bears and buttons

My friend and superartist Sonny Assu has a solo show opening in Vancouver next month. He's pretty busy these days, so I went over to his place last week to help with his prep for the show, sewing some buttons onto a new blanket piece. Check out some of his previous blanket craftiness here.

Sonny's cat helped with the sewing. He looks cute and harmless here, but the fluffy orange fur only serves to distracts you from his very sharp claws and his very, very sharp teeth. In fact, the bear in Sonny's garage was far less worrying than his cat.

Ok, so the bear is made of fiberglass. It's a Spirit Bear - a project much like Vancouver's orcas and Toronto's moose, which places animals decorated by local artists around town (or, in this case, around province) to amuse the tourists and raise money for charity.

Sony's bear will soon grace (or terrorize!) the streets of Prince George, BC this summer. In the Fall, it'll be auctioned off to raise money for children's charity. You can see some photos of the bear-in-progress here.