la fois imaginaire enfantin !
Je dois faire des propositions de "peinture" à ma hiérarchie et je me vois bien proposer ce genre de travail !
C'est très sympa que les enfants, les auteurs aient signé dans des encadrés de "flèches" ! Je trouve que c'est un art qui se perd et que parfois dans les "nouveaux" établissements, l'uniformité l'emporte sur l'originalité et la fantaisie !...
C'est Magique !

Bon, et alors ? 4, 5, 6 ? Combien à venir ?...
Ciao Amigonet !...<8:)))

William Evertson said...

These murals are a real (air)show stealer!

Amy said...

Those murals tell quite a story. They are such an odd but good collection. Glad you took the long walk to the air show and photographed them. :D

henk van es said...

Hi Owen, I wonder what the story is behind these wonderful paintings on the wall. I guess it is a kind of "project" , probably done by a group of youngsters (a schoolclass?). Was there some reporting about this in the local press? For me this is outsider art at its best. Thanks for walking this route and taking this pictures.

Sar@h said...

Une façon pour les centres sociaux de dédramatiser le quotidien …
Autrefois, j'ai travaillé à Brest, un des éducateurs rénovait avec une équipe de jeunes, une maison pour en faire une maison de quartier. Les jeunes avaient tendance à fuir les lieux culturels. On pensait que si les jeunes avaient contribué à sa réalisation, ils y viendraient plus aisément.

Ça n'a pas empêché la bibliothèque de quartier de brûler ;-(

jeff said...

Ouaih ! Et si on se donnait la main sur Blogger ?... Mais non ! C'est une plaisanterie ! It's a joke ! comme on dit chez toi ! ! !
...8:)

lady brains said...

Thanks for the thought! haha That video was pretty funny. Luckily my mother is the main boss lady and my boss lady isn't too worried about what I do at work as long as I get the work done :)

By the way, WOW, these are fantastic murals. They remind me a lot of the ones I see around San Francisco.

Owen said...

Hi Loulou, am always happy to see you whenever you can ! Wow, 45°, I'd be holed up in a refrigerator or something... hope you have good techniques to stay cool and hydrated, I guess one must learn quickly... to avoid heat stroke. And yet you manage to keep your magic pictures coming day in and day out. Hmm, I wonder if you do them all winter long, then sit in a cool room in the summer to blog them out to us ?
It's been very cool for the first day of Summer here in the north of France, plenty of air ! Thanks for the Father's day wishes ! And we are almost to the air show, promise...

Panorama... glad you like it, it grabbed me right away, I walked up the whole length slowly, then back down again taking pictures...

Alterdom, hmm, I'm trying to think of a good answer for floors to the walls... will come back and see you very soon, your staircase photo is gorgeous ! Thanks !

Steve, happy to bring some Caribbean color your way, you are right, I saw murals like these in Guadeloupe, only the sky is a brighter blue down there... hope you had a fine weekend, I need to stop back on Bloggertrop, read your double entry post... but think I was about to comment when something dragged me away from the PC... imagine that ! Real life delaying me from blogging... will be by soon... keep the tea hot please !

Ah Watercats, I was wondering too if it was a sneeze, but didn't want to say it... thanks for the release, so it's not just me... Indeed, there are many strange things going on here, but the colors save the day...

Lenora Regan - ShootingWithSlinky.blogspot.com said...

These are great!!!! And thanks for joining my blog, as I hope to share some great stuff.

Owen said...

Roxana, I'm sure a good dream interpreter could have a field day with hidden meanings and significance here... I suspect the incorrect math equation was intentional, but am still wondering why, I hope not too many impressionable young children see that and take it for truth, and then give their teachers a bad time when the teacher tries to convince them that 1+2 is not 6. Your blog is a pleasure...

Hilary, welcome, welcome, the more the merrier...

Adrian, hey, it's been a little while, thanks for stopping in, glad you like it, I love bright colors like these...

Lynne, what ?!? you belonged to a group of hookers ??? :-D Guess that Hooker guy was a Civil War character... well, if any one does ever convert one of these into a rug, let me know, I'd be curious to see the result. Strong, bold graphics like these I guess could work on a floor... (hhhoooonnnnkkk!) (thanks for allowing me to do that !)

