cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com  

This story began more then 3 years ago during the period of Covid19 social and physical distancing. After months of isolation, the only safe places where my wife and I could meet our granddaughter was outside in open places like the Cherry Beach Park, Corktown Common Park or park around Brickworks in Toronto.

On one of those walks she found a piece of dry bark and asked me:
– “Grandpa, could you make something out of this?”
– “Yes.” I answered. “What would you like me to make for you?” – “A reindeer.”

And so a reindeer was born. Or should I say, re-born. As coincidence would have it, when my daughter was young I invented a bedtime story for her starring a reindeer, and not an ordinary reindeer, a green-haired one. Here is an excerpt from that story:


“In a country far away (or very close just around the corner) there was a reindeer living in a place where nobody liked him. People chased him away, nobody wanted his company. He wandered, pondering why until one day walking by a lake he noticed his reflection. The reindeer had green hair, hair like nobody else . . . Under the surface of the lake, the reindeer noticed a beautiful underwater town. He dove down to get a better look. The people of the town looked just like him, but also nothing like him. Many had green hair and others hair of various colours. They greeted him with smiles and he felt happy and free . . . Now ahead of them lay a task, to transfer that sense of mutual acceptance to others, above the lake’s surface. To explain to them that the right to be different is a basic human right.”

For the complete text of this story follow this link +>

Text is continuing after all of 63 photos, at the end of this page.

  green hair toys   cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com  
 

green hair reindeer #01 - 2020 [very first toy]

green hair reindeer #02 - 2020 [second toy ever made]

 
   
 

Small houses all over, slider ride, 2 boys and the girl
- created with the help by Lumen - 2024

   
   
 

Green Hair Protected Tree, preparatory stage - 2024

   
   
 

Green Hair Protected Tree, preparatory stage - 2024

   
   
 

Green Hair Protected Tree. Little bit of explanation is needed. In Aztec Tradition, before arrival of colonization, certain trees were treated as sacred and had very significant role in their religion. Colours usually associated with cardinal world directions were very important.
East: Red – Signs: Alligator-Snake-Water-Reed-Movement
North: Black – Signs: Wind-Death-Dog-Jaguar-Flint Knife
West: White – Signs: House-Deer-Monkey-Eagle-Rain
South: Blue – Signs: Rabbit-Lizard-Vulture-Grass-Flower
Center Colour is Green with obvious connection to the living tree, in our case Green Hair Tree. We are trying to follow that tradition, and they need protection.

 
   
 

Green Tail Robot - created by Lumen - 2024

Green Hair Dragonfly, createdwith help from Lumen - 2024

 
   
 

Green Tail Rubin Lizard - crated with help of Lumen - 2024

 
   
 

Yellow Hair and Tail Giraffe smiling - crated with help of Lumen - 2024

 
  Leafs Corcommom Park  
 

Two 3 leaves boats in a paddle of Corktown Common Park, Toronto - crated with help of Lumen - 2024

 
  green hair toys  
 

Green Hair House, front porch - 2024

Green Hair House, back - 2024

 
  green hair toys  
 

Green Hair House, most of us together - 2024

Green Hair House, most of us together - 2024

 
   
 

Green Hair Sailboath - 2024

Green Hair Sailboath - 2024

 
   
 

Green Hair Sailboath - 2024

Green Hair Sailboath, fighting the rough water - 2024

 
     
 

PINA green hair mare - 2024

PINA green hair mare - 2024

 
  Pina   pina  
 

PINA green hair mare - 2024

decorative leftovers after PINA was finished - 2024

 
  BGD volcano    
 

Green hair BGD volcano [all parts collected in Beigrad] - 2023

Green hair BGD volcano [all parts collected in Beigrad] - 2023

 
  goulalala[lala] with golden hair - 2023   goulalala[lala] with golden hair - 2023  
 

Goulalala[lala] with golden hair - 2023

Goulalala[lala] with golden hair- 2023

 
     
 

