It Started As a Broken Window
Pulpfiction Books & Ehren Salazar do Something Pleasant on Main Street
A boarded-up window on a local business. This all-too-familiar site would be a downer for most, but Christopher Brayshaw at Pulpfiction Books saw it only as an opportunity to spread local art and give back to the neighbourhood.
So, they put out a call for a mural and selected local artist Ehren Salazar to paint his piece Home & Away. Once the glass can be replaced, they will be auctioning off the work to raise money for the Native Education College & Vancouver Aboriginal Child and Family Services Society.
Pulpfiction Books has been around since 2000 with a few locations in the city, though their Main Street location in the “triangle block” is an institution in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood.
The artist, Ehren Salazar is a bit of a Vancouver institution too. He grew up in Little Mountain/Riley Park attended Langara and founded Little Mountain Gallery in 2006, leaving in 2013. He currently has a studio at City Centre Artist Lodge at 6th and Main. Ehren is working on some new paintings and drawings for a solo show. May 28th until June 18th 2024 @ the West End Community Centre. If you want to read a very good interview with Ehren I suggest this one in Scout Magazine, by Thalia Stopa.
Both Christopher from Pulpfiction Books and Ehren took some time to chat about the project & why spaces for art should be more accessible and why artists need to be paid for their work.
Christopher Brayshaw/Pulpfiction Books
What happened to the window?
There’s some person or people who are wandering around the neighbourhood, breaking windows. We've had two windows broken. There are probably 16 to 20 businesses within a six-block radius of here that have had windows broken. It's the same M.O. every time somebody puts their foot into the bottom of the window and walks away. They like the sound of breaking glass or they're pissed off at the world. Or both. Bit of a drag.
Why was it important to do a project like this instead of say, feeding narratives about broken windows and crime?
It gets very easy to get, frustrated in business. It's very easy to start thinking that, everybody, is your adversary and, it sucks to be showing up at 7:00 in the morning and then start your day by pulling huge shards of broken glass out of your window and vacuuming. But you can either feel like you're being deliberately targeted and go on social media and some people, like, would love to run that story. Like the neighbourhood is filled with dogs or, you know, we got to round all these miscreants up, get them out of town. It just seems like a very limited way to look at things.
Our windows are unusual in that this size of glass is apparently not fabricated in North America. Insurance takes care of everything, but the, replacement piece of glass is on a boat coming from somewhere. But It's gonna take a while to get here. I thought, well, what can we do that's going to be more exciting than looking at the same piece of plywood that's on, like, everybody else's window all throughout the neighborhood.
What stood out about Ehren Salazar and his work?
I put out a social media call, and I was like we don't want some dumb live, laugh, love stuff. We want something that shows a little bit of ingenuity. But I would say probably 30 or 35 people reached out for the project. We put all the proposals together and gave them to the staff. And the staff, voted. You know, there's, there's six of us here. So everybody had a vote, and, Ehren was, by far and away number one. Which was kind of cool because, I had seen his work, you know, around town for years and years. I had actually just been in, our friendly competitor, up the road, Lucky's had an exhibition of drawings and digital prints by him. So I felt like I was quite familiar with his style.
What was it like having him paint the work?
He came in and spent a couple of days. I said, we will we will pay you, like both to do the work and we'll also pay for your materials in full. Because I'm a big believer in people getting paid. And, sometimes, when people think of, art, it's like, oh, we got this opportunity for exposure, you know? But, what’s the opportunity for an artist if there's not a cheque? So I like to make sure people get paid.
This sort of thing was common during the early days of the pandemic with the downtown BEA investing in artists to paint the boarded-up store-fronts. Is this something that should be invested in by the city and local businesses again?
I think that anything that puts, money into the hands of artists is a good idea. I have no confidence whatsoever in any kind of city-led process. If we had had to submit designs to the city or talk to the city, or the glass would have been here long before. Often those things consume like a whole bunch of resources that go into administrators the money doesn't filter down the artists. Yeah. As quickly as possible.
What’s happening to the work when the glass gets here?
It's going to be here for, probably 8 to 12 weeks. Then, the new glass is going to get here. The question became what to do with it? And I thought, well, maybe we can raise some money. We have always tried to raise money for indigenous-led organizations. And, two of our favourites are, Native Education College down the road because they’re our neighbours. And Vancouver Aboriginal Child and Family Services Society because we had a very, very, good customer and a good friend of the store who worked for them, who has now passed away. And, we wanted to do something in his memory. So we thought, well, maybe we can auction the piece off.
So Ehren will cut it out and frame it to make it a salable art object. So, we'll try to raise some money for them. And I'm going to try to shame every restaurant and bar within a five-kilometre radius into bidding on it. Because I think this would look fucking great in a big business that has, you know, like high walls or something and a good way to show support for the neighbourhood.
What drives you to do something like this that’s a good thing for your neighbourhood?
Somebody gave me this advice once: You know, you're not required to do everything like you solve all of, like, culture's ills, but you have to do something. And what you can do is within the reach of your arm. So we're going take something shitty and do some good for the neighbourhood.
Ehren Salazar/The Muralist
What’s it like lending your hand to another Vancouver institution, Pulp Fiction Books?
It was a real honour to be selected by Pulp Fiction, was not expecting to be picked. Had lots of fun chatting with the staff, customers and people just walking by. Nice to work outside for a few days too.
The piece you painted is called Home & Away. What’s the story with it?
Home & Away (18x24" graphite on paper) was a drawing I exhibited back in 2016 in Victoria when I lived on the island. The drawing lives in Seattle now. When me and my girlfriend (now wife) moved back to Vancouver that year I reconnected with Little Mountain Gallery (LMG) and they allowed me to paint a version of it on the exterior of the building during Car Free Day. That wall along 26th and into the alleyway had a few other murals of mine on it, going back to 2006 it had served as a practice wall for me. Now that the building has been demolished I figured why not paint it again for Pulp Fiction. Thinking I'll tackle it again for a 4th iteration but on stretched canvas next time.
Does the city need more spaces for public art?
Absolutely. Lots of artists and plenty of walls out there.
