Main Drag

Most prairie cities seem to echo the main street of the small towns that gave them birth.  One or two major streets, the arteries, often running north/south or east/west, a smaller version of the famous grid road system.  I've always felt that in Regina both Albert st. and Broad st. are my main streets.

'To VV' 16" x 16" H.M.Cline 2013

Birdseye View Downtown Regina

Paintings are historical documents, capturing a moment and sometimes the entire history of an area.  Structures like The Plains Hotel act as repositories of human activity, reverberating through ours lives long after being demolished.

'Memory Landmarks' 36"x 48" H.M. Cline 2013

Late Nights on Broadway

I finally moved into my own apartment in my 4^th year of University.  It was a square grey 1970’s high-rise building with white concrete balconies, located half a block from the cultural mecca ‘Broadway Ave’ in Saskatoon.  On late nights travelling home from a gig at one of the many live music venues on the street we often stopped at the local 7eleven for a ‘rink’ burger, Saskatchewan slang for a puck of suspicious meat on a rubbery bun, always regretted in the morning. 

'Main Route'  16" x 16" H.M.Cline 2012

13th Ave.

When I was growing up my mom and dad each had very particular and unusual routes through the city.  It was like a secret passage, a game to find the fastest or most interesting way from point A to point B.   As I grew older I started to realize that they were also travelling the path of memory, the first apartment they rented, the ice cream shop they spent date nights in University.

 As I travel through the places I occupy I find myself charting my own passages, deviating occasionally to try a new route, see a new street but generally falling quickly back into my ritual pathway.  Time and season blur, some routes become more favoured or disappear.  Friends move, businesses close and sometimes even the bones of the street alter (one way traffic, bike lanes).

What makes a place special, who determines the significant architecture of our lives.  The intersections between place and memory.

'13th Ave. Safeway' 2012  H.M. Cline