Girl About O-Town

Some of  you may recall awhile back this girlaboutOtown whipped up a few Courage City profiles.  These were short little pieces written to provide just a sliver of insight into the hearts and minds of courageous and creative entrepreneurs right here in Ottawa.  It was my intention to better understand their motivations, share their stories, and to celebrate their bold strokes.

Anyway, these Courage City profiles have proven to be some of the blog’s most popular posts, and have been a favourite feature of mine.  As it turned out though,  spending a few hours talking to totally interesting and inspiring people was easy and entertaining.  Reflecting afterwards and actually doing justice to their stories in print was not so easy.  Instead, it was a wee bit intimidating, not to mention time consuming, and since starting back to school, I’ve been hard pressed to carve out the required hours. 

Fast forward to today, and to the Earth Day launch of Beautiful Destruction, an exhibit of  Louis Helbig’s compelling aerial photographs of the Alberta Tar Sands being held in conjunction with the Ottawa International Writer’s Festival. 

Helbig, a local photographer, pilot, and owner of Egami Image, once the subject of one of my most daunting Courage City assignments, spent 6 weeks last summer flying West in antique plane and taking pictures that truly are worth a thousand words.  These photographs with their abstract artistic sensibility, striking colour and fascinating detail, make a powerful statement about what is happening at the Alberta Tar Sands.  Even for those of us who aren’t fully engaged in this issue, Helbig’s images make it hard not to stop, to think and to start to pay attention.

Read more about Louis Helbig’s Tar Sands journey here, and check out his exhibit if you can.  It runs from April 22-May 2 at St. Brigid’s Centre for the Art & Humanities, 314 St. Patrick Street.