In reference to architect Arthur Erickson I may have the most portraits of him taken in the many years I knew him.
I especially remember one time when he came to my studio and he noticed the light being reflected into my room from the white wall that was Cesar Pelli’s Eaton’s/Sears. Of the light he said, “Alex you have God’s light.”
Because of my strange circumstances I now realize that my Rosemary and Erickson never met. Why are they here combined in one image?
This may have started in Washington DC in 1958 when I went with my St. Edward’s High School classes on a leased bus trip to the US Capital. At a pawn shop I spotted an Agfa Silette camera. I bought it. At another store I asked what was the best film I could buy. I was told Kodak Tri-X. That fixed lens camera took me to where I am now today December 6, 2022.
Even though if I compare my former (many years ago) black
dial telephone with the situation now where if you punch 10 different numbers of people I know, I might get one human being to answer, I must assert that indeed some stuff
is better now. Printing photographs is one big improvement.
Tomorrow I am visiting a known Vancouver patron of the arts
who happens to live in an Arthur Erickson house. I decided to give him a little
gift. This is my portrait of Erickson in his garden seen here inside a plastic
sleeve and signed. When I made that decision, I can say that 25 minutes
later, after scanning, etc, I had the print in my hand.It was perfect the first time thanks to my Epson P700 printer.
A frame that Rosemary and I bought at a really good thrift store at the end of Broadway and Dunbar has been on my kitchen island table for some months. After making the Erickson print I chose a sad photo of Rosemary in her wedding dress (we called it the bird dress) and a few minutes later it was inside the frame.
Years ago I would tell people that if I had to be in charge of making a list of people to be invited for a ceremony in Vancouver for a vistit by the Queen of England, Arthur Erickson would have been the first on my list. My Rosemary would have been my second choice. She had class and the proper demeanour to talk to a queen.