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My artistic practice is guided by two fundamental principles, creative freedom, and hard work. I have already devoted five years during the prime of my life to hand building an aquatic destination, which I call “LOCALS ONLY”. The photos I have chosen to include, depict the prodigious merits of my creation thus far, and demonstrate my ability to fully realize the completion of my grand vision for a bright future. Located on the shores of Georgian Bay, and centered about the coastline in front of my parents’ cottage, where I grew up, from the age of six, “LOCALS ONLY” is a functional environment accessible to the public, complete with a protected cove beach, a surfing point break, filtered sand & pebbles, ideal swimming destination boulders, local granite retaining walls, and it will soon be home to a hand built island. It is a sight to behold. The name “LOCALS ONLY” borrows from the territorialism of surfing subculture, and states explicitly that the building materials used were just sitting there, as scattered rubble.
The $400,000 unpaid hospital bill from the 25 days I spent unconscious in Nevada, means that I neither own any property on Georgian Bay, nor do I stand to inherit any. I never use the massive head‐trauma I recovered from as an excuse, but rather acknowledge that my accomplishments have been achieved in spite of it; I am not a victim. Thus, my work is not profit motivated, and being 99% preparation grunt‐work, neither is it recreational pleasure. The glory moment of installing a massive granite boulder, comes after hours and hours of raking, digging, wheelbarrow transporting, and sorting. I take all of the risks and burden upon myself. My formal education at The University of Toronto in the discipline of aerospace science engineering allowed me to design and build the hand‐operated hoisting transit‐crane I call “Camero‐Lifter”, which is the world’s biggest wheelbarrow and a precision‐instrument that works like a dream. It took 1.5 years to build, and I am able to use this working prototype for moving 10,000 pound boulders into position for the foundations of an island, strong enough to withstand the fury and battering of several bona fide wind & wave storms per year.
My disciplined daily routine involves clean, healthy living, extreme physical conditioning, and the maintenance of meticulous records of my on‐season work, and my off‐season training. With a fast internet connection, I will use the social‐media outlets of Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, and YouTube to document my creation and encourage more community awareness and involvement. In the information age, artwork is no longer something which just happened, prior to being hung at the gallery.
This application is a request to expedite the completion of a project which is already well under way and improving the experience of everybody involved. I intend to use half of the grant money to hire a local summer engineering‐intern, thus tripling productivity, and giving a motivated young student with a “Can‐Do” attitude, the kind of opportunity which I never got.
As a 33 year old aerospace science engineer working in isolation, there are truly only two possible outcomes. Either I continue building alone and complete “LOCALS ONLY” five years from now, or with an art grant, I am able to complete the project in two years, proudly wearing my red, white, and maple leaf cut. I will either become an artist who works for the rich, or I will earn enough recognition after two years to begin building a technology empire, becoming a generous patron of the arts.
My relationship with the environment is well defined; preserve, enhance, enjoy, and protect (PEEP). It is an active involvement and investment using the best technologies available to reconcile the people of Canada to the geography of Canada in a harmonious union.
I am a professional artist in the capacity that I am living at my parents’ home with no frivolous expenses, and using the disability welfare I receive to build, so that I can spend every minute of every day, focused on completing my vision. With “LOCALS ONLY”, I aspire to become a Renaissance man, amassing an enormous wealth of knowledge and skill, using a synthesis of science and art, to construct paradise, the true depths of the human spirit, observable in real‐time. What is “LOCALS ONLY” to me? It is my devotion, my inspiration, my passion, my art, my whole universe, and thus it is my contribution to existence.
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