Fox with trace of green hair - 2023

Goulalala[lala] with golden hair + sketch by grandaughter lumen - 2023

 
     
  pink hair girl 01 - 2021 gray hair girl 02 - 2024  
     
  no hair boy 01 - 2021 person/house, get in if you want - 2022  
  socrates, red hair octopus   socrates, red hair octopus  
  socrates, red hair octopus - 2022   socrates, red hair octopus - 2022  
  cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com   cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com  
  green hair dragon, 2 wheels, 11 legs, 2 wings - 2021 1 granddaughter + green hair dragon, 2 wheels, 11 legs, 2 wings - 2021  
     
  well decorated green hair elephant - 2021 well decorated green hair elephant carrying scarred observer - 2021  
    cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com  
  well decorated green hair elephant observing available literature - 2021 deda self portrait - 2021  
     
  dragon/ship/machine - observing area of "first 10 blocks in Toronto" 2021 observer ignoring his dragon/ship/machine exploring typography - 2021  
  cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com   cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com  
  green hair dog #01 - 2020 yellow hair cheetah #01- 2020  
  cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com   cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com  
  green hair giraffe- 2020 green hair bull ferdinan - 2020  
  cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com   cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com  
green hair bear - 2020 no hair dog jara - 2020  
  cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com   cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com  
  green hair unicorn - 2020 green hair lama - 2020  
    cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com  
pink hair girl in a puddle and the chair - 2020 green hair fiery - 2020  
   
stick man with green head band - 2020 & his blond brother 2024 monument - 2020  
     
multi coloured bird - 2020 green hair tukan - 2020  
     
  girl with multicolour hair - 2020 girl with multicolour hair - 2020  
  cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com   cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com  
gruffalo's child with stickman - 2020 gruffalo's child visiting girl with the pink hair - 2020  
     
  green hair bear reaching for the fossil up on a tree - 2020  
  cherry beach toys - urbansquares.com    
  green hair salamander - 2020 plexiglass shelf with all the toys as of april 2024  
   
       
 

Continuation of the text above photos:

This is how this project was started. Through the use of natural, recycled materials, mostly found wood that will otherwise go to garbage, creating no waste in the production of this artworks, I am honouring the potential found in organic materials all around us. I am planning to continue making them in the future.

Toys vary in sizes between 25x20x20cm [~10x9x9in] for the largest to 8x6x5cm [~4x3x2in] for the smallest. Each is carrying singular perspective, equal, reciprocal and interconnected.

As Robin Wall Kimmerer, Indigenous person, distinguished professor of Environmental Botany, Director of the Center for Native People and the Environment, said: “It was trough the action of reciprocity, give and take with the land, that the original immigrant become indigenous. For all of us, becoming indigenous to the place means living as if your children’s future mattered, to take care of the land as our lives, both material and spiritual, depended on it.”

Primary interest for my previous work was analysis [psychogeography] of public urban built environment, the setting for human activity, ranging in scale from buildings to cities and beyond to contemporary urban ambiance, that I am calling “postmetropolis”.

Ambiance significantly changed in past 2 years to include adaptation to the changes caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and we are more and more relying on our personal inner space. We hope to find better practices and more sustainable ways of living life and fulfilling our needs.

I am thinking along the positive side stories of so-called eco-modernists more then ever needed in this challenging time.

 

CONCLUSION:

Social and physical distancing, Covid19, Equity in public space, Sustainability, Reciprocity, No Waste, Resilience, Climate Change, Social Equality, Environmental protection, Participation, Nature, Right to be different, Placemaking, Public Urban Art, Psychogeoography, Observation, Perception, Omen Urbis, Genius Loci, Urban Forest, Better Future, Anti-monumental Public Art, , Psychogeography, Observation, Creativity in all of us. . .

PROPOSALS

Proposal for DesignTO Project - PDF document
Proposal for Brick Works Project - PDF document
Proposal Therapeutic Art Installations - PDF document

STORIES

We are considering our stories part of our art activities. Here they are, for now they are available on Serbian, original language they were written, but very soon you will find them translated on English.
Greenhair Raindier - English - PDF document
Originalna verzija price Zelenokosi Jelen - Srpski - PDF document
The Man Who Made Kites - English - PDF
Covek Koji je Pravio Zmajeve - Srpski, PDF document
Red Gate Story or Stiske #15 - English - PDF
Prica o crvenim vratima - Stiska Br. 15 - Srpski, PDF Document
About Birthday - English, PDF Document
O rodjendanu - Srpski, PDF Document
Story about my father and football, English, PDF Document

 

 
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  Last time updated on November 3, 2024