Designer John Greg Ball -Weblog

As a sign of its economic prosperity, Calgary has just installed the first phase of the 7th avenue redevelopment project. 7th ave stretches right down the centre of downtown as a transit-only street. (This was project I had worked on while a designer at Carlyle + Associates in Edmonton). The photo above shows the calgary “c-train” bursting at the seams before it unloads its hundreds of people onto the new transit station platform. 

I walked to work today from bridgeland LRT station in the fresh snow. Photo of the frozen Bow River looking west.

My bus drives by walmart’s glaring maintenance oversight on Calgary’s west end everyday; begging me to capture it in a photograph.
So I did.
The irony of this, is that “art” can be found in the most unlikely places… even walmart.

My bus ride to inglewood is alot longer these days, but I am fortunate to be up early enough to see the sunrise on the city skyline. I took this image on my way down the hill to the bus at signal hill on Calgary’s popular west side. Until this morning, I had forgotten about the amazing skies in southern alberta!

As a Designer/ Artist I try not limit myself to one particular style or medium. Instead, I work hard to refine my process of understanding through a variety of visual platforms. In an attempt to understand my new surroundings, I am going to capture and post a photographic presentation of Calgary called: Prairie City- P a n o r a m a. Image above: a winter shot of the Calgary skyline taken from the eastern Inglewood district at the elbow river- January 2006.

Life changes fast.
In my case, I will be living in Calgary Alberta in less than two months. Jenn and are moving to Alberta’s prairie city and look forward to our new future there. As a creative “designer- type”, I have always loved moving. The stress and adjustment with new surroundings seems open the flood gates of Creativity for me. Calgary is a bigger city than Edmonton, and I look forward to finding what can happen there. I ‘ll be keeping a close eye on ACAD and the Institute for the Creative Process. Looks like a great lecture series with Wil Alsop, Charles Landry, and Bruce Mau among their list of speakers. I will certainly miss Edmonton and all the friends and great people I have met here. Especially those I met through MADE and IDEA.

I look forward to flyfishing Calgary’s Bow River and trips back to High River to visit family friends who will once again be in much closer proximity. (photo above by: Greg Ball while attending Calgary’s Home and Interior Design Show- Fall 2005)