Hamilton's Ghosts

The premise for this mural is bluntly, to illustrate how most everything wonderful in Hamilton core has been lost because property owners and politicians neglect city properties until they fall down on their own. The worst case's include the partial collapse of the Balfour Building—part of the historic Lister Block in downtown Hamilton. The rest was demolished. The Lister Block's future will probably be the same.

Panel One: Illustrates the beauty that Hamilton offers that people rarely see, the two oil on board paintings depict The Red Hill Creek in Stoney Creek and Spencer Creek in Dundas.

Panel Two: Illustrates the downtown core's slow demise into a wasteland for drugs, crime and dilapidation. The left pastel and chalk drawing represents falling education standards which I believe are directly influenced by declining government spending on education, meanwhile spending on bureaucracy continues to sky rocket. The right water colours include the aft mentioned Balfour and Lister Block as well as the Century Theatre, City Hall(under construction) and the numerous junk shops and shady borrowing companies along King and James.

Panel Three to Eight:The turn onto Barton St E and the start of a five mile journey down to the under construction Centre Mall. Five miles of forgotten buildings,closed factories,dead steel mills and a stadium frozen in time. For every store owner who gives a damn about their property their is two crack houses on either side.

Introspect throughout are reminders of neglected infrastructure and a Hamilton brand of justice that is suspect at times.

The entire mural was created using left over paint, recycled sketches and art supplies from previous works and even homemade glue using the following recipe.

Materials

* 3/4 cup water
* 1 teaspoon white vinegar
* Small saucepan
* Tin Can
* 2 tablespoons cornstarch
* 3/4 cup cold water

Directions

1. Mix water and vinegar in tin can.
2. Place can in sauce pan of water bring to a full, rolling boil.
3. In bowl, mix cornstarch with cold water.
4. Add this mixture slowly to the hot mixture, stirring constantly until the mixture returns to a boil.
5. Boil for 1 minute, then remove from heat.
6. Let completely cool before using.

Later,
Kenaz