Bank Street, it's one of Ottawa main drags and it's, incidentally, the longest street in the area, stretching, as it does, from Parliament Hill in the north to Morrisburg and the St. Lawrence Seaway in the south.
Even with sketchy weather, the sidewalks were abustle with all manners of foot traffic, motorized scooters and electric wheelchairs. And every day, bicycles appear by the score more.
I was gratified to see an A-frame stand with the art of Patrick John Mills, he of name-sake gallery fame, standing on the sidewalk outside an upscale gallery. Now this is balls, I thought, you have your own gallery and you're in other people's. Work all the angles, I say.
It gave me the inspiration to walk through the gallery door and introduce myself to the owner. I told him that I am an artist working with keyboards and that I was wondering if he had any space to put my art. Given that my art is never bigger than eight inches by thirty inches, it's not as if I were offering him a mural.
He was diffident, reluctant, even, to take my card and he did not offer his own card, I had to ask.
I guess all I can say about people such as these is that they have no vision and they will never gain a name in the art world because they do not dare.