Joanne May, no, had not heard about Bansky, sounds intriguing, will track him (her, if no one has seen him, he could be a she?) on the web, have added his name to my TO DO list, which is getting longer than I like, but that's a good sign, things are percolating right and left ! Will take a look at the Tag, thanks for thinking of me for that... will have to see whether I can deal with it or not in a reasonably time frame, have seen some blogs proclaiming themselves as "award and tag free zones", am starting to lean in that direction too... time seems to be getting exponentially shorter as I discover just how rich the blog universe is, and try to keep all these balls in the air between posting, commenting, answering comments... but heck, you know all that ! :-D Thanks though, really appreciate...

Swan, go for it, both for learning French and travelling here... if you want to practice, just leave a comment in French next time... or try some of the links in my sidebar list of blogs, some are in French... cool project, that's what I did quite a while back, and now look where it got me... :-) à bientôt...

Hi Diana ! Will take a look... in fact I have looked at the Nat Geo photo pages in the past, and other promotions and things, but one thing I didn't like the looks of is the fine print that says if you upload a photo to their site, you relinquish all rights to it, and it becomes the property of Nat Geo... not sure I'm ready to give up the rights to my own photos... maybe I misread something, but that's what I gathered... and I'll bet they have some pretty good lawyers on retainer... hope all is well in Ohio !

Owen said...

Hi Rain... bright colors are powerful sources of happiness I think... they do it for me anyway...

Hey Margaret, haven't seen "Entre les Murs", will have to keep an eye out for it... yeah, I had doubts about the UFO also, maybe it's just a fried egg or something, but I liked the UFO theory, I keep hoping a friendly one will show up. See above answer to Diana about Nat Geo... but who knows, may go take a look again, maybe the fine print has changed since the last time. Cheers !

Jeff ! Salut ! Namasté ! Bon courage et bonne chance pour ton projet de peinture, j'espère que ton hierarchie a l'esprit ouvert... à suivre... merci pour ton mot... nous sommes 4 plus deux chats neurotiques (comme tous les chats !!!) Et oui, c'est sympa comme ils ont signé leur travail ici, surtout le Toad ! Ca c'est magique, en effet... tu sais, tes commentaires sont toujours d'un profondeur et plaisir... merci mon netpotepixamigo...

Bill, for sure, I don't get why all the crowd was over at the air show when they could have been seeing these... or doing both like I did...

Hi Amy, hope you're getting settled back into normal life after all that fun in PR ! Have been enjoying your account of it, will drop by very soon...

Hey Henk ! Thought you might like this... don't know if there was any press about the project or not, but I imagine it was kids from the housing project it was in... you are more than welcome...

Bonjour Sarah, j'espere que tout se passe bien à l'ouest, bientôt les vacances, non ? Dommage pour le biblioteque, ces histoires d'incendies criminelles me rendent malade, quel gaspillage. Oui la vie de certains quartiers, comme le Mesnil Blanc ou ailleurs est dur, mais ce n'est pas par le feu que l'on va améliorer quoi que ce soit... Amitiés...

Lady Brains, oh, ok, well that's cool then... would love to see some San Francisco murals... hint, hint, pretty please with a cherry on top...

Slinky, thanks for stopping by here ! Welcome... will look forward to getting back your way...

Jo said...

My goodness, you have a wonderful eye for photography. Every one of your photographs so far on your blog has been just wonnnnnnderful...!

"I went to the Paris Air Show yesterday afternoon." Those are nine words I hope sometime to say in my lifetime.

Lynne with an e said...

After that big honk you just let out, it makes me wonder if perhaps a Canada Goose flew over the blue woman & left a calling card on her shoulder.

Owen said...

Hey Jo, (that could be a song title... oh yeah, it was !) A million zillion thanks for these kind words, am just trying to have fun with the photos these days, given that the photo agencies and book editors aren't exactly beating a path to my door... The next Paris Air Show is in two years time, so start planning ! The permanent collections at the Air Museum there are really good too, one of the best old airplane museums in the world I think... even if the building that houses it looks like 50's era stalinesque blocks...

Lynne, definitely could be the residue of goose goo on her shoulder, I should have thought of that... splat... ! Thank you for that colorful solution to a gooey enigma... ;-D