Art on the Streets of Montreal

My yearly visit to Montreal has been rather quiet this time around. The friends I had when I initially left almost three years ago are slowly drifting away from each other and myself, so it's been harder to gather them together like I used to during earlier visits - but I guess that makes me grateful for the ones who do show up. That being said, I ended up a lot less busy than I had originally thought I would be.
 Thankfully, though, my visit this year was in Summer, coinciding with the yearly line-up of festivals that take place in Montreal one after the other during the warmer season. My hometown of Montreal is nothing if not a city of celebration, with high media-attention-gathering events such as the Just for Laughs festival of comedy, or the Jazz Festival. There's always something going on in Montreal, unless it's too damn cold.

 As it so happened, practically just out my doorstep, the city-wide "Nuit Blanche" event took place. Nuit Blanche (literally "White Night" but signifying "All-Nighter") is an event spanning three nights in a row where the streets fill with art and performances during the hours between sunset and sunrise. The trains run continuously, uninterrupted by their usual curfew, allowing commuters to get home easily. My friends themselves did happen to have a curfew, though, so I didn't wander the streets too late into the night, but I did get to see what was happening in my own area as part of the event.

Princess Mononoke!

On Mont-Royal street, painters were turning the very pavement into their own canvas, boldly displaying large pieces of art. This year, the theme was cinema posters. It was a little inspiring to see people go at it, with each artist or set of artists in various stages of completion, surrounded by crowds of wandering in between them. Though many apply for the chance to have a spot on which to paint well in advance, very few do get chosen, so it's a great honor to be chosen by the city to have the spotlight shine down on you.
Unfortunately, it appeared two artists chose the movie poster for "Jaws" as their subject. They must've been quite exasperated to find out afterwards. Like my friend said, that's kind of like finding someone's wearing the same prom dress as you are on the night of the event. Ouch.
 Regardless, I'll probably walk up the street one last time once the event is done with, just to see what the finished results ended up being.